Offshore Oil Drilling and the Oil Rig Disaster in the Gulf

[JC]

Gentlemen I agree! If that well were in production, it tis but a drop in the bucket for sure! The enviromental aspects though will be with us for a long long time! Clean up will never get every drop......I could use the Exxon Valdez as an example...........to this day, they still have oil in places it should not be! BP can say what they want but common sense says............you can not clean it totally up no matter what! If it is getting into the Gulf Stream it can be spread from Southwest Pass to New York and all of the points in between and that is not good for the tourism industry and all of the wildlife and protected area's not to mention those who depend on fishing for their livelyhood! Bad situation for all involved!

BP has already said it is not concerned with oil plumes under the surface, only stopping the leak and cleaning the surface oil.  I wish I had exact quotes but it was on Morning Edition yesterday, they were talking to an expert who was measuring the size of oil plumes under the surface.

[keywest09]

The plane has pick up the tar balls to take them for testing.  All of this is just a block away from my home.   

[finehoe]

There may be some fallout but "forever ruined" seems just a bit over the top.

Yeah, because the developers have already forever ruined the state.

[JC]

"Tarballs" in Key West.  I think I prefer Masquerade Balls.

Especially if they are going to end up on the beach.

Too soon Stephen, too soon...

[Timkin]

I doubt Florida will be forever ruined.

There may be some fallout but "forever ruined" seems just a bit over the top.

Ok.. I stand corrected Buckethead.. Maybe not forever... Just through the rest of your life, mine and a few generations to come..  Go to Prince William Sound if you do not think these effects are long-term , and turn a few rocks over , or dig into the soil on the beaches.   Yes maybe forever is a bit over the top, but through the rest of your life ,is certainly reachable. Finehoe makes an EXCELLENT point... Developers putting hirise buildings along our beaches are also ruining our beach views, although with economic conditions that has slowed some.  With oil now flowing from this pipe in at least 3 places for close to a month, scientists, BP, NO ONE has a clue of how much actually is flowing,, and if (a big IF) only 210,000 gallons were flowing a day thats still A HELL OF ALOT OF OIL Flowing. When this crap reaches the Gulf stream , and it will,  Well...lets just say,,, enjoy your beach views while you can.

[JeffreyS]

You know we are the tourist capital of the world that could change which would have some forever consequences.

[Bostech]

Dont worry,once Republicans win back Congress and Presidency everything will be ok again.

[Dog Walker]

Won't be ruined forever, just for a good number of years.  When I was a kid in Atlantic Beach, crude oil balls were common on the beaches from the tankers that were torpedoed just offshore by the Germans in 1942.  They leaked for a long time.

By the middle '50's they were gone.  Read about "Operation Drumbeat".  While the lights of the boardwalk in Jacksonville Beach were still shining, burning tankers were visible just offshore.

There are microbes that eat oil.  Because it's warmer here they work better than they do in Prince William Sound.  Of course there might be a few thousand hotels and restaurants that have gone bankrupt in the meantime, but Mother Earth is indifferent to our suffering and will recover just fine.

[Timkin]

I hope the microbes kick in bigtime in this case because there is alot of crude oil coming their way.. It really is too bad there is not a way to filter the water on a very large scale so as to prevent this stuff from reaching the Gulf Stream currents, also getting to the large plumes underwater to perhaps dissipate some of that before it gets into the currents.

[Bostech]

Forget that nonsense.BP and entire oil industry is paying to spread propaganda about microbes eating oil and all sort of tricks they are using to collect oil.They are lying about amount of oil thats coiming out of too.
Rough estimates are between 30,000 and 70,000 barrels of oil not 5,000.
Thats a lot of oil that will be floating for long time in Gulf plus all sort of chemicals they are dumping to remove oil from surface so it is not visible.

You gonna have change of lifestyle in Gulf due to this spill and it wont be pretty.

Mother Earth will recover but people won't.

[Keith-N-Jax]

What a nightmare this is turning out to be.

[Shwaz]

Looks like the deep horizon spill is not hitting the keys..... yet.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/19/gulf.oil.spill.main/index.html?hpt=T2

[floridaforester]

Are those poll numbers accurate?  I have trouble believing that even after this disastrous spill and disgusting incompetence and arrogance on so many levels that led to it that there are 45%, albeit of a rather small sample size, saying that they still support offshore drilling in our area.  It truly boggles the mind!

[CS Foltz]

BP is doing just a great job! Washington is not helping a bunch either............gonna be years and years to clean this one up and maybe even longer! Yeah.............drill some more!

[NotNow]

How would you propose doing this?  All that would be accomplished is shelving over 30% of US production and shipping in imported oil in tankers, statistically a much more risky practice than drilling. Also, we cannot "stop" drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.  We can surrender our leadership, technology, and Territorial resources however, by "knee jerk" reaction.  

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spills-lessons-learned-2010-05-07

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/18/obama-surrenders-gulf-oil-to-moscow/

This is certainly a disaster on many levels.  But the response must be professional and logical.  Oil is not going away anytime soon.  We must learn from such events and develop defenses against recurrence.  This is a setback, not a roadblock.