Posted on 05/27/2010 4:10:30 PM PDT by Kaslin
Here's my question: Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place? Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there.
As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama's tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.)
And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we've had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
So we go deep, ultradeep — to such a technological frontier that no precedent exists for the April 20 blowout in the Gulf of Mexico.
There will always be catastrophic oil spills. You make them as rare as humanly possible, but where would you rather have one: in the Gulf of Mexico, upon which thousands depend for their livelihood, or in the Arctic, where there are practically no people?
All spills seriously damage wildlife. That's a given. But why have we pushed the drilling from the barren to the populated, from the remote wilderness to a center of fishing, shipping, tourism and recreation?
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Excellent point and always worth making.
Who is responsible? Kal Penn.
(IMO)
By all accounts official drilling process and methods was violated by BP upon approval of MMS — Depends on what you think is responsible for the waiver given by MMS to violate standard procedures of offshore drilling. Was it a payback for O campaign contributions? Was it authorized from higher ups? a czar maybe? Was it crony capitalism at it finest?
And then there is this problems with Deepwater Horizons inspection logs?
I suggest we won’t know until after Jan 2011.
It should be pointed out that Brazil has drilled its way to energy independence, in deep water. So its tough, but its do-able.
All the easy stuff is off limits. Now they are going to try and make the difficult stuff off limits too, mark my words. The Brazilians can do it, but we can’t.
We have as much oil shale as the Saudis have oil. We’ve got so much oil off the California coast that it comes bubbling up through the ocean floor. We have as much oil off the arctic coast of Alaska as you’ll find anywhere, and if we don’t drill it the Russians will.
Just like, if we don’t want to drill off Florida, no problem, the Chinese will do it for us. On behalf of Cuba.
The technology for making oil from coal is almost a century old, and its been commercial for half a century anyway. So, why do we have to go a mile deep?
How much longer will we be allowed even to do that?
I remember reading that by the end of WWII the entire German military was run by oil and gasoline made from coal. In addition, I've been hearing since the oil shortages of the 70s, that we have most of the worlds coal right here in the US. It seems like a no brainer that we should not only be liquefying coal but exporting it to pay down our enormous debt. Why can't we do this?
Next, Krauthammer discovers that the federal government is protecting ANWR for the exclusive use of a single species that otherwise already controls 1/4 of Earth's land surface ~ THE REINDEER.
That's right, Reindeer control about as much land as human beings do.
Guess that makes them "special".
Yep, that ten billion is to help Soros’ portfolio.
I read that a University in Texas has developed a process to turn coal into gas at a cost of about 28 dollars a barrel. assuming the barrel is 55 gallons, that works out close to 50 cents a gallon.
Exactly. Obama will do anything to help himself, his friends, and his political allies, regardless of the cost to the hard working people of this country.
The answer, while not obvious, is in plain sight.
We are being forced into ‘green’ technologies. We are going to be taxed to death to pay for technologies that, in the long run, will cause more pollution and provide less ‘energy’. The ‘Al Gore’ crowd has invested into carbon credit trading and ‘green’ technology. They want our tax money to subsidize those technologies, so that they can turn a profit for their investors. They don’t care how efficient their technology is, or even if it actually works. They just want to ensure they are guaranteed a profit, and have a stranglehold on the rights to the technology they will force us to use and pay for.
Wind mills, give me a break. There is technology out there that provides wind power devices that do not obstruct the view, nor cause low frequency vibrations, nor kill birds, nor lose it’s blade.
They are American made. But, we stick with gigantic dangerous propeller windmills that are built in China and half of them are broken.
WHY? Because laws were passed, deals were made, to ensure the profits of these ‘investors’, regardless to the true value of the product.
In short: Follow the money.
The inspection regime created and administered by an army of EPA, INTERIOR and special interest lawyers proved to be inadequate.
In the future the "experts" should call in capable statisticians and quality control experts to ADVISE them on what to do, and what not to do. While they are being instructed the lawyers shold be tied and gagged!
Checking off boxes on a punch list won't do the job when it comes to a complex structure like an oilwell in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico at over a mile deep.
The folks who designed, built and tested the BOP?
You know back in the 50s & 60s the US said we're going to the moon and we did it. Democrats and Republicans committed to this goal and we got it done. Why does it seem that in the last 20 years EVERYTHING seems too hard and mired in red tape. It seems like in order to do anything in this country you have to jump through a million hoops and pay off armies of faceless bureaucrats. No wonder we as a society are going into the ash heap of history, and this kenyan idiot is doing everything in his power to speed up the process.
“I read that a University in Texas has developed a process to turn coal into gas at a cost of about 28 dollars a barrel. assuming the barrel is 55 gallons, that works out close to 50 cents a gallon.”
1. In the oil patch a barrel is 42 gallons.
2. A process was used by Germany in WWII to turn coal into transport fuels. It was subsequently used for plants owned by Sasol in South Africa, and the process is called Fischer-Tropsch. These plants have been onstream since the 1950s.
3. Don’t have any idea what you are writing about, but consider it in light of the facts I pointed out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasol
A Dumm Ass company man on the rig.
Good point. I know this and even I forget this.
When the roof falls in on an apartment building that's the landlord's fault. Same with offshore oilwells ~ the blow out devices fail, that's the landlord's fault!
Given the "ignants" and indolence the federal government brought to bear on this blowout one does wonder what they will do in the Florida Straits when Cuba blows out a well.
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