Oil Spill
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This should be BP execs, NOT this bird. Tar-and-feathering is too good for them. This bird wants its life back too ... like Tony Hayward, BP CEO. |
(2010 Jun blog post)
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INTRODUCTION - The sight of the oil coated beaches, birds, sealife, etc. is making me sick. And the thought of all the wholesale destruction of life under the waves of the Gulf of Mexico is enough to turn my stomach inside out. The coral, the fish, the plankton, the shrimp, the sea vegetation, ... and on and on and on ... millions of life forms ... macro and micro. After seeing documentaries of amazing undersea life on the Animal Planet channel these past few weeks, the thought of all that amazing life, that has been here for millions of years, being wiped out --- by some (anonymous?) BP guy's (or guys') egotistical and stupid, short-sighted decision to take shortcuts on such a risky drilling venture --- is just CRIMINAL!!! Even more sickening is the relative inaction (or anemic, pathetic, half-assed actions) after two months of oil gushing into the Gulf like a volcano --- from the federal government, not just from BP (Brutish Petroleum). Kevin Costner is the only one so far who has made a realistic, common-sense suggestion (and offered his oil-water separator ships) to help cleanup the mess. Sure, they cannot keep up with the flow of over 20,000 barrels per day. But at least they can start reducing the damage. And, as more such ships are put into place, they will offer the only bright spot in this whole sordid spectacle. The oil is gushing in at over 20,000 barrels per day (more than 800,000 gallons per day). There is no stoppage in sight. Even if they stop the gusher tomorrow, the "cleanup" will take many, many months --- if not several years. The cleanup needs to start NOW! Actually, the skimming/vacuuming/separating should have started within days after the rig blew up. Costner for Interior Secretary ... and Energy Secretary! Do you think President Franklin Roosevelt would have stood idly by, HOPING that an oil corporation can stop this oil leak (nay, geyser ... nay, volcano) and cleanup the massive oil plumes? --- a corporation with a high debt-to-equity ratio --- and high debt-to-cash-flow ratio --- i.e. bankruptcy is likely unless they can preserve their Ponzi-style financing. Franklin Roosevelt presided over an amazing buildup of the shipping fleet going into World War II. Remember Liberty Ships? The U.S. was cranking out about two per week. Do you think that Roosevelt would sit around waiting for the oil company to do something? NO. He would help put people to work and at the same time build up a fleet of skimmer/vacuum/separator ships to handle oil spills --- spills from rigs or from ships. Not just for this disaster --- but for future spills as well. Roosevelt would probably put these ships in the care of the Coast Guard. That sure seems logical. And he'd ask for legislation for their future maintenance. There are ships sitting idle, like the 'ghost fleet' in the James River in Virginia. Some of those ships are probably candidates for conversion to separator/vacuum/skimmer ships. And, if none are candidates, then start building such ships from scratch. The U.S. built entire ship assembly lines within a year or thereabout, to build the Liberty ships to supply Europe in the lead up to World War II. For example, there was the build-up of shipyards in Wilmington, North Carolina, seemingly overnight. An effort like that needs to be started now. This is not the last oil spill --- especially as they drill deeper and deeper off shore. And you can bet that there will still be off-shore drilling, even after this fiasco. Furthermore, there are near-weekly oil spills from ships and pipelines and storage facilities. The country needs a fleet of skimmer ships to help protect THE COUNTRY'S resources ... its precious "sea to shining sea". Right now (in 2010) we have a "sea to muck-filled sea". Even if the vacuum/separator/skimmer ships are slow to make a dent in the huge plumes, we have to realize that it is demoralizing to see (and to know) what is happening to the Gulf. It would be uplifting to see something being done to counteract the flow. Where is that storied "American know-how" and "American will" and "American can-do"? Where is Rosie the Riveter when we need her? This is NOT a matter for Congress, at this moment. This is a national emergency of nuclear proportions. This requires action from the Executive branch. We cannot abide the kind of Republican-versus-Democrat arguing that has perverted the legislative process for the past ten-plus years. Action is needed NOW!!! There are funds in the "stimulus package" (for the 2008 economic melt-down) that should be used for this --- on the basis of job creation and on the basis of avoiding another loss of confidence in the financial markets (a huge second dip). |
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Dispersants : The use of chemical dispersants must stop immediately. These are poisons that are going to do even more harm to sea life. Furthermore, they are just going to make it harder to collect the oil from the water. It seems pretty clear that BP is dumping huge amounts of dispersants into the Gulf mainly to try to hide the huge amount of damage being done --- out of sight beneath the waves. "Out of sight, out of mind" is, no doubt, the BP PR (public relations) strategy. Thanks to the U.S. Representative Ed Markey (MA) who insisted that they set up a video camera to continuously show the flow. This reminds BP (Bastards Petroleum), and all of us, of the urgency of this matter --- the urgency of capping and cleanup and the need for on-hand tools-and-procedures for the future. The Arctic : We all know NOW how very hard it is to stop this flow in a temperate climate. Has anyone in the government stopped to think about how hard it would be to stop (and cleanup) a similar accident in the Arctic? Try to imagine dealing with a blow-out like this --- in 24-hour darkness and in temperatures around 75 degrees below zero. For all we know, there has been a similar accident --- but there are no tourist beaches and fisheries on the Alaskan north slope to alert us to the problem. And if there is no [publicized] explosion and loss of life in an accident, there is no notification of catastrophe coming from that quarter. There should be an immediate cessation of rigs being setup in the Arctic and the Alaskan 'North Slope' in water more than 30 feet deep, say. Doomed to Repeat History : I have mentioned in another blog post ( an email to Jim Cramer, CNBC, 2008 ) that the beaches of southern California in the 1960's were covered with tar balls. You could not walk more than a few steps on Malibu beach without getting tar on your feet. The tar balls were about a foot apart on average. When I returned around the year 2000 (about 35 years later), the beaches were clean. They had severely curtailed off-shore drilling. But now we are doomed to repeat history, because our lawmakers have forgotten this episode --- or are not even aware of it. The drill-baby-drill-ers ( Sarah Palin ; Gov. Bob McDonnel of Virginia ; Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi ; Senator John Boehner of Ohio ; Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia among many others) are blissfully and conveniently unaware of what happened in California in the 1950 to 2000 period. They are going to lead us into a repeat of tar-balled beaches --- and even greater damage under the waves. |
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Similarity to Challenger disaster : I have not seen any news outlet yet pointing out the similarity of this disaster to the Challenger space shuttle disaster (explosion). In that case, a rubber O-ring was found to be the cause of an fuel leak that led to the explosion. In that case, a night of near freezing weather at the Florida rocket site led to compromise of that rubber ring. In this BP oil spill disaster, we are also told of freezing temperature of the water at the depth of 5,000 feet --- and of the chunks of the rubber 'grommet' that made up part of the pressure control apparatus ... chunks which came up out of roiling waters just before the explosion. It seems very likely that this pressure control apparatus (in particular, its rubber components) were never properly tested in freezing water conditions. This really leads to concern about off-shore wells in the Arctic area (see above). Who is this BP guy??? The reports are that a BP guy (what's his name? where is his picture?) pressured a Transocean (drilling contractor) guy to take a shortcut --- to not put drilling mud on top of hardening concrete to make sure the concrete hardens properly and to temporarily seal up the well before production procedures start. I saw an interview of BP survivors (on the Anderson Cooper show, about 13 Jun 2010) in which they mention this argument. But who is that BP @$$hole and where was he during the explosion? Why wasn't that asked? Was this guy an executive who flew in, had the argument, and flew out before the explosion? If this guy is still alive, the Executive branch needs to make sure this guy is not in a decision-making position in the BP efforts to mitigate this disaster!!! His name and picture need to be posted for all of America to see. This man is a criminal of the worst sort. He has raped Mother Nature such that her bounty in the Gulf will never be the same. A clueless BP executive : A BP executive --- Doug Suttles (to be added to my Wall of Shame) --- was asked by a TV reporter, who was with him in a helicopter flight: "Why has clean up technology been so neglected in the past 40 years ... since the 1960's?" "Events like this advance the technology. There have been so few big spills. Events have not driven the development." Suttles says this even though he has just been asked about how BP could claim ... in their application to the MMS (Mining and Minerals Service) of the Interior Department ... that BP has controls and procedures in place to handle any such disaster. His statement above essentially admits that BP (Bullsh*t Petroleum) lied on the application. Suttles did the usual BP defensive 'gobbling'. I would not be surprised if this is the same BP (Barbarian Petroleum) man who insisted that the drilling-mud not be applied during the concrete hardening process. Both of those BP (Blobby-water Petroleum) men should be stoned and tarred-and-feathered and drawn-and quartered. And if they are the same man, then we can save some stones, tar, and feathers --- for the next oily A-hole.
I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico : I grew up on the Gulf of Mexico, in Corpus Christi, Texas. This is just sickening for me to see. I have been to New Orleans and feel sorry for what those people and that coastline and that offshore area are going to go through. Short-sighted state-tourism hawkers : In the early weeks after the BP rig explosion, representatives of Florida and Mississippi (Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi ; link above) went on TV and advised the potential tourists of the U.S. that their respective state beaches were still clear. Disgusting! Did they think that those huge oil plumes, that were getting bigger and bigger by the hour, with no end in sight, were not ever going to leave a trace on their beaches? Instead of wasting their time on pretending the inevitable is not going to occur, they should be pressing the Executive branch to start building vacuum/separator/skimmer ships. They should be pressing for long-term emergency readiness for oil rig and oil tanker spills. This is not the last time they are going to see spills --- especially with all the deep-water rigs out in the Gulf. Assholes, assholes, everywhere. (To be chanted to the meter of "Water, water, everywhere.") I have gained many more candidates for names and pictures for my Wall of Shame page (link to go here). SUMMARY : Sprout some balls, President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Energy Secretary Steven Chu --- and do what Kevin Costner is suggesting. We need a fleet of oil-spill response ships. We need a glimmer of hope in this BP spill --- and for future spills and blow-outs. We do not need more 'bipartisan' words-with-no-action. We do not need any more foot-dragging by the 'friends of the oil industry' in Congress and the Executive branch. We need
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FOR MORE INFO : For any one wishing to follow up on the BP oil spill issues, here are some WEB SEARCH links on keywords: |
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Page was posted 2010 Jun 15.
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More interpretations of BP, besides Brutish Petroleum :
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Before 1950 ---
and after 2050.