Why no oil spill threads?!

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Covar

Covar

I was waiting for the federal governments response...


In all seriousness. It's just low priority news for me.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

I think it was mentioned in the Rant thread.

What is the main problem is that BP/the contractors did not have a working blowout valve on the well. As soon as the explosion happened the well should have been shut down, and the fire would have gone out. But the "Christmas Tree"/blow out valve failed. So now we have to wait for another crew to be put together and another rig sailed to the location, to cap the well, which will take at least a month. In shallower water divers would have cut the casing and placed another valve on the well, which would have taken a week or so.

I hope they hire the fishermen that have been put out of work by this to clean up the spill. It is low skill work that can be learned on the job. I know, it is how I paid for college.
 
E

Element 117

It was your turn to post the thread, @li3n, you're way late.
 
SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Troll said:
I love this whole "this is just like Katrina!" nonesense that has been going on.
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It's undeniably bad. Horribly so. It's just not (yet) the level of unmitigated disaster that Katrina was.

In a month, with all that oil pouring into the ocean at a rate that would make the Exxon Valde feel inadequate, we'll see.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

Krisken said:
I give these guys credit, these guys push their agenda no matter how against them public opinion is.

It amazes me how these guys can push an agenda no matter how unadvisable it is.
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it is reality. We can not wean ourselves off oil and have growth in the economy. There will need to be drilling to keep up with current demand, AND we need to work to lessen our dependence on oil.

There has been great strides in offshore safety. We just have no idea why the Blow Out Preventers failed. It has been 30 years since a well has leaked like this in the Gulf.

I am a bit shocked that there was no plan in place to handle a deep water emergency like this. Then again, the submersibles were on scene with in a day or two to close the broken well head/Blow Out Preventer.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

sixpackshaker said:
it is reality. We can not wean ourselves off oil and have growth in the economy.
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Measuring the economy by growth alone is one of the main reasons why boom and bust cycles exist...


sixpackshaker said:
There has been great strides in offshore safety. We just have no idea why the Blow Out Preventers failed. It has been 30 years since a well has leaked like this in the Gulf.
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But accidents on rigs are pretty common: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8639332.stm

Since 2001, 858 fires and explosions have broken out on oil and gas industry facilities in the Gulf of Mexico, killing more than 55 workers, according to the US Minerals Management Service.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Covar;381178][QUOTE=@Li3n;381151][QUOTE=sixpackshaker said:
it is reality. We can not wean ourselves off oil and have growth in the economy.
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Measuring the economy by growth alone is one of the main reasons why boom and bust cycles exist... [/QUOTE]
Rather that then flatlining.[/QUOTE]

Not exactly what i meant... the problem is that an economy that's growing could easily be heading straight into a crash, but people won't care.

But flatlining is probably less socially disrupting then crashing.
 
PatrThom

PatrThom

sixpackshaker said:
I hope they hire the fishermen that have been put out of work by this to clean up the spill. It is low skill work that can be learned on the job. I know, it is how I paid for college.
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[Fishermen] Sign a contract with BP saying they will "hold harmless and indemnify … release, waive and forever discharge the BP Exploration and Production, Inc., its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, regular employees, and independent contractors … from all claims and damages" arising from helping to clean up the mess that BP has made.

It made some waves.

Also: Large air spill at wind farm.

--Patrick
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Well to be fair, they have been trying to fix it. And there were supposedly 3, 4 backup plans in case this happened, but they all backfired. Then their attempt to cap the leak was unsuccessful. So steps have been taken... no useful ones so far, though. :( And if it was caused by a device over which they had little control, they might be able to get answers from whoever made it. Hopefully this will amount to more than just finger pointing, but it's not looking great right now.
 
C

Chibibar

Cajungal said:
Well to be fair, they have been trying to fix it. And there were supposedly 3, 4 backup plans in case this happened, but they all backfired. Then their attempt to cap the leak was unsuccessful. So steps have been taken... no useful ones so far, though. :( And if it was caused by a device over which they had little control, they might be able to get answers from whoever made it. Hopefully this will amount to more than just finger pointing, but it's not looking great right now.
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I know, but what I'm saying is that fix the problem first and worry about blame game LATER. I think each company is worry about their stock dropping due to this issue (or worst) I saw try to figure out how to fix the problem first.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Oh, no, sure, they're definitely worried about what's happening to their stock. I'm just saying that if looking to another company also leads to some new answers, then great. Otherwise... well, damn.
 
Espy

Espy

Man, I used to do a lot of work for training BP engineers and one of the things we did was go over some huge accident that BP had years back and they talked about how to avoid things like that, do better, etc.


I think they are going to be using this from now on.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Oh, absolutely. It's very very sad. It's a huge tragedy and a waste. And it's awful news for our fishermen as well.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
TeKeo;380810][QUOTE=Troll said:
I love this whole "this is just like Katrina!" nonesense that has been going on.
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It's undeniably bad. Horribly so. It's just not (yet) the level of unmitigated disaster that Katrina was.

In a month, with all that oil pouring into the ocean at a rate that would make the Exxon Valde feel inadequate, we'll see.[/QUOTE]

Setting aside the loss of human life....this is already far far worse than Katrina is, and its just getting worse day by day.

The damages that this causes will be felt for decades to come. Some of the damage is already irrevocable. Frankly this may be the single worst environmental catastrophe America has ever experienced. For myself one of the reasons I haven't been talking about it yet is that its so fucking bad, and they haven't fixed it yet, and worse still the first bet for how to fix it failed.......which is fucking frightening. Its like watching murder in really really slow motion and there being absolutely nothing you can do to stop it.

I refuse to popcorn on this one. I will just sit and wait and hope to god they can fix this.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
^I heard someone call this a "Katrina-like" event, not so much because of the tragedy of it, but because Obama supposedly took a long time to react to it, just like Bush did... or something. I don't really have any comment on that. It's just something I heard.
 
Necronic

Necronic

Staff member
I dont think that people have been slow to respond to it. I think the issue is that this is a completely unprecedented disaster, there is no historical example of anything like this happening. The closes you have is possibly the exxon valdeez, however that was a limited supply, from what I understand this well is for all intents and purposes unlimited in size, and will continue to dump stuff into the ocean.

That's why I can't stand all the conversations about whose fault this is and what could have been done to prevent it. You don't go passing blame for the house burning down while its still burning. You figure out how to fix it. That's what pisses me off so much about how Pacifica has been handling this news. All they can do is pass blame around, they have done little to no reporting on how to fix it.
 
Cajungal

Cajungal

Staff member
Well, considering there was so much uncertainty in those first few days, it seems less annoying that a state of emergency was declared 9 days later. Obama held BP accountable for cleanup. I guess they'd be damned if they did and damned if they didn't. Acting/speaking too early would make some say they were jumping to conclusions. Acting/speaking later must mean they don't care.
 
C

Chibibar

You know, hindsight, it is basically the worst case scenario that many companies think it "never" happen. Everything that could go wrong pretty much went that way. Every current possible fix has backfire or broke. It is pretty much worst case scenario (so far) I believe at this junction, the three (four if you include sub contract) should just join forces and just figure out what to do next. I know it is easier to say "So-and-so equipment failed and thus it is their fault" blah blah blah. If it fail, fine, why it fail and move on. don't spend too much time pointing fingers cause there are a lot of oil leaking into the ocean at alarming rate (120,000 barrels a day? right?) that is one serious leak :(
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
I don't think Obama was necessarily slow to react, but then, I never bought the whole thing about Bush being slow to react to Katrina, either. I'll tell you who was slow to react - the people who STAYED IN NEW ORLEANS, as well as the MAYOR and GOVERNOR.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

GasBandit said:
I don't think Obama was necessarily slow to react, but then, I never bought the whole thing about Bush being slow to react to Katrina, either. I'll tell you who was slow to react - the people who STAYED IN NEW ORLEANS, as well as the MAYOR and GOVERNOR.
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Didn't the levies fail under their stated capabilities?!
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
@Li3n;384507][QUOTE=GasBandit said:
I don't think Obama was necessarily slow to react, but then, I never bought the whole thing about Bush being slow to react to Katrina, either. I'll tell you who was slow to react - the people who STAYED IN NEW ORLEANS, as well as the MAYOR and GOVERNOR.
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Didn't the levies fail under their stated capabilities?![/QUOTE]

Didn't we tell people every day for TEN DAYS IN ADVANCE to GTFO, this one's the big one?
 
Espy

Espy

Yeah but then Bush sneaked out at night and let the air out of peoples tires so they couldn't leave.
 
@Li3n

@Li3n

Don't you do that every hurricane?! And shouldn't that mean that the government should have been preparing themselves for what happened (which they didn't because the water made it so much worse then expected)?

Basically it was a clusterfuck on all sides...
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
@Li3n said:
Don't you do that every hurricane?! And shouldn't that mean that the government should have been preparing themselves for what happened (which they didn't because the water made it so much worse then expected)?

Basically it was a clusterfuck on all sides...
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It's not the federal government's place to be initial emergency response. That falls upon state and local authorities. I don't agree with the reasons behind the existence of FEMA, but even by FEMA's own charter, all they're really supposed to do is show up and write a check for rebuilding once the danger has passed. FEMA is not a rescue service. FEMA is not supposed to build levies.

Also, there was quite a bit of graft going on in Louisiana (surprise surprise) where funds that were supposed to be going to disaster preparation (such as levy reinforcement/repair) were siphoned off by corrupt politicians and organized crime, leaving the levies in a much weaker state than they should have been.
 
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