In reading both the responses to Obama’s address and why alternative energy simply can’t get off the ground this whole mess reminds me of a bad game of Sim City where when faced with a disaster and I have no money, I run the cheat code and get somemore to fix everything back up. Kinda like what our government does already!
The thing is, I too also do not sense enough urgency in our President’s response. Part of me understands because after all, this is BP’s mess to clean up, but considering how they have been struggling to cap this well now for 59 days, our government should have stepped in sooner and started getting heads together to solve the matter. Bring in other companies and equipment, foreign aid and tankers, and as I believe Chris Matthews suggested, a large group of volunteers to help clean the beaches and marshes and try to contain the damage. The fact is, Obama sat on this for too long and let BP take the fall on it. I get the feeling that had this happened during Bush/Cheney we’d see more of a response, though only because they were deeply in bed with Big Oil.
What annoys me the most about this spill is not the spill itself but the half-assed response from everyone involved. BP took shortcuts, and may have compromised safety, but they do not deserve the national anger for something that could have happened to any oil company or contractor working with them. The MMS does not deserve to get sacked for this either, but they are responsible for oversight and approval of all off-shore drilling projects, they’re a government agency paid for by taxpayer money, if they are not going to do their job properly, then dissolve the agency and save us the money. Finally, our government needs to step in and assert control. Obama tried to act mean and tough to get some public support, but he is not stepping in and taking control of the situation, he is letting other members of his staff and BP control the scenes, and while Adm. Allen I’m sure is a capable leader out there heading the efforts, a chain of command needs to be established and followed. Right now this entire response has been about as effective as where I work, where no one just steps up and takes control often when things need to happen. Teamwork is key, but a good leader to lead the team is also key, I feel Obama just doesn’t know how to assert himself as the leader of the team sometimes.
tl;dr: Try raising taxes on your sims, especially your business and industrial zones. They don’t like it. I wonder why?