Time has passed. Phincer is now the proud mom of a junior in college. DF is in charge of his own schedule, laundry, social life...ahhh....mom and dad are reaping the rewards of years of careful parenting where we made so many mistakes and had so many triumphs. I can move on.

I'm so sick a bout the BP blowout. First and foremost, 11 lives were lost. Second, BP is ruining the oil industry. I'm second-generation oil biz (barely). My mom worked for the Texas Company which became Texaco. I was an exploration geologist in deepwater GOM back in the day. DH is in the downstream business.

So-I'm using this small, unheard-of blog to vent.

1. BP screwed this up, not the entire oil industry. They cut costs, didn't cement well enough, and now have a blowout. Their safety record, on and offshore, is abysmal.

2. Let's stop this crap about opening up ANWAR. Its a WILDLIFE refuge! If you want to open up a wildlife refuge, there are plenty in LA and TX that are onshore and have reserves under them. No? Oh, I thought not. ANWAR is a summer breeding ground for countless species, so let's not screw it up, too. A spill up there would wreak as much havoc as it has here.

3. The U.S. government needs to listen to the back channels. BP has been wishy-washy and cautious, not wanting to make a wrong move and has let this thing go on for too long. Somewhere in the Houston area a new LMRP sits waiting to go offshore. Let's cut the riser and install that thing!

4. BP needs to continue with the live video stream, but also needs to make public the geologic cross-sections and explain to the general public the reservoir size and characteristics. Geologists (even old ones like me) would like to know what is going on-that field must be huge.

5. Talking heads need to stop talking about something they know absolutely nothing of. Banking and mortgage industry fallout pundits are now spouting off about the oil industry. Please. I've been in and around the industry for 32 years. I'm hearing some very scary stuff. Time for the press to listen to the "off the record" sources and do some real investigative reporting.

6. General Public-You are outraged. So am I. But please refrain from pulling old oil spill photographs off the web and labeling them as "the BP oil spill". First, there are no mountains on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. None. Second, when you pull a photo from the 60's, the quality is quite obvious. Don't post these-it makes you look like an idiot.

7. The MMS-helllooooo. Guess what? Graft and corruption are a time-honored tradition in the oil biz. But back in the day, the MMS just flew over a rig and said "nice, keep drilling". They'd touch down for lunch and always made sure to show up on 'steak day'.

I remember my boss extorting a few cases of fine scotch for a party from a service company he had no intention of using. That was the tip of the iceberg. The men in the office could disappear for a golf tournament at any time. I enjoyed fine lunches, dinners and many drinks from service company reps. Hats, jackets, jumpsuits-all part of the deal.

Now the MMS (back then) was the organization that ran lease sales. It was staffed by people who couldn't get a job in the oil industry. I mean, if you had a choice between a job with the MMS paying government scale or an oil company paying big bucks and lots of benefits (like a company car)-which would you choose? When the oil biz collapsed in the 80's, the MMS started getting the better candidates. When the oil biz picked up, they left. Supply. Demand.

They are now cleaning house. Fine. It is time the MMS became more like the EPA. The EPA runs a tight ship and is staffed by highly educated people that care about the environment.

8. Let's get BP out of there. Turn it over to a group of companies that drill in the area successfully. It will be capped and in control by the end of the week.

That's it. That's what's been boiling in my brain for the last few weeks.

If you've gotten this far, you must know me!

Cheers-don't forget to fly your flag this weekend!

Phincer