When it blows

[Bull]

With the burning of the oil in the gulf, I have a few concerns.
I know and knew some people who were greatly affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It seems like so long ago. 1989. The Supreme court finally ruled and people devastated by the negligence of this coroperation finally recieved their "compensation" 23 years later. The "compensation" after the courts got done was about ten cents on the dollar.

So here we are twenty four years later and I see it happening it again. It saddens me. I see the government hasn't done some of the things that were learned. They are supposed to have an environmental assessment team on site immediately. Yet it seem all they are worried about is what happens if the oil reaches shore and not the damage to the wildlife in the ocean. If you like shrimp I would be eating it sooner than later.

While I realize burning is the best way to handle the oil slick and it is better to keep it off shore, it's just the idea that this is nothing more than the cost of doing business. Just as with the Massey mine calamity.

I was wondering after the supreme court ruling, where corporations have the rights of an individual shouldn't they now have the same responsibility. If you spill oil in the water from a fishing boat you can lose your boat. I just think it is time that the people incharge of these corporations be held responsible. If the corporation is neglectful then the officers and board members should be charged.

I am more or less just venting here but would like to here what everyone thinks.

[darroll]

I don’t blame people and businesses… But….
If I was in the oil business I would of already figured out a way to scoop the oil back out of the water if we had a spill.
Talk about putting YOURSELF out of a job.
It will be a cold day in hell when this country will allow anymore off-shore drilling.
Russia is getting ready to drill for oil off of Cuba.
Does their equipment work better than ours?

[WS]

This from the New York TImes this morning:

WASHINGTON — In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow.

And Darroll I do blame people and business. From everything I have read BP is notorious for cutting corners to save money. They routinely do not keep emergency equipment near their drill sites etc. I hope it IS the end of off-shore drilling and only wish that Ms Palin had had some property in the way of this slick so she could benefit from her own wise words.

[Bull]

I find it somewhat ironic that Walter Hickle the man who was sec. of interior when the Santa Barbara offshore rig blew out in 1969 died yesterday.

http://www.salon.com/wires/us/2010/05/08/D9FISS200_us_obit_walter_h...
Hickel imposed stringent cleanup regulations on oil companies and water polluters after an oil rig explosion off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. He also fought to save the Everglades from being destroyed by developers and advocated for making Earth Day a national holiday.

He was not quite the man President Nixon thought him to be. Nixon soon fired him after he spoke out against the way Nixon was treating the Vietnam protester after Kent State shooting, which took place 40 years ago last Tuesday.

We better hope it works tomorrow, or the next day.
By HARRY R. WEBER and SARAH LARIMER, Associated Press Writers Harry R. Weber And Sarah Larimer, Associated Press Writers – 1 hr 28 mins ago

ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – A novel but risky attempt to use a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it, an ominous development as thick blobs of tar began washing up on Alabama's white sand beaches.

The setback left the mission to cap the ruptured well in doubt. It had taken about two weeks to build the box and three days to cart it 50 miles out then slowly lower it to the well a mile below the surface, but the frozen depths were too much for it to handle.

Still, BP officials overseeing the cleanup efforts were not giving up just yet on hopes that a containment box — either the one brought there or a larger one being built — could cover the well and be used to capture the oil and funnel it to a tanker at the surface to be carted away. Officials said it would be at least Monday before a decision was made on what next step to take.

"I wouldn't say it's failed yet," BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles said. "What I would say is what we attempted to do ... didn't work."

[CWO3ROBBIE]

What is the meaning of failed?

[Bull]

Nit picker

[WS]

Seems like BP needs a few nitpickers to me! (wink!) And why would a larger box not get covered in ice crystals?

[CWO3ROBBIE]

In this case, maybe we need to think "Inside the Box"

[Bull]

I see the congressional hearings have started. Much finger pointing, I'm sure that will be the defense and yes don't trust

BP saying they will be responsible. Let me be really clear," Lamar McKay, chairman of BP America, told the hearing. "Liability, blame, fault — put it over here." He said: "Our obligation is to deal with the spill, clean it up and make sure the impacts of that spill are compensated, and we're going to do that."

By "over here," McKay meant the witness table at which BP, Transocean and Halliburton executives sat shoulder to shoulder. And despite his acknowledgment of responsibility, each company defended its own operations and raised questions about its partners in the project gone awry

[Bull]

I was thinking about this disaster, and the liability cap. Is this what is called tort reform? Why do theses corporations, who the Supreme Court now considers people, not face the same unlimited liability responsibility we as people do?

[WS]

I already suggested this!! (Remember Capital punishment!!) I agree! It is ridiculaous. Throw the whole company in jail!

[Bull]

WS, I agree, there should be a corporate death penalty. Break them up sell them off, when gross negligence can be proved, especially when there is a proven coprporate culture and history of this sort of action.

[Bull]

Somehow I am not surprised
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100514/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
In the fateful hours before the Deepwater Horizon exploded about 50 miles off the Louisiana shore, a safety test was supposedly performed to detect if explosive gas was leaking from the mile-deep well.

While some data were being transmitted to shore for safekeeping right up until the blast, officials from Transocean, the rig owner, told Congress that the last seven hours of its information are missing and that all written logs were lost in the explosion. Earlier tests that suggested explosive gas was leaking were preserved.

The gap poses a mystery for investigators: What decisions were made — and what warnings might have been ignored?

"There is some delay in the replication of our data, so our operational data, our sequence of events ends at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on the 20th," Steven Newman, president and CEO of Transocean Ltd, told a Senate panel. The rig blew up at 10 p.m., killing 11 workers and unleashing the gusher.

Houston attorney Tony Buzbee, who represents several rig workers involved in the accident, questioned whether what he called "the phantom test" was even performed



Buzbee said that when Halliburton showed BP PLC and Transocean officials the results of the pressure tests that suggested gas was leaking, the rig workers were put on "standby." BP is the rig operator and leaseholder.

Buzbee said one of his clients told him the "Transocean and BP company people got their heads together," and 40 minutes later gave the green light.