Over a month later and no progress has been made. hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil work their way into marshes and around the coast. How long until it hits Florida and moves its' way around here?

If you haven't seen this interview with the BP CEO Tony Heyward, you should watch it. He doesn't seem like a sleazeball to me, but he does seem incredibly clueless and lost.



This might not be sad to all of you, but some of you will totally feel for these animals.

Yeah, it's a terrible tragedy. I hope BP gets sued into oblivion because of this, and their subsequent actions ordering around local police and the Coast Guard to restrict access to areas where people want to see how bad the damage is.

Makes me very sad to see these innocent animals die or have their habitats destroyed.

What gets under my skin now is the government saying "We're no oil experts".

Well, my faithful government, who the fuck made you car experts? Yes sir, so quickly we forget the government tasked NASA to investigate the electrical problems of a fucking CAR.

I have no problem equating this oil spill to that of an asteroid hurtling at the planet. It needs to be fixed. Surely there is something that we can create that will solidify after exposure to oil, or to water. We pump that shit into the tube. Donesky. Or, since we've already got a tube in there, why not feed something akin to a balloon through it and into the cavern they're sucking the oil from, then inflate it, plugging the hole?

Again, I'm not sure of the schematics of it all, maybe the oil is leaking from around the pipe, and not just the pipe itself? The only images I've seen are of oil leaking from one pipe, which I find a ludicrous problem. A company that makes billions of dollars can't figure out how to stop a leaking pipe? Call a plumber. I hear these guys do a great job:

_________________

What makes me pissed is how politicians that were against drilling in the Gulf changed their tune in the face of "Drill baby drill!" when they saw that voters were buying into a false, churned up, tug on your patriotic knee jerk heart strings type of hype. The right droned on about how safe it is to drill, how misguided Dems were when they said that we shouldn't, and how if you were a true American you'd support drilling our own oil (don't pay attention to how little of that oil would be kept in house though). Just sadly funny to me that anyone who said that the potential environmental impact out weighed the benefit of drilling off shore was made to be an anti-American fool.

_________________

I understand feeding the global economy, though it's still frustrating for some things. I think we should keep our own oil. Other things, like produce, I understand. We export the global majority of nearly all your popular produce (asparagus, corn, beans, apples, strawberries, oranges, etc), but when you go to the store, you find your asparagus is from Peru, your apples are from Chile, your strawberries from Honduras, and so on and so forth.

_________________

Which has absolutely nothing to do with this incident / well / rig.

You know, since special permission to drill was given by the Obama administration.
Oh yeah...it was also the Obama administration that exempted BP from a legal requirement that it produce a detailed environmental impact study on the possible effects of the Deepwater Horizon well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 04118.html

_________________
Hold my beer and watch this...

Ugh...here we go again. Did I say it did? Just saying what botheres me...sorry, I won't do that anymore.



Didn't I specifically say that I was pissed at Dems? Way too early for this shit.

_________________

You brought politics into this discussion (no one else did).
Don't lament being called out on it after the fact.
Christ.

_________________
Hold my beer and watch this...

Being called on something is fine...if there is something to be called on. Your knee jerk gum flapping is a hoot.

When I say "Man them Dems piss me off" and then you say "Hey, it was the Dems fault moron!" I can't help but do a mental face palm. Bravo.

_________________

It's a fucking disaster. I don't understand why the oil companies didn't have a plan set in place if an oil leak ever happened.

_________________
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

I never called you a name and you never said the Dems piss you off. In fact you implied this was somehow the fault of the right wing "drill baby drill" mentality.


What is this opposite day or something?


The problem here is, yes, there are lots of government regulations around drilling, but the government allowed the industry to impose and verify those regulations themselves. Case in point is the blowout preventer that failed. The design and manufacture of those is completely regulated by the industry itself.

IMO the entire MMS department, from top to bottom, needs to be thrown out on their ears.
They're too cozy with oil people...they've accepted too many gifts and trips and they just plain don't care. It's a full on culture of corruption.

_________________
Hold my beer and watch this...

It does seem kind of funny doesn't it? Like some kind of contingency plan for "If shit hits fan". In the military we have a plan for EVERYTHING ranging from terrorist threats to heavy rain. Seems that if your entire job is getting oil from the bottom of the sea then you'd have some plan for this kind of thing.

_________________

Was paraphrasing, deal.



Yup, didn't say that Dem's pissed me off with their flip flopping. I'm allowed to be pissed of at the Republicans AND the Democrats Cross...it's like hockey. I HATE the Bruins but man was I pissed at the Sabres for losing like that.

The reason drilling went ahead in part IS because of the Drill Baby Drill mentality, and I was commenting on how sad it is that the very people who were once saying that we need to drill and that said people who are against drilling are anti-American etc etc are now back peddling and trying to place the blame solely (in the political arena) on the Dems. Oh trust me, the Dems are spineless morons who piss all over their ideals when the slightest bit of disfavor comes up (IMO). I'm just saying that the whole thing is a snafu and the roles people played and are playing on both sides are humorous to me. My statements are from being a little thread worn by how the media and politicians use EVERYTHING that happens to try and blacken the eye of their opponent. People from both sides of the aisle are at fault for this mess but no one wants to take even the slightest bit o' blame. The big picture here however is the disaster and how and when it will get corked.

_________________

argh. its a fuckin disgrace. its really sad that so many animals will die due to this. i really hope this wakes us up and accelerates the process of weening ourselves off fossil fuels.

_________________

Politics does play into this spill because business and politics cannot be separated and compartmentalized. The oil companies give millions to politicians, and they bought themselves a nice buddy-buddy relationship with the government, whether it's lead by Democrats or Republicans. Drilling itself is a political issue in that the government regulates who can drill and where. You just can't tell me that politics doesn't factor into both this spill and the debate about drilling in general.

Geez, would you guys just fuck and get it over with already? This sexual tension is KILLIN me!

i'd watch that.



what?

_________________

I hope to god that's a Community reference.

_________________

The problem is there are emergency contingency plans, but something like this is so hard to plan for that the clean up wasn’t part of it. There should be federal and international regulations on how to deal with oil spills in water like this. Every company involved in deep water drilling should be forced to put money in a separate account each month for each rig in place. That money should be untouchable until either a) the rig completes its work and is removed safely, or b) an accident like this happens and there is money there.

It also should be law that there should be at least two plans to stop a leak and clean it up. I see no reason a leach pipe/hose shouldn’t be installed on the oil pipes. In an event like this in deepwater, the hose could be turned on and it could funnel oil into a tanker, spilling a few thousand barrels before it was stopped. All failsafes should be checked monthly and tested four times a year.

Plans to stop leaks should be complete, ready to start, and updated/reviewed every 2 years by a panel of contracted engineers (i.e. not working with that gas company) and approved by the federal government. In case of a spill, there should be a minimum of two plans to control the spill, and they should be started concurrently, so no time is lost in case the first plan fails.

When I think of after the spill is contained, and the millions (this isn’t an exaggeration) of man hours that will be volunteered by those who care, I get a little frustrated. Exxon-valdez wasn’t responsible for compensating volunteers and they absolutely should have been. I think BP should have to set up a program that feeds, houses, and pays the people that put their lives on hold and go to clean up. I also think the feds should consider tax breaks for those who go clean or student loan forgiveness is another option.

If BP set up a program like that, which would ultimately show their dedication to clean up, I would be more okay with the fine they will surely face being lower than it should be. Exxon-valdez paid billions less of their fine than the original amount for reasons unknown to me.

It all comes down to being an accident. A careless, crappy one? Yes. Poorly managed after the fact? Yup- by everyone involved. The feds, BP, and Louisiana all have made mistakes in the clean up and stop project. I’m not for ruining people or companies based on an accident, especially when EVERYONE screws up. They should pay for every bit of clean up and have to compensate for every volunteer hour and every dead animal should be tallied – jellyfish, dolphins, turtles, and insects, so we can show them what they’ve done. Will they feel remorse? Maybe. Probably not. But whatever makes them learn- the loss of money, the toll of deaths, what have you- I hope they will have learned their lesson.

I've been reading stories of reporters and photographers who have been strong-armed away from sites because BP doesn't want more accounts or imagery of the disaster to reach the public. Can't believe they're getting away with it.

Anyways, I've been quietly keeping up on this. The oil has officially reached the marshlands at the Mississippi River delta, and with it comes a huge uncertainty about America. Every single migratory song bird stop in the delta on the way down to Mexico or South America, there are a ton of commercial fisheries off the delta where a significant number of seafood comes from. Hell, the shrimp fishing industry off the coast is completely shot to shit after this as shrimp fishers fight the oil.

This ordeal is slowly going to affect a lot of us, even if the oil physically doesn't.

_________________
mechaphil