Point the finger at us in BP disaster

But the oil business is the risk business. Oil companies take massive risks in burdensome regulations, in the exploratory wells they drill hoping for a big strike and huge profits.

That is our capitalist system, even though the current administration relentlessly bashes capitalism, turning “profit” into a dirty word, demonizing the corporate world that provides our employment.

The fundamentally American way of taking risks in pursuit of potentially large rewards prevails in business, but the public doesn’t seem to remember much about risk. We now look to our government to absolve us of risk, to deliver the stable, comfortable life we have come to expect as our birthright.

We also forget how we, the consumer, benefit from the products of the fossil fuel industry, which has given us the mobility of the automobile, the airplane, aspirin, anesthetics, ballpoint pens, bandages, batteries, eyeglasses, wiring insulation, plastics and hundreds of other products we now take for granted, including the convenience of flipping a switch to turn on the lights.

When politicians make themselves look good in front of TV cameras by shaking their finger of indignant blame at BP, I can’t help but think they drove to work today in a car, and they don’t even realize the products they use and the clothes they wear contain oil byproducts, or that the oil industry provides 9.2 million jobs in the U.S.

These are the same people who made the risk of drilling far higher by severely constricting on-shore and shallow-water drilling. I believe the word I am looking for is “hypocrisy.”

When true believers preach the evils of fossil fuels and push the virtue of clean energy like windmills and solar power, I wonder if they realize those alternatives can likely replace a fraction of our energy needs, that the green movement prevented the start of new nuclear power facilities in the U.S. for decades, thereby perpetuating our dependence on fossil fuels.

I wonder if they remember that the onerous EPA regulations they championed have prevented the construction of any new refineries in the U.S. for more than 30 years while TV news and the public squawk at oil companies when supply and demand spikes gas prices.

When they use products and conveniences made possible by oil companies, including microphones and TV cameras, their message of conservation is lost on me. I’ll consider them to be serious when they live the austere life of the 18th century.

There are pleas that our government must do something quick about this oil spill. I agree. Our government should stop seeking the favor of voters by pointing the finger at BP, should cease their public chatter about the Justice Department searching for the guilty unless there are well-founded criminal allegations, should treat BP as a partner in bringing all public and private resources to bear on the problem, even from other oil companies and other countries, to stop the terrible mess in the Gulf.

So long as we use fossil fuels there will be the risk of oil spills and all the environmental damage that entails. As much as fouled beaches break my heart, I will still drive my truck tomorrow and that means I have to bear the risk, too. So do you.

I don’t know if BP misdeeds contributed to the disaster and I don’t know if BP will survive, but I do know this. I feel more kinship to the risk takers in the oil industry than I do with the self-righteous, self-promoting professional finger-pointers in Washington.

Terry Garlock lives in Peachtree City.