Drill, baby, drill,,oops!

Marginal effect is my guess. Most people who are concerned about the eco/enviro damage are already against drilling.

 

Perhaps more people will become aware of environmental damage, and not blithely dismiss it as 'doomsday rantings' of 'tree-huggers'.

edit: Is Sarah going to say "Burn, baby, burn" now?

 

nice speech by p.o. yesterday in idaho re: wind power, i think he's on the right track. can't figger these guys out tho, now that ted's dead, looks like the nantucket sound thingy is a go. talking to my neighbor's the other day, solid democrats, he's a doctor, she's a selectman here in town. they actually mowed "bush be gone" in their field, which was caught on sattelite on google maps. so he says to me, we looked into solar panels, i said, that's great, i am to. don't bother, he says, they're twenty grand and won't pay for themselves. now these two have way more money than they know what to do with. i tell him that there are more benefits to solar energy than payback and start to explain about the prius. yeah, e says, cutting me off, i see you have two. and i try to explain about pollution and promoting new technologies and gas prices will probably go up. and he cuts me off again and says, well, even tho they don't pay for themselves, at least they make you feel good about yourself. and by now, i'm looking for a shovel or something to whack him upside the head with. course, he drives a porche and she a mercedes. sometimes, you just have to know when to quit.

 

Don't give up. Ask him how the cars pay for themselves. And maybe what oxygen is worth to him.

 

Absolutely. I think offshore drilling ban is more because of NIMBYism than tree huggers. So is the opposition to nukes.

Wonder what happens when Peak oil starts hitting hard. I'd be surprised if drilling limits are gone lifted everywhere in a decade - not that it will bring in much oil.

 

They have simply got to get that well plugged quickly.

Burning the oil slick (which might begin soon) has not been done on such a scale before I think. It would, unfortunatley, lead to the kind of video that media loves to tease with before commercial breaks.

 

what are they doing with the waste in europe?

 

I was actually drifting for offshore drilling before this accident. I was under the impression that it had become safe enough and liability was enough to keep them from taking big risks. I was wrong.

I liked the idea of the oil money staying here and the jobs being here as well. The energy security was also a benefit. But with this type of accident shows the technology to control the wellhead that deep is just not ready. Clearly the plan and the backup plan for stopping the flow were wishful thinking. The damage could be so severe that some areas may not recover for decades if this oil makes it to shore. It is already doing great damage now.

 

The French make heavy use of reprocessing, which reduces the amount of waste by a large percentage. However, I think that it might actually enrich the waste, so it's somewhat more dangerous. There's a lot less of it though. Here in the states we currently don't reprocess spent fuel rods, but I don't know why.

 

I am all for Nuclear Energy, as long as it is 93,000,000 miles away.
Sort of the ultimate NIMBYer.

 

besides the oil rig disaster, we also have several families coal miners in West VA and Oli refinery workers in WA who mourning the loss of loved ones all from incidents in the too recent past.

let me ask you this; after a coal mine is dead and gone, what is the environmental impact of what is left behind? same with an oil refinery or oil well?

think about that then lets think about what is left behind when a wind farm is no longer wanted (i did not say "not needed" as some people cant always discern the difference!!)

or solar panels?? now we are not talking about what materials and messes that were created when these products were manufactured since all products have a degree of that to contend with. i am sure that wind and solar would have a much bigger footprint simply because there needs to be so many more of them

besides that, we also need to look at what they would be replacing which would be a POV system that runs on fossil fuels which is where half of the displaced oil would have gone. (coal could easily be wiped out completely)

so that means a huge supply of natural resources, many many many people to retool and realign several major industrial areas. that will take MILLIONS of workers.

so we do have drawbacks. people dont grow on trees. so now... where do we get all these people??


**edit**

sorry, got carried away and completely forgot why i was posting to begin with... a carbon tax is essentially what Europe has been doing for years. that is why gas is so expensive and that is also why they have dozens of very high mileage options that we dont. now their carbon tax in Germany paid for the greatest renewable energy system in world, in France it paid for the nuclear industry, in most other countries it simply paid for health care and roads and efficient EFFECTIVE mass transit.

but why would "we" need any of that?

 

Did you notice that BP has seemed to pull all their "pro-environmental" ads from TV? Once again, the risk vs. reward has shown the reality. We need the oil and so does China. Maybe we need to invade South America and drain them of their underground resources and let our sandy beaches remain tourist strongholds. I don't know the answer either but I'm glad I have a Prius with fuel about $3.00/gal. here in FL.

 

salt in the wounds;

as a footnote...due to increased oil prices on crude, Exxon announced a 39% increase in profits for 2010 Q1

nice...

 

Actually the technology is there, the companies feel it is easier to say 'oops, we're sorry' rather than spend the money for the technology.
In Brazil and Norway (Europe?) oil rigs have a installed 'shut off valve' at the well head which is meant to prevent leaks of this sort.
This was not installed in this wellhead as it is not required by US regulations. It is a well known, device, but since it isn't required, it isn't used.
Oil Spill in Gulf of Mexico More Severe Than Estimated, BP Confirms - ABC News