Category Archives: Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics

This is a series of personal blogs. Most are reproduced and some may be original. They are written on history, sex, language, religion, science, sex and many other subjects.

BP Oil Spill & A Tour for Kenneth Feinberg

Posted on June 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

i have given lots of small informal tours to those visiting the Gulf and Louisiana. I think that Kenneth Feinberg needs such a tour. I am too disconnected to give him the tour I would recommend. But I would recommend a tour for his orientation and to get him established. in his tasks.

For those reading this blog post who may not know much at all about Kenneth Feinberg I recommend starting by going to this link and then coming back to the post here. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/bp-gulf-oil-spill-ken-feinberg-appointed-head/story?id=10933766

I would make this an “Open Letter to Kenneth Feinberg” except that I have no reason to believe he reads this blog and I also am not  writing a post in a good letter format. But I am going to write in manner such as I might use in writing to Mr. Feinberg if each item were imbedded in a letter

First, before we begin this tour you may wonder why you need it.  I think the federal government should pay for it.  That may seem an unnecessary expense.  That is all the more of a sign that you do need it. It is not only pleasurable although there should be some pleasure in ti. Cultivate a really open attitude and disposition.  Be more humble than usual. Mr. Feinberg you followed the news about Agent Orange for years before you mediated that dispute ( whether you were aware of it or not). You knew a great deal about the cultural features and institutions of the area of Manhattan that included the World Trade Center. You had heard of the Zapruder film for decades and you spent lots of time in universities like Virginia Tech. Certainly you could not call yourself an ingenue as regards Wall Street executive life. However, you are probably very much an ignoramus here. Asode from hiring consultants and masters to assist you I would urge you to take a tour although you will be criticized for some it and it must create some bad photographs which will (not merely might) hurt your image. Do it anyway, spend three days:

Evening One New Orleans:

a. Have someone knowledgeable discuss the Urner- Barry Seafood Price Current and  the free wildlife and fisheries brochures of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida (and maybe Texas as well).  Have them quiz you on a few areas. Then with the same small group order up some seafood and have a film party watch Louisiana Story and Angels of the Basin. Then have an offical of the Louisiana Seafood Promotions and Marketing board discuss the seafood that has been eaten and present a brief slide show on various species and fisheries. Get a good nights sleep.

Morning One New Orleans:

b. Take a special tour of the Aquarium of the Americas with the Audubon Institute. Then take a paddlewheel river boat to the Audubon Zoo. Have the Coast Guard point out various kinds of river vessels and industries.  Let the Port Authority present a brief sideshow and the Hotel Association cater a brunch. When you arrive at the zoo tour the relevant part of the zoo with the Audubon Institute.  Then walk across Audubon park to Tulane University.  Meet with the Environmental Law faculty and students. Let them report on what is going on. Have a few snacks and coffee with members of the environmental bar and the licensing community.

Afternoon One and Evening Two Louisiana and Mississippi:

c. Have a helicopter pick up you and a couple of consultants and fly you over the wetlands and over Venice before dropping you at Port Fourchon. Tour the LOOP and have the various petroleum associations present you with a sideshow.    Let Louisiana State University give you a history of the oil industry in the Gulf Coast with papers you can refer to later.

d. Take the refueled helicopter over the Atchafalaya and the marshes around Vermilion Bay to Delcambre, Louisiana have the business community, shrimpers and officials present the way that industry functions and the way people live. Have dinner at Jefferson Island and meet with representatives the eco-tourism industry. Watch the film about the Lake Peigneur Disaster. Tour the island and have The University of Louisiana at Lafayette present a lecture and slide show on the cultural history of Coastal Louisiana.

e. Drive to a small plane and have it fly you over the Gulf’s oil rigs on a special flight plan at night. Land in Biloxi, Mississippi. Take a brief tour of the Towns sights and stay in a casino hotel. Preside over a dinner hosted by the tourism community. Go to sleep.

Morning Two Mississippi and Alabama.

f. Drive on a high touring bus from Biloxi to Dauphin Island Alabama stopping to see beaches. In Dauphin Island here from the charter boat community. Have a seafood lunch. Take the fastest available charter boat from the Island to Mobile Bay.

Afternoon Two and Evening Three Alabama and Florida:

g. Attend a lecture in the Fort on historical tourism on Gulf Coast presented by the University of Alabama.  Have dinner in a nice hotel in Mobile and hear a presentation on how the coast functions as an economic region across and within states presented by the banking community. Fly in a small plane to Pensacola, Florida. Have a geographer discuss patterns of lit up settlement. Stay in a very upscale beachfront condominium and have the real estate community present  a sideshow and lecture on coastal real estate. Go to bed.

Morning Three Florida: 

  h. Drive from Pensacola to Destin stopping to see beaches and piers. Have a discussion with University of Florida faculty over lunch on the patterns of recent migration to the Florida Coastal regions and it national economic significance.

Afternoon Three Long Helicopter Flight :

i. Take a long helicopter flight over rigs ports and wetlands to Houma, Louisiana. Go to the BP Claims Center and have a discussion session with everyone working there. Ask questions, tour the facility meet some claimants who have been invited to dinner with you.

After dinner you will be free man. You will not know all that much but you will know what you do not know. Then when you do your job it need not be a long string of  insulting misunderstandings.

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Hot Summer Weather, Ken Feinberg, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Organizations making change, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Wetlands, White House

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BP Oil Spill and My Personal Journey as of my 46th Birthday

Posted on June 14, 2010 | 1 comment

I am turning 46 years old this Tuesday. It will be the first birthday I have spent obsessing about an oil spill. Of course it may happen that this is not how I  spend this birthday but it will certainly be the closest I have come to spending a birthday that way. I say that having spent a great deal of time thinking about oil spills compared to the average human on the planet. But I don’t think I have ever seen a greeting card which says “On the Occasion of your Birthday Marred and Affected by an Oil Spill.” I often spend the time before a birthday reviewing the good and the bad things about life and thinking a bit about the future. This is a birthday in which that will happen but so will the continuing process of thinking about the oil spill, it is odd really. In a world of odd things and a life that has been exposed to those odd things it is still an odd way to spend a birthday.   

For me this oil spill is a sort of final catastrophe in a life in which bad memories are very numerous indeed. Yet as hot as it may get on a Louisiana summer and as much as I may not like the broiling heat that often marks the coming of my birthday– I have had good memories too and some have even happened on my birthday. I do not think there could be a lot of happiness on my birthday this year even without the spill. However, the spill certainly does not add gaiety. My maternal grandmother died last year on my birthday and this will be the first anniversary of her death. If one were to bet it would seem likely that it would be the last anniversary of her death as well as the first such anniversary that her widower, my maternal grandfather will be around for as well as being my birthday. That is not an altogether cheery milestone.  The blasting oil is just something that overshadows all the good personal reasons to be miserable that day. That is the thing about a disaster like this.  One already had enough problems without it in most cases. Life was hellish enough for many people before the Titanic hit the iceberg, the Union Carbide plant exploded in Bhopal, engineer in Long Island decided that texting and driving a train while intoxicated went well together.  I am ready to mark the day that is the anniversary of my birth. However, there is an added shadow to it.

The day before my birthday is always Flag Day. It almost always look at the United States of America  in relation to my birthday. While there are some good and noble things in this horrific uncontrolled gusher event which relate to the nation of the Star Spangled Banner, there is more horrible damage that hits at the core of needed and already endangered things. All in all this is much more of a blemish on that flag under which relatives and ancestors of mine have fought and died than it is a credit to it. Some things are just plain bad — this is one of those things. My relationship with the United States of America was already complicated and problematic. I felt no real need for another reason to be pessimistic about my homeland’s future and depressed about its present.

This is also a birthday which fall near Fathers Day. I have no children. One of my grandfathers is dead and I am estranged from my former father-in-law.  So while I always honor my dad’s day and will recognize my remaining grandfather it is a holiday that has in some ways shrunk for me over the decades. I will not go into all the reasons why. But obviously when I was newly married it would have had different associations than it does now that I am long divorced.  I do have some godchildren who often recognize the day with a card. But just as we extend holidays to godfathers and grandfathers  in this region so some of us thin of patrimony a word related to father — pater being Latin for “father” and the root of the word patrimony. The wetlands are a great part of our patrimony in Louisiana. It is something I have shared with my father and which he shared with his father and which I shared directly and alone with his father and with him and his father. I taught one of my god-daughters, my niece Anika, to fish on Grand Isle where the oil is fouling so much right now.  My father and I have plenty of reasons for our relationship not to be all joy and happiness, but the oil spill doesn’t help to brighten the occasion of Fathers Day.

So while I may end up finding some happy times on my birthday and would not have had a perfect birthday anyway the oil spill certainly does not help to make this a happier passing of the year. I think that in a small way this is an example of how the spill plays out for many other in a region already pushed and squeezed by bad economic, bad governance and bad business management. The spill just adds much more to the stress of many others than it does to me. 

Today President Obama will be back on the Gulf Coast and on my birthday tomorrow will address the nation on the Gulf of Mexico Spill of 2010. I am not saying that his address is less pertinent than the one I am linking to here. In fact the following can be criticized for not giving prominent billing to the British Petroleum Spill. The speech is long and not entirely on point but it is by Prince Charles of the House of Windsor/Battenberg who is  Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. He has a long history of speaking and doing this to address human relations with the environment. He has no overt power to dictate national policy. I think he is a man worth listening to as we sound out this crisis.        

htttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBoG7QUfq9s&playnext_from=TL&videos=6O6ffFm63Vg

So I am going to be turning 46. It will be a memorable year. But I wish it would be memorable for other reasons. Probably some others nearer the water share my birthday and are having the same thoughts in more dramatic terms.

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Posted in Birthday - June 15, BP - British Petroleum, BP Chairman Svanberg, Fathers Day, Frank W. Summers, Gulf of Mexico, Hot Summer Weather, Louisiana, media, Oil & Gas Industry, United States of America, Western civilization

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The BP Transocean Gusher’s Risk: Some Links and Notes

Posted on June 3, 2010 | 1 comment

This post is  mostly about the oil spill from the point of view of risk. There is a great deal of risk in this crisis and it is a part of the story which is  something we need to really understand and work out in terms of making sense of these events. It is really important to  understand the parameter of risk for this crisis and for all the related crises that may or may not emerge over time.

Life is pretty damned difficult for lots of people and lots of eco-systems when things are working out within the context of the agreements and arrangements within which life and the economy ordinarily operate. When there is a large and sudden unplanned change it often causes a great deal of harm.  This gusher is a large and unexpected change. But in addition it is just a very bad thing. It is if nothing else a huge waste of valuable oil and gas. Forty days into this crisis it is still gushing out into the Gulf of Mexico. So I want to go through this set of issues related to risk.

Understanding a Salt Water Ecology is Difficult 

One of the things many of us did not like in this crisis is that we feel that the impact and risk were so downplayed and minimized in the early days when this was developing.  It seemed to many of us (how rightly time will tell) that those in charge were not considering the reality of a major gusher in that place.  I first began to deal with this crisis on-line with the following tweet: “BP Oil spill seen from space: old worry- https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/” That tweet was posted on April 27, 2010.  Since then the story and the situation have continued to develop.

I want to start with a link that will give people an idea of how much science, skill and knowledge is required to make an assessment of toxic impacts on the environment.  When I write the word toxic I am including the sticky, choking and smothering qualities of oil besides it direct bio-chemical toxicity. Use this link to get an idea of the field. 

1. http://www.cmast.ncsu.edu/index.php/cals-agriculture-a-life-sciences/physiologicalbehavioral-biotelmetry.html

II. Tourism and Export Dollars as Well as the Natural Treasures

In the case of many Louisiana coastal industries a small relative amount of damage can have a disproportionately huge impact.  appearance of the landscape, taste and health of fish and many other things of similar nature can be very subtle and difficult to measure. Beyond that the nature of the things being marketed is that they react in complex and varied ways to the damage done by oil. Some things will heal and some will deteriorate in an accelerated manner. Determining the likely results requires some accounting for currents, rainfall, winds, acidity in the water and many other factors. 

A. Lodging

People will not choose a less desirable site without some adjustment in real cost most of the time. A minor amount of damage can have a large impact on lodging for fishing and recreation. See this link to understand the lodging industry in Louisiana. 

2.http://www.louisiana-lodging.com/regions/cajun.html

B. Seafood

With seafood there is a great deal to the complexity of how an oil spill can affect things. I hope that we can all look back and see this as a minor incident but it  will take a long time to know for sure. The next few links can educate you a bit about how this real industry really operates. 

3.http://www.louisianaseafood.com/

4.http://www.fishlcba.com/

5.http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/pdfs/license/Certified%20Commercial%20Fishermans%20Form.pdf

6.http://204.196.151.247/oyster/

7.http://204.196.151.247/oyster/

8.http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/pdfs/license/Personalized%20Oyster%20Tag%20Order%20Form.pdf

III. The Lingering Risks of Oil Spills

One of the first things that we have to understand is that this is not likely to be completely cleared up any time soon. The Exxon Valdez experience makes us expect bad effects that will linger and persist. 

9.http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/02/1660593/expert-from-exxon-valdez-accident.html

IV. This Particular Spill and Dealing with It

Much of what I have covered so far is about oil damage as a general thing. Some is about Louisiana’s risk towards all oil spills. Now we want to look at this particular spill and how it is being dealt with and should be dealt with in the exact situation we are all in right now. The next site is the grandfather of all sites on this incident if you want to understand the crisis read through the sites content if you can. 

10.http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931

First Note:  So far the Damage has not Been all that Huge as Far as we Know

The truth is that by almost any measure this has been a relatively modest landfall so far. Even someone like me who is highly committed to the idea that this is a stressed and fragile environment will admit that this has so far not been as catastrophic as it could be. The following text is lifted from GOHSEP’s site. I have my doubts about some of it but I think it is a fairly excellent survey and much better than no source or the average source of measurement. 

“Oil Sightings Report June 2, 2010

Plaquemines:
Sighting: Oil found on mangrove trees in the canals of East Grand Terre near the Grand Bank Bayou area.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Tar balls found scattered in a rip line made up of mostly trash in the south west inlet of Wilkinson Bay.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Boom is washing up on an unnamed island at Grand Island Port in Barataria Bay. There is no oil in the grass but not in the water.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Tar balls found scattered in a rip line at the southern end of Lake Grand Ecaille.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil sheen approximately 40 yards wide by two miles long just outside Baptiste Collet.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Blackish oil slick with some red/brown and foamy areas 4.5 miles east of the Southwest Pass Lighthouse.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Jefferson Parish:
Sighting: Ribbon of sheen with surface foam in Bay Dosgris off of Little Lake.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Grey sheen running approximately mile south down the Barataria Waterway.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Rip line with grey sheen extending approximately 300 yards south of the mouth of Bayou St. Denis in the Barataria Bay Waterway.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Oil found on the mangrove trees in the canals of East Grand Terre at the north east side of Little Bayou Chevreau.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Thick oil found in grass on an island one mile south of Manilla Village.
Date: 2 Jun 10.

Sighting: Small area of grey sheen in north east corner of Hackberry Bay.
Date: 2 Jun 10.”

So while we do not yet know what this spill will amount to in the end we do know what  may be at risk and that risk is hard  to assess. So we have to do something.

Note: Responses and Plans

In this segment I provide some links and a little analysis as to how the response is going and how it may go. There is too much to cover well in a short blog post. The barrier islands are an idea being given attention.

11. http://usace.armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/2010/06/corps-works-with-interagency-response-team-on-oil-spill/

12.http://www.lacpra.org/

I have seen the development of restored barrier islands in the context of an entire system of renewal as a good idea. My idea for policy is outlined in the post behind the following link.

13. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

So if you read through all of this I hope that you have a better sense of what is at risk. There will probably be more posts on this subject later.

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Secrets, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Wetlands, White House

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Oil Spill and Setbacks: 12 Questions

Posted on June 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

As I write this the saw which BP was using to cut the riser on the blow out preventer has gotten stuck in the pipe a mile down. The first cut was made which was vital but the second cut has been impeded by the saw blade getting stuck. They hop to bring the second saw down or use other instruments to remove the saw and operate the one that is stuck. THIS IS YET ANOTHER SETBACK!

I have a few questions to ask about setbacks. Most are about avoiding future setbacks? :

1. NOAA has been discussing what they are doing now and it is impressive. How will they contribute to the kind of policy infrastructure for the Gulf Coast that we need to build or will we use the structure of government as an excuse not to govern?

2.Has NASA and its enormous infrastructure for fluid and pressure studies been used to design the caps we are about to use to contain this oil? If they have not been used and all works well then I am unable to complain much but I wonder if the first containment dome would have worked if NASA had been consulted as to its design. Can we stop squandering our knowledge wealth?

3.When nesting oiled birds are rescued and their nests are known are the eggs brought to incubators and their chicks raised in zoos so that we a t least preserve an insurance policy outside the wild?

4. I ask the same question as regards nesting turtles — except that the behavior is different. Almost all should have hatched now but if relevant — are we saving at risk eggs in artificial beaches when we find them? 

5.Are we creating at least a small emergency Atlantic Bluefin tuna hatchery to mimic nature in this area and release later?

6.Are we calling in and positioning clean distressed aged slab, shell, gravel and other assets to quickly position in areas where bridges and berms need to be built?    

7. Are we considering the list of designs and inventions we might need for the future even if we are not going to address them now? A few things come to mind:

 a. We could use a speedy starter ship which can get anywhere and start drilling relief wells right away and then be replaced by a compatible long-term drill rig later.

b.We could use a deployable  circular boom system which could surround a site except for gates and keep a high percentage of deep water oil in a circle with a twenty-mile radius from the well site.

c. We could use quick deployment blimp bought in by helicopters and inflated on site in air that would provide integrated sensing, viewing and communications from the first day.

So are we listing thing we would like to have?

8. Have any oral historians been hired to interview those who are involved and impacted when they are not needed to respond so we can have a complete record of these instances and events?

9.Are we building an aviary in the area so we can keep birds nearby until beaches and marshes are clean and then release them to the original sites?

10. Are at least some oiled creatures being tagged so that the future assessments may be made correctly?

11. Have the Audubon Society, the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge and other major local environmental institutions been given funds and brought into official response groups?

12. Are specific gravity measurements being made of various emulsion samples so we can better calculate their behavior in the water column?

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Posted in Acadians, Audobon Society, BP - British Petroleum, Frank W. Summers, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, NASA, NOAA, Oil & Gas Industry, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Secrets, United States of America, Vermilion Parish, Wetlands, White House

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Spill Response: So Little, So Late and So Horrible

Posted on June 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

In today’s post I am going to discuss the horrific losses that we find in a world going to hell in a handbasket and how the spill exemplifies this process. Today the BP robots are finishing cutting off the final rubbish around the riser from the Blow Out Preventer, they are then starting to cut off the riser and will try to mount a cap to channel the flow. We will all be pleased if they mount a rising conduit.

Here are some points I want to consider today:

1.  A unique and separate point from all others is that when something of this magnitude happens I am not willing to eliminate the possibility of an act of war, piracy or terrorism by any party until the total investigation has occurred.

Then there are the more systemic points:

2. Had the deductible on the Oil Pollution Act been $100 million instead of $75 million and had the premium been 15 cents a barrel all this time instead of 8 cents  and then a graduated series of co-payments of say 25% to $2 billion, 50% $2-4 billion, 70% from $4 billion to the exhaustion of the fund — had such a sane policy been in force there would be less chance of a disaster and it would have been better managed. BP might find little reason to count most of us their enemies (assuming this is not piracy). This policy might have encouraged the development of clean energy alternatives, safer drilling practices and even a sound coastal policy. I again cite my own proposal. I encourage you to read it if you have not — it predates the crisis: https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

3. Senator Mary Landrieu (not alone) has long demanded the manifestly fair and necessary revenue sharing by the state had that money been granted we would have had money to invest in coastal restoration.

4.This country is in many ways a tyranny which has betrayed all of its basic constitutional principles and few people have suffered more from that shift than the people of South Louisiana. The structure that have been imposed on the region in so many meanings of the word structure have been really destructive. I know what tyrranical means and so many instances of  tyrannical waste exist that I cannot list them all.

5. I may come out of this as a known enemy of the oil and gas industry. If so then it seems grossly unfair to me and to others like me to be put in that position. Although I have earned money from the wetlands and seafood industries directly I have written about and discussed for pay and for free the oil and gas industry. I also got a few hundred dollars of more or less direct oil exploration money once. It rankles, if  because of many very bad factors I did not choose, I am cast as a foe of drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil and gas have always been part of my life and community.

6. This situation is so bad in so many ways that it would take ages to write about how bad it is. The truth is in a vast catalogue of small and large horrors.

7.There is need for radical change. But radical change is usually bad.

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Frank W. Summers, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Memorial Day, Oil & Gas Industry, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Secrets, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, War, Western civilization, Wetlands, White House

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Biggest US Spill: Living in the Age of Liquidation

Posted on May 30, 2010 | Leave a comment

This BP — Transocean spill  is not just another mess. This spill is historic and calls for a response in historic terms. It also must be seen in context. That context and response is what this post is about.  The liquid nature of the spill goes with the crisis of unstructured flow of migrants who are joined by the desire to make money flow around for no real reason. This joins with the government forcing racial groups to flow together in no structured way. This goes with an economy designed to liquidate all wealth and punish the kinds of wealth that does not flow quickly. In may ways this spill symbolizes our whole set of social disorders. 

We are facing the largest oil spill in US history. We had the failed Times Square bombing, the underwear bomber, the Fort Hood shooting and we have hundreds of thousands of people protesting  forcefully to proclaim that one should be able to stay here as long as one wants without documentation. Not all the Arizona law protesters want to say that but hundreds of thousands do. We have people in our congress advocating an unconstitutional ex post facto law against BP. Here again the nuance is that if Congress were saying they would issue letters of Marque and Reprisal against BP if they do not adequately deal with the spill I would not object (Britain would but not I). Our debt to revenue ratio is outrageously high and people largely believe we should all spend more to stimulate the economy.  We are still involved in two foreign wars. In my opinions all the things I mentioned above are only minor symptoms of the disease afflicting our society. We are a country in crisis, deep and serious crisis.

I am different from  most of those who are likely to read this blog as American citizens in that I support and advocate radical constitutional change. I advocate change which is revolutionary  — although I am willing to see that change come in the following Constitutional form: “or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.” This quote makes up most of Article V (Article Five) of the Constitution.

The part I did not include is the first few words reproduced here and now ” The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, (or, on the Application of the Legislatures)” the words in parentheses are the words at the start of my quote above. All amendments in US history have been passed through the houses of congress and then ratified by the States. However, a constitutional convention summoned by  two-thirds of the States  and ratified by three-fourths of the States could effect total transformation of the country as long as every State retains equal votes in the Senate and the entirely new Constitution would be a formal and legal continuity of our current regime. The only role of Congress in this second path would be to choose whether State legislatures or State conventions should ratify the larger convention.  In the real world if a convention had been called then force of arms would be justified if (by no means certain) a Congress refused to act to make this one choice. Thus if three-fourths of the states can be convinced of the need for radical change then we can have it. And we do need radical change. It is time for our society to evolve. I have outlined the ideas for a new regime elsewhere in this blog.

We need to create a system which will value conservation, preservation, familial wealth, nature, honor and recognize that neither big business nor bureaucracy has all the answers and yet both have a role to play. The risks these spills and other things like the war on terror relate to or not adequately addressed in an eight year presidential administration. We need the kinds of changes we are very far from adopting so far.  The total destruction of our society is what is likely if we continue to follow the path we have been following .  As our society becomes more dysfunctional the rate of decay will increase. Making the right changes now will be very hard but making them later will be much harder.

We are partly destroying and may be largely destroying an estuary which is the product of processes ranging in millions, thousands and hundreds of years. We are doing this in days and months. We need a government with a loner term view of things. However, not just any old thing will do. We need to make  the right changes. I have tried to outline those changes elsewhere in this blog. But we will not have many more chances for good change. It will not be long before any effort we make will be the kind of desperate and frenzied reaction that seldom works out well — to say the least.  This may be our last chance to create change that is rational, wise and measured. 

So let us consider really  changing the government. We have a choice now. That will not be true forever.

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, family, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Mexico, Oil & Gas Industry, Royalty and Empire, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, War, Western civilization, Wetlands, White House

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Links, Loss and the Laws: Biggest US Oil Spill

Posted on May 28, 2010 | 1 comment

Well today there are a a variety of possible descriptions and some of them conflict as to the state of the dynamic kill of the gusher a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. Is the spill growing by crude oil and natural gas and if so by how much? Or is there only mud and seawater coming out now. Most television channels are showing only the top of the blow-out preventer and no longer showing the issuance from the riser. That makes it even harder to tell what is going on because the top of the preventer could be spewing mud only and it would mean much less than if the broken riser were also only spewing out mud. I mud is coming out of all leaks without oil then in fact as some have said they are cutting off the flow of oil while they pump.  Of course spewing drilling fluids is not perfect either but it would be a sign of progress. Nonetheless, this is a good time to turn to issues that are not so sensitive to the progress of events minute by minute.

After the Exxon Valdez disaster the laws were changed under the Oil Pollution Act. This Act had many good effects such as forcing all major players to file an emergency response plan and setting up emergency response under the Coast Guard. MAYBE: It had the very bad effect of having the responsible party do all the clean-up, then pay a 75 million dollar deductible and then tapping into a grossly underfunded indemnity or rainy day fund to compensate those injured. A sum of 75 million dollars would compensate for a minor interruption of the Louisiana Gulf Coast for about a minute. The remaining two billion or so in the current indemnity fund would constitute lost business insurance for less than a week in this region in a worst case scenario and would leave no money thereafter for other injuries than lost business. Creating a plan like this removes all incentives to have a responsible coastal policy at least on its face. To see what the laws are as described by the Environmental Protection Agency see the link below.    

http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/opa.html

The EPA and other parts of the government have built up some response capacities based on these laws. It is arguable that the regime under the Oil Pollution Act is often far better than it was under most statutory regimes likely to apply before the laws changed.  To see some of this response capacity as it is relevant here see the next link.

http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/index.htm 

On the other hand the insurance capacity is very low relative to real risk in this area. It is also true that such a disaster as this must be best mitigated before hand. This is best done by policies which may not be considered because of the current scheme. See my own ideas in the link below.

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

The federal government of the United States of America is also very much engaged in regulating the industry. There is very little that the public has followed about the Mineral Management Service but you can look at their link below.

http://www.mms.gov/

The State of Louisiana has to deal with the terrible results and fight against the worst consequences of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. In order to fully know what there concerns are there are several agencies to check with. I am not going to repeat government links I gave before. I would encourage you to look at what Wildlife and Fisheries has to say in the next link.

http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/

As you consider the environment and the culture one would also remember that Louisiana is a civil law jurisdiction governed by the Louisiana Civil Code and has a very different system of laws than the 49 Common Law states and the US Government in this regard. To begin to understand what this means see the next link.

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/civil+law

To keep track of how Louisiana’s government  tracks environmental quality and see what issues have been addressed here see the next link. The Department of Environmental Quality has a close relationship with the federal EPA. 

http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal

To see the central electronic focus of the Louisiana government for this crisis see the next link.  There is little else that can be said of the many agencies and parishes responding  in this short blog post.

http://www.emergency.louisiana.gov/

Ironically, one of the State’s law schools had just held an academic conference on water quality and environmental law when this huge disaster occurred.  The environmental law issues have been important to Tulane Law School for a long time actually. See their link on the recent conference below.

http://www.law.tulane.edu/tlsOrgs/tels/telc/index.aspx

Perhaps some of my readership have seen James Carville and his wife addressing the President, the media and anyone who would listen about this crisis in the last few days. Well Mr. Carville will be addressing Louisiana State University’s Law School Graduating Class at commencement today I think. 

http://www.law.lsu.edu/index.cfm?geaux=newsandpublications.newsstories&pid=4097261D-1372-69E5-F7FF16FFC9B54892&bid=EF114F50-1372-69E5-F7A58C48228BF9F2

The President, Barack Hussein Obama, has been in Louisiana today addressing this crisis. I would urge all of you to take him up on his invitation to visit the White House online in regards to this crisis. Find two links for that purpose below.  

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://www.whitehouse.gov/deepwater-bp-oil-spill

One issue that has not been addressed is that there may be limits in what our curent governement can do beyond the Liability caps. Ultimately, things like frezing production or leases are a good way that Obama (whom I dislike and oppose) has found to show that he can overcome limits in his basic legal power over guilty parties and the industry. It is a poor substitute for good policy but it is better than weakness and surrender. I applaud the subtle and not linked use of this ploy. However, BP must largely be motivated by reputation, by pressure through the UK exerted from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast and in the real world by the possibility of extr-legal vengeance. The US constitution does not allow someone’s rights to be changed by retroactive laws. This may happen in practice but it is bad for our law. I applaud anyone who finds a color of right for doing the right but it is not simple. The state Louisiana finds herself in as regards law is another strong argument for constitutional change. The laws on the books MAY have done great violence to the rights of people here for no good reason. But there are some not all bad reasons. That is a difference to be discussed in a latter post. Governor Jindalhas thrown himself into this fray admirably. He and I are very different people and I applaud his effort to find success within this system We shall see what happens next.

I personally am in a disillusioned funk. I will try to post more original analysis when and if I feel a bit more cheery and focused. Until then if you are doing something to help — good luck and God bless your efforts.

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Posted in Acadians, BP - British Petroleum, Environment, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, media, Oil & Gas Industry, United States of America, Western civilization, Wetlands, White House

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The Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill: Thoughts About the Crisis

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 4 comments

The Deep Water Horizon rig which was a Transocean craft operating off the Louisiana coast at a depth of more than 5,ooo feet. This operation was a British Petroleum operation and British Petroleum does not exist but is succeeded by BP LPC. I usually refer to the corporation British Petroleum. Transocean is, I am fairly sure, a Swiss based corporation and had flagged this ship as Marshall Islands vessel although it had no historical operation ties with the tiny islands and was built in the Far East not the middle of the Pacific. These corporations allege that Halliburton which was the cement contractor possibly had something to do with the  accident which resulted in an explosion, eleven deaths and the sinking of the floating Deep Water Horizon rig. The Mineral Management Service is charged with the safety of these offshore rigs and also collects money from offshore leases for the coffers of the US government. Since April 19 it is alleged by many that 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons of crude oil every day have been percolating up and gushing out of the wrecked well. That is well over 4,000,000 gallons of oil.

The Louisiana coastline nearby is a fragile saltwater marsh. Pelicans, rare sea turtles, a pod of sperm whales, porpoises, rare terns and 400 other species breed (mostly at this time of year in these marshes) other rare species breed in adjoining states. The Atlantic Bluefin tuna reproduces only in thses waters. The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port or LOOP acts as the door to a huge portion of US petroleum imports. New Orleans and the Mississippi River serve as a very major world port.  The fisheries of varied commercial and recreational finfish are an enormous industry. In addition hundreds of millions of annual dollars in income are derived from the harvest of oysters, shrimp and crabs. Countless small ports and resorts are operational fo fisheries and beaches throughout the Northern Gulf of Mexico.  

Culturally and historically this calamity comes at a time when many other factors stress the cultures and communities and states in this reason. In addition there are very grave geopolitical  consequences. I hope to comment more about this crisis in future blog posts. I am already committed to discussing this and have done so elsewhere. The problems raised are not new to me.

Please read this old post: 

https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/ideal-wetlands-policy-on-the-louisiana-coast/

I will return to this topic when I can. I have made a few editorial changes since publication adding about ten words above and also now saying that the companies involved asked for environmental waivers, flagged a ship with an undemanding flag of convenience, had no extraordinary measures ready to deal with the extraordinary drilling that have been shown to be very prudent or excellent measures. The company which made several billions in profits in the last reported quarterhas so far allegedly spent about 350 million US dollars on response to the spill.  It would seem to me that their lack of respect for this location and the nature of the project demands the most forceful legal response conceivable. Stopping at the legal limits of response is probably imoral but it is what one might ask people to do for the sake of preserving this civilization. This may not be an act of war or piracy but it is nearly tantamount to such an act.

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Posted in BP - British Petroleum, Environment, Geopolitics, Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, Oil & Gas Industry, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, Wetlands

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The Direct Imperial Government in the New American Regime: Part Three

Posted on May 12, 2010 | 1 comment

This is my third post on the Direct Imperial Government in my proposed new regime. In this post I wish to cover two agencies of the proposed DIG. I have done a lot of posts in this blog on healthcare under our current political order.  Here are two of them:

1. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/healthcare-lessons-from-fdr/

2. https://franksummers3ba.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/healthcare-bill-passed-by-the-senate-finance-committee/

The others that I have done should be searchable. However, the second of the two links I have provided above would more or less indicate the operations of the Imperial Wellness Agency which would do approximately what the proposed National Wellness Agency would have done. It would of course be stronger and more effective than the NWA because it would have a fixed base of two percent of all DIG funds to add to its revenue streams. It would be a large constitutional anomaly as will all of the major DIG agencies and ministries but it will operate in a well-defined and circumscribed sphere of action. It will consist of a web of specific exceptions to the normal way of doing business. The taxes it receives that I really drew up for the NWA should stand even though they are less appropriate for the DIG than for the federal program I proposed.  This intrusion will be modest if this regime actually emerges. One must remember that this would be a revolution that leaves the vast preponderance of resources in a slightly altered set of institutions that have evolved within a republican structure.  This is a very American approach since America’s 200 and more republican years have merged from a relatively slightly modified version of British and Arcadian-Acadian royalist regimes mixed with Iroquois Chieftainly confederated mixed government  seen through the lense of Greek Classical political science and the Roman republics emergence from the Kingdom of the City of Rome. In the tradition we now would move like Rome from Republic to Empire. However, the American enterprise has never been a purist enterprise and this is not a purist’s proposal.

I will not discuss the details of the Imperial Wellness Agency here except to say that it would support a web of Community Clinics, employ most law and medical school students for a few days in their career, offer token pay to volunteers and track them, recycle surplus pharmaceuticals, rely in part on taxes on migration and dangerous activities from abroad. It would offer sponsorship networks and support emergency response to common disasters. There would be a kind of token insurance program and it would provide some level of available care (much inferior to the very best available) to everyone for little or  even no cost  in a way which demands from but does not destroy private market care. It will also create incentives to control cost which no current system employs well.

The last agency I will discuss in this little series is the Government Liaison to the Imperial House and Household. This agency will seek to ensure that all DIG programs and actions tend to support and enhance and not oppose or curtail the Imperial House and Household’s civilian and military agencies. There will be a Women’s and Family Division which will make sure that the Imperial Wellness Agency and Rolls of Kindreds as well as ordinary organs of governance support the Empress’s Bureau of Women’s Affairs and the Mistress of Ceremonies’ Office of Liaison’s and Placements. It will have an Enforcement Division which will support the integration of the MC’s Office of Ritual Confrontation, the House’s military, the Ministry of Protocol and GRIHHA regulations and proclamations into the law and law enforcement. It will have a Habitat Division to support integration into IWA (Imperial Waste Authority), the HHEA (Human Habitat Expansion Agency)and the local governments all related Imperial House work. Lastly the GLIHH will have the Personal Ministry Division which will assign people to see to the needs of House members discharging DIG functions or interaction in any official way with the DIG

These four agencies are not everything that there is within the DIG. However, they do set out a picture of all that the Direct Imperial Government would and would not be within the new regime. That should make it easier to see what the costs of establishing the new regime would and would not be.

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Posted in Acadians, Chivalry, Environment, family, Geopolitics, National Wellness Agency, Personal Philosophy and Moral Economics, Royalty and Empire, Sex, United States of America, USA--UK Relationship, War, Western civilization

The Direct Imperial Government in the New American Regime: Part Two

Posted on May 10, 2010 | 1 comment

In the first post of this series within a series I delineated the role of the royal waste and ruins right  included in the traditional lore of rights pertaining to established Acadian-Arcadian royalty and its expression in the Imperial Waste Authority  of the new Direct Imperial Government.  In this post I want to discuss the next service selected for our little series of posts on this topic.  In the first post I set out what I intended to cover: ” The four Agencies discussed here will be The Imperial Waste Authority, The Human Habitat Expansion Agency (Distinct from the Human Habitat Expansion Office of the Imperial House),  The Imperial Wellness Agency and the Government Liaison Agency for the Imperial House, Household and Services. In discussing these agencies I will discuss the DIG as a whole.” Some very key agencies mentioned  in previous series of posts would be part of the DIG and are not included here. These agencies include the Securities Assurance Administration regulating and providing a minimal insurance package for stock markets, Imperial Transport Authority not mentioned directly bit alluded to briefly in several places and the Direct Imperial Governments constituent zones, districts and fiefdoms  as well as their means for interacting with the whole DIG. What can be done in this little series is to define a few aspects of this government. Let this post delineate the Agency of the Direct Imperial Government which will most exemplify the uniqueness and aspirations of this proposed regime. If this regime were to become what might honestly and widely be called a great success in both its own time and in the view of history then it must be in substantial part because the Human Habitat Expansion Agency has succeeded to a significant degree. However, no challenge undertaken by this newly proposed regime will be as difficult to satisfy as the successful operation of this agency and the furtherance of its aims.

 The Human Habitat Expansion Agency

  A. Constitutional and Legal Founding of the HHEA

1. The Constitutional Provision  

The Human Habitat Expansion Agency would most certainly challenge much of the established order of the world by its mere existence. That is true of many aspects of this regime’s proposed operations and undertakings however none more than this. Yet with an irony that occurs fairly frequently in the course of human history this agency and the undertakings that will  be led and facilitated by this agency and the relevant counterparts it will have offer the best chance of long-term development in a peaceful and productive future in the world. The new Constitution shall provide in the Article on the Direct Imperial Government in the Subsection on Human Habitat Expansion that:

“Principal and most serious of all the obligations undertaken by this regime which were not undertaken by the previous constitutional order of the old republic shall be the pursuit of a realistic and careful plan which is nonetheless bold and innovative for human habitat expansion. This shall be among the Offices and Ministries of the Emperor and his Imperial House. The Direct Imperial Government however, shall play a very important role in its own right by coordinating and integrating the operations of the Imperial House, the United States Government, the governments of the Constitutional Jurisdictions and the activities of private persons and private enterprise in this endeavor of  human habitat expansion. The Direct Imperial Government shall discharge these duties primarily under the auspices of the Human Habitat Expansion Agency.”

2. The Statutory Creation and Structure of the HHEA

In the Direct Imperial Government Civil Code Title Direct Imperial Government there will be a major Section called Agencies and in that Section a Subsection called Human Habitat Expansion Agency. This Subsection will not be fully outlined much less written here but I will specify in paragraph form what it shall basically provide. The law will provide that this is an agency of the highest rank and order in the DIG. It will provide that it consists of an External Minister of Human Habitat appointed by the Emperor from five nominees submitted by the DIG Legislature for a period of twelve years renewable for seven more years  and removable by the Emperor at the end of one or at the end of  five years and by the DIG Legislature at the end of three years and by the GRIHHA at the end of eight years. Under this shall be seventeen position filled by the External Minister at his or her whim and four positions nominated by him or her that must be confirmed by the US Senate. Those positions shall be Surveyor General, Waste Authority Liaison, Chief Biologist and Bricoleur General. Each of these shall be entitled to appoint five of their immediate subordinates in rank and ten staff to their direct offices. All other positions shall be filled by the Imperial Civil Service, The Emperor’s Maintenance Corps, the Direct Imperial Government Police  or the other proper agencies or contractors. However, Civil Service and Maintenance Corps personnel may be classed as permanent employees of the  Human Habitat Expansion Agency. 

The Surveyor General will locate and assess areas for human colonization on desert pelagic shelfs in the seas near the Empire and in its waters, in seamounts, and on craters on the Moon and on Mars. Once a Human Habitat Expansion Treaty is effected the Surveyor General will work with other powers to effect mutual benefit and avoid confrontation wherever possible. This Division will also set up the basic markings and plans of a site selected for colonization.

The Waste Authority Liaison and the Division subordinate to this official will prepare projections of materials and resources needed for all aspects of a colony and work with the planning, preparation and prepositioning as well as final transport of all resources which can be had from the lower end of distressed and devalued assets of the IWA for which the IWA will be paid mostly in rights in the new colony and by not having to dispose of that true waste in other sites. This Liaison will also keep a record of what is placed where and arrange for a program of monitoring health risks, emissions, and leaching as well as supporting IWA services to the established colony.

The Chief Biologist will be in charge of setting up all Crown Colonies as places with sustaining agriculture, recreational stressed species nature reserves and fisheries as significant parts of the overall plan. In colonies licensed and not operated by the Crown the Chief Biologists Division will be  responsible to see that the sustainable biotic component and environmental impact standards specified in the Direct Imperial Government Civil Code are fully met.

The Bricoleur General shall be in charge of interacting with the Colonial Architect in charge and the Master Architect who shall serve at the pleasure of the External Minister of Human Habitat Expansion. He shall be in charge  of special labor and planning units who can optimize substandard and distressed resources used for these massive projects and who especially can take irregular object that make up the vast majority of an artificial island and join it to the basic premium structures built directly by the Colonial Architect. He shall also have a vast library of modeling software over time which allows the best use of varied objects for building massive artificial islands.

The statutes will also provide some detail of the basic concepts of artificial islands and crater cap colonies. These things have been discussed at length elsewhere in this set of blog posts and in related sites and will not be discussed here at length. That will be a substantial portion of the Statute.

The highest Imperial Civil Service Position will be the Licenser General who will license the colonization projects of private parties and of governments and provide for their interaction with this agency. The Imperial Civil Service  will be a separate title in The Direct Imperial Government Civil Code. Civil Service positions will offer  access to the comforts and securities of a middle class American Dream to people from throughout the Empire. That will probably be more valuable as less is going to be given as an open-ended entitlement than in the regime in which we now live. They will be expected to do very good work at a humane pace and seldom to do excellent work at a frenetic pace.

B. Logistics of Starting  Up and Operating

1. The HHEA shall be a bond issuing authority overseen by the Imperial Services Operating Treasury.

2. License Fees shall be payable in advance.

3. In some case the Imperial Waste Authority will pay advanced fees for storage of certain scheduled materials.

4. The HHEA will receive on percent of DIG revenues every year outside the regular budget process of the DIG Legislature. It will invest a third in a Trust and spend the rest in annual operations.

5.The HHEA will receive funds as may be allocated by the DIG.

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Posted in Crater Cap Colonies, Environment, Geopolitics, Labor, Moon, Royalty and Empire, United Nations, United States of America, Wetlands

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