False Alarm

Deepwater Horizon alarms Disabled "To Help Workers Sleep"

Williams told the hearing today that no alarms went off on the day of the explosion because they had been "inhibited". Sensors monitoring conditions on the rig and in the Macondo oil well beneath it were still working, but the computer had been instructed not to trigger any alarms in case of adverse readings.

Just as I wrote yesterday, BP is using the media to divert attention away from itself and place the blame for the rig explosion and oil disaster squarely on the shoulders of Transocean and its workers.

"The evidence of deliberate dilution of the rig's safety mechanisms is likely to have wide ramifications for BP and Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company. It switches the spotlight of blame away from BP and towards the subcontractor which took the decisions. Of the 126 crew on board the rig on 20 April, seven worked for BP and 79 for Transocean."

"Williams said he discovered that the physical alarm system had been disabled a full year before the disaster. When he asked why, he said he was told that the view from even the most senior Transocean official on the rig had been that 'they did not want people woken up at three o'clock in the morning due to false alarms'".

I'll repeat what I said yesterday -- there is no way in Hades that BP would have contracted Transocean and leased Deepwater Horizon without first having thoroughly checked the rig itself and the workers who would be responsible for drilling their first super-deep well. Maybe BP didn't actually have a team of Blackwater special ops agents place charges on the rig, as was reported by eyewitnesses working there. Maybe all they had to do is sit back, relax and wait for the well to blow itself up, due to all the safety failures, many of which were done on purpose or not fixed on purpose by Transocean:

"He also revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been disabled, or bypassed as it is called.

When he saw that the system had been bypassed, Williams protested to a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Hay responded: 'Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire [Transocean] fleet runs them in bypass.'

In a third significant disclosure, Williams also revealed that a computer system used to monitor the drill shack was constantly freezing up, and on one occasion even produced wrong information. The system failed to indicate that a vital valve inside the blowout preventer, the device designed to shut down the well in case of problems, had been damaged."

I still maintain the BP did plant charges and blow the rig up. It's looking now that they didn't have to place charges at the wellhead below the surface -- they knew that no safety equipment in existence, even if maintained and working perfectly, could contain the unbelievable pressure in the petroleum deposit, reportedly over 100,000psi. But they probably did blow up the rig just seconds after they received confirmation of the well blowout in order to eliminate as many witnesses as possible and, more importantly, to destroy the airliner-style "black box" recording devices. They were successful in that latter goal -- the recorders haven't been found, or if they have, BP has them and not the government.

It's so easy to see the game that BP is playing with the media:

"Pressure is now likely to mount on Transocean to explain the discrepancies.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that a survey of workers carried out by Transocean shortly before the blast suggested key safety practices had not been followed."

Transocean is a tiny company compared to BP. If the Brits are successful in convincing the media, the American people and the Soetoro administration that the "accident" was fully the fault of their subcontractor, they may be able to slither their way out of having to pay the $4300-per-barrel fine that they would otherwise be subject to under the Clean Water Act. They will still be responsible for paying for the cleanup "efforts" that they have been stalling, and for paying the locals who they put out of business, but they could save tens or hundreds of billions of dollars by painting Transocean as the sole transgressor.

Either way it doesn't really matter to BP. BP is THE globalist energy empire. They have trillions in assets so, Clean Water Act fines or no, they will live on. Transocean likely will not survive, but what happens in such instances is a simple transfer of assets. They'll file for bankruptcy and go through a court-ordered auction of their assets, which will be snapped up by BP and the other big energy companies at Christmas-in-July prices.

Then, with the well capped and the flow from the hundreds of sea floor vents and the huge "cauldron" still pouring oil, methane and toxins into the Gulf but hidden from public view and knowledge, BP and Barry will push their carbon tax. There has been talk in the last couple of days that the nation-killing carbon tax is now off the table, and that if anything, Congress will pursue a leaner, more directly targeted bill in response to the disaster, but I don't believe that for a moment. They are saying that so that I and people like all of you (all two of my readers) stop paying attention to that dangerous, possible legislation and turn our attention elsewhere.

There is nothing more dangerous than a lame duck politician, especially when they are of the enviro-wacko Über-liberal type, which most of the Dimocrats who will have been voted out in November are. They won't hesitate to pass the full carbon tax as a final gesture, a middle finger stuck upwards, in our face. And once the government obtains a new line of taxation it is historically very unlikely for that revenue stream to be capped. Even if the Republicans take control of both houses I wouldn't put it past them to keep all or elements of a possible carbon tax in place. At least if the GOP retains its current attitude of pretending to be against big government but never doing anything to shrink it.

Hopefully the Repubics will have learned their lessons, that the people of America expect them to act as true constitutional, nationalist, originalist conservatives, and not Democrat-Lite. And, God willing, enough grass roots voter anger will propel new, outside-the-beltway candidates into office in the Congress. Then we can start undoing the damage done since Ronald Reagan left the presidency, and change America back from a fascist, socialist government to a representative republic.