Offshore Oil Drilling and the Oil Rig Disaster in the Gulf

[Midway ®]

[/quote]

We don't have the benefit of your superior eugenics, so that's the best we can do.

We're just human, as opposed to  you, who are superhuman.

Thanks for recognizing the truth finally, midway.   

BREAKING NEWS!!!  FOX NEWS ALERT!!!  Riversidegator admits to being the product of Nazi Eugenics breeding experiments!

Eugenics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution": Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields.
"Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution": Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields.[1]

Eugenics is a social philosophy which advocates the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[2] Throughout history, eugenics has been regarded by its various advocates as a social responsibility, an altruistic stance of a society, meant to create healthier and more intelligent people, to save resources, and lessen human suffering.

Earlier proposed means of achieving these goals focused on selective breeding, while modern ones focus on prenatal testing and screening, genetic counseling, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering. Opponents argue that eugenics is immoral. Historically, a minority of eugenics advocates have used it as a justification for state-sponsored discrimination, forced sterilization of persons deemed genetically defective, and the killing of institutionalized populations. Eugenics was also used to rationalize certain aspects of the Holocaust. The modern field and term were first formulated by Sir Francis Galton in 1883,[3] drawing on the recent work of his cousin Charles Darwin. From its inception eugenics was supported by prominent people, including H.G. Wells, Emile Zola, George Bernard Shaw, John Maynard Keynes, William Keith Kellogg and Margaret Sanger.[4][5][6] G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils. Eugenics became an academic discipline at many colleges and universities. Funding was provided by prestigious sources such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and the Harriman family.[7] Three International Eugenics Conferences presented a global venue for eugenicists with meetings in 1912 in London, and in 1921 and 1932 in New York. Eugenics' scientific reputation started to tumble in the 1930s, a time when Ernst Rüdin began incorporating eugenic rhetoric into the racial policies of Nazi Germany.

Since the postwar period, both the public and the scientific communities have associated eugenics with Nazi abuses, such as enforced racial hygiene, human experimentation, and the extermination of undesired population groups. However, developments in genetic, genomic, and reproductive technologies at the end of the 20th century have raised many new questions and concerns about what exactly constitutes the meaning of eugenics and what its ethical and moral status is in the modern era.

[RiversideGator]

Dont get your panties in a wad, midway.  I was actually referring to this portion of your post:

We're just human, as opposed to  you, who are superhuman.

I see though that you and red have nothing to offer but smoke and mirrors though.  Interesting admission.

[Midway ®]

Have you used that tire gauge yet?

[gatorback]

we're letting the good old folks down at the transportation department department keep up with certain air pressure measurements and are now focusing on higher levels of thinking. 

[RiversideGator]

Have you used that tire gauge yet?

I properly inflated my tires yesterday.  The savings are unbelievable.   

[RiversideGator]

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) support offshore oil drilling, according to a new Rasmussen poll. And 42 percent say offshore oil drilling would have the biggest impact in terms of reducing oil prices. Only 20 percent of Americans now oppose offshore drilling. And in terms of reducing oil prices, building more nuclear plants and developing more fuel-efficient cars rate only 16 percent.

Public support for drill, drill, drill clearly continues to grow. And that’s one key reason why oil prices continue to fall. In today’s trading oil is off another $2 to $113 a barrel, despite the war between Russia and Georgia. According to government sources in Georgia, the Baku pipeline is still functioning and oil is flowing through Georgia.

Let me return to my theme that the plunge in oil prices is solving the economy’s problems. In today’s stock market trading, while overall prices are up 100 points, retailers and banks are the leading sectors. This follows on last Friday’s huge 300-point jump, largely on the strength of collapsing oil. Retailers and financials led Friday’s action also.

As oil and gas pump prices descend, homeowners will have more extra cash to pay their mortgages on time. This means the mortgage bonds owned by banks are worth more. Hence the oil drop solves the credit crunch as well as the housing decline.

And there’s more. Gold has dropped another $35 today to $830 an ounce. The greenback is up again. This means of course that the oil drop solves the inflation problem as well. Essentially, we are witnessing a complete reversal of the damaging oil shock that has been the single-biggest economic depressant this year. You couldn’t ask for any better news.

And I want to repeat my view that the reversal to lower oil prices is a function of a) lower energy demand through greater conservation in response to the prior price increase and b) the likelihood that Congress will reverse its ban on drilling. Oil traders are selling the black gold in anticipation of greater future energy supplies. The InTrade prediction markets are showing a 45 percent probability that the congressional ban on drilling will be removed before year-end. In early July this contract was less than 10 percent. We are watching a combination of economic and political forces acting to depress oil prices.

http://www.kudlowsmoneypolitics.blogspot.com/

[RiversideGator]

Here is a great piece in today's Washington Post debunking the three big environmentalist myths re offshore drilling.  Note also that this is from the mainstream media and usually a pretty liberal newspaper at that:

'Snake Oil'

Debunking three 'truths' about offshore drilling
   
Tuesday, August 12, 2008; Page A12

THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as "George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir" that is "100% Snake Oil." The environmental group calls on supporters "to stop the giveaway of our coasts." It is urging visitors to its Web site to send a pre-written letter to their members of Congress that says, "I am not buying the lie . . . that sacrificing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and America's coastal waters to oil drilling would make a real difference in gas prices -- either today or twenty years from today!" And the missive adds, "With just three percent of the world's oil reserves, our nation simply doesn't have enough oil to impact the global market or drill our way to lower prices at the pump."

The NRDC's arguments above neatly encapsulate the position taken by environmentalists and other opponents of offshore drilling. And they include a couple of good points. Contrary to the baldly political suggestions regarding lower gasoline prices by President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), drilling would make no impact on today's pain at the pump because it would be years before any oil flowed from the Outer Continental Shelf. We agree that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with its varied and sensitive ecosystems, should be preserved. In the quest for new sources of energy, there are trade-offs. That pristine area must remain off-limits. But there are three "truths" masquerading as fact among drilling opponents that need to be challenged:

· Drilling is pointless because the United States has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves. This is a misleading because it refers only to known oil reserves. According to the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS), while there are an estimated 18 billion barrels of oil in the off-limits portions of the OCS, those estimates were made using old data from now-outdated seismic equipment. In the case of the Atlantic Ocean, the data were collected before Congress imposed a moratorium on offshore drilling in 1981. In 1987, the MMS estimated that there were 9 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. By 2006, after major advances in seismic technology and deepwater drilling techniques, the MMS resource estimate for that area had ballooned to 45 billion barrels. In short, there could be much more oil under the sea than previously known. The demand for energy is going up, not down. And for a long time, even as alternative sources of energy are developed, more oil will be needed.

· The oil companies aren't using the leases they already have. According to the MMS, there were 7,457 active leases as of June 8. Of those, only 1,877 were classified as "producing." As we pointed out in a previous editorial, the five leases that have made up the Shell Perdido project off Galveston since 1996 are not classified as producing. Only when it starts pumping the equivalent of an estimated 130,000 barrels of oil a day at the end of the decade will it be deemed "active." Since 1996, Shell has paid rent on the leases; filed and had approved numerous reports with the MMS, including an environmentally sensitive resource development plan and an oil spill recovery plan that is subject to unannounced practice runs by the MMS; drilled several wells to explore the area at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars; and started constructing the necessary infrastructure to bring the oil to market. The notion that oil companies are just sitting on oil leases is a myth. With oil prices still above $100 a barrel, that charge never made sense.

· Drilling is environmentally dangerous. Opposition to offshore drilling goes back to 1969, when 80,000 barrels of oil from an offshore oil well blowout washed up on the beaches of Santa Barbara. In 1971, the Interior Department instituted a host of reporting requirements (such as the resource development and oil spill recovery plans mentioned above) and stringent safety measures. Chief among them is a requirement for each well to have an automatic shut-off valve beneath the ocean floor that can also be operated manually. According to the MMS, between 1993 and 2007, there were 651 spills of all sizes at OCS facilities (in federal waters three miles or more offshore) that released 47,800 barrels of oil. With 7.5 billion barrels of oil produced in that time, that equates to 1 barrel of oil spilled per 156,900 barrels produced. That's not to minimize the danger. But no form of energy is perfect or without trade-offs. Besides, if it is acceptable to drill in the Caspian Sea and in developing countries such as Nigeria where environmental concerns are equally important, it's hard to explain why the United States should rule out drilling off its own coasts.

The strongest argument against drilling is that it could distract the country from a pursuit of alternative sources of energy. There's no question that the administration has been lax on that front. True leadership would emphasize both alternative sources and rational approaches to developing oil and natural gas. No, the United States cannot drill its way to energy independence. But with the roaring economies of China and India gobbling up oil in the two countries' latter-day industrial revolutions, the United States can no longer afford to turn its back on finding all the sources of fuel necessary to maintain its economy and its standard of living. What's required is a long-term, comprehensive plan that includes wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels and nuclear -- and that acknowledges that oil and gas will be instrumental to the U.S. economy for many years to come.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/11/AR2008081102145.html

[uptowngirl]

"The strongest argument against drilling is that it could distract the country from a pursuit of alternative sources of energy."

It could also fund it





"There's no question that the administration has been lax on that front."

Shouldn't this be Administrations?

True leadership would emphasize both alternative sources and rational approaches to developing oil and natural gas.


Like inflating your tires?

[RiversideGator]

Well I guess it turns out that the off shore drilling DOES lead to environmental spills and ruin the beaches.

Who woulda thunk it?

I'm sorry.  Where does it say that the storm caused off shore drilling platforms to leak oil in this article?

[apvbguy]

I'm sorry.  Where does it say that the storm caused off shore drilling platforms to leak oil in this article?

the article didn't say that at all, it did say there was some oil in the flood waters, where the oil came from is the question, it more than likely came from fuel stations holding tanks or from the many boats that were smashed onto land, but that guy has a way of adding 1 + 1 and coming up with 3 as long as it advances one of his interesting but ill informed opinions

[Ocklawaha]

I tend to agree that this is not spillage from the well heads or pump jacks. Even if it were the amount is very small. Trouble is the oil and water mix is an ugly mix. 1 drop of light-sweet crude will render 25 litters of water undrinkable. One gallon of Gasoline will destroy 750,000 gallons of water. So how many overturned small craft could you count along those beaches? It sure wouldn't take much, a Merc here and a Johnson there with their little 5 and 10 gallon fuel tanks and rubber hoses. Boat flips and smacks into the dock, seawall or beach and wave action tumbles the gas tank, tears loose the rubber hose and wipes out MILLIONS of gallons of water.

There has actually been research to see if there is a way to chill the effects of the stuff on clean water. perhaps an additive that would cause it to jell on contact with water. When/if they work it out, watch for it to quickly become the manditory marine fuel formula. Hopefully it meets with much more success then the USDOT/FAA/CAB tests of a "flashless fuel" for airliners. The exploding plane scene the passengers were watching in the movie Airplane, was the actual test film of the new flash proof fuel. BOOM! "To the tower, to the tower,  Reponso..."

OCKLAWAHA

[apvbguy]

I tend to agree that this is not spillage from the well heads or pump jacks. Even if it were the amount is very small. Trouble is the oil and water mix is an ugly mix. 1 drop of light-sweet crude will render 25 litters of water undrinkable. One gallon of Gasoline will destroy 750,000 gallons of water.

I don't think too much crude was spilled, that would mean a platform or pipeline was trashed and there would be a lot more oil in the water, what was noticed was probably a lot of gas and 2 oil (diesel) , gas will evaporate quickly while 2 oil can be nasty

[lindab]

The oil industry has been touting their safe rigs. Even if we take the oil industry at it's word, where the heck do you think the oil goes to shore? Oil pipelines along the Gulf coast bottom create a network coming ashore to storage and refineries. If we have east coast oil wells off Florida and Georgia those pipelines will come ashore somewhere near us. Storage tanks and industrial facilites are needed. Where will they be put?



This is the Murphy Oil spill at Chalmette, LA. About 1600 homes were affected by this spill.

http://www.uscg.mil/npfc/docs/PDFs/osltf_report_hurricanes.pdf
Less than one year after Katrina, the Coast Guard's report to Congress showed -

OIL SPILL LIABILITY TRUST FUND HURRICANE IMP ACT
Appendix
--
Summary of Hurricane Katrina & Rita Related Spills
As of January 24, 2006 there have been over 9 million gallons of oil released from six major
and five medium spills. Inaddition there have been over 5,000 minor spill responses. New
minor spills are being identified and responded to daily.
Summary of 6 major incidents:
.
The Bass Enterprises, South Cox Bay facility at Cox Bay, LA, suffered two tank
failures. 3,800,000 gallons were discharged; 1,900,000 gallons recovered to date.
Efforts to identify and remove lingering pollution continue.
.
The Bass Enterprises North facility at MM 36 LMR suffered shifted and leaking
tanks. 460,000 gallons were discharged; 116,000 gallons recovered to date. Efforts to
identify and remove lingering pollution continue.
.
The Shell Nairn facility in Port Sulphur, LA, suffered a ruptured pipeline. 140,000
gallons were discharged; 11,000 gallons recovered to date. Additional cleanup pends
due to private property access issues.
.
The Murphy Oil facility in Mereaux, LA, suffered a ruptured tank. 1,100,000 gallons
discharged; 750,000 gallons recovered to date. Coast Guard responders conducted
initial gross oil containment; EPA retains lead for overall sitejurisdiction. Hundreds
of homes in the adjacent areas were saturated by oil. Household cleanup continues.
Media reports that many homeowners have accepted a settlement with Murphy Oil,
while other homeowners have initiated a class action lawsuit.
.
The Chevron Pipeline Empire facility in Port Sulphur, LA, suffered a pipeline
rupture. 1,400,000 gallons discharged; 75,000 gallons were recovered. Efforts to
identify and remove lingering pollution continue.
.
The Shell Pilot Town facility in Pilot Town, LA, suffered a breached pipeline.
1,100,000 gallons discharged; 950,000 gallons were recovered. Efforts to identify
and remove lingering pollution continue.
Summary of 5 medium incidents:
.
The Sundown East facility in Potash, LA, suffered ruptured tanks and piping. 52,000
gallons were discharged; 16,000 gallons recovered to date. Response efforts to
identify and address the sources of persistent sheening are ongoing.
.
The Sundown West facility in Potash, LA, suffered ruptured tanks and piping. 13,000
gallons were discharged; 8,000 gallons recovered to date. Efforts to identify and
remove lingering pollution on private property continue.
.
At the Chevron Port Fourchon Pipeline facility, in Port Fourchon, LA, a potable water
tank was lifted by the hurricane and impacted valves and pipelines in the facility tank
farm. 54,000 gallons were discharged; approximately 45,000 gallons of diesel/water
mix recovered to date.

Page 8
OIL SPILL LIABILITY TRUST FUND HURRICANE IMPACT
.
At the Texas Point
-
Sabine Services facility near Sabine, TX, one 504,OOO-gallon
capacity tank was lifted and moved 3 miles into a marsh by Hurricane Rita. 34,000
gallons were discharged; approximately 12,000gallons of#2 diesel was removed
:£Tomthe tank and surrounding area. Removal operations were conducted by
constructing a temporary pipeline to a tank barge. Efforts to identify and remove
lingering pollution continue.
.
At the Dynergy Venice facility in Venice, LA two tanks ruptured. 25,000 gallons
discharged; 19,000gallons were recovered. Efforts to identify and remove lingering
pollution continue.

Other Significant Incidents:
.
-
An integrated tug and barge struck a submerged oil platform
that was sunk by Hurricane Rita. Unknown amount of oil discharged (possibly up to
3 million gallons). 1,400,000gallons has been recovered. Another approximately 2
million gallons have been lightered :£Tomthe damaged vessel. The barge has been
towed to a shipyard and is undergoing inspection prior to disposal. The responsible
party reports response expenditures to date of approximately $36 million. CG
OSLTF funding ceiling currently at $450K with $360,000 expended against the
ceiling to date. The responsible party's limit of liability is $11.7 million. They have
contacted the National Pollution Funds Center regarding the submission of an excess
ofliability claim against the OSLTF

[tufsu1]

Well I guess it turns out that the off shore drilling DOES lead to environmental spills and ruin the beaches.

Who woulda thunk it?

I'm sorry.  Where does it say that the storm caused off shore drilling platforms to leak oil in this article?

head...meet sand!

[apvbguy]

The oil industry has been touting their safe rigs. Even if we take the oil industry at it's word, where the heck do you think the oil goes to shore? Oil pipelines along the Gulf coast bottom create a network coming ashore to storage and refineries. If we have east coast oil wells off Florida and Georgia those pipelines will come ashore somewhere near us. Storage tanks and industrial facilites are needed. Where will they be put?

the facts are that the large pipeline systems in the gulf region have now survived 3 major storms and there was minimal leakage from them.
as this article noted there will be accidents and these accidents will happen regardless of where the facilities are, as long as we are dependent on oil for energy we need to have the ability to move supplies of oil and have refineries to process the oil.
ships and pipelines are how the oil is brought to the refineries and the products distributed from the refineries, and unfortunately it isn't a perfect system but it's what we have.
if you have a better plan there are a lot of people who would gladly listen to any viable ideas that could alter the current reality