Flashback: How the Exxon Valdez oil spill was not linked to President George H.W. Bush

[zulchzulu]

Here's the timeline.

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: Wednesday, March 24, 1989



A few weeks after the spill, Bush, Baker and Moshbacher hid their financial ties to the oil industry interests:

Apr 10, 1989 - On April 10, 1989, a little more than two weeks after the supertanker Exxon Valdez gushed oil onto hundreds of square miles of Alaska's Prince William Sound, Bush put his partnership interest into a qualified blind trust. This means it will not appear on his ...President Bush is apparently aware that mass media exposure of his tank-barge investment could be politically embarrassing. On April 10, 1989, a little more than two weeks after the supertanker Exxon Valdez gushed oil onto hundreds of square miles of Alaska's Prince William Sound, Bush put his partnership interest into a qualified blind trust. This means it will not appear on his future financial disclosure statements.

http://www.ringnebula.com/project-censored/1976-1992/1990/1990-story16.htm

Imagine that... the media didn't cover it.

Then.. Nearly TWO MONTHS LATER, a report is issues to President Bush, who did NOT VISIT there. No blame went to the President AT ALL.

The Washington Post Article: Bush Aides Fault U.S., Industry Over Oil Spill;Terming Response `Wholly Insufficient,' Report Urges New Laws
Article date: May 19, 1989

Two senior administration officials told President Bush yesterday that the response by the federal government and oil industry to the Exxon Valdez tanker spill was slow, confused and "wholly insufficient."

In the strongest language used by federal officials to describe the March 24 accident, Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William K. Reilly said planning for and response to the spill by industry and government were "unequal to the task."

They warned that major oil spills may be unavoidable in the future and said in their report that "the nation must recognize that there is no fail-safe prevention, preparedness or …

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1191507.html

Exxon Valdez timeline: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=8390262

Perhaps the expectations for the Bush crime family was never much and everyone whispered that they were knee deep in the oil industry, but frankly, the contrast of expectations is both disappointing and tragically predictable.

[uponit7771]

1. George HW Bush put on his AquaMan suite Obama refuses to /sarcasm

[TwilightGardener]

2. I've thought of this too--I never heard anyone blaming Bush for Valdez.

Just Exxon and Hazelwood.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. if Old Bush was president now the media would not be mentioning him

[blm]

8. exactly.....they would NEVER cross him that way....especially since his pals bought control of most

broadcast and print newsmedia in the 80s and 90s.

[Jennicut]

3. It was 1989. The media is different today, much different.

And there was no Katrina to compare a federal response to.

The media of today is desperate for ratings and viewers.

[truedelphi]

4. Part of the equation is that the Valdez was the

Warning.

And no one heeded it.

Whoever sits at 1600 Pennsylvania would be held responsible. Had it been McCain, had it been (by some fluke of fate) Kucinich. Anyone sitting in that office would be in trouble should this occur during their watch.

And Obama was "Let's get out there and drill us some oil," just 18 days prior to the Oil Spill.

However, Obama has been in office less than two years. I don't think Jesus Christ would have found two years to be enough time to revamp the MMS and other aspects of the government that need to be paying attention to things like this.

I really hope this is his wake up call. the fact that last night he attended a major "Oil Donations Inc Dinner" (each plate represented $ 32K) doesn't offer me much hope.

[zulchzulu]

6. I still think Obama saw that governors along the coasts (except VA) were never going to allow...

...drilling to actually happen.

Now that the Florida and Virginia offshore drilling adventures have been canceled, the "Drill Baby Drill" folks will have an even harder time getting environmental impact studies passed before any actual drilling will even begin. Remember that new offshore drilling was 10 years away anyway.

This BP-Deepwater Oil Spill is at least comparable to the Three Mile Island mishap politically.

The point of this OP was to illustrate how moveable the responsibility is and as a sidebar, how 24/7 news can take just about everything out of context and make it The Issue.

[truedelphi]

7. it didn't help Obama that as recently as last Friday, the President still was

Holding to his schedule and that there was no talk of this issue being considered as Supra-important by the President.

If you watched Gibbs address the press last Friday, you might remember how that felt. Sort of a "Catastrophe? What catastrophe?" sort of response from Gibbs.

And also, the WH was quoting the oil estimates that BP was releasing as reference to the real figures. For many in the environmental community, that was pretty scary.

By Monday, the WH had come around. It gets announced that Obama will indeed visit the affected coast line come this Friday. But I think that fact is on account of how once in a while, when the people lead, the leader will follow.

And the networks would probably be raggin' on Obama even harder eexcept for one thing - oil money pays their way. Almsot every other advertising effort on TV is in some way connected to the Big Oil Money.

I mean, most people think that Sara Dear Coffee cake is just Sarah Dear cakes, inc.

But if you do the research, it ends up that that brand of coffee cakes is really a subsidiary of Chevron or Bp or someone else in the oil business.

[FrenchieCat]

9. Of course not. Only now is a President held responsible & accountable for everything

that happens in the world.

[Blue_Tires]

10. ttt

[old mark]

11. Both Bushes were oil company presidents, and contributed to the deregulation

that led up to these incidents. No one in the media has even mentioned this, but morning Joe and allied idiots are expressing "concern" that Obama is not doing enough....Last month they were saying he was doing too much.


mark

[Rosa Luxemburg]

12. people in the media need to remind them of Bush and valdez