Obama administration recruits outside experts to help BP

[imurhuckleberry]

Source: McClatchey

HOUSTON — Two of President Obama's cabinet secretaries charged with overseeing the oil spill in the Gulf met with officials in BP America's headquarters on Wednesday as the government and industry experts continued to look for remedies to stop the massive escape of oil from 5,000 feet below the surface.

“We are confident and resolute that we will stop this problem and we are confident and resolute that we will continue to push BP as the responsible party here and make sure at the end of the day this problem is effectively dealt with,” said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who flew to Houston along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu for meetings that began at 6 a.m. Texas time.

The two secretaries also recruited a team of high-level experts to inject what Chu described as outside “intellectual firepower” into the mission. Chu said the scientists, some of whom come from prestigious universities, will assist BP and government officials in looking for solutions and trying to correct future problems.

The experts were identified as Dr. Tom Hunter, director of the Department of Energy's Sandia National Labs; Dr. George A. Cooper, an expert in materials science who's retired from the University of California at Berkeley; Richard Lawrence Garwin, a physicist, Dr. Jonathan I. Katz, a professor of physics at Washington University, and Dr. Alexander H. Slocum, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology



Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/12/94041/obama-administration-recruits.html

[jillan]

1. I hope they can help. I'm beginning to feel like this is a lost cause.

[Scuba]

2. Why didn't he dump Cheney's guys in MMS a year ago???

[applegrove]

3. This is why I love the Democrats. They do ****! They go to experts

and then they do stuff. Much better than the do nothing-know nothing republicans.

[Grassy Knoll]

4. Obama can" oil-ify "my Cheney fuck up...

Fool me once

[FBI_Un_Sub]

5. Oil drilling engineers ("Pet.E.'s") are an endangered species and rapidly disappearing

as the universities downsize their "Pet E." departments, or consolidate the departments with other Pet.E. departments across the state. It is not a popular major -- the industry follows the cyclic "feast or famine" patterns of lay offs and hiring, and of pay raises and promotions.

And, strange as this may sound, the attrition of young Pet.E.'s to other career fields is catastrophic.

There just are not the reasonably sophisticated, mid-levl experienced Pet.E.'s to implement the ideas of such experts as Tom Hunter, George A. Cooper, Richard Lawrence Garwin, Jonathan I. Katz, or Dr. Alexander H. Slocum.

Repeated off-shoring to the Emirates, and repeated cutting of academic grants have taken their toll.

[Iowa]

6. Thanks for that post...

You're probably one in thirty-million people who know that. I usually learn more by reading comments on DU than reading the original article.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

7. Starting salary for petroleum engineers

Starting salary for petroleum engineers

Engineering employment data

As a group, engineers earn some of the highest average starting salaries among those holding bachelor's degrees. Average starting salary offers for graduates of bachelor’s degree programs in engineering, according to a July 2009 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, were as follows:

Petroleum $83,121
Chemical 64,902
Mining and Mineral 64,404
Computer 61,738
Nuclear 61,610
Electrical/electronics and communications 60,125
Mechanical 58,766
Industrial/manufacturing 58,358
Materials 57,349
Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical 56,311
Agricultural 54,352
Bioengineering and biomedical 54,158
Civil 52,048

Their average salary is up there too. At the same site, look at "Table 1. Earnings distribution by engineering specialty, May 2008."

[FBI_Un_Sub]

8. A small sample size

compared to civils, electricals, mechanicals,chemicals.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

9. No doubt.

I don't know offhand how many Pet.E. degrees are awarded each year or which schools are awarding degrees in Pet.E. Here is a discipline-by-discipline breakdown of how many engineering employement:

Engineering Employment

(same article)

Employment

In 2008, engineers held about 1.6 million jobs. Following is the distribution of employment by engineering specialty:

Civil engineers 278,400
Mechanical engineers 238,700
Industrial engineers 214,800
Electrical engineers 157,800
Electronics engineers, except computer 143,700
Computer hardware engineers 74,700
Aerospace engineers 71,600
Environmental engineers 54,300
Chemical engineers 31,700
Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors 25,700
Materials engineers 24,400
Petroleum engineers 21,900
Nuclear engineers 16,900
Biomedical engineers 16,000
Marine engineers and naval architects 8,500
Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers 7,100
Agricultural engineers 2,700
Engineers, all other 183,200

[FBI_Un_Sub]

10. Also

in the 1980's the industry had massive layoffs (as did autos) -- and young engineering students "migrated" to computers, and the industries were in no hurry to replace the laid off people. (That was during my stretch in teaching :( )

[hayu_lol]

11. Canada graduates Pet E's in fairly large numbers...

every year. Takes three years of fairly rigorous study. Most of the grads work in the middle east.