Drill, baby, drill,,oops!

No affect, Valdez had no affect, the Coal Mine Disaster had no effect..

Money drives it..
Pure and simple

 

If you are determined to see only the down side you will succeed. I don't see it quite so dismally.

1) The response of volunteers and hired workers made a huge difference. A lot of hard work paid off greatly. By focusing on just a couple of major politicians and ignoring the thousands of workers the real story of overlooked. They are now educated first hand on oil drilling consequences. There is a long term, but under the radar effect of this widespread understanding.

2) The MMS will get overhauled. Remains to be seen how much, but the old days are over.

3) Drilling in the Gulf will not return to business as usual. Keep in mind that a whole lot of areas (close to Florida) were to be opened and leased. No way this happens as originally envisioned.

You know its a mistake to look to politicians and industry for the changes needed, so don't look there. Look at the "below the radar" movements that don't get media attention, but do show up as major issues and legislation changes over the next few years.

 

Wish I could be more optimistic, but Americans still are buying more and bigger gas guzzlers at an alarming rate.

 

We learned the new boss is the same as the old boss. That MMS is corrupt and does not protect the interest of the people. That BP is a bad corporate citizen and values speed above safety. Oh wait, we knew that before.

 

"drill baby drill." Well after this whole oil incident, who disagrees that sarah palin is an idiot

 

There are two seperate issues here, the drain on non-renewable energy and the water pollution.

If you take issue with the drain on non-renewable energy, that's been talked of elsewhere, many times.

If you take issue with the water pollution, I beleive your problem should be with the losers who ran the rig, not with drilling itself. Had everything been normal, this would never have happened. For obvious reasons, BP had failsafes in place, and had they been allowed to do their jobs, they would have drained the non-renewable energy and moved on. The rig blew up because the idiots who ran it ch33ted. They didn't want to deal with shutting down the rig for a few minutes to check the saftey valves, so they invented a process called Chart Spinning to shortcut the tests. Result - BOOM! Those guys should do time for everything from first degree murder to illegal dumping :yell:

@Austin: As I recall, BP brought in an outside company to handle the rigs. There's a lot of politics surrounding that event and those involved.

 

The rig was rented. There are three companies BP, Transocean, and Haliburton. Transocean employees were over ruled by BP on safety procedures and the rig replaced drilling mud with seawater. MMS approved numerous short cuts including allowing drilling without a specific emergency plan, and changes to pipe that should have raised red flags. Transocean provided bp with a schematic of the blow out protector that did not match the protector. BP has repeatedly violated safety rules in their refineries, including violating court orders in texas city where other deaths have occurred. I agree criminal charges should be brought, but I doubt they will.

 

Ah. Thanks, I'll have to look into that.

 

Anyone with authority should be tacked to the wall... particularly at BP where malfeasance is simply SOP.

 

It does no good to "go get more" of any type of energy, unless you are efficient and conservative with what you presently have. Using nuclear (fission) power to produce electricity is like using a chainsaw to cut butter - it is overkill and makes a mess. Efficiency and conservation are far more cost effective.

 

NOAA says that PacMan gobbled all the oil.
There is no longer any oil spill.
So why do we need any safety measures if crude disappears after a month?
Drill baby drill .There is no downside.
You believe everything NOAA says ,like it was gospel.NOAA would never alter facts to fit a political agenda.
But there are DENIERS who say theres a 70 mile blanket of crude on the ocean floor.

 

Who would have thunk? No wonder the judgment against Exxon re: Exxon Valdez spill was reduced to a mere pittance. And all those people affected around the Prince William Sound were probably in some delusion when their town died along with all that wildlife.

 

What town died?

 

Cordova, Alaska. Perhaps not dead, but forever changed, and never recovered its herring production. This year (2010) Cordova opened shrimp fishing for the first time since 1989 (21 years later).

BBC News - Alaska town slowly heals after 1989 Exxon Valdez spill

 

^ changed yes, far from dead.

 

^ Tsk, you're right of course. Drill, baby, drill!!

 

^ tisk, working on it.