It has arrived. Scientists are just now waking up to the fact that the U.S. Coast Guard will be be in strict control of the $500 million in research funds taken from BP's coffers. That is to say no one from the scientific community will have a voice in where the funds should be spent.
While at least one bright spot exists, the Florida Institute of Oceanography will get $10 million of that, the question lingers. Will a Coast Guard Board of governors be objective, or even scientific?
The U.S. government has shown itself to be in lock-step with BP to settling on $20 B in clean-up, and moving on.
The U.S. Coast Guard is a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Fact. BP is THE top provider of petroleum to the Pentagon. Fact.
They (the very important people) will tell you this in no way represents a conflict of interest. There's no whitewash here.
Really? Thad Allen admits here that 'how clean is clean' in the Gulf Oil Spill will not be based on science so much as negotiation. In the first post, Thad is driving it home that Janet Lunchenco, who wrote the white-paper called, the oil budget, declaring 76 percent of the oil had simply vanished will be in charge of analyzing all the findings. Thad stands by that in his latest statements.
Another question is, if $10 million of the cash is thrown to FIO in a nod to objectivity and serious inquiry, and $490 million is thrown into studies which are pre-arranged for favorable BP skew, what does that do to the overall findings? Little more than a science brown-out, or fudge out. Reasonable science shouted down by an alleged "overwhelming preponderance of evidence" that all the oil, like magic, simply went away.
What do YOU think will happen?
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