BP Well Cap: A Balloon and Pony Show in the Gulf of Mexico?
BPs robot arm looks like a movie special effect. Let's hope it's more. (Photo: Ho New/Reuters)
As BP claims to be close to stopping the gusher in the Gulf, it’s worth revisiting the experience of one fisherman’s wife who was given unique, insider access to the company’s processes.
Six weeks after the Deepwater Horizon well exploded, BP invited Kindra Arnesen—wife of a Venice-based fisherman, daughter of a fisherman—to be a fly on the wall during meetings at central command in Houma, flyovers of the explosion site, strategic conference calls, and more.
Even Kindra, a self-described “uneducated housewife" who adds that “every man I’ve ever known, loved and respected was a fisherman,” has no clue what BP was thinking.
Given her feisty Louisiana upbringing, it’s no surprise that Kindra has been doing some spilling of her own, to auditoriums filled with locals, Facebook, YouTube, CNN and other media outlets. She caught BP’s attention when, several weeks after the explosion, she complained that her husband and his fishermen friends who’d been called on to help in the early days of the cleanup had been sickened by the fumes and chemical dispersants.
“At first they tried to blame it on the Pine-Sol they’d used to clean the boat,” Kindra says.
Perhaps hoping to diffuse her vocal complaints, BP invited her inside.
She discovered in short order that the driving sentiment of company officials was essentially “we have to cut corners … this is costing too much.”
But the key phrase she took away was “ponies and balloons,” which sounds like a British version of a dog-and-pony-show. According to Arnesen, whenever the company got wind that a politician or bigwig, fisherman or government agency representative was on his way for a close-up look or inspection, the company would put on a show. Lots of bodies in hazmat suits. Boats scurrying around in cleanup mode. Bags and bags of soiled absorbents piled all around.
“But once the officials were gone, 75 to 80 percent of the response would disappear,” says Arnesen. “They knew exactly what they were doing.”
Though her comments have been public for a month—the above YouTube testimony to an auditorium full of her neighbors has been viewed 160,000 times—Arnesen's behind-the-scenes perspectives, combined with reports in the New York Times of BP’s history of ignoring regulations and creating cover-ups, are reminders the oil giant’s public pronouncements are not to be trusted.
If BP is “successful” in capping the leaking wellhead, keep in mind while you’re watching any televised high-fiving and backslapping … “ponies and balloons” … “ponies and balloons” … “ponies and balloons.”
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