Given the calamity occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, it is striking how the entire group of upstream mineral oil producing companies have not created a pool of funds to unleash an unprecedented effort to contain and alleviate the damage. OPEC should not stand by, but send 5 representatives to stand with President Obama and the governors and commit to a clean-up.
In addition they ought to finance a people-controlled/grassroots-represented containment and de-escalation team with full spending power matching 1 percent of the affected coastal region's budget and a local draft of volunteers and this amount matched by double this amount from Big Oil - the teams to be staffed, 50 percent by oil company managers who are answerable to the other 50 percent who are non-oil-company representatives from affected local communities.
Shifts could be handled like on the North Slope. 2 weeks on - 2 weeks off, with one day set aside for briefing/debriefing between team shifts.
