Who is responsible for the oil spill?

Updated June 23, 2010

WAR AND DESTRUCTION - The Evil Fruit of "Big Oil" Politics

An exhausted oil-covered brown pelican sits in a pool of oil along Queen Bess Island near Grand Isle, La.

FAULTS DETECTED WEEKS BEFORE BLOW-OUT BY RIG WORKER

The BBC reported that a worker had spotted a leak in the oil rig's safety equipment two weeks before it blew up, but the rig's operator relied on a backup instead of repairing it.  Fixing the broken control pod would have meant halting drilling -- and cost half a million dollars a day, said the worker, Tyrone Benton. The disclosure by Benton, who operated robot equipment at the Deepwater Horizon rig, backs up charges by angry members of Congress, who last week said dangerous shortcuts had been taken to keep the well running.  It may also focus US outrage on Transocean Ltd., the company that operated the rig. Until now, most anger was directed at BP, the British oil giant that leased the rig.

TRANSOCEAN - THE RIG OPERATOR 

Transocean – the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor – is incorporated in Switzerland.  Transocean operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that was leased by BP.  The company motto: “We are never out of our depth, from the shallow water to the ultra-deepwater.”  Transocean merged with Global Santa Fe in 2007, in what Forbes called a "slick union".  See “Transocean and GlobalSantaFe's Slick Union”, Forbes, July 23, 2007.

MMS - THE FEDERAL AGENCY THAT FAILED 

In June 2009, when Liz Birnbaum was appointed to head the agency that manages the Offshore Energy and Minerals program, Interior Ken Secretary Salazar said:  “Her in-depth knowledge of energy issues, natural resource policy and environmental law as well as her managerial expertise and work in coalition building will be especially important as we advance President Obama’s new energy frontier and lay the foundation for a clean energy economy.” 

So much for wishful thinking.  Here we see the real results of Birnbaum's "in-depth knowledge" and "managerial expertise", and President Obama's "clean energy economy." 

A bird mired in the BP oil spill that has fouled the Gulf of Mexico

A Brown Pelican of Louisiana dying in the oil spewing from the destroyed British Petroleum (BP) platform.  A nation that went to the moon and fights two major wars at the same time can't plug a leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico?  S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, the Obama-appointed lawyer who headed the corrupt and inept U.S. agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned as soon as the disaster occurred. 


S. Elizabeth Birnbaum, Director of the U.S. Minerals Management Service is the Obama-appointed official responsible for "the environmentally safe exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas.”  She had absolutely no experience in the field when she was appointed to oversee the safe development of offshore oil in July 2009.  Birnbaum quit as soon as disaster struck.  Employees at her agency in Louisiana were "part of the industry" and were more interested in watching pornography at work than monitoring the safety of offshore drilling operations.  Many of them had worked for the companies whose operations they were responsible for monitoring.

S. Elizabeth (Liz) Birnbaum assumed duties as the Obama administration's Director of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) on July 15, 2009. As MMS Director, Birnbaum was responsible for mining of energy and mineral resources on the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, “including the environmentally safe exploration, development, and production of oil and natural gas.” Birnbaum received her Juris Doctor from Harvard University in 1984 and her A.B. degree from Brown University in 1979. She was Editor in Chief of the Harvard Environmental Law Review.  She quit as soon as her complete incompetence was exposed by the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Why is Birnbaum not held accountable for her negligence?

 
Who is Susan Elizabeth Birnbaum?

Before she resigned and disappeared from the scene, the Minerals Management Service had a webpage that gave a brief biographical sketch of MMS Director S. Elizabeth Birnbaum.  Oddly, it does not even provide her first name, which is Susan.  This hiding of first names and parents is typical of members of the C.I.A.'s "shadow government".  Born in 1958, Susan Birnbaum is the daughter of Colonel Myron L. Birnbaum, who had a long career with the Judge Advocate General's Department of the U.S. Air Force, where he served until 1971 as a Colonel.  He went on to serve in the "civil service" and as a Special Assistant in the Directorate of the USAF Judiciary.  Born in San Francisco, California in 1915 in a Jewish family that has its roots in Poland/Russia, Myron passed away in 1984. 

So, who is Susan Birnbaum and why was she appointed to oversee the agency that sells the leases for offshore oil drilling?  Furthermore, why was she, as the appointed official who directed the agency that clearly failed to monitor the safety precautions on the offshore BP platform that exploded, allowed to simply walk away?  If she were not to blame, why did she quit?  If she were truly a person who cared about the environment and clean energy, why did she suddenly bolt when the oil started spewing from a well she was responsible for monitoring?  Why did the Obama administration let her off the hook so easily and replace her with a new director like nothing even happened?  What was Susan Birnbaum doing as the director of the MMS in the first place?

I would speculate that Susan Birnbaum is a high-level C.I.A. agent, the daughter of one of the agency's founders.  The C.I.A. was created in 1949 from the merging of the O.S.S. and U.S. Army intelligence.  There were many Jewish lawyers, such as Mark Lane and Myron Birnbaum, who had served in Army intelligence, who were senior officers in the new C.I.A.  The C.I.A. is the central agency of the "shadow government" that now wages its own secret wars in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan - among other places.  It is an agency of the "banksters" and works hand-in-glove with Big Oil.  This is the only explanation why Susan Birnbaum would be in charge of the agency that sells offshore drilling leases and drilling rights on federal land. 




Here is a brief description of the responsibilities of the Minerals Management Service: 

An agency of about 1,700 people in 20 locations, MMS has two primary programs: Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) and Offshore Energy and Minerals Management (OEMM).  Under the guidance of the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the OEMM manages energy and mineral development in over 1.71 billion offshore acres of Federal land called the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and annually disburses to the U.S. Treasury an average of $13 billion in minerals revenue. 

Through the Minerals Revenue Management (MRM) program, the MMS collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral revenues from Federal and American Indian leases. Since its inception in 1982, MMS has disbursed approximately $200 billion to Federal, state, and American Indian accounts. 

The MMS is also responsible for inspection and oversight of energy companies to ensure they are following the law and protecting the safety of their workers and the environment. 

Lastly, why did it take one month for the head of the EPA to visit the scene of this mega-disaster?  More than anything, this environmental disaster reveals the badness, the extreme corruption and incompetence of the Obama administration.