Thad Allen “granted” permission Wednesday evening for BP to begin cementing the Macondo well now that the static kill is complete. According to BP, the oil has been suppressed and the pressure inside the well is in a “static” condition. Several valves that were in use to regulate the pressure inside the blow out preventer have now been turned off, no longer necessary.

Allen stated there is “high confidence that there will be no oil leaking into the environment.”

Well, alright!

Sounds pretty good, great in fact, but just as I was about to go out and celebrate with pizza and beer, I made one click too many and discovered a post on Raw Story where oil industry expert, Bob Cavner stated, “You don’t know if that well’s actually killed down below, because of all the damage down below, it could be flowing into another zone, it could be flowing some place else into the substrata. The only way you kill this well is with the relief well from down below.”

Well, damn…

Cavner went on to dispute the veracity of the “live” feeds coming from BP’s underwater cameras… “It’s very interesting. I got up early this morning . … I was very concerned about this connector I’ve been talking about for the last couple of weeks. They had a good shot of that so I watched that for a while … came back about 30 minutes later, and it replayed. And I noticed that the time was an hour and a half behind the current time. So they were re-looping some of the video feed, and it was not live.”

“I always wondered if they want you to see what they want you to see,” Cavnar suggested, “and sometimes if they have something else going on they just loop the tape for a while before they go back to live.”

So instead of pizza or beer, I sit back down while doubt crept in again…

Reading the quotes from Cavner, I will admit an uncomfortable skepticism for such a charge; it seems to be heading into the realm of conspiracy theory but at the same time, how can I discount it? This oil spill and everything about it from the air quality to water safety, from the health of the wildlife to the health of Gulf Coast residents have been tainted by controlled information and agendas, so many agendas…too many to take anyone’s word for it anymore, not completely, and especially not BP’s or the governments. Every single one of their rosy scenarios seem to wilt under the facts of yet another outside observer.

Could this really be any different?

BP and the Feds want us to take it on faith that the well has been sealed, yet so much contrary evidence comes from so many angles, oftentimes from BP’s own cameras – showing seeps of oil and escaping methane and what almost appear to be burps from the sea floor. We are given no data, nothing to analyze. Not about this, not about anything, Carol Browner goes on television yesterday and says 75% of the oil is gone and what proof is offered? A pie chart, just a pie chart, yet they won’t explain how they came to their conclusions in any scientifically plausible way beyond saying their measuring instruments have become more advanced since April 20th.

What?

What the hell does that mean?

Yes, here’s the government’s evidence:

What the hell does that prove?

Perhaps the static kill did work, perhaps 75 % of the oil is gone, perhaps BP is being honest…hard to say for sure, especially when we’ve been misled time and time again, by people who have a lot to gain from the public believing this oil spill has been solved… So go ahead and pump your cement, Thad, but much as I hate to admit it, my skepticism remains…and will until you get some independent scientists to confirm you’re not just spilling more oil out your mouth.

Read the articles:

Cementing of Macondo oil well in Gulf of Mexico authorized

BP re-looping video of oil leak, expert charges

Have a nice day.