Remembering the Exxon Valdez.

June 13 2010: The oil spill in Prince William Sound 21 years ago was ghastly, but today's BP oil volcano makes it look like child's play. Likewise, the company's lack of contingency planning and understanding about the effects of their industry on delicate ecosystems makes it look like children were at play as well, with no adult supervision.

Same slick, different day.

The sound track for this video comes from our "Chopped Liver" radio archive, in order to compare and contrast the Alaska spill with current events. I figured hey, the audio track is already done (featuring the wonderful Wally Fields as almost all characters) -- I'll just draw animation to go along with it.

It seemed like such a good idea at the time (which was about two weeks into the BP disaster). In the intervening weeks I have learned an important lesson: ANIMATION IS HARD. I'm new at this stuff, so cut me some slack. And I do hope you enjoy this video, if only for the great voice work by Wally Fields.

ON GEORGE W. BUSH'S ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD

A 'Culture of Complacency.'

November 9 2010: Bill Reilly -- not Bill O'Reilly -- used to run the EPA. Now he's heading up the commission that's looking into BP's oil volcano. He says people make boo-boos, and that's all that happened in this case.

The people at BP say they're utterly innocent, and their "drilling partners," Transocean and Halliburton, are responsible for the disaster. Transocean blames BP 'cause, 'cause THEY did the tests, Mom. I didn't do the tests. Halliburton blames BP and Transocean. And all the excuses sound logical to Bill Reilly.

On the other hand, he observes that "it's very difficult for me to conclude that there was not a culture of complacency affecting everything involved with this exercise."

Ya think?

He's decrying his lack of subpoena power too. That's one of those things that Congress, controlled in both houses by Democrats, couldn't quite manage to pass before the midterms. Yikes. I wonder when we're going to finally notice who is the real enemy. BP, Halliburton, Transocean -- please step forward and accept your punishment.

Squeeze us a little more, BP

Or is it Halliburton? No need to choose!

May 12 2010: They still have no idea how to cap that gusher that's spewing crude oil into the Gulf and onto the rocky shoals of Louisiana and Mississippi. BP, along with their good pals Transocean and Halliburton, are still scratching their heads and wondering how something that looked so good on paper could have gone so horribly wrong -- and what in the world they can do about it.

The super-sized anvil-on-the-head approach didn't work, so now they're trying to fit the well with a condom. If that brilliant (if a bit tardy) solution doesn't work, Plan C consists of shooting a bunch of crap (shredded tires and golf balls) over the well as it unremittingly belches forth crude a mile beneath the surface of the sea.

Y'know what might have worked better? That half-million-dollar emergency blowout valve the government decided wasn't necessary for this drill. The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service decided the remote shut-off switch wasn't needed because of all the other great backup plans oil rigs had to cut off a well.

Subsequent events are teaching us that you just can't have too many backup plans.

update 5/14: We are working on an animation of our old radio show about the Exxon Valdez. The most chilling thing about this nightmare on memory lane is how the current calamity makes the spill in Alaska look like nothing.

I'm Confused.

May 19 2010: BP has inflicted the worst environmental disaster in our country's history. (Side note: BP is a British company; rig owner Transocean is based in Switzerland; Halliburton, who did the drilling, is headquartered in the Caymans; and the Deepwater Horizon rig flew the flag of the Marshall Islands. The only element of this catastrophe that was made in the USA is the oil, none of which we had any expectation of getting to keep if it had been successfully extracted, rather than splattered into the gulf and possibly along the eastern seaboard. But wow, do I digress.)

So BP is at fault. Everybody except BP knows that.

Sooooo ... BP is in charge of cleaning it up? I'm just askin'.

• The house fire was going great guns, so we had the arsonist come in to put it out.
• George Bush destroyed the economy, so we put him in charge of the Fed.
• The fox ate all the chickens, so we hired him to guard the henhouse.
or most appropriately ...
• The rapist is going to get to the bottom of all those attacks on women.

I do not toss around the word "rape" lightly and I cringe when other people do. But this, my friends, is a rape. It is economic, environmental rape. And I fear that, like most rape victims, the perpetrator will never be brought to justice.