and we don’t run from our problems.
We had an accident in the Gulf a month ago. Eleven people, engaged in the same industry as me, lost their lives in an oil-rig explosion that also damaged the well and led to a large oil spill. This has been happening as long as we have been exploring for oil. It’s a dangerous business. We have developed technology that has greatly improved safety, but as long as humans are involved, there is still some chance for error.
Today, the president ordered restrictions on offshore drilling in response to the accident. The AP states that the “orders” (is Obama a President or a King?) are intended to make offshore drilling safer going forward. Canceling oil drilling leases and projects? Is that safer?
Look, something went wrong. We need to investigate, find out what happened and adjust our drilling procedures so it doesn’t happen again. We don’t stop air travel when a defect brings down a plane – we investigate and eliminate the problem. Thousands of people die in car accidents every year. We react to that by designing safer cars and adjusting behavior (drunk driving) that contributes to problems. Planes still fly and cars are on our highways. We need to make sure that our president does not use this accident to keep our country from developing the energy resources that our economy depends on. I don’t think that we can trust the president to do the right thing here (isn’t that scary?)
It’s a shame that we can’t trust Washington to do something as simple as this. Please note that the federal government can’t stop the leaking oil well. They can bluster, cajole, even make demands, but the oil company’s engineers are the ones that have to do the work. Our federal government is not all-powerful. They can’t do everything – in fact one can argue that they do darn few things very well.
One illustration of that – the senate passed a huge financial reform bill this week. A 1400+ page bill chock full of nonsensical meddling and federal job creation that does nothing to modify the behavior of the two main culprits behind our present financial mess, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It will, however, create a huge new bureaucracy that can keep you from buying a mattress from a local store and making payments without the federal government approving of the deal first. 1400+ pages that will give our government more control of our financial system. Hey, didn’t government meddling get us in this situation in the first place?
Back at the New Castle mansion….
Work continues (slowly) on our new bathroom. I picked up the new tile for the shower walls today. Sometime in the next week, I’ll start putting it up. The wall tiles are 10×14″, so they should go up pretty quickly. Of course, I will have to a lot of cutting and fitting around the window above the tub…
My lovely wife continues working at her new job. She’s only been there a few weeks, but she seems to be doing well. That’s a good thing – I’m so proud of her.
It’s Memorial Day weekend. The weather should be pretty nice and perhaps we can visit our little sailboat. I cut the grass today and tried to get as many chores out of the way as I could, expecting to travel to NJ for sailing lessons this weekend. They’ve been postponed for a few weeks (likely due to the holiday, I suppose). I would like to improve my sailing skills and gain as much knowledge as I can.
I will change employers next week. Our refinery changes hands on Tuesday. The governor of Delaware will be there on Tuesday morning to take some of the credit for the sale of the refinery to the new owners, who plan on re-opening the facility and bringing back hundreds of industrial jobs. Let’s not kid anyone. The new owners are doing this because they are planning on making a whole bucket of money – and that’s a good thing. We’re going to be pretty lean at the transition, though. Most of the people that are working with me today will not be here next week. Many of them will be called back as they are needed. We hope to have the refinery maintenance work finished and the refinery started up by next April. There’s a lot of work to do.
Hope everyone has a nice holiday. It’s Memorial Day. We honor those who gave their lives in the name of freedom. We owe them a debt that we can never repay. Our freedom, bought at the cost of their lives and blood is a precious thing. Our president will not participate in this year’s Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony – first time that’s happened in my lifetime. He’ll be on vacation. What a d*ck.
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