The Only Way to Win is Not to Play

The Congressional hearings on the spill left no doubt that the CEO’s of the world’s five largest oil companies are oblivious as to what to do next.  After the other CEO’s threw BP under the bus, they admitted as much.

ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson told Congress we must do everything possible to prevent offshore drilling disasters, because once they occur, there is not any way to stop the damage. By admitting the unavoidable risk of catastrophe, Tillerson exploded the myths — promoted by the oil industry and right-wing supporters — that offshore drilling is “environmentally safe,” and that the industry can handle these disasters when they occur. Tillerson made the shocking admission that the industry is “not well equipped to prevent any and all damage” under questioning from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), the chair of the oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, during a hearing that featured top executives from the five largest private oil companies:

There will be impacts as we are seeing. We have never represented anything different than that. That’s why the emphasis is always on preventing these things from occurring because when they happen we are not well equipped to deal with them. And that’s just a fact of the enormity of what we’re dealing with.

Watch it:

 

The only fail-safe way to prevent oil drilling disasters, in fact, is to stop drilling for oil — in other words, “The only winning move is not to play.” This is yet another reason this nation needs an energy policy that puts a cap on oil pollution and ends our toxic addiction… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

These clowns would not even admit to having heard of IXTOC.

The industry had demonstrated with dozens of spills, not even mentioning the thousands of barrels currently flowing into and befouling the Gulf, that their ability to prevent leaks is no better than that to clean up after them.  As sympathetic as I am for those who will lose their jobs, there must be no more deep water drilling until such time as the oil industry can unequivocally demonstrate the ability to both prevent deep water spills and prevent environmental damage in case there is one.

The rules of the deep water drilling fame are now clear.  The only winning move is not to play.