Response to Hayward's "I want my life back"

Today, they were bragging on television about how much oil had been recovered from the leaking well. It seems to me that everything that BP has done since the explosion has been aimed at recovering oil and not at stopping the leak. I also take issue with the word “leak” as well. I have a leak in my bathtub faucet. The oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from the oil well is more of an oil geyser than a leak.

Let me see if I understand what is really going on with BP. They are now able to recover 5000 barrels a day so that they have more barrels of oil to sell but there is still “some” oil is still “leaking” into the Gulf. Mr. Hayward, the CEO of BP is ready to get this emergency over with so that he can go home and "get his life back."

When Mr. Hayward finally is able to go home to England and live his “life,” the people on the Gulf coast will not have their lives back. The oil plumes that BP denies are below the surface have yet to come ashore. Sea life is dead or dying, estuaries are contaminated, beaches are ruined and oil is still gushing from the well in spite of the newest oil recovery effort. People working in the oil clean-up are also suffering health problems as a result of the exposure.

I understand Mr. Hayward’s sentiments. No-one wants to have to deal with something of this magnitude. If anyone wishes this had not happened, he does. However, he will not get sympathy from anyone on the Gulf Coast. He at least will have a life to go back to, while they will have to live in and with the results of the disaster.

Mr. Hayward did not make the decisions that caused the explosion but the company’s payment of bribes to inspectors did. Don’t you know that he now wishes he had set a different tone with his employees? It would have been less costly to have followed the safety inspection regulations than to clean up the mess, if it can be cleaned up.

The people of the Gulf Coast will struggle through this just like they struggled through Camille, Andrew, Katrina, Ike and other disasters. The biggest difference between this disaster and those disasters, is that this one could have been prevented by the use of integrity.

The big questions remain. How long will it be before BP stops the “leak?” How much life will be lost as a result of it? How long will it be before the damage is repaired? How far will the oil spread now that it is in the loop current? What happens if a hurricane comes through the Gulf?

Mr. Hayward, it will be a long time before you can "have your life back" and even longer before you will not think about this problem.