We finally have the documentary proof showing the important role oil companies played in the lead up to the war in Iraq. I hope it doesn’t take another eight years before we get documented proof about what a huge role oil played in the decision to launch a kinetic military action in Libya.

In addition to the March 22, 2001 meeting that a bunch of BP folks had as part of the “official” Energy Task Force meetings, BP’s CEO John Browne had his very own meeting with Cheney during the Energy Task Force discussions. And among other things the Task Force was discussing were Iraq’s oil fields and the companies already trying to develop them.

A year after the BP disaster erupted in the Gulf, Cherri Foytlin walked from her home in New Orleans to the White House, to let President Obama hear firsthand the suffering that continues to affect the residents of the Gulf Coast. Sadly, she couldn’t get an invitation to get past the gate. (Rubbing salt in her wounds — she got to watch Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles stroll past her on the sidewalk on their way inside.)

Meanwhile, BP and certain parts of the government continue to try to spin the news, limiting media access to heroic rescuers, limiting scientific access to spill sites, and otherwise trying to hide the record and avoid accountability.

Access. It’s the name of the game.

What is it about our species that sees the earth and its oceans not as our shared home to be cherished and guarded as though our existence depended on it, but as our unlimited garbage dump? We should be ashamed. Our governments should be ashamed. Our corporations and their dishonest executives should be ashamed. All of us.

As a result of the ongoing nuclear disaster in Japan, Americans have turned strongly against expanding nuclear power. The important question for the industry will be whether this disaster results in significant long-term increases in opposition to nuclear power, or if it is just a temporary dip that will only last as long as Fukushima remains prominent in the news.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) missed required deadlines to inspect key equipment that failed after the massive earthquake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, according to Reuters. A separate Reuters report also points out that the TEPCO CEO has virtually disappeared from public appearances or statements. These reports fit perfectly with TEPCO’s history of previous scandals that have led to the resignations of high-level managers in the past.

The Obama Administration approved the first deepwater drilling well permit for the Gulf of Mexico, 11 months after the BP oil disaster. . . .

When impunity replaces accountability, you are left with the rituals of democracy instead of its substance.

A few months ago, I offered my services — only half facetiously — to British Petroleum as CEO after I had read about and watched bits of Tony Hayward’s testimony before Congress. He’d acted like the Sergeant Schultz character (I know nothing, nothing!) on the old sitcom Hogan’s Heroes; I figured I could do at least as good a job as Hayward for a lot less money. Win-win all the way around for everyone!

The oil is actually all there for the counting. No bacteria ate it. It has settled at the bottom of the Gulf, and it’s devastating the local ecosystem.