Tony Hayward Demoted: Svanberg the Face of BP

Carl-Henric Svanberg, the BP head who has enormous empathy for the "small people" of the U.S. will replace CEO Tony Hayward as the face of the Oil Spill Slayer.

Oil Boom Skimmer Ship

Hayward prompted the manufacturing of small fabric self-images, pierced with very long pins, when he infamously said: "I want my life back." Hayward enraged our Imperial U.S. Congress yesterday when he refused to say that BP had been reckless in their handling of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.  In other words, the facts are not yet in, but BP has consistently said they will pay all claims.

Here are a few undisputed facts:

1) Obama turned down help offered from the Netherlands three days after the spill. The Dutch government, with much of their country below sea level, offered to fly their oil-boom-skimming ships to the Gulf. They also offered a plan for building sand barriers to protect the marshlands. We turned it all down. The ships wouldn't work because American union workers would not be manning the boat. However, two months later, Obama is accepting the offer of the ships and oil skimming booms.

See video of the oil skimmer ships and a new invention to greatly pick up the pace of oil collection here.

2) The Dutch were not the only countries to offer aid. Thirteen countries offered, and Obama turned them all down.

3) Governor Jindahl tired to build 128 miles of sand berms to protect Louisiana's marshlands. The idea was rejected by the Army Corps of Engineers - because of environmental concerns. Dumping sand in the ocean must be a terrible threat. Forty-five miles of berm have now been approved. According to this report, even a low-intensity tropical storm will break-down the berms, but Jindahl will give it a try, because there are no more ideas:

Jindal said Friday: “We are moving ahead without BP. We gave them two choices: They can either send us a check, get out of the way and let us start this work, or they can sign a contract and do it themselves. We are going ahead without them.”

Although the berms will be 300 feet wide at their base, tapering to 25 feet at the top, a sand wall is not considered a robust structure under the Gulf’s extreme summer conditions.

4) Obama refused to utilize the help offered by the State of Alaska - who experienced and dealt with the largest oil spill in American waters.

5) Obama lied about the advice of his own panel of experts, changed a report after experts had already signed off on it, and called for a moratorium of drilling, leaving the Gulf Coast economy, and the quality of life of residents, further depressed by shutting down thousands of jobs and, of course, ending household income.

6) Escambia County, Florida, the home of some of Florida's most beautiful beaches tells us how the government red tape works, and shows the lack of respect of this administration for the people actually doing the hard lifting:

Santa Rosa Island Authority Buck Lee: “Escambia County sends a request to the Mobile, Ala., Unified Command Center. Then, it’s reviewed by BP, the federal government, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. If they don’t like it, they don’t tell us anything.”

7) Only one very controversial dispersant is being used. This subject would take a book to explain, but the bottom line is, there are many, many dispersants out there, some with substantial claims of their effectiveness, without toxicity. It appears the White House and BP have ignored them all.

Tony Hayward has his life back, and I bet this is one demotion he accepted willingly.