Gulf Coast oil spill could eclipse Exxon Valdez

[toast]

The devastating magnitude of this spill will not be known for some time. Scary stuff!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100430/ap_ ... losion_292

[caglewis]

Who's chanting "Drill, baby, drill" now? Anybody? The free-market "we don't need no stinking regulations" people who gave Oil Street like Wall Street free unfettered, unregulated rein? There were some attempts to pass mandatory safety regulations on off-shore drilling operations, but BP beat them all back. I sincerely hope BP is forced to pony up big time and PAY for this whole enormous clean-up bill for years to come!! Oh, but they'll just up their pump prices for gasoline at their stations, and make all of us, but especially those living on the Gulf Coast, the the ones who ultimately pay the huge environmental/monetary/personal price for for their negligence, won't they? I say, "Drill, baby, drill" into BP's very deep profit pockets!

[toast]

You are correct about BP fighting back mandatory safety regulations. They wanted the regulations to be voluntary........just leaves you shaking your head. Thousands of people who depend on the seafood industry will how be without a job and no ones knows when harvesting will start up again. It is now officially shut down and could be years or even decades before it opens again.

200,000 gallons a day are now pouring into the gulf. It's literally a river of oil going into the water each day and no ones seems to know when it will be stopped. This is truly heartbreaking.

[toast]

The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate, perhaps up to 150,000 barrels -- or more than 6 million gallons per day -- based on government data showing daily production at another deepwater Gulf well.

By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill was 11 million gallons total. The Gulf spill could end up dumping the equivalent of 4 Exxon Valdez spills per week.

[Boonedawg]

I've been thinking about this, this is possibly a terrorist attack.

[toast]

"BP suggested in a 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well that an accident leading to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals was unlikely, or virtually impossible."

Not surprising they tried to downplay the very real possible a major spill would take place at some point. Now the cold hard reality hits home.

[toast]

This is almost unbelievable. The latest predictions that I saw are that the oil will eventually hit the gulf stream and be carried up the east coast. Not only are the Gulf states at risk but now the states along the East Coast.

This is going from bad to worse. Let's hope and pray these predictions don't come true.

[caglewis]

I've been thinking about this, this is possibly a terrorist attack.

Why blame generic "terrorists" when greedy capitalists will get the same job done for you?
BP and Massey are identical - they routinely cut costs on "safety measures", and consider ALL losses just "the cost of doing business", acceptable - and preferable to any kind of "government" regulations/restrictions designed to protect either their employees or the environment.

[Boonedawg]

Yeah losing a platform and having to foot a monster cleanup bill is great for greedy capitalistic company's right? Puh-leeze try and think before you insert your feet.

[toast]

SkyTruth, a group that investigates environmental incidents, used satellite imagery and Coast Guard aerial photos to estimate that the damaged well is gushing about 1.1 million gallons a day — five times the current estimate from the Coast Guard. John Amos, the group's president, said it derived the figure with the help of the oceanography department at Florida State University.

At that rate, the total amount of oil spilled in the Gulf already would have surpassed the 11 million gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in Alaska in 1989, he said.

Hard to feel sorry for a company that fought against mandatory safety regulations in an order to cut cost.

[Paladin]

Heres a few "facts" for our good capitalist friend Booney who loves all the "honest" businessmen -- after the Exxon Valdez "accident" and the COURT ORDERED DAMAGES, our good friends in the "businessmen's" party ( guess who ?) passed a CAP OF $75 million on a future accident ( while arguing in court to get lower damage awards). This "spill" is projected to cost in excess of $1 billion, hence you suckers will be paying as taxpayers to clean up the "businessman's" responsibility, while they insist on maintaining the "pump price" of oil. Hey, these "honest" businessmen have to make a living,

[noreply66]

[toast]

Crews positioned a 100-ton concrete-and-steel box over the blowout well on the seafloor today. Let's hope and pray this cuts off the flow of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. Estimates range from anywhere from 2 million to 9 million gallons of crude that have now been released into the Gulf.

To early to tell what long term damage has been done to the fishing and tourism industries along our Gulf states. This is a massive spill that continues to grow.

[caglewis]

.......^^^ despite BP's promises that it could never happen - oops, that they had it all under control if it did, and no "governmental" authorities can possibly be expected to understand?
Isn't this exactly where we need governmental authority to make the rules that keep us all safe?

[kantuckyII]

I got a feeling that things are going get a whole lot worse in America before they get better! ....and this is just one incident that is going to pile it on..

4 bucks a gal for gas by mid-summer again?...


BIOB

[toast]

Here's the latest. "BP has given up on efforts by underwater robots to close valves on a failed blowout preventer at the site of a massive oil leak in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico", an executive said on Friday.

"We've essentially used up all those options," Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for said regarding the robots' unsuccessful efforts to close the valves, called rams, and plug the leak at the well.

In the mean time, the leak continues. What a mess!

Yes caglewis, this should remind everyone that governmental authority to make rules are very much needed to keep us safe.

[toast]

The first attempt to stop the leak with the 100 ton concrete box fails. 200,000 gallons day continues flowing into the biologically diverse and commercially productive Gulf of Mexico.

[TheMalteseFalcon]

Who's chanting "Drill, baby, drill" now? Anybody?

Certainly not me !!! .... and I won't ever fly in an airplane or ride AmTrak again either. I understand they have had a few accidents recently.

(Anybody interested in buying my car ? I've just learned that there are several hundred people killed in them every day in this country and I am getting rid of mine).

[toast]

Officially, at least 3.5 million gallons have gushed into the ocean since the oil rig first exploded, but recent satellite data leads some scientists to believe the spill is actually far larger. And 21 days later we still don’t know when it will stop.......

[kantuckyII]

The worse of this spill could be if we don't drill baby drill. Yes, we need more stop gap measures but...the worse thing that could happen is if we don't 'drill baby drill'!


I say! DRILL BABY DRILL!