The tools that were used three decades ago — dispersants, Coast Guard cutter-towed booms, and centrifuge pumps — have barely evolved since with almost no new tools added to the process. That is an amazing fact, especially when Norway had developed an efficient and eco-friendly oil recovery system in the Euroskimmer by the late 1970s. But the Euroskimmer with its catamaran hull and “disc-adhesion” oil collecting device was abandoned some years later due to a lack of use. So after six weeks of failing to contain the oil spill, let alone clean it up, neither BP nor the U.S. government had any plan in place to cleanup a major oil spill. ..... ..... One area has seen the billions of dollars made by the supmajors invested in new technology to drill deeper and extract oil in harder to reach places, but not in mitigating the risk of a potential catastrophic failure. Hundreds of millions of dollars more have gone toward upgrading old technology: GPS, geology mapping software, sensors, wireless connectivity. Nothing, however, was spent to improve the “tools” used to cleanup oil spills, which were used in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico in 1979.
I think that with new technologies, the cleanup of this mess will take much less time and cause far less sustained ecological (but probably not economical, due to its location close to wider and more populated coastline) damage than the equivalent of Exxon-Valdez. Engineers of BP and other companies will do most of the work, but Obama and Democrats will take the credit for successes and "kicking ass".
Any kind of boom would help. I watched the loggers on their booms in Canada...Very cool...
Which brings to light the overriding reason to delay, bringing so much catch into the refinery system already operating at a specific price point would create havoc.
I mean really, who wants dollar a gallon gasoline?
They could have burned it off.
But there’s no money to be made from that.
Now the guys who invested in dispersants sure are sitting pretty!
If you dig a little deeper you will find NALCO is also associated with Warren Buffett, Maurice Strong, Al Gore, Soros, Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hathaway Berkshire.
Goldman-Sachs, Blackstone, and Apollo are all involved in NALCO.
Arab-Americans’ investments in companies that were aligned closely with key Chicago and Illinois politicians (including former Governor Rod Blagojevich).
Arab-American businessman, Ali Atta, had ties to Nalco.
Ping.
The idea is not to correct the situation until it destroys the States surrounding the Gulf. Problem with this is that if the blowout oil ends up in the Atlantic, it’s going to bankrupt the North East and the Elitist Base of the Demoncrats.
Once the Unions have to be shut down because the water is befouled, they’re not going to be very happy with their president.
Just last week, this guy in Maine said he can make all the boom that the Coast Guard needs, but nobody's buying.
-PJ