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Thursday, April 29, 2010

Recent oil leak wrecks havoc in the Gulf of Mexico/ long after Sarah Palin said “drill baby drill”


This week’s biggest news story—from The Wichita Eagle:

“It could take hours or it could take months to stop a 42,000-gallon-a-day oil leak polluting the Gulf of Mexico at the site of a wrecked drilling platform. Whether the environmental threat grows many times bigger depends on whether the oil company can turn the well completely off.
Crews are using robot submarines to activate valves at the well head in hopes of cutting off the leak, which threatens the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem of shrimp, fish, birds and coral. If the effort fails, they'll have to start drilling again.”


It all started with a fiery explosion that allowed oil to gush out of oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Now a major clean-up effort is in progress to stop the 42,000 gallon a day oil leak. Fish, coral and a huge number of marine species are at risk as this oil slick heads for shore.
Again The Wichita Eagle article explains the difficult problems this accident is causing:


“Crews are using robot submarines to activate valves at the well head in hopes of cutting off the leak, which threatens the Gulf Coast's fragile ecosystem of shrimp, fish, birds and coral. If the effort fails, they'll have to start drilling again.
The submarine work will take 24 to 36 hours, Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP Exploration and Production, said Sunday afternoon.
"I should emphasize this is a highly complex operation being performed at 5,000 feet below the surface and it may not be successful," he said.
Oil continued to leak nearly a mile underwater Sunday at the site where the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on Tuesday. Eleven workers are missing and presumed dead.
For the second consecutive day, high waves prevented boats and equipment from going out to clean the spill. Airplanes sprayed chemicals to break up the oil.”


In the last election Sarah Palin went on the campaign trail calling for deregulations that would allow off shore drilling in a number of places that were considered too risky to the environment or just too risky.
When she hollered “drill baby drill” it became a mantra of the Republican Party. This was oil needed at a time when peak oil studies were making it clear that the US needs oil from the Middle-east. Naturally taking oil from parts of the US would help reduce that need. The only problem is that scientists and other experts were warning that the amount of oil in these restricted areas would not make a significant contribution to the country’s energy sources. In other words, not only are there environmental risks involved, the reward from drilling is just not going to make much difference.
This “drill baby drill” campaign was so successful that Barack Obama picked up on it and agreed to the new policy changes. Once again, the less educated, sceptical of scientist and educated professional voters won the day and both parties quickly caved in.
This recent accident took place BEFORE drilling has begun on the new unrestricted areas. Now The Wichita Eagle reports that:


“Public testimony at a hearing in New Jersey Tuesday was overwhelmingly against President Barack Obama's plan to allow oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean.
State residents and representatives of environmental groups told federal officials that they feared for the state's already compromised economy and environment. They were joined by a smattering of drilling proponents at one of the first hearings on the issue since an explosion at an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico renewed concerns about offshore drilling.”


How quickly people change their minds when it becomes evident that irrational decisions can have deadly consequences. Oil workers died in Tuesday’s explosion and there is no way of telling how much damage this accident is going to cause when it is finally under control. This is just one drilling operation. The more of these we put in the ocean, the more likely to have more such accidents. Once again, both political parties have taken the popular and easy road to avoid alienating the uneducated voters looking for a quick fix and scoffing at environmental science. -សតិវ អតុ

Sarah Palin Rally Energy Clean Coal,Oil at Shippensberg PA Drill Baby Drill jobs


Sarah Palin Drill Baby Drill!

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