The Good, Bad & Ugly of Oil and Gas Barons

Let me tell you a little story about oil drills and political coffers. Oil and gas barons rule the free trade world . . . until the unpredictability of life stops political and economic brutes such as BP in their tracks—well at least for now.

This story is not new, and sadly, but truthfully, Obama is entangled in an unsavory political relationship that has him squirming between his genuine acts of concern regarding the Gulf oil spill fiasco and the oil and gas industrialists who don’t give a damn.

From liberal camps to right-wingers, they are seizing the opportunity to take advantage of Obama’s questionable actions. Now, I am convinced that if Obama does not put on a Superman suit and swim to the bottom of the ocean and plug up the hole his self, none of his critics will be satisfied.

Simultaneously, those same folk who broke camp and ran far away from Obama after the spill are not being honest about the multi-headed culpability of this manmade, public and private disaster that BP attempted to play down in the initial moments of the rig explosion. Nevertheless, Obama is learning a hard lesson in reneging on pledges that could have changed the face and awareness of clean energy in North America.

Before I go into the moral lesson, let’s back up to the promises made by Obama in the presidential campaign. Then he pushed for green jobs and more environmentally friendly natural resources and extraction processes. Intentions were good until after the election. Obama understood that the small contributions of the masses were great, but most of his puppet strings were pulled by greedy palms that are stained by greasy petroleum.

In the midst of ugly healthcare battles, Obama did what politicians always do, make ugly trade-offs that spit in the face of some of his supporters. In March of this year, Obama agreed to lift the ban on offshore drilling on the East Coast of the United States and establish gas explorations.

Republicans and oil/gas folk of course were happy. Companies such as BP began making arrangements to dig in areas they salivated to explore for many years. On the other hand, environmentalists were beyond disappointed, they were utterly pissed off. Obama’s bedfellows became some of the most disturbing monsters and thugs in the free trade world today.

Oil and gas mega corporatists carry a history of shutting down alternative energy resources through a bevy of refined business strategies ranging from manipulating political policy to buying out research companies that threaten the domination of petroleum and methane. Oil companies in general, and British Petroleum in particular, has long, notorious reputation for participating in disgusting acts of oppression, exploitation, and de-evolution of countries all over the globe.

Ironically, the spill is shifting the power brokers of energy. First, the generations of unsafe and unethical practices by oil and gas companies are being exposed. Decades of bullying and exploitation of its workers are being illuminated—and finally, folk are listening and responding. Also, viable small businesses that have sustained local economies such as the fishing industries of the Gulf show that small business are the core of communities than large conglomerates that are prone to disempower communities by making them dependent on a business that can destroy their existence. Additionally, staunch drill supporters before the Gulf Oil spill are recanting their “Drill, Baby Drill” cries while the yells of alternative, green energy sources are gaining momentum.

And hopefully, as Obama is licking his proverbial wounds in the unresolved mess, he understands that change is needed, but it is also a painful progression that will on frequent occasion, teach him some excruciating lessons.

Oil barons of Wayzata: Northern Oil and Gas CFO Ryan Gilbertson (left) and CEO Michael Reger have built their company largely on Reger's family's history on the "Williston Basin," a tantalizingly rich source of oil. New drilling technology could make extracting it more likely. Photo by John Mowers