RUSH: This is from a marginally happy Associated Press: ‘After days of progress on the Gulf of Mexico oil leak, BP said today that delays have temporarily stopped work beneath the water on both a stopgap solution and a permanent fix to the gusher. BP was vague about the reasons for pushing back tests of a new cap meant to trap oil in the well and why it stopped, for up to 48 hours, drilling on a relief well aimed at plugging the gusher for good from underground. Kent Wells, a senior vice president at the oil giant, said at a morning news briefing that it was the government’s call late Tuesday to re-evaluate plans for testing the new cap over the leak. That plan was put on hold for 24 hours.’ Now, what pray tell is going on here? BP has something that looks like it’s going to work, and the government, led by Steven Chu, the Nobel prize winner in charge of something, said we’re gonna delay this, we gotta make sure that what we do here doesn’t cause leaks elsewhere, we gotta make sure this cap can handle the leak pressure, we gotta make sure of this, we gotta make sure of that, we gotta do further testing.
It’s just like the government told Bobby Jindal, ‘Don’t build your sand berms, we’re worried about where you’re going to get the sand.’ This is highly suspicious. And the media, they’re perplexed, too. They don’t really know who is responsible for the delay. Why don’t you just go straight to the horse’s mouth and ask Obama? ‘Cause it’s his decision. Obama says he’s the man in charge here. Go ask him. This is another version of the story, two different AP writers on the same story: ‘The plan to start choking off oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was suddenly halted as government officials and BP said further analysis must be done today before critical tests could proceed.’ No explanation was given for the decision. No date was set for when testing would begin on the new tighter fitting cap that BP installed on Monday. In the meantime, oil continued spewing into the Gulf. Just what they want. I guess the answer might have something to do with cap and trade. How can Obama and Thad Allen allow BP to stop the leak before Harry Reid brings cap and trade to the floor of the Senate for debate and passage? What would Rahm Emanuel say? ‘You are wasting a good crisis here. We’re not going to fix this leak. If we fix this leak, we don’t have a chance of getting cap and trade passed.’
Dingy Harry is supposed to introduce the cap-and-trade bill any day now. Now, the reason I’m curious about this is I read nothing in the preliminaries of this test and this new cap, I read nothing that, ‘It may take us a week, 48 hours to test this thing, gotta make sure it doesn’t cause leaks and problems elsewhere down the pike,’ and even the State-Controlled Media uses the word ‘suddenly.’ No explanation was given for the sudden halting of the test on the cap. The Wall Street Journal: ‘BP Delays Test on New Fix for Well Leak — Tighter-Fitting Cap Intended to Stanch the Flow of Crude; Either Way, U.S. Says Problem Will Be Resolved This Month. BP PLC postponed testing Tuesday on a new tight-fitting containment cap that could stop the flow of oil from its blown-out well for the first time. The test, which was scheduled to start late Tuesday, was delayed after the U.S. government and company officials said that further analysis had to be done on Tuesday and Wednesday before determining the fitness of the cap.’ Well, why the hell spend the money to send it down 5,000 feet if it’s not fit, if it won’t work?
‘Earlier Tuesday, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who is leading the government’s response to the spill, had said in Houston that seismic testing, which was finished Tuesday afternoon, would ‘give us a baseline from which we can detect any anomalies,’ with the well. An anomaly could be a leak or another change on the sea floor. The decision to delay the well-integrity testing came after a meeting with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, several scientists and BP officials, who decided that ‘the process may benefit from additional analysis.” Tell that to people in the Gulf. ‘We’re going to analyze some more. We’re going to have some breakout meetings. We’re going to have some bureaucrats get together and discuss this before we actually try to stop the flow of oil,’ ’cause Harry Reid has not introduced cap and trade. BP insists they’re ready to go now. Something’s up here, folks, there’s something about this that does not jibe. It does not make sense.