Jc… Correct… 4 decades of Reaganomics are what’s destroyed this countrys economy….whith you help…. If by some huge mistake that the rightwing gets power back America will look just like Afghanistan…the rightwing agenda is ” let big business run wild”…trust Wallstreet to do the right thing….

libertytrain–And thank you for your common sense!!! Believe me, it is appreciated.

Claire – back at you – I always enjoy reading your posts.

liberytrain–I wonder why the Exxon Vakdez spill did not get all this notoriety? Was that sabotage? Or an accident? What did they ever decide about this?
This BP oil spill is far worse than we can ever imagine.

Egads! “Valdez”

I remember it getting an awful lot of attention – but keep in mind times have changed and if obama gets a sliver – it causes a sensation – now we get continuous news streams -usually with the most negative viewpoints possible. However, as you know and I know, this oil mess is really very bad and a frightening scenario for so many things. I don’t know that we’ll get the truth.

Libertytrain,

I’d bet the industry will get the answer as to what caused this oil leak. They have to know so they can take measures to avoid further incidents. They take situations like this very seriously and will make every reasonable effort to avoid this sort of thing in the future.

George – I certainly hope they do.

Spelling, that’s no ones fault except the people that stayed.

George E –Again!! Thank you for your common sense and rationality. It is always great to hear a voice of reason in these crazy times.

Well, thank you again, Claire. I appreciate your search for truth, fairness and objective reasoning. I wish everyone could come off the political talking points long enough to do the same as you. Thanks.

Claire,

Since Suzanne hasn’t responded to your question, I’ll try to give you an answer.

When the government decides to allow drilling in offshore areas, it draws up a map of these areas and sections it off into parcels. The government then posts a notice letting everyone know it has decided to lease this offshore property for drilling, invites oil and gas companies to bid on each parcel for the right to drill there, and sets a date for companies to submit bids. Then the oil and gas companies that are interested prepare and submit bids for each parcel that they want to drill in. The highest bidders (usually) are awarded leases for those areas and own the exclusive right to drill in them for a specified period of time. No other company can drill there during the lease period.

I hope that answers your question.

George E– Yes, you have answered my question. Thank you. So in reality, there is no money until such time an oil company bids on a parcel. Right? Do you know if any oil company has purchased any parcels?

George.. It appears their wasn’t enough regulations on the offshore rigs to require they have an emergency shutoff valve… I’m not an expert on offshore drilling but I’m told that most international rigs have shutoff valves… I’m also told ( could be misinformed) that Bush sr stripped our offshore drilling rigs of the rewuirment to have those valves… I’m not forgetting how safe the conservatives said offshore drilling was… I’m also convinced the rightwing couldn’t care less how safe drilling is, as long as they’re making Huge profits…

Liberal,

I don’t know if the US government requires drillers to install emergency shutoff values on well heads, or not. Regardless, it would surprise me greatly to find out that this well, and all wells, especially in offshore do not have emergency shutoff values on the well head. Companies almost always put them on onshore wells, so why wouldn’t they install them on more expensive offshore wells? If you had a well that was producing 5000 barrels of oil a day, would you risk losing that production because you chose to not install an emergency shutoff valve? I don’t think so, and you wouldn’t need some government regulation telling you to install one. Also, can you imagine that BP would take a chance of incurring all the expense of cleanup and the terrible publicity this is causing them just to save the expense of an emergency shutoff valve? Not likely. Finally, look at the price BP is paying in the stock market because of this debacle. Their stock has already dropped about 17% in value since this spill first happened, so it’s costing the company and their investors millions of dollars, not to mention the cost of cleanup and the legal costs that will undoubtedly come later. Common sense and reasoning tells me we don’t need a government regulation, if one doesn’t already exist to make oil drilling companies install emergency shutoff valves or other safety equipment on their well heads to protect the environment, their equipment, or their employees.

George E–We do need some regulations or the oil companies would not give a damn about nothing but oil. They probably would not care what they ruined in the process. Sure, maybe I can give them the benefit of a doubt, but money talks and greed is rampant.

Claire,

I really don’t know whether there is already a regulation in place or not requiring drillers to install emergency shutoff valves on their oil wells. Regardless, I’m pretty sure they are installing them anyway just to protect their investment, not to mention to prevent the terrible publicity they could get by doing harm to the environment or their employees. I really doubt that more regulations are needed, but let’s just wait until the facts are learned before passing judgment on this. If we really do need additional regulation, I’m pretty sure our government which is always ready to add more regulation and restrictions to our companies and our lives will quickly put them in place. My fear is that they’ll do it anyway, even though additional regulations may not be necessary.

George E–Yes, we will have to wait and see what happens. Whether or not it will be the truth, who knows? Like I have said before in another post of mine, I haven’t trusted the government for years. Nor do I trust oil companies. Greed is at the root of America’s problems. Nothing will make me believe otherwise.

Claire,

It’s always smart/wise to be skeptical of everyone and everything.

George E– I agree with you on this.

What bothers me is that this well is still pumping out oil way below the surface of the ocean. Thousands/millions of gallons a day. It has to be stopped, Somehow. To me, this is a monumental disaster. I am truly concerned for the fishermen that make their lives fishing. The tourist trade, the marine animals, the wildlife will all suffer. It makes me positively sick.

Claire,

BP is working around the clock to get a bell cover fabricated so they can cover the well and capture the oil that leaks from the well head. At the same time, BP, the US Coast Guard, and other volunteers are trying to control the oil on the surface with various types of barriers and containment and capture equipment. I’m pretty sure this is about as good and fast as can be done under the circumstances.

George E—Yes, I have heard what they are doing. And under the circumstances, working that far below the water must be one heck of a job. I hope and pray they solve the problem ASAP. I heard Limbaugh at noon screaming about burning the oil on top of the ocean? Since oil is still pouring out of the well and rising to the top, wouldn’t that create a horrible explosion? Wouldn’t the fire go right down the path of oil to the well itself and explode?

Claire,

There is no chance of an explosion from burning the crude oil. Conditions will not support an explosion, above or below the surface. Don’t worry about that. However, there is the problem of creating black smoke from the burning oil, but doing that at the rig allows the smoke about 100 miles to dissipate before getting to land, so that shouldn’t cause a problem either.

George E — Okay, I will try to quit worrying then.

I would agree with you (I think) if oil was a renewable resource. [I guess it is renewable if you are willing to wait for millions of years.] Since we need to view it as a nonrenewable/finite resource, I doubt the market should drive our forward direction.

Are you suggesting that since oil is not naturally and practically renewable that the government should own it? If that’s the case, we would never get enough oil out of the ground to do anyone any good. Government owned oil companies just don’t do as well as privately owned companies. They aren’t motivated by profits, so they don’t invest in projects that make money or return on their investment. This is really no different from other government owned enterprises. They just don’t work very well.

That is not what I am suggesting. I think we need to have higher efficiency standards on all energy consuming products and we need to have more research and investment into alternatives to petroleum based energy production.

Doc,

I think I understand better now. Sorry if I took the discussion down the wrong path.

I’m pretty much in agreement with you, especially on the R&D effort. I really don’t have a problem funding more research into alternative sources of fuel. However, I do start to get “heartburn” when the government pushes us to use these alternatives. I’d much rather let the market help us decide when and at what rate to do that. In theory, I’m not afraid of asking our government to do things like this, but I have no confidence they can, and will, do it well. I’m afraid they’ll find some way of screwing it up and sending us the bill. For the same reason, I don’t like the idea of the government telling us what kind of cars/trucks we have to buy and what their fuel efficiencies have to be.

So Doc,
Lets see just how up on this you are, as you may know I endorce the use of Hemp Oil, (of what is 100% renewable,) as well cost pennys on the dollar for production v crude oil.

What that means to everyone is rather than $3.00 per gallon plus or more. Hemp oil would be about $1.50 per gallon and after set up and retooling that amount would drop by half. And by the way hemp oil is {100% Renewable.}
But what that means is that Hemp / Pot will need to be legal.

Plus the fact that Hemp seeds are a better form of protein than beef, and again (100% Renewable.) And would cost very little.

Also that 75% of all Cancer’s can be cured for just a few dollars, as in less than $50.00.

Also that car bodys, can be made from Hemp as in the cars bodys would break down with no harm to the earth, rather than the rotten steel bodys that seep into the water supply and we have no clue what the effects will be in the long run. This would reduce the cost of Auto’s by as much as 40%, so a car that cost $20K would be only, $12K and the plastic body parts would also not be needed as the hemp could be molded just like plastic’s, and its very hard to dent – so Insurance cost would drop for your car.

Plus cloths can be made from hemp, they last longer and again will 100% break down with no ill effects on the earth.

Plus All Paper products can be made from hemp, thus again rather than cutting down ten acres of forest for wood pulp to make paper, the same amount of pulp can be had from 1 acre of hemp.

Seem strange that when Jimmy Carter was given all this info he passed on it, but rather than take action that would have been of benefit to the world he instead came up with the Bogus – EPA, {of what was alledged to cut our dependance on OIL.}

So Other than the growth of this Government unit in JOBS, its produced 100% of nothing in all these years.
And by the way cost the US tax payers Hundreds of billions per year to pay these worthless employes, that have done nothing at all ever, thus combined with the fact that its now 35 years into the nothing factor, and at a cost of well over 5 Trillion dollas of TAX payers money, combined with 30 Trillion dollars of TAX payers money on the DEA, prisons and court cost in the case of tracking down Pot growers and smokers.

So what say you oh alledged Liberal one?

Time
Okay, I don’t know a lot about hemp but what I do know leads me to have no objection to using it in all its forms. As I said, I don’t know a lot about it so I can’t be sure about all the figures you listed but I don’t doubt that hemp has a number of benefits.

I don’t quite follow your logic in your last large paragraph and I know that it was Richard Nixon who established the EPA.

Lastly, I don’t see myself as a liberal. If you are going to label me something, that is your issue. Of course, I have been called MUCH worse on this site.

Doc,
Forgive me its not the EPA but the Department of Energy. Of what was set up to alledgly cut all ties with oil from outside the USA.

It was set up to be just one office with a small budget – of what its now 30 differant departments, with over 130,000 people employed as I understand it 80K are outside contracted, yet paid by the US government with full benifits.

What have they done?

Well as best as I can tell – ZERO. The Cost per year $128 Billion dollars from what I can figure out.
Strange that since 1977 they have not been able to come up with anything.
Thats 33 years, with nothing to show other than wasting tax dollars on what again?

Time
I don’t know a lot about the Dept. of Energy but, considering energy’s importance to our daily lives and the fact that it is a big factor in our national security it would seem to have an important role for our country.
I do know that the D.O.E. deals a lot with nuclear energy safty standards, transport and storage of nuclear waste, and the production of nuclear energy for the Navy (subs and such). I found out that D.O.E. actually “loans” our country’s nuclear weapons to the Defense Dept. so I guess they design and build these cornerstones of our largest weapons.
As I understand it, the D.O.E. is also heavily involved in efficiency standards, without which, we would be in even deeper trouble needing even more sources of energy.
It seems to me a rather important agency.

The oil deal with Saudi was cut 30 years ago by Kissinger with prices set by middle men over here in American dollars. In return Saudi would buy treasury bonds to keep the dollar afloat. Can you see a better way out for them now than dollar collapse? Or a better way to facilitate it than a stupid leader and totally blind liberal congress?
The only truth you will learn from controlled media is just that they are all controlled, some to a lesser extent than others, but all controlled. Watch for the sudden change of the subject being discussed with untrained guests when a revelation is eminent.

Chuck,
Its not “pure liberals” its the bent and preverted brand known as PROGRESSIVES, of what = Marxist.

Saddly the Media is in bed with them – thus all storys get a solid spin job before the people get fed the rhetoric on MSNBC or MSN, Abc Cbs Nbc, CNN etc.
So what you read or see is not whats really going on.

When and if the media ever really reports the TRUTH, then perhaps the world will change for the better, {but don’t count on it.}

Chuck,
How right you are! We need to be sure that all sides are heard on every incident. The last presidential election proved just how “in bed” with certain factions the Media is. It is time for truth on all areas and let the chips fall where they may.

Chuck, liberals want to keep us dependent on other nations so we can’t attack other nations without hurting our selves. China is a good example, we must continue to support communism, or there wouldn’t be anything to buy here, our economy would collapse.

Carefull on that site people my security wouldn’t let me open it!!

I suppose this incident could have been caused by sabotage. It could also just be an accident. Accidents do happen from time-to-time regardless how much planning and care you invest in the project. There is no risk-free way of doing anything. I suggest we hold off passing judgment until we get the facts.

how will we know when we are getting the REAL facts?

George E—Thank you for your common sense post. I think you are being truthful.

Thanks, Claire.

Naaaaah Camille. Just the Times Square event to use for political hay and and give the media an excuse to let up on the cover up in the gulf.

Camille, Obummer doesn’t give a damn about offshore drilling. America’s hardcore progressives have been ignoring offshore drilling for decades. Obummer, who is a saul alinky robot, wouldn’t dare think of letting offshore drilling proceed.
When it comes to what this regime/administration would or wouldn’t do about staging an oil rig accident, don’t put ANYTHING past this band of thugs and criminals. Obummer is too busy trying to destroy America. No nation-destroyer like Obummer would ever let America become energy independent, no matter what the lamestream media or his hack press secretary says.

Dan2, You should learn to do some research on your sources for validity.

But, then again, it clearly shows your validity.

Maybe the SWAT teams were sent to investigate, after all, they are trained men. If there was any type of trouble, they would be able to handle it. Sorry folks, but in this day and age anything is possible. Look at the SUV in Times Square loaded with explosives. There are just TOO MANY NUTS out there. And to be honest, I think these nuts feed off of the dissent in America and some of the terrible things that are being said. These nuts are dangerous. And I truly hate to say this but some of these nuts are supposed to be American. These nuts think they are doing “something” but they end up killing innocent bystanders.

laire, I agree with this comment: “I think these nuts feed off of the dissent in America and some of the terrible things that are being said.”
We have to realize who is promoting that thought by the terrible things being said. The White House, Congressionals, Senators, ex-presidents, and the MSM.
I believe there is an underlying reason for all of this madness and it’s not in the best interest of America or the American people. Why else would anyone go through all of the trouble to constantly villify people and groups that only want to see America remain a democratic republic as our forefathers created for all of us.

JeffH–There was a lot of garbage going around when Bush was in office but it is nothing like I am hearing now. Too volatile for me. It is scary.

Allen,

One could have said “if ever we needed a reason not to go into space, we have it now” after any of the disasters that we experienced. But we didn’t. We persevered, and continue to learn from our work in space. That’s what tough people do.

So long as the oil and gas industry learns from these accidents and continues to develop new methods and technologies to prevent accidents like this from happening in the future, we should not quit exploring and developing our natural resources.

When this is all over, I’ll bet you that the people of Louisiana will not be the ones shouting the loudest to stop offshore drilling and production. They’ll work around this problem and move on because they understand the value of oil and gas to their economy and their lives. So, I believe everyone who lives outside Louisiana should learn from this incident as well, and continue to support drilling and production of oil and gas to reduce our balance of trade deficits, help ensure an ample supply of oil and gas to meet demand, and create good jobs for those employed and supporting this vital industry. Let’s learn from this terrible accident, and continue to improve. Let’s not over react. If we do, the solution will be much worse than the problem.

George,
I think Allens house should be the first one that we cut off from the gas and electric that is produced by these platforms!!! Oh, and don’t forget his car. We wouldn’t want his car to run on oil from those nasty platforms now, would we??
Of course it was a bad thing that happened, probably the worst. does that mean we shoot ourselves in the foot and never take a chance again? Hell no!!! We LEARN!!! We INSPECT!! We do EVERYTHING we can to insure that it never happens again!!! We also fine so hard that no oil company ever thinks about cutting corners in US waters again. I wonder what Allen’s Idea would be about all those rigs that aren’t in US waters but close enough to cause us problems just as bad or worse???

You and I are obviously on the same page. Thanks.