Here’s our second short for PBS’ Need to Know: “Oil Painting”, based on new revelations about the Minerals Management Agency, charged with regulating drilling enterprises, as well as collecting royalties.
It turns out the Industry AND the Agency were pretty tightly connected. So when one goes down, so does the other.
The MMS is part of the Interior Department so our little inspector is seen coming out of the White House. The “cozy” culture between Government and Oil has been going on as far back as the ’90s. It reached its fullest expression under Bush/Cheney when regs were a joke and Industry was always right. This didn’t really change under Obama.
Here our little regulator sails up to the rig, about to be seduced. It was a true romance. Gifts were exchanged; friendships of an extreme nature blossomed (or bloomed). The Culture of Oil meant that all these folks thought of themselves as part of the same group. “We’re all oil”, one of them said. Even now we are relying on BP, the criminals in the case, to save the gulf!
So finally, the royalties are paid, but by the gulf, by the animals and by the people.
Read more HERE
Directed by Gail Levin, Animation by Asterisk, Ben Shapiro, DP.
Great thanks to Tom Casciato, Shelley Lewis, Stephen Segaller, producers, NTK.
