Slow response to the Gulf spill or media sensationalism?

Getting a handle on what happened once the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank has been a task of searching for information regarding the disaster.

What I found was that the government response was quite rapid given what they knew and what British Petroleum admitted.

There was an article posted on Slate.com yesterday in the context of what it will cost and how the cost of the spill is determined that details what I found. You can read that article at: 100 Million Barrels of Oil in the Well, 100 Million Barrels of Oil.

The initial information was obtained by satellite from photos that indicated that 5,000 barrels a day were being released and the initial response was based on that figure. The problem is that the photos cannot indicate the grade or type of crude which would help in determining how much oil was being dispersed below the surface.

The explosion occurred on April 20 and on April 23 British Petroleum ROV reportedly found no oil leaking from the sunken rig and none from the well. On April 24 the Coast Guard announced that the well was in fact leaking.

On April 28, based on satellite pictures, the NOAA estimated that the leak was likely 5,000 barrels a day. The company refused to allow scientists to perform more accurate measurements of the flow saying that it might distract from efforts to stem the flow. BP was accused of having a vested financial interest in downplaying the size of the leak.

BP was accused of having failed to disclose results from its tests of chemical dispersants used on the spill,and that BP had withheld video showing the true magnitude of the leak.

On May 12, BP released a 30 second video of the broken pipe. Experts contacted by National Public Radio and shown the footage estimated the leak rate at from 50,000 barrels a day to 100,000 barrels a day.

On May 19 BP established a live feed of the oil spill after hearings in Congress accused the company of withholding data from the ocean floor and blocking efforts by independent scientists to come up with estimates for the amount of crude flowing into the Gulf each day.

For 22 days BP had prevented the administration from having any true idea of the rate of flow.

A Flow Rate Technical Group was formed and put the volume of oil flowing from the blown-out well at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day, and the government increased its official estimate to that range on May 27. A member of the Flow Rate Technical Group said the group was only provided a seven minute segment of low-quality video selected by BP, which showed a lot of variability from very low to very high flows. Now 37 days out and the estimates were still far short of the true flow rate.

By April 24 BP still had no idea how much crude oil was flowing from the well and their efforts were based on the assumption that the outflow had stopped. Containment and Cleanup.

On April 28 the US military and Coast Guard joined the cleanup effort and by April 29 69 vessels of various types were involved in the cleanup.

On April 30 Obama sent the Secretaries of Interior and Homeland Security and the Administrators of EPA and NOAA to assess the disaster.

Within 10 days Obama had responded to what was then thought to be a 5,000 barrel a day leak and BP was still stonewalling the facts while claiming that they has recovered 3 times as much oil as they said had leaked from the well.

We now know that the outflow from the well may be as much as 100,000 barrels a day and that British Petroleum is guilty of stonewalling the evidence of the true nature of the disaster.

When Obama called for a $20 billion set aside from British Petroleum Joe Barton (R) of Texas apologized and called it a "shakedown". Barton is the biggest recipient of oil and gas industry campaign contributions in the House of Representatives. Barton has collected $1,447,880 since 1989.

Georgia Representative Tom Price (R) called it "Chicago-style shakedown politics."

Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota called it a "redistribution-of-wealth fund".

The true cost of the cleanup and payment for lost wages, environmental damage, etc. will certainly run over $50 billion and likely will reach $100 billion.

Funny thing: BP has lost over 50% of its value since the spill occurred but after they agreed to the set aside their stock was up.