Gulf coast oil spill

[ZenGum]

Well, crap. That's gonna make a mess.

[glatt]

Yup.

[Cicero]

Total. Mess.

I'm only in here to let Zen know I have decided to engage in the post count competition once again. You have been warned....

I'm not far behind?

[richlevy]

Let's take a moment to thank our Supreme Court, which whittled down a 5 billion dollar judgement in the Exxon Valdex incident that had already been reduced by an appeals court to 2.5 billion to 500 million.

Wow, I'll bet an angel earned his wings on that one.

The high court said that under federal maritime law, punitive damages shouldn't be any larger than the compensatory damages the company had already been ordered to pay. In other words, the company shouldn't have to pay more in punishment than the actual damage it caused.

The flaw in that is that Alaska was not made whole. Exxon was unable to clean up the entire spill, so those compensatory damages did not accurately reflect all of the damage.

If I remember correctly, Exxon had record profits that year.

With this kind of precedent on the books, LA and the surrounding states are completely screwed.

BTW, I doubt a pre-GWB court would have reached this decision.

GWB, the gift that keeps on giving.

[zippyt]

This could Totaly Screw up our Fla Vacation this year !!!!
Oh well thats what trip insurance is for .

[Urbane Guerrilla]

I'm more interested in discovering what sort of technology they'll have to use to shut off an artesian petroleum spurt a mile underwater. That depth takes tough little submersibles, manned or remote. They're going to have to, you know.

[Griff]

Apparently they are using dispersants to keep oil from surfacing. No mention of stopping the flow. The impact will be terrible. How does this location compare to the Obama administration's new rules?

[Griff]

More than 200,000 gallons of oil a day are spewing from the blown-out well at the site of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, which exploded April 20 and sank two days later. Crews are using at least six remotely operated vehicles to try to shut off an underwater valve, but so far they've been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, high winds and waves are pushing oily water over the booms meant to contain it. Besides BP, a slew of federal and state agencies are scrambling to minimize the onslaught of damage.

[Trilby]

NOLA, we hardly knew ye.


This is depressing on so many levels.

[tw]

Originally Posted by Griff

Crews are using at least six remotely operated vehicles to try to shut off an underwater valve, but so far they've been unsuccessful.

Keep in persective BP's reputation. For example, their maintenance of the Alaska pipeline is well known by all whose news is from news sources - not gossip or politically tainted sources. BP apparetly has some of the most unsafe refineries in the industry based upon the number of explosions and deaths.

This well head was about to be capped since drilling was almost complete. Well heads have a valve structure with both automatic and manually operated valves. Five days later, BP sort of requested help from everyone. Apparently did not say why. None of those many valves are working. The entire well was draining into the Gulf. BP simply underplayed the extent of an impending disaster (apparently for the same reasons why they also forgot to mention why the Alaska pipeline was at such serious risk).

About one week ago, this open well had the potetial of being larger than that largest oil spiil. No, that was not Exxon Valdez. An oil spile three times larger was earlier in Brooklyn by Mobil oil. Mobil also did not pay for the cleanup.

This spill has one additional problem. It will be picked up by the Gulf stream. It can spread aroung the FL coast and up the American Atlantic coast. A major spill was not carried by a major current. So we learn.

BP said that drilling rig was not at risk of sinking. One day later, it capsized. Why are those valves not working? Too few facts are forecoming from BP. Expect this oil spill to be much worse because BP is contantly suppressing facts. It is BP's history from many refinery fires and why the Alaska pipeline was not being properly cleaned.

[skysidhe]

I watched a bit of this on the Sunday morning show this am. I guess plenty of fishermen want to help clean up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01marsh.html

[ZenGum]

We had a similar offshore oil leak here a few months back, luckily for the company it was way off the uninhabited north west coast, so there was little angry reaction, but it took weeks for them to plug the leak. In this case, they had to drill another hole, intersecting with the first, and fill both with concrete, or something like that.

All those fishing communities, waterfront places, mangroves, wetlands, etc, might as well bend over and try to relax, cause they're about to get screwed.

[Shawnee123]

It's a horrible and far-reaching situation.

[Spexxvet]

Drill, baby, drill!

[Stormieweather]

I want to know how those 40' tall silo-thingys they're making to contain the oil are going to be placed in 5,000 ft of water. WTF?! And what do they need 3 of them for?

I'm pissed as hell about my beautiful Clearwater beaches being ruined. Not to mention the wildlife .

I had a bunch of summer fun planned that involved the coast and coastal islands. Bet all that is fubar'd now.

I read that the high-tech shut off valve would have cost $500k, so BP declined to install it. Now the cleanup is estimated to cost into the billions.