Offshore Oil Drilling and the Oil Rig Disaster in the Gulf

[finehoe]

The article is very eye opening.  It clearly spreads blame for this disaster across two administrations.  It should probably go back three.  

Further than that.  As someone else pointed out, BP was a key player in the 1953 CIA-led coup in Iran.  The oil companies have had a disproportionate influence in our government for a long, long time.

But that doesn't change my previous posting.  I fear that our country will be paying for the evil-doing of the Bush years for decades, and I'm not just talking about the environment.

[BridgeTroll]

Are you ready to shut down the 5000 active wells and 600 deepwater wells?  I agree this is a disaster.  It seems a only matter of time before it happens again.

[north miami]

Are you ready to shut down the 5000 active wells and 600 deepwater wells?  I agree this is a disaster.  It seems a only matter of time before it happens again.

I am ready to turn every such reference and conversation towards viable alternative energy.Democratic sources,solar a key element.Residential housing moved off the "Grid" in such numbers our 401(k) "Utilities" 'investments' are plundered.

[finehoe]

Time magazine names its "Dirty Dozen" in its new issue, making the case for who's to blame for the BP oil spill disaster. The top of the list is pretty straightforward -- #1 is former BP CEO John Browne, and #2 is current BP CEO Tony Hayward. Sounds about right.

Time puts Dick Cheney at #5 and George W. Bush at #6, which sounds about right, and singles out "The American Driver" at #7 -- if we used less oil, the argument goes, we'd need less drilling.

The magazine's blame-list puts President Obama at #8, and here's the explanation as to how Time reached that conclusion.

His Administration has now begun strengthening federal oversight of offshore drilling, but the President also proposed opening vast new tracts for such production shortly before Deepwater Horizon exploded.

Clearly, the president is not beyond reproach. One can make the case -- indeed, Obama has made the case -- that the administration could have moved even faster to address Bush-era corruption at the MMS and improve government regulations. But it almost certainly wouldn't have prevented this disaster.

And that's why Time's item seems so misplaced. The point of the "Dirty Dozen" is to assign blame for this mess. There's no ambiguity -- the feature piece says right in the headline that the point is to identify "who to blame for the oil spill."

With that in mind, why does expanded production have to do with the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe? Whether the administration had agreed to new drilling opportunities or not had no bearing on the explosion and subsequent crisis. They're related to the extent that both deal with drilling, but if the point to assign blame, one has nothing to do with the other.

[BridgeTroll]

Please link the article.

[finehoe]

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1995523_1995491_1995471,00.html

[Timkin]

Thank you for adding these Stephen.. now I am even more nauseated by these spills.

I guess as much as we rely on oil and oil products, we will just continue this gamble with our planet until such time as we have oceans filled with oil, garbage and dead marine life.

[buckethead]

ZCZC MIATWOAT ALL
TTAA00 KNHC DDHHMM
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
800 AM EDT SUN JUN 13 2010

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

1. A BROAD AREA OF LOW PRESSURE LOCATED ABOUT 800 MILES SOUTHWEST OF
THE SOUTHERNMOST CAPE VERDE ISLANDS HAS CHANGED LITTLE IN
ORGANIZATION. HOWEVER...ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS APPEAR CONDUCIVE
FOR SOME SLOW DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF
DAYS AS IT MOVES WEST-NORTHWESTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH. THERE IS A
MEDIUM CHANCE...30 PERCENT...OF THIS SYSTEM BECOMING A TROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

ELSEWHERE...TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS.

$$
FORECASTER KIMBERLAIN
NNNN

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201092_model.html


Will a hurricane hurt or help? Personally, I'm hoping for the more northerly track to be correct.


http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/hurricanes_oil_factsheet.pdf

[CS Foltz]

Leaking wells,not withstanding, anything that enters into the Gulf will wreck havoc on the capping end and spread things even further inland and that is not a pretty picture!

[Timkin]

Not a pretty picture indeed.  Will BP be responsible or take responsibility for the mess this is certain to make , if a storm drives this oil , inland ?

[buckethead]

The spin cycle commences...



Click here to see this^ map in motion



http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at201092_model.html

[finehoe]

E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a ‘nightmare well’ six days before explosion.

Today, the chief executives of the five big oil companies â€" including BP’s Tony Hayward â€" are going to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to an e-mail released by that Committee today, a BP drilling engineer warned that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a “nightmare well” that had caused the company problems in the past. The e-mail came just six days before the well exploded:




More than five weeks before the disaster, the Deepwater rig was hit by several sudden pulsations of gas called “kicks” and a pipe had become stuck in the well. In fact, the well had to be shut down because of “one intense kick of natural gas.” The blowout preventer was discovered to be leaking fluid three separate times. “As early as June 2009, BP engineers had expressed concerns in internal documents about using certain casings for the well because they violated the company’s safety and design guidelines.”

[Lunican]

Just in... U.S. scientists significantly boost their estimate of how much oil is leaking into Gulf

Government officials raise estimate of oil spewing from a well in the Gulf of Mexico to 35,000-60,000 barrels per day.

[Lunican]

Also, the drill ship that is siphoning oil from the well was hit by lightening, starting a fire.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/15/oil.spill.disaster/index.html?hpt=T1

Fire is out now.

[Timkin]

good grief.  this is going from bad to worse every day.  Or am I completely missing something?