Offshore Oil Drilling and the Oil Rig Disaster in the Gulf

[Sportmotor]

Drill bay drill!

[Lunican]

Feds may set Gulf oil slick ablaze

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Coast Guard officials are considering setting the Gulf of Mexico oil slick on fire as it moved Tuesday to within 20 miles of sensitive ecological areas in the Mississippi River Delta.

Officials say it could become one of worst spills in U.S. history.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/27/news/economy/oil_rig_gulf/index.htm?hpt=T1

[JC]

In addition to tax breaks, the federal government provides up to $114.6 billion to the wealthy industry in giveaways and subsidies annually that support the extraction, production and use of petroleum, such as research and development and export financing.

The federal government also spends up to $1.6 billion yearly on regulatory oversight, pollution cleanup and liability costs connected to the oil industry, the group said.

And here I thought it was all W's fault, supporting his oil buddies.  It still happens?

And I still don't see how petroleum is obsolete.

Ohhhh, here we go with the distractions, thanks for bringing politricks into the equation.  Obama is as guilty as Bush, I forgot, it has to be said in the beginning of every thread!  Clinton was bad too, he blew it with NAFTA and blah blah blah...

Now can we get back on topic?

Well we were on-topic.  Stephen was positing that fossil fuels are obsolete.  Bridge and I were suggesting that they weren't.  

You threw something in about change and catastrophe, and also an interesting counter-point of cost effectiveness to Bucket's train of thought.  You also managed to support Bridge's and my argument that fossil fuels and the things we get from them are, in fact, not obsolete.

I'm not at all a fan in theory of the federal government subsidizing the hell out of fossil fuels and petroleum.  However, if that means I can get gas at just shy of $3.00 a gallon as opposed to just shy of $15, all the better.  

Since there are no solar-powered cars on the market, nor fuel-cell or battery-powered cars that don't cost two legs and an arm, and since Jacksonville's mass transit is neither mass nor transit, I'll hang with my ICE car and $2.89 a gallon fossil fuel gasoline and await with bated breath the arrival of mass-produced, mass-marketed alternative-energy-powered vehicles.

First off, Obama does not own the word change!  I am not a fan of Obama and I resent the implication simply for using a word that has been in around since at least the 13th century.

Second of all, the companies that drill for and refine oil all have a vested interest in its continued use so of course they are going to attempt to drag their feet on new technologies UNTIL they can change their business model to match what the future will demand.  

I should also mention that I resent the hell out of those individuals who cart themselves around in big gas guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks.  Fuel standards are not high enough...

Eco-taxis zap CO2 emissions / Battery-switching demo project rolled out in Roppongi

Tomoko Echizenya and Makoto Fukumori / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

The government and companies, including automakers, are accelerating efforts to promote electric vehicles--the ultimate eco-cars.

On Monday, Better Place, a U.S. venture company, launched the world's first switchable-battery electric taxi service in Tokyo in partnership with major taxi operator Nihon Kotsu Co.

The project, using three vehicles with switchable batteries, is a demonstration experiment commissioned by the Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry. The service is available to the public at a dedicated taxi stand on the first floor of the Roppongi Hills complex in Minato Ward, Tokyo, until July 31. The fare is the same as that of a conventional gasoline-powered taxi.

The main characteristic of the project is that batteries are changed at specialized switching stations.

Electric vehicles heretofore have been plagued by a combination of long battery charging times and limited travel range between charges.

This new type of electric vehicle, however, is capable of traveling about 300 kilometers a day by dropping off old batteries and picking up new ones at specialized stations. The old battery left at a station is recharged while the vehicle continues on its way with a new one.

"We'd like to have [this service] prime the pump to promote the mass use of electric vehicles," Better Place Japan President Kiyotaka Fujii said at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday.

Fujii pointed out that taxis account for only about 2 percent of the passenger cars in Tokyo, but 20 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions comes from taxis.

Meanwhile, local governments and automakers are sharing ideas on how to promote the wider use of electric vehicles.

Also on Monday, the First E-KIZUNA Summit Forum was held in Saitama. Representatives from two prefectures and 18 cities gathered at the forum and described subsidy programs provided by the prefectural and municipal governments for the purchase of electric vehicles.

The city government of Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, offers subsidies of up to 350,000 yen to those who buy an electric vehicle and meet certain conditions. For example, people who buy Mitsubishi Motor Corp.'s i-MiEV, which is priced at 3.98 million yen, can receive subsidies totaling about 2 million yen from the central and local governments.

Japanese automakers and U.S. companies also have begun to collaborate in research and development.

On Monday, Nissan Motor Co. and General Electric Co. announced they will jointly research charging technology for electric vehicles.
(Apr. 28, 2010)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T100427004136.htm

How much are we paying for a gallon of gas?



We pay about $3.00 for a gallon of gasoline at the service station. But the real price of gas is much higher and camouflaged by myriad direct and indirect costs associated with maintaining our oil economy. How much are you actually paying for gas? Take a closer look at the hidden bills footed by your taxes:

The cost of securing our access to Middle East oil..is estimated at $50 billion per year..
The federal government subsidizes the oil industry with numerous tax breaks and government protection programs worth billions of dollars annually. These benefits are designed to ensure that domestic oil companies can compete with international producers and that gasoline remains cheap for American consumers.

Our dependency on oil from countries that are either politically unstable or at odds with the U.S. subjects the American economy to occasional supply disruptions, price hikes, and loss of wealth, which, according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy, have cost us more than $7 trillion present value dollars over the last 30 years. That is more than the cumulative cost of all of the wars fought by the U.S. since the Revolutionary War. The transfer of wealth to oil-producing countries - $1.16 trillion over the past thirty years - significantly increased our trade deficit. The Department of Energy estimates that each $1 billion of trade deficit costs America 27,000 jobs. Oil imports account for almost one-third of the total U.S. deficit and, hence, are a major contributor to unemployment.

The cost of securing our access to Middle East oil - deploying U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, patrolling its water and supplying military assistance to Middle East countries - is estimated at $50 billion per year, which adds additional dimes to each gallon of gasoline we purchase

Political instability in the region breeds wars and embroils the U.S. in costly military actions. The 1990-91 Gulf War broke out as a result of an oil dispute between Iraq and Kuwait. The cost to the international community reached almost $80 billion. The cost of the 2003 Iraq war and the following occupation of the country is estimated at $200 billion.

According to the National Defense Council Foundation, the economic penalties of America's oil dependence total $297.2 to $304.9 billion annually. If reflected at the gasoline pump, these “hidden costs” would raise the price of a gallon of gasoline to over $5.28. A fill-up would be over $105.
To ensure access to the oil that fuels our economy, the U.S. is forced to maintain continuous presence in the Middle East. This presence has been a rallying cry for anti-Americanism and Islamic fundamentalism.

Fatwas (religious rulings) issued by Al-Qaeda in 1996 ("Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places" and in 1998 ("Declaration of the World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and the Crusaders") emphasized the presence of U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia, the home of Islam's two holiest places. It was claimed that this was the greatest transgression against Muslims and that U.S. support of local regimes was unacceptable. Hence, the September 11 attacks were motivated by Al-Qaeda's desire to drive the "infidel armies" out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf.



OBL
"I swear by God, […] neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of security before […] all the infidel armies leave the land of Muhammad."
The total dollar value of the attacks is rather difficult to quantify but it is certainly very high, surely in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars.

World competition for dwindling oil reserves will force the U.S. to increase its footprint in the region while oil generated wealth would continue to provide extremists the capital to market and implement their ideas worldwide. The unavoidable result is even more terrorism and instability. So when it comes down to the question of whether we can actually afford to shift away from petroleum-based energy system one should remember that the combined impact of wars, terrorism and environmental degradation is likely to send the price of oil right through the ceiling over the next two decades. Alternatively, the cost of emerging technologies is likely to decrease over time, as mass production and commercialization takes place.

Furthermore, if history is our guide, we can see that every industrial and technological revolution in history inspired an economic boom. Building an infrastructure for next-generation energies would generate millions of jobs around the world, and revolutionize the automobile industry as well as other industries.
Researching, developing, and introducing new transportation technologies that are cleaner, safer, and less economically destructive should, therefore, be our top national security and economic priority.

http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html

You can also examine the enormous technological challenges that were overcome during the race to the moon.  The incentive was there, and we pulled it off.  

[Midway ®]

You people are all nuts. Offshore oil rigs are perfectly safe and have zero environmental impact. Here's proof:

http://www.youtube.com/v/91rwTd1yocY&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0
http://www.youtube.com/v/7xM1IDZCfOM&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0

BTW, These ads feature Brooke Alexander, former Miss World America and Miss Hawaii World and former Fox News Babe.

These ads have mysteriously disappeared in the last few days.

I miss them.

[JC]

^^^ LMAO!

[BridgeTroll]

JC... please provide the link for the article...

How much are we paying for a gallon of gas?

[JC]

JC... please provide the link for the article...

How much are we paying for a gallon of gas?

Sorry forgot http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html

I also modified my OP

[JC]

St. Pete Beach, Florida -- As the monstrous oil slick floating in the Gulf of Mexico drifts and grows, the question for a state like Florida -- that relies on the beach for much of its business -- is how will this impact us? 

Florida wildlife crews from the Tampa Bay area will head to the Panhandle on Wednesday to be in place, just in case some of that oil spilling into the Gulf comes ashore.

Disaster responders further west are considering a bold option to handle the oil slick floating on the surface of the Gulf, which has now drifted as close as 90 miles from Pensacola: Set the floating oil on fire.

The U.S. Coast Guard says that move could burn off much of the oil that may come ashore and hurt wildlife.

The Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded off Louisiana about a week ago.

Until this disaster, Florida Governor Charlie Crist supported oil drilling off Florida's Gulf coast. Tuesday, he backed far away from that stance.

"As I've always said, it would need to be far enough, clean enough and safe enough. I'm not sure that this was far enough, I'm pretty sure it wasn't clean enough and it doesn't sound like it was safe enough," said Crist, who is running for one of Florida's U.S. Senate seats.

Crist hovered above the oil slick on a 90-minute helicopter tour Tuesday.

Researchers at USF St. Pete are keeping a close eye on the oil slick, which now covers as much area as Hillsborough and Polk counties combined.

They're trying to determine how it will impact Florida.

Computer models show one option: ocean currents around our state could curve the oil down into the Florida Keys, and then up the state's Atlantic coast in about a week and a half to two weeks.

Beach tourism makes up at least $39 billion of Florida's economy, according to a state beach tourism study from 2005.

Oil company crews from BP will soon begin drilling a relief well to take pressure off of the leaking one.

Right now, the leaking well is dumping 42,000 gallons of crude oil a day into the Gulf.

BP says the relief well will take up to three months to build.

And if the main well cannot be closed, more than four million gallons of oil could spill into the Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130844&catid=8

If this post is tltr for you there is a video on the website.

[BEK]

Please, please, please come see Collapse tomorrow night at MOCA.

It could not be more relevant to the current conversation. It's intelligent, riveting, and poignant. 

www.collapsemovie.com

The documentary starts at 7:00.

[JC]

Please, please, please come see Collapse tomorrow night at MOCA.

It could not be more relevant to the current conversation. It's intelligent, riveting, and poignant. 

www.collapsemovie.com

The documentary starts at 7:00.

I would love to but ya know, financial crisis and all...

[Lunican]

This just keeps getting worse and worse....

Oil leak in Gulf may be 5 times worse than feared

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- The estimated amount of oil leaking from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico has increased to as much as 5,000 barrels a day -- five times more than what was originally believed, a Coast Guard official said.

Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters late Wednesday that the increased estimate is based on analysis from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This is not an exact science when you estimate the amount of oil," Landry said, noting there are a lot of variables in calculating the rate of the spill.

"However, NOAA is telling me now that they prefer we use the 5,000 barrels [210,000 gallons] a day as an estimate of what has actually leaked from this well and will continue to leak until BP secures the source."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/louisiana.oil.rig/index.html?hpt=T1

[JC]

This just keeps getting worse and worse....

Oil leak in Gulf may be 5 times worse than feared

New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- The estimated amount of oil leaking from a sunken rig in the Gulf of Mexico has increased to as much as 5,000 barrels a day -- five times more than what was originally believed, a Coast Guard official said.

Rear Adm. Mary Landry told reporters late Wednesday that the increased estimate is based on analysis from the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
"This is not an exact science when you estimate the amount of oil," Landry said, noting there are a lot of variables in calculating the rate of the spill.

"However, NOAA is telling me now that they prefer we use the 5,000 barrels [210,000 gallons] a day as an estimate of what has actually leaked from this well and will continue to leak until BP secures the source."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/louisiana.oil.rig/index.html?hpt=T1

This is profoundly sad....

Have you seen the model that puts the oil on our beaches within the next week or two?

[Lunican]

I did. Apparently it is possible that it will spread down to Key West and then up the Atlantic Coast. Hopefully that does not happen.

[BEK]

The truth of the matter is that no one really knows how much oil is actually left on earth.  The rate at which we consume oil far exceeds the amount of oil that we know is out there in reserves.

We are so completely depended on oil that we're running out of options. We're screwed any way you look at it. The way our coast line looks is the least of our problems.

[BEK]

As a state, yes. It's a problem for the tourist industry. Environmentally, it sucks too. I'm not for it. I'm a wind girl.

The global energy crisis is effecting us where it hurts the most. It should be driving home the point of efficiency and producing things locally.

COME SEE "COLLAPSE" TONIGHT AT 7:00 AT MOCA. It spells everything out perfectly.