It’s An Economic War Stupid

A war analogy is used to describe the situation in the Gulf. From the Oval Office, Obama addressed, “the battle we’re waging,” saying, that our shores and citizens are being assaulted.

We are in a war. But to watch the political maneuvering taking place in Washington, it appears we are at a war with BP, when we should be partnering with them to battle the constant flow gushing into the Gulf.

Earlier this month, Obama demonized BP for spending money on television ads. BP is in the midst of a PR nightmare—exacerbated by ill-managed comments from the CEO. BP needs to consider their stockholders, pensioners, and their future ability to pay.

In effort to lift their own lackluster performance, the administration has to paint BP as the villains. There is plenty of blame to go around and surely BP will end up owning a fair share of it, but no one wins if BP is not healthy. In the last month, their stock has sunk, the news is rife with reports of a possible bankruptcy, and talk is heard of a potential government seizure. In order to pay the myriad charges against them, BP needs to be solvent—even successful. The President shooting at them shows how little he understands about basic business principles—unless his goal is the demise of BP.

A few days later, Obama ratcheted up the adversarial tone when he declared that BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, “wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.”

Then, he summoned the BP executives to the White House as newscasters commented on the “perp walk.” Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?”

Once there, they went through what Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) called a “shake down” resulting in agreement to a $20 billion escrow fund—which they probably would have agreed to even under friendly circumstances. BP has repeatedly offered assurances of payment. This was not something they had to do. But the actions circumvented the law.  Why is there so little outrage over the denial of due process?

Like his colleagues, Tony Hayward was called in front of Congress—patiently listening to their attacks and accusations while he was “sliced and diced.” Henry Waxman (D-CA) all but acknowledged that after reviewing thousands of pages of internal documents, there was little evidence of upper-level executives being aware of the problems with the well. (Most of us have worked for a company where we were confident that the CEO has little awareness of what was really going on.) The interrogation produced little but political grandstanding by representatives who want to look like they are doing something. The hearings are a distraction, an attempt to shape the agenda and push cap and trade as was made clear by Ed Markey’s (D-MA) opening comments.

One Representative defended their actions by saying that they were protecting the American Citizens—an apt role for government. But if government was truly on it on day one, no escrow fund, no hearings would be needed. Despite the quantity of past violations, the government approved BP’s drilling and disaster response plans. A luncheon was even scheduled honor BP with a safety award for that very well. There has been plenty of cronyism between BP, the MMS and the administration that points to a failure of government as much as it does to BP. With proper government protection, the blow out may never have happened.

The government’s actions toward BP set a terrible precedent of government vs. business. The drilling moratorium is an example: it is government who has caused massive laid-offs.

Additionally, the government/business relationship is fickle. BP may have received favors because they were about to endorse the President’s beloved cap and trade scheme. When you are a big business who can help the agenda, you get perks and exemptions—otherwise, the policies punish you. Who’d want to invest, or grow? Businesses fear government may turn on them.

We’re in economic peril. Out-of-touch elitists shouldn’t beleaguer job creators. They should work with them, be on the same team. No one wins when business goes bankrupt. Congress needs to quit grandstanding and work with the oil companies to find solutions to the Gulf crisis. There will be plenty of time later for investigations and interrogations.

Yes, we are in a war, but it is not a war against BP or even against the oil spill. It’s an economic war, and if we do not draft a different battle plan, America is going to lose.


Marita Noon is the executive director of the Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE), a nonprofit, membership-based organization advocating for citizens rights to energy freedom. She can be reached at marita@responsiblenergy.org or www.responsiblenergy.org