As left, right, and center continue to focus on building finely graduated and meticulously ranked lists of the negligent and innocent, blameworthy and victimized, indictable and indictors, ignorant and prescient, indifferent and caring, arrogant, clumsy, greedy, and reparations-due . . . I for once, demur.

It breaks my heart, of course, for the environment (so to speak) is "target rich." But, just this once, let's consider a modest proposal.

If I were an oil company CEO, or a President under siege in the face of a monumental oil spill, I'd seriously consider the establishment of a petroleum-industry equivalent to the FDIC . . . only MUCH bigger.

Everyone with a drill in the ground or any hope of putting one there would both be compelled (and, I believe, eventually happy) to participate.

Funded on a massive scale by contributions from EVERY producer, public or private, the new organization would function as an independently run, privately-financed, oil-disaster insurance, rescue and R&D consortium.

Because everyone has a vested interest in fixing these problems, heretofore sorely neglected "R&D" funding . . . for rescue, prevention, testing and remediation could be made available on an unprecedented scale. Task one: providing the funding necessary for the development of new technologies and processes to prevent and fix both the problems we're facing now, and those we anticipate in the future.

In addition, the "consortium" would finance, equip, and maintain at a constant state of alert, an elite, world-class "rescue" cadre . . . a rapid-response team . . . an oil-spill 82nd-Airborne if you like, with equipment pre-positioned . . . ready to react immediately to any oil crisis, on any scale, anywhere in the world.