I’m conflicted about reporting this story because it breaks my heart to think of the devastation that’s going on in the Gulf right now. There’s also the very thorny issue of who is responsible, and whether President Obama and his team have properly handled the efforts to stop the massive oil leak from wreaking further havoc on the ocean’s ecosystem. Ultimately I think that BP is responsible but that the government should have stepped in sooner and more forcefully with experts from around the world instead of relying on a money-grubbing oil company to be able to clean up the mess caused from their own incompetence. Kaiser pointed me to this post Exxon Valdez law that holds energy companies responsible for cleaning up their messes that may have tied Obama’s hands and made it impossible to take jurisdiction away from BP.

While we’re watching this mess worsen hourly, all sorts of people have chimed in to try and stop this environmental disaster. There are a lot of good ideas out there. One of the people volunteering their expertise and equipment is producer/director James Cameron, who is best known for the hit Avatar.

Before we all jump on the “give me a break” bandwagon, let me say that Cameron has produced several incredible documentaries about the deep sea. He has an intimate knowledge of the ocean along with owning state of the art submarines that are advanced enough to explore the deepest and harshest regions of the ocean. I’ve seen an IMAX documentary called Volcanoes of The Deep Sea that was produced by Cameron, and it was truly awe-inspiring that he was able to get such clear footage from the very bottom of the ocean. (The movie also gave me a lot to think about in terms of the way the earth formed and how life evolved and I would recommend it.) If he can help at all, BP should take him up on his offer:

Mr Cameron, a billionaire after directing two of the highest grossing films of all time, contacted BP over the weekend to offer the use of his deep-dive craft. It is understood he has owned the craft since filming Titanic more than a decade ago.
He suggested that the manned vessels, currently in Lake Baikal in the former Soviet Union, could be used below water as part of BP’s sub-sea effort to repair the leaking oil rig, Deepwater Horizon.

BP is currently using 12 remotely operated vessels – known as ‘ROV’s’ – to carry out repair work to the blow-out preventer, the damaged safety device which sits atop the stricken rig, as part of its continuing relief effort.

Each of the ROV’s is roughly the size of a rubbish skip, and its two robotic arms are controlled by workers on ships at sea level to which they are tethered.

To date the ROV’s have been used to remove one of the two control panels from the blow-out preventer, and mend parts of its cabling ahead of the next stage in the relief operation.

That stage, known as top-hatting, will see BP attempt to propel various forms of dense material – including golf balls and pieces of car tyre – into the blow-out preventer to fill the leak, material which will be followed by mud and then cement in order to close off the well.

To date, BP has not taken Mr Cameron up on what a spokesman described as a “certainly a generous offer,” saying it has already been liaising with the US Department of Defence should it need to use manned submarines.

The Hollywood mogul’s suggestion was described as “long-term iron in the fire”, with some doubt expressed as to how exactly his vessels would be transported to the Gulf of Mexico.

BP already has what chief executive Tony Hayward described as an “armada” of 5,500 vessels involved in the rescue and clean-up operation, as well as “a small airforce including four Hercules C130s which are bombing the hell out of it [the slick] with dispersant”.

The company, which is working with rivals including ExxonMobil and Chevron plus government agencies including the US Coastguard and the US Geological Survey to take control of the looming environment disaster, is preparing to begin the top-hatting process in the next ten days.

The first step will come in the next day or so, when BP reinstalls one of the control panels on the blow-out preventer to give it the ability to operate the valves on the so-called “choke and feel” lines down which the dense material will be pumped.

Mr Hayward said that the US government, following a series of high-level visits to the affected region including one this week from Energy Secretary Steven Chu, is growing “increasingly confident that we have a method to intervene in a way that will lead to [a] permanent intervention.”

[From Telegraph.co.uk]

The people at BP have proven that they are complete idiots who will follow their own interests at all costs. Cameron knows what he’s doing and from most accounts he’s a hard ass who likes to step in and take contol. He’s also a committed environmentalists whose films deal with struggles between large corporate interests and basic human values. BP probably won’t deal with him, but they should. It would be poetic justice if Cameron’s efforts helped finally put an end to this tragedy. I’m praying that someone can do it sooner rather than later. All we’ve seen from BP is a bunch of cover ups and failed attempts.

While BP may be reluctant to deal with Cameron, the government isn’t. According to Radar he had a summit meeting with the EPA on Tuesday as part of a team of “officials, scientists and engineers” dedicated to finding a solution to stop the oil leak.