Anthony Hall
Getting tough with British oil giant BP would seem like a no-brainer, given the estimated 60,000 barrels per day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.
How could a Democratic president lose in a public relations battle with a firm that is broadly responsible for the disruption of gulf fishing and tourism along the Gulf Coast, as well as a toxic plume of oil that is only partially under control? Eleven oil rig personnel lost their lives in the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon oil platform. Further, BP executives have proved singularly inept, not to say brain-dead, concerning the public relations aspect, acting much like a culpable child sitting in the corner, looking for sympathy because Mom and Dad are picking on him for not cleaning up his room.
In just the latest BP executive gaff, Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward complained he wanted "his life back," and then took a weekend off to participate in a sail boat race.
At the World National Oil Companies Congress in London Tuesday, BP Chief of Staff Steve Westwell, giving a speech on behalf of Hayward, who was too busy to attend the conference, said: "We must not let it (the oil spill) deter us from the wider, long-term task of providing secure, sustainable, affordable energy for people around the world."
He also complained the media's presentation of the spill had simplistically "taken out of context" much of its reporting. "The underlying story is more complex," he said.
"To give you one small example," he explained, "an oyster harvester in Louisiana who has been affected by the spill pointed out that half of his family is in the seafood business, the other half in oil and gas. They have co-existed for 50 years," he said.
Backing him up, the head of Libya's National Oil Corp. Shokri Ghanem said of the disaster, "In a way, while it is a real tragedy, in another way it is exaggerated somewhat."
The company's basic message is clear as a bell: BP has agreed to accept responsibility "as defined in U.S. legislation" Westwell said -- in other words, not because it was the right thing to do, but because Mom and Dad said so. On the other hand, neener-neener, if you punish BP, "people around the world" would suffer for lack of the oil the company provides.
In New Orleans Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman blocked a White House moratorium on deep-water drilling, calling the order a "blanket, generic, indeed punitive, moratorium."
Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar then vowed to issue a new order for the industry "that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate and within our authorities."
As a result, stocks plummeted on Wall Street late in the afternoon, not because anyone was right or wrong, but because investors are all but allergic to confusion.
What BP and the White House both have to realize is that the moratorium should not be a public relations gimmick. It should be part of a long-term energy policy that overrides momentary circumstances.
Consider two points. One: Reports from China indicate that the energy policy it is deliberating is more concerned with securing supplies than environmental impact. Two: By percentage, the United States more than any other country last year increased its domestic oil production, which rose 7 percent with 30 percent of that increase coming from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
How can President Barack Obama lose a PR battle with BP? He can't. That was purely a rhetorical question. What he can do, however, is lose sight of long-term goals. BP's behavior -- their agreement to put aside $20 billion for cleanup costs, for example -- not their silly words, are much more important here.
On international markets Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan lost 1.87 percent while the Shanghai composite index lost 0.73 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong gained 0.18 percent while the Sensex in India rose 0.04 percent.
The S&P/ASX 200 index in Australia fell 1.59 percent.
In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain dropped 0.48 percent while the DAX 30 in Germany shed 0.11 percent. The CAC 40 in France lost 0.63 percent while the pan-European DJ Stoxx 50 lost 0.08 percent.
