Your View: The 2006 Lapindo Mudflow Disaster and Rolling Blackouts

We asked: What do you think was to blame for the mud flow? Is it reasonable to call it a natural disaster?
You replied:

This is a joke. Everybody working in the oil industry in this country knows this disaster was caused by human error. Can we have the original IADC drilling reports published? How much reaction time was there between the blowout and action from Lapindo management? What about the casing program? What about mud loss monitoring? Send the House members with a bucket to Sidoarjo! Jeanne Hachette

Priyo Budi Santoso is the chief of the House’s supervising team for the disaster and a member of Bakrie’s faction of the Golkar Party. He claimed that there is no evidence of negligence. Can he support this statement?
Valkyrie

Well done, Bakrie. A sad day for Indonesia.
Rikkert

Even if the earthquake argument holds, the mud wouldn’t have flowed out if there was no wells in the first place! Who are they trying to fool?
Mehameha

Personally I don’t know how to evaluate all the claims and evidence about precisely what caused the mud flow. But for a group of lawmakers to now definitively declare it a natural disaster boggles the mind, and to posit the idea of tourism in the area suggests how far removed they are from the issue. And when was the last time anything was unanimously endorsed by the House? It sounds like a presidential pardon made for dubious political reasons at the end of a term. None of these can sit well, least not for the 15,000 who had their lives uprooted.
Sam, Jakarta

Online comments: Jakarta and Tangerang PLN Set Rolling Blackout Schedule

If PLN has to inflict rolling blackouts, they should roll! There’s been no power in my area since 8 a.m. until now, 5:30 p.m. Also, perhaps they would like to man their call center to reassure their customers that they have the least inkling of what they are doing!
Neil W.