Spill Baby Spill - Who should really pay for this Disaster??? [Archive]

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LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 07:14 PM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704423504575212031417936798.html

BUSINESS APRIL 28, 2010 Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device By RUSSELL GOLD, BEN CASSELMAN And GUY CHAZAN
Associated Press

The disaster has been sending 1,000 barrels of oil a day gushing into the sea.
The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.

The efficacy of the devices is unclear. Major offshore oil-well blowouts are rare, and it remained unclear Wednesday evening whether acoustic switches have ever been put to the test in a real-world accident. When wells do surge out of control, the primary shut-off systems almost always work. Remote control systems such as the acoustic switch, which have been tested in simulations, are intended as a last resort.

Nevertheless, regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them. Norway has had acoustic triggers on almost every offshore rig since 1993.

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

The U.K., where BP is headquartered, doesn't require the use of acoustic triggers.

On all offshore oil rigs, there is one main switch for cutting off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. Many rigs also have automatic systems, such as a "dead man" switch as a backup that is supposed to close the valve if it senses a catastrophic failure aboard the rig.

As a third line of defense, some rigs have the acoustic trigger: It's a football-sized remote control that uses sound waves to communicate with the valve on the seabed floor and close it.

An acoustic trigger costs about $500,000, industry officials said. The Deepwater Horizon had a replacement cost of about $560 million, and BP says it is spending $6 million a day to battle the oil spill. On Wednesday, crews set fire to part of the oil spill in an attempt to limit environmental damage.

Some major oil companies, including Royal Dutch Shell PLC and France's Total SA, sometimes use the device even where regulators don't call for it.

Transocean Ltd., which owned and operated the Deepwater Horizon and the shut-off valve, declined to comment on why a remote-control device wasn't installed on the rig or to speculate on whether such a device might have stopped the spill. A BP spokesman said the company wouldn't speculate on whether a remote control would have made a difference.

Much still isn't known about what caused the problems in Deepwater Horizon's well, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. It went out of control, sending oil surging through pipes to the surface and causing a fire that ultimately sank the rig.

Unmanned submarines that arrived hours after the explosion have been unable to activate the shut-off valve on the seabed, called a blowout preventer.

BP says the Deepwater Horizon did have a "dead man" switch, which should have automatically closed the valve on the seabed in the event of a loss of power or communication from the rig. BP said it can't explain why it didn't shut off the well.

Transocean drillers aboard the rig at the time of the explosion, who should have been in a position to hit the main cutoff switch, are among the dead. It isn't known if they were able to reach the button, which would have been located in the area where the fire is likely to have started. Another possibility is that one of them did push the button, but it didn't work.

Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, said finding out why the blowout preventer didn't shut down the well is the key question in the investigation. "This is the failsafe mechanism that clearly has failed," Mr. Hayward said in an interview.

Lars Herbst, regional director of the Minerals Management Service in the Gulf of Mexico, said investigators are focusing on why the blowout preventer failed.

Crude oil released into the Gulf of Mexico after an oil rig explosion last week is now threatening the Louisiana shore. WSJ reporter Angel Gonzalez takes a look at the damage from the air, where oil sheen seems to extend to the horizon.
Industry consultants and petroleum engineers said that an acoustic remote-control may have been able to stop the well, but too much is still unknown about the accident to say that with certainty.

Rigs in Norway and Brazil are equipped with the remote-control devices, which can trigger the blowout preventers from a lifeboat in the event the electric cables connecting the valves to the drilling rig are damaged.

While U.S. regulators have called the acoustic switches unreliable and prone, in the past, to cause unnecessary shut-downs, Inger Anda, a spokeswoman for Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority, said the switches have a good track record in the North Sea. "It's been seen as the most successful and effective option," she said.

The manufacturers of the equipment, including Kongsberg Maritime AS, Sonardyne Ltd. and Nautronix PLC, say their equipment has improved significantly over the past decade.

The Brazilian government began urging the use of the remote-control equipment in 2007, after an extensive overhaul of its safety rules following a fire aboard an oil platform killed 11 people, said Raphael Moura, head of safety division at Brazil's National Petroleum Agency. "Our concern is both safety and the environment," he said.

Industry critics cite the lack of the remote control as a sign U.S. drilling policy has been too lax. "What we see, going back two decades, is an oil industry that has had way too much sway with federal regulations," said Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Democratic Florida Sen. Bill Nelson. "We are seeing our worst nightmare coming true."

U.S. regulators have considered mandating the use of remote-control acoustic switches or other back-up equipment at least since 2000. After a drilling ship accidentally released oil, the Minerals Management Service issued a safety notice that said a back-up system is "an essential component of a deepwater drilling system."

The industry argued against the acoustic systems. A 2001 report from the International Association of Drilling Contractors said "significant doubts remain in regard to the ability of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency back-up control system during an actual well flowing incident."

By 2003, U.S. regulators decided remote-controlled safeguards needed more study. A report commissioned by the Minerals Management Service said "acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly."

A spokesman for the agency, Nicholas Pardi, said the decision not to require the device came, in part, after the agency took a survey that found most rigs already had back-up systems of some kind. Those systems include the unmanned submarines BP has been using to try to close the seabed valve.

—Jeff Fick contributed to this article.
Write to Russell Gold at russell.gold@wsj.com, Ben Casselman at ben.casselman@wsj.com and Guy Chazan at guy.chazan@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications:
The oil rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico was owned by Transocean Ltd. and leased by BP PLC. A previous version of this article incorrectly said that BP owned the rig.

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 07:15 PM

How About Darth Cheney???

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/05/03/dick_cheney_halliburton_oil_spill/index.html

:gulp:

Guitar Shark

05-03-2010, 07:16 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/breaking-large-air-spill_n_560762.html?ref=fb&src=sp

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 07:23 PM

This is just plain awful. I can compare it to waiting for a hurricane to hit, as there is nothing to do except sit tight and hope for the best. At least that is what is taking place up and down the gulf coast of Florida right now. I can not imagine how other states (who are far more dependent upon revenue from fishing and seafood) are preparing, nor do I expect this to be anything less than complete disaster for the regions involved.

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 07:27 PM

Where's the Anti-Big Government / Anti-Regulation people now?????

:gulp:

Guitar Shark

05-03-2010, 07:30 PM

Where's the Anti-Big Government / Anti-Regulation people now?????

:gulp:

Selling their stock in BP, I would imagine...

Norway is a major oil producer??

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 07:32 PM

2.5 million barrels a day, I guess.

:gulp:

who knew?

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 07:34 PM

Where's the Anti-Big Government / Anti-Regulation people now?????

:gulp:

Fuck that. If the Obama administration in any way, shape or form fails to act swiftly with the clean-up of the area, my money is on all of the despondent McCain supporters to start making inane comparisons to the Bush regime's shortcomings after Katrina. I can see the rallying cry now: "Aha! Obama's no better than Bush! Obama's no better than Bush!" or some other, equally insipid nonsense.

kwame k

05-03-2010, 07:34 PM

An acoustic trigger costs about $500,000, industry officials said. The Deepwater Horizon had a replacement cost of about $560 million, and BP says it is spending $6 million a day to battle the oil spill. On Wednesday, crews set fire to part of the oil spill in an attempt to limit environmental damage.

By 2003, U.S. regulators decided remote-controlled safeguards needed more study. A report commissioned by the Minerals Management Service said "acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly."

That half a mil isn't sounding that expensive now, is it?

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 07:38 PM

Fuck that. If the Obama administration in any way, shape or form fails to act swiftly with the clean-up of the area, my money is on all of the despondent McCain supporters to start making inane comparisons to the Bush regime's shortcomings after Katrina. I can see the rallying cry now: "Aha! Obama's no better than Bush! Obama's no better than Bush!" or some other, equally insipid nonsense.

Agreed.

I think Government is there to REGULATE these rigs, and make sure they're REQUIRED to have basic safety/shu off systems in place, AS WELL AS emergency response teams ready to contain and clean up the spills.

The companies get to reap record profits by NOT spending money on safe guards, and WE get to pay for their messes???????

Fuck that shit.

:gulp:

kwame k

05-03-2010, 07:42 PM

Let's hear what the Rocket Surgeon has to say about it.........

But as a major proponent of offshore drilling, the former Republican vice presidential nominee said that she’d still wants “our country to be able to trust the oil industry.”

“We’ve got to tap domestically because energy security will be the key to our prosperity,” she said as part of a 30-minute speech, which she echoed in large part the next day in Wichita, Kan.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36696.html#ixzz0muehQX8p

Since we've had this debate Ad Nauseum......domestic oil production will not ever get us off the teat of other nation's oil.

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 08:03 PM

Let's hear what the Rocket Surgeon has to say about it.........

Since we've had this debate Ad Nauseum......domestic oil production will not ever get us off the teat of other nation's oil.

You see, that's the thing. According to an article in this morning's paper, our domestic oil production accounts for around 30 % of our country's needs. Simple math dictates that two thirds of our use is dependent upon oil from other countries.

And by the way, it's swell to read that my state is getting out in front of things, as usual. :umm:

Law firms from Florida to Texas filing suits over oil spill (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-bulldog-oil-spill-attorneys-20100503,0,3229703.story)

As oil continues to gush from a severed pipeline on the Gulf of Mexico seabed, a consortium of law firms stretching from Fort Lauderdale to Texas is preparing for its own kind of cleanup.

The first wave of more than a half-dozen lawsuits landed in federal court in New Orleans last week — one week after the disaster began with an explosion and fire aboard the oil rig Deepwater Horizon 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The rig sank two days later.

"I suspect there will be thousands of lawsuits," said Broward lawyer Walter G. "Skip" Campbell, who plans to file suit this week in New Orleans on behalf of Gulf shrimp and oyster farmers.

To date, authorities have said they can't choke off the flow of an estimated 210,000 gallons of oil a day that's pouring from the damaged pipe and rising nearly a mile to the surface. An enormous, still-growing oil slick threatens economic interests and wildlife habitat for hundreds of miles of coastline from Louisiana to Florida.

According to Campbell, the unfolding environmental calamity spells the end of a way of life for those who make their living harvesting gulf shrimp and oysters.

"These folks are the Forrest Gumps. This is going to decimate [their] industry … for life. This is crude oil, and it will get into the beds where the shrimp breed," Campbell said.

Closer to home, he said, the disaster also means the end of the line for the bounty of superb Gulf seafood enjoyed by consumers.

"That's what I'm telling you. Shrimp and oysters will be coming from other ports of the world," said Campbell.

Campbell, a former Democratic state senator from Coral Springs, is a name partner at Fort Lauderdale's Krupnick, Campbell, Malone, Buser, Slama, Hancock, Liberman & McKee. The firm is among about a dozen law firms that have banded together to prosecute civil cases on behalf of the spill's economic victims. Other attorneys at his firm who are working on the case are Michael J. Ryan and Robert J. McKee.

Campbell said that, as the spill spreads, it may be necessary to file suits in other cities.

Campbell said his law firm was invited to join the team because of its experience in so-called mass tort cases. The firm has won large verdicts in Broward against E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. on behalf of Ecuadoran shrimp farmers who claimed runoff containing its fungicide Benlate ruined production.

Economic losses for all those affected by the spill will be in the "multibillions," Campbell said.

"In the Panhandle they're already starting to lose tourist bookings. Then there's the cruise ship industry that traverses out of New Orleans. And all the little businesses," he said.

Where will the money to pay those damages come from? The deepest pocket is BP PLC, which leased the rig from Transocean Ltd., an offshore drilling contractor.

"BP is going to pay and the only question is whether it is going to essentially be bankrupted," said Campbell. "But remember, they made $8 billion to $10 billion in profit the first quarter of this year."

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:06 PM

Great excuse to raise oil/gas prices for the summer driving season......even though they said they were raising prices this summer back in Feb, IIRC.

If they feel they aren't making the record profits like they should be, they'll just raise prices.

$3.00 per gallon gas by June......any takers on this one?

.

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:07 PM

Nice to know the LAWYERS can make it through the lean times......

:gulp:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:08 PM

Great excuse to raise oil/gas prices for the summer driving season......even though they said they were raising prices this summer back in Feb, IIRC.

$3.00 per gallon gas by June......any takers on this one?

Yeah ummm...

It hasn't been BELOW $3 here in quite some time...

$3.09 is about as low as it goes here

:gulp:

$1.46 a gallon when BushCO took office

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:10 PM

$2.87 here but you get the point........30 cent raise by June then.

PETE'S BROTHER

05-03-2010, 08:21 PM

Yeah ummm...

It hasn't been BELOW $3 here in quite some time...

$3.09 is about as low as it goes here

:gulp:

$1.46 a gallon when BushCO took office

yeah, bread and milk were cheaper too. and beer, cigs, candy bars, water, electricity, antifreeze.. just sayin':baaa:

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:24 PM

Since everything has to be trucked in......it's all kinda tied in :)

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:24 PM

yeah, bread and milk were cheaper too. and beer, cigs, candy bars, water, electricity, antifreeze.. just sayin':baaa:

Which of those things you just listed DOUBLED in price since 2000????

:gulp:

get real.

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:25 PM

To be fair....smokes have and beer, too :beers8:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:29 PM

To be fair....smokes have and beer, too :beers8:

Beer has not doubled in the last 10 years.

IF smokes have, it's because of taxes.

But a 6 pack of good beer was $6-7 dollars, now it's $7-9

Shitty Coors was probably $4 a sixer, now probably $5.

Hardly DOUBLED.

:gulp:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:35 PM

Barrel of Oil in 2000 $27/avg.

Barrel of oil in 2010 $69/avg.

:gulp:

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:38 PM

Yeah, the beer was a stretch.........

Still costs of consumer goods are in direct relation to oil/gas prices.

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:42 PM

Yeah, the beer was a stretch.........

Still costs of consumer goods are in direct relation to oil/gas prices.

and TAXES

In 2000 a pack of cigs went for around $3.50 with $1.11 of that taxes.

Taxes alone on a pack of cigs now avgs $3.00

So although they HAVE doubled, that's TAXES more than inflation or the cost of transporting the product.

My original point Pete's brother missed was that the 2 OIL MEN who came into office with the SECRET ENERGY PLAN who started 2 WARS in the Middle East somehow managed to FUCK ASS royally and allow RECORD PROFITS to the oil companies they used to work for.

Just a coincidence, I'm sure

:gulp:

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:48 PM

Total coincidence :biggrin:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:51 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWBT01389520100503?type=marketsNews

WASHINGTON, May 3 (Reuters) - The Obama administration is committed to ensuring that BP pay all costs of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, including clean-up and lost wages, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Monday.

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 08:51 PM

kwame k

05-03-2010, 08:55 PM

Outstanding :beers8:

At the end of the day they'll just raise prices to offset any actual costs.......so one way or another we'll pay for it :pullinghair:

ELVIS

05-03-2010, 10:48 PM

You queers should be riding bicycles for your transportation needs...

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 10:53 PM

You queers should be riding bicycles for your transportation needs...

The homophobic, alcoholic, red neck speaks!!!!

:gulp:

Wonder if you'd say the same thing in the ER to the families of those KILLED on the rig, if they were in your hospital, Florence.

disgusting pseudo-Christian hypocrite

ELVIS

05-03-2010, 10:56 PM

Why would I say that to them ??

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 10:58 PM

Why would I say that to them ??

Because if more of us rode bikes, maybe their QUEER loved ones would still be alive, dumbass.

:gulp:

idiot.

Terry

05-03-2010, 11:03 PM

Outstanding :beers8:

At the end of the day they'll just raise prices to offset any actual costs.......so one way or another we'll pay for it :pullinghair:

Yep, we will. And outside of this thread, we'll pay whatever we are charged for it without protest...or at least meaningful protest...or protest followed by action which results in meaningful change...so why gripe about it? Not you specifically, kwame, but every and anyone.

I mean, Elvis has a point inasmuch as none of this is gonna make any of us stop driving our cars.

I like my toothbrush!!!

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:12 PM

I mean, Elvis has a point inasmuch as none of this is gonna make any of us stop driving our cars.

I like my toothbrush!!!

Which is also made from petroleum products....

ELVIS has no point......

Not trying to get us to drive our cars less, trying to get our elected officials to STOP rewarding those who perpetuate our dependence on the black tar.

IF NOT for the BIG OIL LOBBY, we could make Detroit WANT/NEED to make alt fuel vehicles, we could have an infrastructure designed with mass transit in mind, we could have serious alternative energy plans like solar, wind, geo-thermal, etc.....

But until we get Congress to stop being abought and paid for whores, they'll always be the CUNTS we have now, much like ELVIS will always be the racist homophobe he is now....

:gulp:

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 11:17 PM

You queers should be riding bicycles for your transportation needs...

Ummm...I do use a bicycle as transportation to work and back. Admittedly, carrying sacks of goods from the supermarket is really fucking awkward, so I use the car for that. But it is really gives me a warm sense of comfort knowing that men such as yourself are observing those of us riding bikes, and this is somehow stimulating. Good for you, and at least I know that in the future while observing me, you will not accidentally cut me off in traffic.

You rascal, you. http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/smileys/free-happy-smileys-336.gif (http://www.easyfreesmileys.com/facebook-smileys.html)

FORD

05-03-2010, 11:20 PM

One would think Elvis would get tired of Repuke stupidity fucking up his own back yard. Guess not?

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:27 PM

. But it is really gives me a warm sense of comfort knowing that men such as yourself are observing those of us riding bikes, and this is somehow stimulating. l]

ELVIS secretly wishes he was your bicycle seat

:gulp:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:28 PM

One would think Elvis would get tired of Repuke stupidity fucking up his own back yard. Guess not?

Can stupid repukes even tell when one of their own are fucking them in their own backyard?

:gulp:

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 11:33 PM

ELVIS secretly wishes he was your bicycle seat

:gulp:

Don't even get me started about my reincarnation wishes and the bicycle boom oriented toward young females fomented by the Schwinn company sometime in the early seventies.

Blackflag

05-03-2010, 11:36 PM

Barrel of Oil in 2000 $27/avg.

Barrel of oil in 2010 $69/avg.

:gulp:

Oil in late 2000 ~$50, oil in early 2010 ~$75.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Brent_Spot_monthly.svg/800px-Brent_Spot_monthly.svg.png

Not sure what your point is, but oil price is controlled more by OPEC than the "BCE," or whatever your theory is.

But of course, BP should pay every dime of this. So I'm not sure what your point is.

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 11:41 PM

Oil in late 2000 ~$50, oil in early 2010 ~$75.
Not sure what your point is, but oil price is controlled more by OPEC than the "BCE," or whatever your theory is.

But of course, BP should pay every dime of this. So I'm not sure what your point is.

I dunno man...cigarettes were 65 cents a pack under Carter. Shit, you could get a new Beatles album for $2.99 when Johnson was in office.

Blackflag

05-03-2010, 11:44 PM

I remember when White Castles were $.29. Fuck the BCE!!

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:46 PM

Oil in "late" December, 2000 was $21.50 according to this OPEC quote:

http://sepmstrata.org/petroleum/Chronology%20of%20World%20Oil%20Market%20Events%20 1970%20-%202000.htm

If you dont get my point, I dont really care that much.

Everyone else other than ELVIRA did.

:gulp:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:48 PM

I dunno man...cigarettes were 65 cents a pack under Carter. Shit, .

And there were SOLAR PANELS on the White House roof.....

:gulp:

Blackflag

05-03-2010, 11:53 PM

Blackflag

05-03-2010, 11:55 PM

And there were SOLAR PANELS on the White House roof.....

:gulp:

WOW COOL! Why did the BCE have to get rid of solar panels???

chefcraig

05-03-2010, 11:56 PM

And there were SOLAR PANELS on the White House roof.....

:gulp:

Yep. And women did not wear brassieres underneath halter/tank tops. When did that fucking evil begin? :duh:

LoungeMachine

05-03-2010, 11:57 PM

In year 2000 dollars. We're not using those in 2010.

See where it says "not adjusted for inflation?"

And my point that it DOUBLED under the "energy pResident" is still correct, even factoring in inflation.

This country and congress is RUN by Big Oil, and so much of our defense, economy, and society is at their beck and call.

:gulp:

Just another pathetc example of how FUCKED we are without serious CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

Lqskdiver

05-03-2010, 11:58 PM

Geezuz, Luisiana is one fucked state. First Katrina, now this. Just wait, it's going to get worse and there will be all sorts of finger pointing. Shit, it's already starting.

LoungeMachine

05-04-2010, 12:07 AM

Geezuz, Luisiana is one fucked state. First Katrina, now this. Just wait, it's going to get worse and there will be all sorts of finger pointing. Shit, it's already starting.

Well, plus ELVIS lives there........

:gulp:

FORD

05-04-2010, 12:12 AM

Accidental Tourist
May 3rd, 2010

I’ll never forget my first glimpse of the Perfect Beach.

It was 1996, right after Christmas, when I was first introduced to the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. Mike and I had been dating for a few months and pooled our meager finances (he was between radio jobs, as usual, and I was a poor student), drove about 6 hours south from Atlanta toward the Gulf of Mexico through Tallahassee, Florida, and then the quiet fishing villages of Apalachicola, East Point and Carrabelle, over a long causeway spanning Apalachicola Bay to St. George Island where we had rented a little beachfront cottage for a three day weekend.

Mike had been visiting the island for 15 years, but I had never seen that part of Florida. All I knew of Florida beaches were the rowdy drive-in tourist places like Daytona, or the crowded real estate of Panama City with its towering hotels and noisy restaurants. This was different. They don’t call it “The Forgotten Coast” for nothing; it was something out of another time. On St. George Island you could walk for a mile and not see another human being. There were no high-rises, no fast food restaurants, no surf shops. Just pristine beaches as far as you could see, small mom and pop establishments, two gas stations and colorful, modestly-sized individual houses dotting the seashore.

This was unlike any beach I had ever visited. The sand was golden/pink powder, with gentle dunes covered in waving sea oats. The air was so clean, so sweet-smelling, it had a weight and substance that reminded me of what it must have been like in a more primitive time, before commercialism utterly destroyed those beaches with which I was familiar. Here, the sea shells were scattered everywhere, carelessly, undisturbed. Sea birds circled overhead in great flocks, dolphins swam so close to shore you could almost look them in the eye. The waves were surprisingly gentle. Body surfing was a powerful thrill, especially if a storm came up. Locals fished right on the beach, waving to us as we strolled along the shore looking for seashells, which we collected by the bucketful. There were notes in our cottage that reminded us to turn off our porch lights at night so as not to confuse the pregnant sea turtles that nested on the beach, waiting to drop their eggs into the scooped-out sand At night we watched the tiny lights of the shrimp boats on the horizon under a blanket of stars so thick, and moonlight so bright, you could walk on the beach at midnight and actually cast a shadow.

Mike said that on previous trips he had taken his kids to the inland side of the island, which borders Apalachicola Bay, where they had rented a boat and scooped up oysters out of the water, cracking them open and sliding their salty goodness into their bellies by the score. He described terrible storms with explosive lightening way out in the ocean as he watched safely from the beach; millions of tiny red crabs so thick they moved like one giant organism along the bay shore. Large blue crabs were so abundant you could catch them with a net if you waded off shore about 30 feet to a sandbar, where you could also scoop up dozens of perfect, intact sand dollars. (Mike had jars of shells and sand dollars at home; he was hooked on collecting them.)

On this my first visit we drove about 45 minutes west from Apalachicola toward Port. St. Joe on highway C-30 along the gulf, and made a sharp left turn onto Cape San Blas, a spit of land that juts into the ocean and faces directly west. Here was yet another stretch of endless, vacant beach, even more deserted than St. George Island. And unlike the island’s fine, pink sand, here it was snow white and impossibly finer. Like powdered sugar, blindingly white in the bright sun. And the dunes were like rolling hills; some of them near the State Park on the northern tip of the island towered over the random two-story beachfront houses. We spent the day there walking the beach. We might have seen four other people. We stayed for the big show – sunset. The cape faces directly west and you can watch the sun sink into the ocean and be astonished as the sky turns from yellow to orange to hot pink to magenta, then purple and indigo in the space of an hour. I used up two rolls of film (no digital camera then) trying to capture the magic of the changing sky.

There is no way to visit that area and remain unchanged. The peace and calm and beauty of the place stays with you forever, reminding you that despite all the other things going on in the world, there is a place oblivious to the day-to-day melodrama and chaos. A quiet, natural place where you can escape every once in awhile to discharge all that clotted frustration and regain, or establish for the first time, your balance and serenity.

After Mike and I were married and moved to Chicago, we would drive 15 hours to get there. It took two days but we didn’t care. Sure, there were closer vacation spots, but nothing that compared to the Forgotten Coast. We would arrange these trips six months in advance, sometimes lucky enough to coordinate with Mike’s grown children who loved the place as much as we did, and at least twice we enjoyed a week-long family reunion in a rambling beachfront house, enjoying cookouts on the beach, constellation-counting competitions, endless games of Frisbee, massive sand castles, ghost stories in front of the fire pit we all dug earlier once the sun went down and the air cooled. We reconnected as a family the way you can when there are no distractions, no TV shows or newspapers or laptops. We laughed and played like carefree children.

We left Chicago and moved back to Atlanta in the summer of 2000 – too late and too broke for a trip to our perfect beach that year. But Mike and I visited The Forgotten Coast at least twice a year without fail after that. When Molly was born in July of 2004, one of the first things we did was reserve a beachfront house on Cape San Blas for Thanksgiving, where Mike’s grown children (and grandchildren !) met their little four-month-old sister (and aunt!) for the first time. On that trip we were delighted to hear Molly laugh out loud for the first time ever, watching her three year old niece Lauren and five year old nephew Jake chase each other on the screened porch in the twilight. Since then she’s spent many weeks in her almost six years on those beaches, learning to body surf; building sprawling sand castles and mermaid palaces; marveling wide-eyed at the sheer number of stars and squealing in delight when spotting a meteorite streaking across the night sky; napping under a beach umbrella as the round of the waves lulled her to sleep; digging for tiny cochinas as the waves lap over the shore, grabbing mounds of wet sand and watching in amazement as the rainbow-colored shellfish burrow down into her cupped hands. Our last trip to this magical place was right after Christmas, and once again we were fortunate enough to have Mike’s grown children and elementary-aged grandchildren join us for a few days. We were looking forward to a summer visit later this year.

But now there is an unstoppable volcano of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to kill everything in its path and destroy the beaches we love so much.

Scientists say the Gulf Stream current may pull the massive and growing black pool of poison around the Florida keys and up into the Atlantic. Efforts to stem the flow from the sea floor and remove oil from the surface by skimming it, burning it or by dispersing it with chemicals continue with little or no success.

According to Dr. Ralph Portier of Louisiana State University, “Coastlines from the panhandle, through the Tampa Bay area and the Florida Keys may be overrun by a toxic tide that will poison wildlife, foul the air, and further punish an already crushed local economy. The Gulf spill is at the top of ‘the Loop Current,’ a part of the Gulf Stream that sends water around Florida and as far north as Cape Hatteras, NC . . . ’The trouble with our marshes is they’re already stressed, they’re already hanging by a fingernail,’ added Dr. Denise Reed of the University of New Orleans. ‘And yet it now seems possible that the influx of oil from the still-gushing well in the Gulf could deliver the killing blow to the whole coastal ecosystem. The volume of oil that now seems likely to wash up on the Louisiana coast could overwhelm the coastal grasses’ ability to recover. If the roots die, the plants die and the ground underneath turns to mud and disappears into the sea within a year.” And, with hurricane season approaching, powerful storms could blow the oil into the marshes and wetlands with violent force, or drive it further up the eastern seaboard to the beaches, fishing areas, national wildlife refuges and estuarys there.

Accidents happen. That seems to be the attitude of both Washington politicians and the Corporate Media. But the Deepwater Horizon disaster is as much an accident as the drunk driver who plows into a school bus and kills all the children on board. Sure, it wasn’t done deliberately, but it was 100% preventable nonetheless. A simple shut off valve on the main pipe would’ve prevented this deadly nightmare. But it cost $500,000 and why should BP pay that? With a complete disdain for the risks and the government regulations needed to minimize those risks, one can assume Dick Cheney – in his secret energy meetings – had assured BP (and how many other oil companies?) they could do whatever they wanted in the Gulf. Who cared? Fishermen? shrimpers? vacationers? . . . they don’t count. Any more than coal miners do, or those poor folks who live in the desert near nuclear waste facilities.

Dead oil rig workers? Dead fish? Dead sea turtles and sea birds? Dead whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals? Dead migratory sea birds? Dead fishing industry? Dead tourism? Far-reaching economic devastation? More unemployment? Biggest environmental disaster in history? So what! That’s half a million bucks! . . . That’ll almost pay for my new G5. Greedy bastards.

Obama visited Louisiana on Sunday to survey the spreading oil slick from a helicopter in a move weirdly reminiscent of Dubya’s flyover of the nearby real estate to peek at the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. Obama’s visit had great optics, as the PR people would say, but zero affect on the problem at hand and was ultimately pointless from anything other than a photo-op standpoint. “Let me be clear: BP is responsible for this leak,” Obama said to the cameras Sunday ”BP will be paying the bill.”

This could have been a defining moment in the Obama presidency, an opportunity to confront the rabid “drill baby, drill” Republicans - whose policies were instrumental in causing this disaster – with full force. Instead he scolded BP like a forgetful child who had accidentally forgotten to take off his shoes and tracked mud into the house. “Look at the mess you made, Billy! You’re going to use your allowance to pay to clean the rug!” Worse, he did not reverse his position on offshore drilling. As a sop to consumer food safety he did ban commercial fishing in the area for 10 days. From the predictions of the expected environmental damage, that time frame might stretch to 10 years. “Your government will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to stop this crisis,” he said.

But . . . what about the government policies that made it possible for this deadly disaster to happen in the first place? What about the eleven oil workers who are dead because of Halliburton/Cheney’s super-secret energy meetings in which oil industry lobbyists successfully eliminated from government policy any effective regulation or safety measures that would’ve prevented this kind of disaster? Did I miss that part of the speech as Obama metaphorically wagged his finger at BP?

And, of course, there’s been not a peep from Corporate Media about the cause of this disaster. They cover the sensational aspects of the story – the first bird treated for oil poisoning, the local fisherman who worries his family will now lose everything, the lady who runs the oceanfront B&B who cries because people are canceling their reservations – but they ignore the deeper story: that this disaster was predicted and preventable.

As reported by Seymour Friendly, “Article after article after article after article has highlighted and exposed just how ill-prepared both industry and government were for a predictable disaster in an offshore drilling operation that both industry and government together allowed to proceed. . . The deeper story in this wreck that is being missed is the story of an industrial energy production system – offshore oil drilling – that is in general emphasized by a big industry and normally co-opted or coerced government officials and agencies – and that continues to produce major disasters despite decades of technological focus and advance.”

Largely because of the lack of pointed media coverage, those folks most likely to be affected by this disaster – the fishermen, oystermen, boat rental operators and coastal business owners dependent on tourism – will likely continue to vote for the very Republicans in government whose anti-regulatory attitudes allowed this disaster to occur. Just as they will likely believe Rush “Deaf by Temptation” Limbaugh as he outrageously accuses liberals and “Eco-Nazis” for this disaster, suggesting they blew up the rig and murdered those on board to discourage further drilling. Or, they will nod in lemming-like unison as Glenn Beck calls the spill “Obama’s Katrina” . . . while the wildlife around them withers and dies.

Yesterday I thumbed through my photo albums and savored the memories of our time on the Forgotten Coast. Periodically I glanced at TV, watching the advancing pool of toxic goo spread like a cancer across the Gulf. I kept thinking of the last lines of the poem that ends “. . . for want of a nail, the war was lost . . . ”

For want of a shut-off valve, the coast was lost.:(

- Kathy Bay Malloy

http://www.mikemalloy.com/2010/05/03/accidental-tourist/

Blackflag

05-04-2010, 12:18 AM

And my point that it DOUBLED under the "energy pResident" is still correct, even factoring in inflation.

Look at how much it increased since Obama took office. He's clearly BCE.

chefcraig

05-04-2010, 12:47 AM

And my point that it DOUBLED under the "energy pResident" is still correct, even factoring in inflation.

This country and congress is RUN by Big Oil, and so much of our defense, economy, and society is at their beck and call.

:gulp:

Just another pathetc example of how FUCKED we are without serious CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

No, I don't believe that completely covers things. Economic blight, be it postulated via campaign reform, local politicians being in bed with developers or outright ignorance does not change the fact that people, left to themselves to survive, are fucking animals. Realistically, I should have sold this house about 7 or 8 years ago. Instead, I held out for a better price, then had a couple of hurricanes come along and wreck things. This was compounded by a new "element" moving into the neighborhood, as property values dropped.

The result of my holding out to regain my investment? Dogs now bark 24 hours a day, sirens go off unexpectedly from emergency vehicles, loud music blasts from every car going by and I find that my once wonderful neighborhood has turned into the hood. Now, is it my fault as a citizen for not moving away from these "people" promptly enough? Furthermore, exactly how far west am I supposed to move (before finding the Everglades or hopelessly unaffordable housing) to get away from their kind? Is there a land to get away from shitbags once and for all? Exactly how far does one need to go and how much does it cost to do so? And finally, while attempting to do this, is one labeled a racist for doing so?

LoungeMachine

05-04-2010, 12:51 AM

Move west, young Chef.

:gulp:

And then head north......

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 10:07 AM

Nickdfresh

05-04-2010, 10:15 AM

You queers should be riding bicycles for your transportation needs...

You just want to see men in their tight shorts...

jhale667

05-04-2010, 10:35 AM

And finally, the "disaster" that you hear on the talking head shows seems to be quite exaggerated based on my local standpoint...

5,000 barrels of oil leaking into the gulf every day...yeah, that's peanuts.

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 11:17 AM

Well, so far it isn't the disaster the oil haters are hoping for...

jhale667

05-04-2010, 11:24 AM

Well, so far it isn't the disaster the oil haters are hoping for...

Holy Fuck - did you take EXTRA Stupid-pills this morning??? WHO THE FUCK HOPES FOR A DISASTER, YOU IDIOT???
:mad:
Seriously, did you even think before you posted that nonsense?

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 11:30 AM

Sure I did...

There are people out there who would like nothing more than a good reason to shut down off shore drilling...

jhale667

05-04-2010, 11:33 AM

Sure I did...

There are people out there who would like nothing more than a good reason to shut down off shore drilling...

For reasons OTHER than getting us off the foreign oil teat? A xenophobe like you has to be for that, right?

And again, NO ONE wants to see the coastlines F*ed up, that's just stupid.

Nickdfresh

05-04-2010, 11:47 AM

Well, so far it isn't the disaster the oil haters are hoping for...

Yeah, because that makes a fuck-lot-of-sense....

Enjoy the dire economic consequences from this spill from the catastrophic blow to the seafood industry to the sludge ridden shore line tourists are sure to flee from...

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 11:56 AM

Enjoy the dire economic consequences from this spill from the catastrophic blow to the seafood industry to the sludge ridden shore line tourists are sure to flee from...

Whatever dude...

jhale667

05-04-2010, 11:58 AM

Whatever dude...

Great answer from the guy who's about to have an oil slick in his backyard... :rolleyes:

Blaze

05-04-2010, 12:05 PM

First of all, BP's liability is limited to 75M under a 1990 law...

Secondly, Obama claimed a "all hands on deck approach since day one." Where are they ??

Thirdly, BP seems to have a plan and they are implementing it. I hope they succeed alone, without federal government intervention...

And finally, the "disaster" that you hear on the talking head shows seems to be quite exaggerated based on my local standpoint...

:elvis:

Dead jellyfish washing ashore along Mississippi Gulf coast
By John Kelly
May 03, 2010, 11:42AM

Ryan Moore / Hattiesburg American via AP
http://media.nola.com/news_impact/photo/gulf-oil-spill-b2a3d12eaba43fc8_medium.jpg
A crew member marks a dead fish that has washed ashore in Pass Christian, Miss., Monday. Crews are combing the beaches marking dead sea life and gathering any trash that is on the beach.

The head of the National Wildlife Federation says he has seen a huge number of dead jellyfish along the beach on an island at the southern end of the Mississippi.
Larry Schweiger says his team will go back out Monday to take tissue samples to see if the oil spill caused their deaths.
Schweiger says it's not uncommon to see jellyfish floating dead during high winds, but the number of dead found so far is beyond normal.
At least 20 sea turtles have been found dead over the weekend along a 30-mile stretch of Mississippi beaches but wildlife officials can't say with certainty the turtles died as a result of the oil spill. They won't know more until necropsies are performed on Monday.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/dead_jellyfish_washing_ashore.html

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 12:06 PM

I don't think we are...

Between BP, the Louisiana government, Bobby Jindal and the volunteers, I think they are gonna handle it well...

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 12:07 PM

Not the jellyfish!!!

:pullinghair:

jhale667

05-04-2010, 12:09 PM

Not the jellyfish!!!

:pullinghair:

Your level of denial is pretty astounding, dude.

Igosplut

05-04-2010, 12:12 PM

I do know that this oil spill is the hot topic amongst commercial fisherman up here. Many talk of the possibility of oil making it this far (if it gets around Florida) and the impact of the industry being shut down. They can imagine the dire impact that it's going to have for the Gulf fisherman, the feds want nothing more than to shut the little guys out of the industry and if they can do it this way all the better..

PETE'S BROTHER

05-04-2010, 12:18 PM

Beer has not doubled in the last 10 years.

IF smokes have, it's because of taxes.

But a 6 pack of good beer was $6-7 dollars, now it's $7-9

Shitty Coors was probably $4 a sixer, now probably $5.

Hardly DOUBLED.

:gulp:

and part of oil's rise in price has to be due to increased taxes as well, right?

PETE'S BROTHER

05-04-2010, 12:29 PM

and part of oil's rise in price has to be due to increased taxes as well, right?

the rise in gasoline prices, sorry.

FORD

05-04-2010, 01:00 PM

Well, so far it isn't the disaster the oil haters are hoping for...

Just a reminder for Nurse Presley, so he might remember how GOD feels about shit like this......

And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. - Revelation 11:18

What would Jesus do, Gregory?

LoungeMachine

05-04-2010, 01:10 PM

and part of oil's rise in price has to be due to increased taxes as well, right?

No.

Gas, yes.

Not barrels of crude

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 01:13 PM

What would Jesus do, Gregory?

Help clean up the mess and help make sure it doesn't happen again in the future...

FORD

05-04-2010, 01:16 PM

More like the manipulation of Wall $treet criminal speculation than taxes. The president of Citibank (which is partially owned by the Saudis, no less) owns his own goddamn oil tankers, which he uses as his own "strategic reserve" to fuck with the prices.

Nickdfresh

05-04-2010, 01:33 PM

I don't think we are...

Between BP, the Louisiana government, Bobby Jindal and the volunteers, I think they are gonna handle it well...

Yeah, British Petroleum has been just fucking great! They didn't even have a shut-off valve mandated in the North Sea off of their HQ country, the U.K.

LoungeMachine

05-04-2010, 01:35 PM

Help clean up the mess and help make sure it doesn't happen again in the future...

So what are YOU doing as a "Christian" to follow Jesus' example?

:gulp:

FORD

05-04-2010, 01:38 PM

With all that fucking oil, even Jesus wouldn't be able to walk on that water. :(

Blackflag

05-04-2010, 01:44 PM

I think I lost brain cells reading this thread.

ELVIS

05-04-2010, 01:53 PM

So what are YOU doing as a "Christian" to follow Jesus' example?

:gulp:

I have three crawfish and i'd like to feed the entire bayou...

PETE'S BROTHER

05-04-2010, 01:56 PM

I have three crawfish and i'd like to feed the entire bayou...

blasphemer! :biggrin:

Jesus Christ

05-04-2010, 04:17 PM

I have three crawfish and i'd like to feed the entire bayou...

If ye had the faith of a mustard seed..... and a really big pot of gumbo, My son. :jesuslol:

Nitro Express

05-04-2010, 11:42 PM

Selling their stock in BP, I would imagine...

Norway is a major oil producer??

Yup. They are a big natural gas producer as well. They put some of their oil profits into the Norwegian Pension Fund which is one of the largest holders of stocks and bonds in the world. This is so future generations of Norwegians will have money available when the oil and gas run out. The NPF dumped their Wal-Mart stock due to the company buying from vendors who use slave labor and their poor treatment of employees.

Norway also produces the best cod liver oil in the world. LOL!

Nitro Express

05-04-2010, 11:43 PM

I grew up in a Norwegian household so I had to take my spoonful of the nasty stuff. Anyways the first time I smelled pussy, I went hey, it smells like cod liver oil.

hideyoursheep

05-05-2010, 07:14 AM

First off, I would like to sound off in reference to who should clean this shit up.

Send John McCain and his rogue partner Sarah Palin down there with a Sham-Wow each, and if they succeed, I'll vote for BOTH of them.

Fuck...

Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, catastrophic oil spills....

I'm counting the seconds until Pat Robertson, Jack Van Impe and the folks at TBN start doing the Can-Can to "That's Armageddon".:cato:

ELVIS

05-05-2010, 08:29 AM

They already have...

sadaist

05-05-2010, 08:56 AM

......start doing the Can-Can to "That's Armageddon".:cato:

I always liked that tune....

<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YI6Ms0b4q-4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YI6Ms0b4q-4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>

Seshmeister

05-05-2010, 09:10 AM

ELVIS

05-05-2010, 10:34 AM

http://imgsrv.wwl.com/image/DbGraphic/201005/1559658.jpg?1273065768

BP officials confirm they have stopped one of the three leaks spewing oil from the Gulf Mexico.

BP's Doug Suttles explained how it works. "We actually cut off the end of this piece of pipe, designed and engineered a valve to put over the top of that."

The company says remote controlled subs have now been able to close the valve.

Suttles says while it doesn't reduce the oil flow, this means BP can focus now on collecting oil at just two leaks and funneling it to the surface. (http://www.wwl.com/One-oil-leak-shutoff/6972834)

:elvis:

ELVIS

05-05-2010, 10:37 AM

http://imgsrv.wwl.com/image/DbGraphic/201005/1559529.jpg?1273054458

Another tool in the fight against the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is on its way to ground zero

BP has noted in news conferences over the last two weeks that a giant "cofferdam" might be a mechanism to cap off the leaking wellhead.

Today, those giant containment vessels are heading from Port Fourchon, out on a vessel heading to the site of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The containment vessels will arrive at the site of the leak in about two days.

"And at that point, it will take us about 48 hours to actually put that containment device.. on the seabed," BP head Doug Suttles said. "You've got to remember that this thing is very, very large, around 70 tons."

Suttles said that once the containment rig is settled over the leaking pipe, the hope is that crews can then work to vacuum off the crude oil that is leaking out of the structure, currently estimated at over 200,000 gallons a day.

"At that point we'll bring in the drill ship Enterprise...connect that with a series of pipework that brings it (the oil) up to the drill ship, and then begin to try to capture this oil at the seabed."

The use of cofferdams in containing oil leaks is not new, but this is the first time that emergency officials have tried using such containment vessels at such a depth.

The leaking pipes near the well head lie nearly a mile below the water's surface.

Previous successful deployments of this oil-fighting method have only been tried in much shallower waters.

:elvis:

Mushroom

05-05-2010, 12:35 PM

U.S. exempted BP's Gulf of Mexico drilling from environmental impact study

Excerpt:

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404118.html?hpid=topnews

what a bunch of Shit! :pullinghair:

Seshmeister

05-05-2010, 01:07 PM

Even the most strident supporter of all things on the right must have a few doubts about a company making $2 billion profit a month and still wrecking the world.

Mushroom

05-05-2010, 01:25 PM

not to mention doubts about the congressional members being lobbied by BP to allow such circumventing of environmental policy

ELVIS

05-05-2010, 02:24 PM

Even the most strident supporter of all things on the right must have a few doubts about a company making $2 billion profit a month and still wrecking the world.

I agree with the first part, but if I were making and selling $20 billion worth of lemonade per month would you have a problem with my $2 billion profit ??

PETE'S BROTHER

05-05-2010, 02:31 PM

I agree with the first part, but if I were making and selling $20 billion worth of lemonade per month would you have a problem with my $2 billion profit ??

yes, cause we would run out of lemons in a couple months, then what?

FORD

05-05-2010, 02:34 PM

I agree with the first part, but if I were making and selling $20 billion worth of lemonade per month would you have a problem with my $2 billion profit ??

I doubt that a huge lemonade spill in the Gulf of Mexico would really hurt much.

ELVIS

05-05-2010, 02:40 PM

That's not the point...

PETE'S BROTHER

05-05-2010, 02:45 PM

That's not the point...

actually, that was sesh's point.

FORD

05-05-2010, 02:46 PM

Sure it is. More people hate oil companies because of their destruction of the environment than they do the unparalleled greed. Your "lemonade franchise" might well develop the greedy side of it, but it's not likely that it would ever do the kind of damage that BP has done in your own back yard. Or that Exxon did in Alaska.

Nickdfresh

05-05-2010, 09:47 PM

not to mention doubts about the congressional members being lobbied by BP to allow such circumventing of environmental policy

And all the idiots running around with the "let's drill more!" mantra while ignoring the consequences. This was largely brought not just by congressional lobbying, but by public lobbying by self-serving oil companies completely full of shit...

LoungeMachine

05-05-2010, 10:21 PM

I agree with the first part, but if I were making and selling $20 billion worth of lemonade per month would you have a problem with my $2 billion profit ??

Great analogy.

:gulp:

You're special, has mommy told you?

:lmao:

Blackflag

05-06-2010, 12:48 AM

This thread has improved since my last visit. It's now a discussion of lemonade...love it.

FORD

05-06-2010, 12:58 AM

Yeah, I think the idea here is that if Jesus promises to turn the oil-destroyed Gulf of Mexico into a giant punch bowl of lemonade, Elvis will make enough crayfish gumbo to feed the entire Delta.

Or something like that? :confused13:

Seshmeister

05-06-2010, 10:11 AM

I agree with the first part, but if I were making and selling $20 billion worth of lemonade per month would you have a problem with my $2 billion profit ??

I don't think they would.

The market would prevent them making a 10% straight profit.

A great example is Coca Cola which is very similar to BP in turnover and employees.

Even with the incredible power of their brand they make about a quarter as much.

The whole thing stinks, capitalism at it's worst. Can you imagine how much companies like BP hand out in bribes to dodgy Arab leaders or to the 'campaign funds' of politicians?

Seshmeister

05-06-2010, 10:13 AM

And Coca Cola are a bunch of dodgy bastards too but that's a whole other thread. :)

Blackflag

05-06-2010, 12:19 PM

The market would prevent them making a 10% straight profit.

:confused13:

Seshmeister

05-08-2010, 06:01 AM

When you let companies get as big and powerful as BP they can unfairly corrupt the market by for example making sure compeditors have large barriers to entry. In a purer market competition would drive profits down to a smaller percentage. Plus remember that the 10% declared by a multinational is just the money that's left after they spend hundreds of millions on accountants to hide the rest.

Kristy

05-09-2010, 11:55 AM

Help clean up the mess and help make sure it doesn't happen again in the future...

Wow. Just...wow.

PETE'S BROTHER

05-17-2010, 01:47 PM

The first chance to choke off the flow for good should come in about a week. Engineers plan to shoot heavy mud into the crippled blowout preventer on top of the well, then permanently entomb the leak in concrete. If that doesn't work, crews also can shoot golf balls and knotted rope into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it, Wells said

golf balls.:umm: knotted rope.:pullinghair:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100517/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill;_ylt=AijcDff74tomsr8fvOGD53qs0NU E;_ylu=X3oDMTFlcDFoa21zBHBvcwM2OARzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9 uX3Vfc19uZXdzBHNsawN3b3JyeXRoYXRndWw-

Big Troubles

05-17-2010, 02:35 PM

US citizens will pay for it. BP will pay, then file a chapter 11, Gov. bails them out, tax payers pay the Gov. Its been the American way for quite some time.

ELVIS

05-20-2010, 08:41 AM

Scientists accuse Obama over oil spill (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37248587/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times//)

Expert claims NOAA is guilty of a 'catastrophic failure'

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.

The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the magnitude of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean.

They are especially concerned about getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface.

The scientists point out that in the month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean.

And the scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well.

“It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled,” Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “It seems baffling that we don’t know where the oil is in the water column.”

Story continues (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37248587/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times//)

:elvis:

hambon4lif

05-24-2010, 10:34 PM

I used to question this guys mental stability back when he was plowing Jane Fonda, but now my long-time suspicions have been confirmed....

....the butter has slipped off of Teddys toast.

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...how sad!

Hardrock69

05-25-2010, 12:21 PM

If this happened in Communist China, they would just sentence the BP CEO to death, then take him outside he court house and put a slug in his head.

Seshmeister

05-25-2010, 12:46 PM

If this happened in Communist China, they would just sentence the BP CEO to death, then take him outside he court house and put a slug in his head.

Or maybe a bit of community action...

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Jagermeister

05-25-2010, 03:46 PM

I'm so pissed off about this god damn mess!

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/20006087

FORD

05-25-2010, 04:24 PM

If this happened in Communist China, they would just sentence the BP CEO to death, then take him outside he court house and put a slug in his head.

Yeah, I think the Chinese actually have the right idea with that. If we started executing corporate criminals here, there would be less of them - one way or another.

At the very least, since corporations insist on calling themselves "persons" now (thanks to that travesty of a Supreme Court decision called the "Citizens United" case) then corporate "persons" should be subject to the death penalty like any other person.

So if you can't shoot the CEO of British Petroleum, at least the corporation itself should die.

Jagermeister

05-25-2010, 04:36 PM

I know that shit is in deep water but you can't tell me that these fuck wads can't find a way to stop that shit sooner. That's what really pisses me off. If they don't have a way to get down to the fuckin well head then they shouldn't drill a fuckin hole in the damn sea floor. Damn it!

PETE'S BROTHER

05-26-2010, 03:11 PM

According to CNN, if the "top kill" doesn't work BP will try a "junk shot": Instead of pumping mud and cement, BP would pump "material like golf balls, pieces of tire and pieces of rope into the blowout preventer."
If neither procedure works, BP will be forced to revert to ideas like a containment dome to try to stop the leak.
— Andrew Golis is the editor of the Yahoo! News blog.

complete clusterfuck.:(:barf::pullinghair:

Hardrock69

05-26-2010, 03:42 PM

This is the most fucked up shit!
:mad:

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 03:48 PM

Junk shot pumping mud. Sounds like a porno. LOL!

This whole fiasco is exposing corporate greed and how it's bought off the government. It's cronyism at it's worst and it's going to cost us plenty in environmental damage. A sad price to expose the collusion that has been ruining our country. There is no leadership in the Federal Government. There wasn't any during Katrina and there is none now. State and local governments waited for the feds to do something and it's just wasted time. Waiting for permission and orders while the war is lost basically.

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 03:50 PM

Balls, rope, pumping, blowout, junk. LOL! It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

PETE'S BROTHER

05-26-2010, 03:54 PM

If neither procedure works, BP will be forced to revert to ideas like a containment dome to try to stop the leak.

revert....ideas like......try to stop. not, "luckily, bp has started building a worse case scenario dome the minute this disaster started 5 weeks ago". or "all drilling companies have pre-built containment domes within 100 miles of all rigs, as required by law."

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 04:00 PM

If this happened in Communist China, they would just sentence the BP CEO to death, then take him outside he court house and put a slug in his head.

China is going more capitalist and we are going marxist. In China they don't tax your savings, it's easier to start a small business there actually than here. The Bank of China is actually the only decently ran central bank on the planet. Sadly I think all the new energy breakthroughs are going to happen in Asia. China is actually investing and building high speed rail and alternative energy facilities as I speak. They are into everything from old solar and wind technologies to cutting edge stuff like zero point and fission.

If the US stays on it's current course we are going to be an old dilapidated communist rust bucket. Exactly what China is trying to systematically escape from.

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 04:05 PM

I'm a share holder in a company that makes bio diesel from agricultural waste and algae. No food production is wasted and the technology gets better and better. The company is going to make fuel from algae that grows in the great salt lake and that facility will come on line this summer. Our biggest customer today is the US Air Force. They are running all the jets at Mountain Home Air Force Base on a 50/50 bio diesel/kerosene mix and it's working fine. This is a trial program. The Air Force wants new fuel alternatives so they don't have to be dependent on imported oil to run their fleet.

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 04:11 PM

US citizens will pay for it. BP will pay, then file a chapter 11, Gov. bails them out, tax payers pay the Gov. Its been the American way for quite some time.

Dude. BP made over $4 Trillion last year. They aren't going to go broke plus they are a multinational corporation ran out of Great Britian. Why should we give them a penny? What's broke is the US Government. BP isn't broke. Far from it.

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 05:33 PM

I love the Russians. Nuke the fucking well. LOL!

http://www.nndb.com/people/086/000112747/

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 05:33 PM

I love the Russians. Nuke the fucking well. LOL!

http://www.nndb.com/people/086/000112747/

Nitro Express

05-26-2010, 05:43 PM

PETE'S BROTHER

05-26-2010, 06:55 PM

i just wanna puke..

At a Coast Guard hearing that started earlier this month and continued in New Orleans on Wednesday, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a "skirmish" between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.
The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.
Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the "company man," overruled the drillers, declaring, "This is how it's going to be." Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled, "Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for," which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.
In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: "I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out."

PETE'S BROTHER

05-26-2010, 06:56 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100526/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_mistakes;_ylt=AtYP84vlqNVgz0ybjN moXQ2s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFoZzk1OWY5BHBvcwMyNQRzZWMDYW Njb3JkaW9uX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNhcGV4Y2x1c2l2ZXc-
:barf:

BigBadBrian

05-27-2010, 11:03 AM

Nitro Express

05-27-2010, 04:53 PM

PETE'S BROTHER

05-27-2010, 06:00 PM

Two teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day. Even using the most conservative estimate, that means nearly 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked.
That larger figure would be nearly four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which a tanker ran aground in Alaska in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100527/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

Seshmeister

05-27-2010, 07:33 PM

Obama inherited the financial and war mess from Clinton and Bush but his down fall was signing that healthcare bill nobody wanted into law and now his lack of any kind of leadership and competence on this oil spill disaster will finish him off. He's nothing more than a salesman with a lot of media power behind him. The man has never ran anything in his life and he's no leader.

You seem to have the impression that your president is some sort of god role where they can control everything and fix any problem.

With all the checks and balances and a congress where the politicians have to spend 4 or 5 hours a day on the phone asking big business for campaign funds I think you overestimate his power vastly.

FORD

05-27-2010, 08:41 PM

Keith Olbermann just interviewed the father and brother of one of the men killed on the oil rig. His job was a "mud driller" and they remember him talking about "things coming up that shouldn't be" from the doomed well, like chunks of rubber and other debris that obviously wasn't oil or natural gas.

Fucking goddamn greedy pieces of shit knew there were problems with the well and did nothing.

BigBadBrian

05-28-2010, 09:07 AM

The problem with this whole situation, besides the horrific ecologic damage, is that the government is going to get involved financially. No, they haven't been involved in any way since day one despite what Barry and his Admin parrots say.

Since BP is a British corporation, any financial burden that goes beyond BP should be passed on to the taxpayers of the UK. They won't mind a little more out of their already over-taxed paychecks. :gulp:

Guitar Shark

05-28-2010, 12:29 PM

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 12:54 PM

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 12:56 PM

Infrastucture, even...:biggrin:

Guitar Shark

05-28-2010, 01:19 PM

Infrastucture, even...:biggrin:

Or, infrastructure ;)

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 01:26 PM

I'm posting outside while I wire up my outbuilding and I can't see the screen in the sun...:biggrin:

FORD

05-28-2010, 03:11 PM

I find it incredible that anyone who lives in the middle of a fucking hurricane zone could STILL deny the existence of global climate change.

Well guess what Elvis? This years hurricanes oughta be extra special. It will be raining oil this time.

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 03:29 PM

Hurricanes are nothing new, algore...

FORD

05-28-2010, 04:04 PM

Hurricanes are nothing new, algore...

No, but hurricanes are caused by warm currents in the ocean and the gulf. And the warmer those currents get, the worse the hurricanes are.

And as I said, now you'll have oilcaines.

Maybe they should just name all of the hurricanes after oil companies this year?

Hurricane ARCO
Hurricane BP
Hurricane Conoco
Hurricane Dutch Shell
Hurricane Exxon

and so forth, using the usual alphabetical naming pattern.

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 04:27 PM

Here's the truth regarding Obama's photo op in Port Fourchon today...

People were bussed in, in matching chothes (red shirts, blue pants and white shrimp boots), placed on the beach with rakes to appear to be cleaning up, and they were gone as soon as Obama was...

:mad2:

Nickdfresh

05-28-2010, 10:02 PM

ELVIS

05-28-2010, 10:09 PM

No, I saw it...

Nitro Express

05-29-2010, 12:59 AM

Nitro Express

05-29-2010, 01:01 AM

A white sandy Gulf coast beach with a hot chick. Nice.

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Nitro Express

05-29-2010, 01:12 AM

I didn't "rush" to post anything. What I did do is simply provide an article to the discussion, cuntselor...

Global warming (as "climate change" used to be referred to) is a political smoke and mirrors campaign to push Cap and Trade and also to undermine the world's energy infastructure...

:elvis:

Yup. It was pretty much a scam set up by certain members of the Rothchild's family and the Russians blew it wide open at the Copenhagen summit. There is climate change in the whole solar system actually not just on this planet due an unusual solar minimum, weak solar wind, and a weak electromagnetic field around the earth. It's much larger than CO2 emissions and in fact, if we have a couple large volcano eruptions we could actually cool off. The world is changing. Maybe Jesus is going to come back. Who knows, all I know is I don't want to be a slave to some European bankers because they can tax the shit out of energy, ration it, and send inspectors into my home and businesses.

Nitro Express

05-29-2010, 01:21 AM

You seem to have the impression that your president is some sort of god role where they can control everything and fix any problem.

With all the checks and balances and a congress where the politicians have to spend 4 or 5 hours a day on the phone asking big business for campaign funds I think you overestimate his power vastly.

The president is commander and chief of the US military. He can get on the phone and start the ball rolling immediately. Get some leadership in the area and hell, have civilian volunteers help. We did this sandbagging the Snake River when it flooded. The president of the United States have more power than ever with all the executive orders they have. Homeland Security and FEMA are pretty much a mess but the Navy and Coast Guard know how to put in oil barrier and there are lot's of fishermen in the area that could help. What Obama can do is break the red tape himself. He's the fucking president and can give orders directly and following up on what is being done. A competent president would run circles around this bum.

Nitro Express

05-29-2010, 01:35 AM

I've worked in the corporate environment where you deal with multiple divisions. We had a serious problem with the retailers getting product before the sales force was even trained or knew that the products had been shipped. My supervisor and supervisor's boss couldn't get anything done due to the whole complicated and divided structure of the company. I went to a wedding and at the reception I ran into one of the vice presidents of the company. I mentioned the problem to him and he didn't even know there was a problem and said he would take care of it. He made one phone call and the problem was solved. It's called authority. When you are a cog in the machine the other cogs don't care about you but when the orders come from the top, things happen. This is executive power and it's very powerful if used correctly. It's even easier when everyone wants to fix the problem. A good president knows what kind of power he has and uses it carefully and sparingly when needed. It's called taking charge and leading. You might have to be a salesman and an actor to get elected but once you are in office, to do the job you need to be a leader.

Blaze

05-29-2010, 01:54 AM

No, I saw it...

And no one from the Internets recorded it. Wow! That's one hell of a conspiracy!
Wait, you are from the internets! Wot? oN record, bugs?

scamper

05-29-2010, 02:02 AM

I thought hurricanes only happened when the repubs were in office?

scamper

05-29-2010, 02:05 AM

Oh that's right, if you haven't lived on the gulf you wouldn't know, I was there before anyone cared. 4 baby you can't stop them.

ELVIS

05-30-2010, 03:23 AM

And no one from the Internets recorded it. Wow! That's one hell of a conspiracy!

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Stupid whore...

:elvis:

Blaze

05-30-2010, 03:33 AM

Ohh, a little drinkie-pooo , there on the compound tonight huh, poopa?

Whispers: tis a funny sight when data dances exasperate E. :tongue0011:

Nickdfresh

06-01-2010, 10:25 PM

The U.S. gov't is opening a criminal probe of BP (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37444105/ns/gulf_oil_spill/?GT1=43001)...

PETE'S BROTHER

06-02-2010, 02:56 PM

The U.S. gov't is opening a criminal probe of BP (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37444105/ns/gulf_oil_spill/?GT1=43001)...

they should open one on themselves..http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_new_well

Obama last week extended a moratorium on wells in deep water like the BP one that blew out a mile below the surface in April and is gushing millions of gallons of oil. But at the same time, the president quietly allowed a three-week-old ban on drilling in shallow water to expire.
"I'm outraged," said Kieran Suckling, executive director for the Tucson, Ariz.,-based Center for Biological Diversity, after a reporter told him of the new permit. "How is it that shallow water drilling suddenly became safe again?"
Bandon Oil and Gas first sought the permit in April shortly after the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank. The permit was approved Wednesday morning, according to MMS records.

ELVIS

06-02-2010, 03:06 PM

It is safe...

PETE'S BROTHER

06-02-2010, 03:38 PM

It is safe...

whew, thanks!:baaa:

Blaze

06-02-2010, 03:57 PM

:biggrin:

Nitro Express

06-02-2010, 04:14 PM

Regulation has become a joke. The Securities and Exchange Commission visited Bernie Madoff six time and twelve years and said he's clean. Meanwhile it turns out the regulators were just sitting in the office looking at porn while Rome burned.

Seshmeister

06-04-2010, 05:43 AM

Yup. It was pretty much a scam set up by certain members of the Rothchild's family and the Russians blew it wide open at the Copenhagen summit. There is climate change in the whole solar system actually not just on this planet due an unusual solar minimum, weak solar wind, and a weak electromagnetic field around the earth. It's much larger than CO2 emissions and in fact, if we have a couple large volcano eruptions we could actually cool off. The world is changing. Maybe Jesus is going to come back.

Maybe the Flying Spaghetti Monster will put a giant piece of raviolli in front of the sun and that will cool the planet down.

In the meantime I think we should all stop using this scientist computer internet imaginary shit and start posting on your new solar wind electromagnetic whiz bang god energy site.

When are you putting it up?

Are you going to send us illuminati screens to look at it on?

What does Jesus want us to do?

Blaze

06-04-2010, 07:31 AM

There's a solar wind electromagnetic whiz bang god energy site? :hitch:

ELVIS

06-04-2010, 09:40 AM

The planet is cooling down...

PETE'S BROTHER

06-04-2010, 10:02 AM

The planet is cooling down...

at night time......

ELVIS

06-05-2010, 12:12 AM

Calm no more - Obama lashes out at BP on Gulf visit (http://www.wwl.com/Calm-no-more---Obama-lashes-out-at-BP-on-Gulf-visi/7397125)

Associated Press Reporting

Dogged for being too calm in crisis, President Barack Obama unleashed frustration for all to see Friday, warning BP it had better do right by the people whose lives it has wrecked.

The president's third trek to the Gulf of Mexico was about the workers with no government titles, the shrimpers and the shopkeepers, the fishermen whose lives have been upended and are running out of people to blame.

Yet Obama's trip was also about him.

He says it serves little substantive point to go around and yell - that people want results, not a show - but presidents face peril if they do not connect emotionally. As the crisis has dragged on - and his poll ratings have slipped - his words for BP's leaders have grown sharper.

"I don't want them nickel-and-diming people down here," Obama said after his latest briefing on the oil response. He promised his government would look over BP's shoulder to ensure it was paying out claims.

His visit amounted to one long I'm-on-your-side passage for reeling communities. Along that same line, he invited family members of the 11 workers killed when the BP rig blew up to visit the White House next Thursday. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president had written to each of the families.

As for BP, Obama cast the oil company as a corporate giant interested in protecting its image with TV ads and its shareholders with bountiful dividends.

"I don't want somebody else bearing the costs of those risks that they took," Obama said. "I want to make sure that they're paying for it."

The president's visit came as engineers with BP worked to settle a funnel-like cap over the deep-sea leak to try to collect some of the crude now fouling four states. It was not clear how much oil was being captured, and some continued to flow, generating frightening photos of seabirds clogged in the muck.

The oil rig that exploded on April 20 has caused a massive, ongoing spill that is polluting the waters and shores of the Gulf states and consuming the attention of the president. Obama scrapped a trip to Indonesia and Australia to deal with it - no small international sacrifice, especially since he had already resorted to that move once before this year to finish a health care law.

Yet in unleashing his most fiery words yet about BP, Obama underscored his awkward situation: To fix the problem, he is reliant on the same people whose motives he now questions. The government is not equipped to handle the tricky, deepwater effort BP is leading to fix its gushing well.

From his briefing outside New Orleans, Obama bounded on a two-hour-plus motorcade drive to Grand Isle, a small barrier island, to hear from the people. The weather made the trip feel fittingly hard. A driving rain forced him to drop plans to travel by helicopter.

Along the way, he passed this roadside sign: "HELP US NOW!!"

At another spot, within walking distance of ELVIS' beautiful bayou home, the side of a building had been adorned with a portrait of Obama reminiscent of his famous presidential campaign posters. Instead of "hope" or "change," the words "what now?" were on his forehead.

In casual clothes, Obama went to a bait shop to talk to fishing industry workers about how the disastrous oil spill is affecting their business. The shop owner was there to meet him along with a shrimper, an oysterman, a marina owner and others.

Obama rolled up his sleeves and sat down at a table with the workers, and they all dug into shrimp and corn on the cob. One by one, they told Obama their gut-wrenching stories, which he then related to reporters.

"Terry's been shrimping out here for 45 years. Right now things are completely shut out," the president said. "Floyd has oil seeping into these oyster beds."

The mayor of Grand Isle, David Camardelle, choked up as he told of staying up nights worrying, "looking at the ceiling fan."

"We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," Camardelle said. "I'm trying to keep Grand Isle alive."

Obama later talked with other Grand Isle residents gathered near the bait shop, on the shore near some shrimp boats, promising them: "We're not going to forget that this is a way of life."

"Even when I'm not here, I'm thinking about you," Obama said.

More than six weeks into the disaster, the president's demeanor has come into question. The calm-in-crisis state that helped him win the presidency has seemed off in tone.

Just ahead of the Gulf visit, he declared himself furious at a situation that "is imperiling an entire way of life and an entire region for potentially years." He criticized BP for not responding more quickly.

But polls show the public growing more negative toward the president's own handling of the spill, and he was aiming to demonstrate he was staying on top of the situation Friday - without getting in the way. Obama visited the Gulf region twice in May, and this tour surely will not be his last.

"We'll keep on coming back until we have dealt with an unprecedented crisis," Obama promised.

Somewhere between 22 million and 47 million gallons of crude oil has been disgorged into the Gulf since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded on April 20, according to government estimates.

Obama's administration on Thursday handed BP a $69 million bill for recovery costs to date - a figure sure to grow in the weeks and months ahead.

:elvis:

hambon4lif

06-05-2010, 01:40 AM

Maybe the Flying Spaghetti Monster will put a giant piece of raviolli in front of the sun and that will cool the planet down.

In the meantime I think we should all stop using this scientist computer internet imaginary shit and start posting on your new solar wind electromagnetic whiz bang god energy site.

When are you putting it up?

Are you going to send us illuminati screens to look at it on?

What does Jesus want us to do?with all due respect, I think you're doing nothing more than being a total dick!

How would you like it if I rode up on a horse, painted my face silver-and-blue and riled up your countrymen about how England could take our lives, but not our freedom?

....you would be none too surprised or amused, so again with all due respect.....Shut The Fuck Up you drunk fucking dick!

Give him time to put up a response/rebuttal and quit being such a godless, drunken asshole!
(I'm juss' sayin')......

diamondsgirl

06-05-2010, 05:12 AM

Calm no more - Obama lashes out at BP on Gulf visit (http://www.wwl.com/Calm-no-more---Obama-lashes-out-at-BP-on-Gulf-visi/7397125)

Associated Press Reporting

At another spot, within walking distance of ELVIS' beautiful bayou home, the side of a building had been adorned with a portrait of Obama reminiscent of his famous presidential campaign posters. Instead of "hope" or "change," the words "what now?" were on his forehead.

Elvis, is this really by your home? When did someone write that on his forehead? Was it right after the explosion? or after the leak continued for weeks upon weeks?

Seshmeister

06-05-2010, 05:47 AM

with all due respect, I think you're doing nothing more than being a total dick!

How would you like it if I rode up on a horse, painted my face silver-and-blue and riled up your countrymen about how England could take our lives, but not our freedom?

....you would be none too surprised or amused, so again with all due respect.....Shut The Fuck Up you drunk fucking dick!

Give him time to put up a response/rebuttal and quit being such a godless, drunken asshole!
(I'm juss' sayin')......

Nice.

And who was drinking when they posted, I know I wasn't?

(I'm juss sayin')......

A mild apology would be the decent thing to do but don't worry I have a very thick skin. :)

ELVIS

06-05-2010, 09:01 AM

Elvis, is this really by your home? When did someone write that on his forehead? Was it right after the explosion? or after the leak continued for weeks upon weeks?

Yeah, it's a tattoo shop on the corner along the bayou. The artist airbrushed his entire wall with Obama and BP and erected an oily fisherman statue....

He did it all in the last two weeks or so...

I'lll post a pic...

:elvis:

diamondsgirl

06-05-2010, 09:07 AM

Yeah, it's a tattoo shop on the corner along the bayou. The artist airbrushed his entire wall with Obama and BP and erected an oily fisherman statue....

He did it all in the last two weeks or so...

I'lll post a pic...

:elvis:

Thanks. :baaa:

ELVIS

06-05-2010, 11:51 AM

Obama's weekly address from Grand Isle, La... (http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid87731333001?bclid=63627618001&bctid=90147598001)

:elvis:

jhale667

06-06-2010, 07:59 PM

http://tinyurl.com/23wy2k8

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 05:54 AM

http://sharing.fox11online.com/sharewlin//photo/2010/05/18/gulf-oil-paradise-lost-0516_20100518092157_320_240.JPG

Blaze

06-07-2010, 07:51 AM

Interesting, and truly true. Areas of the Gulf Coast are or rather were paradise.
Maybe that is what was the apple in the Bible represented; Stewards with greed and gluttony and not obedience to God's word.
That those who produce forget, they themselves are not gods. That what can go wrong, will go wrong.

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 08:34 AM

This is just the tip of the iceberg...I bet only 2% of this oil has washed up so far. AND as soon as it hits the gulf stream the east coast will get covered as well. NMFS will be shutting the entire Gulf down soon I'd bet followed by the east coast. It's a dream come true for them...

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 09:34 AM

The Lafourche parish President, Charlotte Randolph, spoke to Obama when he was here, and she explained to him how the moratorium on drilling will cost more than 100,000 jobs in this parish alone...

Obama repied with "they can collect unemployment."

:mad2:

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 09:59 AM

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 10:34 AM

She was speaking of the Oil industry and the supporting jobs...

That's not including the fishermen and it's supporting industry...

The gulf coast will be devastated...

Seshmeister

06-07-2010, 10:50 AM

Fear fear fear.

They could replace the jobs in oil by getting the people to build wind farms out at sea instead of constantly subsidizing the oil industry.

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 10:51 AM

She was speaking of the Oil industry and the supporting jobs...

That's not including the fishermen and it's supporting industry...

The gulf coast will be devastated...

I knew what you meant, I was being sarcastic... Obama only made an appearance because he got so much backlash over saying/doing nothing..

Like somebody had to wake him up to the fact...

Advisor:"Look, this is big. People losing their livelyhoods, and all the environmental damage"

Obama: "You know what these people pay??, Oh if I HAVE to I guess".......

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 10:52 AM

Fear fear fear.

They could replace the jobs in oil by getting the people to build wind farms out at sea instead of constantly subsidizing the oil industry.

They tried to do that here and their STILL fighting over it ten years later. You might as well ask a retard to do long division, it'd be quicker....

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 10:56 AM

That's what we need Sesh ??

The government to pay people to build wind farms at sea ???

LMAO!

:elvis:

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 10:58 AM

I knew what you meant, I was being sarcastic... Obama only made an appearance because he got so much backlash over saying/doing nothing..

Like somebody had to wake him up to the fact...

Advisor:"Look, this is big. People losing their livelyhoods, and all the environmental damage"

Obama: "You know what these people pay??, Oh if I HAVE to I guess".......

Yeah, I hear you...

It's just that a voice of reason is getting very rare around these forums...

:elvis:

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 01:30 PM

You know, I thought the guy might possibly be good too. But once he got in, it would seem (once he realized the money to made) he's kowtowing to all the big interests like most of the other bastards before him. His hesitation to address this spill really shows his true colors (no pun intended).

Kristy

06-07-2010, 01:33 PM

Blaze

06-07-2010, 02:27 PM

Fear fear fear.

They could replace the jobs in oil by getting the people to build wind farms out at sea instead of constantly subsidizing the oil industry.

Seems the logical solution doesn't. Big vast unused areas, the sea and harbors. Hop to it energy companies! And figure the car situation later.

Igosplut

06-07-2010, 02:29 PM

No longer seems like simple paranoia any more. This "spill" will have ramifications that will go beyond our years alone in both economic and environmental damage. But I don't think the NMFS can act on their own authority alone.

My thoughts are that the NMFS will take the tact of " This spill has endangered the target fishing species of X-Y-Z and now we have to shut those fishery's down to sustain the populations." Under emergency conditions, they do not need much approval/public input to do it. I've seen them whittle the small boats here down to 45-85 days at sea, THEN tell them that now "One day counts as two", THEN tell them that they now have to go to catch-shares based on the (reduced) landing of those years. They (NMFS) really want the small guys OUT of the game so it's just the big (read-money) corporations that have the permits...

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 02:35 PM

Hmmm...

Seshmeister

06-07-2010, 03:02 PM

That's what we need Sesh ??

The government to pay people to build wind farms at sea ???

LMAO!

:elvis:

What you are completely missing is the true cost of oil.

Buy energy off of private companies that supply it from wind farms or nuclear and you don't need to spend trillions fighting over shitholes to keep your oil supplies in place.

That's just the money argument never mind the fucking up the planet argument.

ELVIS

06-07-2010, 03:05 PM

Try comparing the cost per KWH between oil and wind...

Seshmeister

06-07-2010, 03:17 PM

And then factor in the true cost of oil.

Seshmeister

06-07-2010, 03:21 PM

Easy enough to find.

http://www.iags.org/costofoil.html

PETE'S BROTHER

06-11-2010, 02:16 PM

London's outspoken Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, joined the chorus of criticism, saying, "I would like to see ... cool heads, a bit of calm reflection about how to deal with this problem rather than endlessly buck-passing and name-calling. When you consider the huge exposure of British pension funds to BP and to BP's share price, it starts to become a matter of national concern if a great British company is being continually beaten up on the international airwaves." And there are reports that John Napier, chairman of one of the country's leading insurance companies, RSA, has written an open letter to Obama accusing him of lack of statesmanship.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599199605600;_ylt=Ah_IyuJZOVpI1Z5ZMoHx2Aus0NUE;_ ylu=X3oDMTNrNTg5ZTI5BGFzc2V0A3RpbWUvMjAxMDA2MTEvMD g1OTkxOTk2MDU2MDAEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM0 BHBvcwMxBHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbG lzdARzbGsDYW5hbHlzaXN1a2Jy

pension funds, national concern, great british company gettin' beat up on tv? FUCK THE FUCKIN' LOT OF YOU!!! our coastline is being damaged beyond repair. our fishing industry in the gulf is shut down, and it's gonna follow up the east coast!! some brits may have less to retire on, americans are not even gonna have a chance to retire, their way of life is gone!

sorry, i watched another nat geo special yesterday on this. absolutely disgusting.

PETE'S BROTHER

06-11-2010, 02:19 PM

Perhaps the most strident remarks came from former Conservative trade minister Lord Norman Tebbit, who wrote on his blog: "The whole might of American wealth and technology is displayed as utterly unable to deal with the disastrous spill - so what more natural than a crude, bigoted, xenophobic display of partisan political Presidential petulance against a multinational company?"

FUCK OFF!!! (altho he did use 4 "p" words in a row:baaa:) reverse this scenario, those limey fucks would wanna own texaco if it were us.

chefcraig

06-11-2010, 02:27 PM

This article appeared in my local paper this morning. It's little things like this that give me some shaky confidence in how this whole issue is to be resolved. Nothing like having a dead guy on your payroll as an adviser. :duh:

FAU professor who died in 2005 named in BP's disaster plan for 2009

AP finds other glaring errors in oil company's plan

By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel (http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-oil-spill-florida-professor-20100610,0,884195.story)

11:14 PM EDT, June 10, 2010

As one of the only scientists in the world who had ever studied the effects of oil on sea turtles, South Florida biologist Peter Lutz seemed a perfect candidate to advise BP in the aftermath of a disaster such as the Gulf spill.

Indeed, the giant petroleum company listed Lutz as a consultant in its 2009 disaster response plan.

The former professor of marine biology at Florida Atlantic University died in February 2005.

"I think he would have been fairly horrified and annoyed to be in the BP plan when he probably was never consulted," said FAU marine biologist Sarah Milton, a former colleague. "And then he would have been amused."

The listing of Lutz in the 2009 response plan was just one of several mistakes uncovered by The Associated Press in BP's 582-page regional spill plan for the Gulf. The AP said Wednesday that the plan for dealing with emergencies on the Deepwater Horizon rig was "riddled with omissions and glaring errors."

In its analysis of the plan, AP found that under the heading "sensitive biological resources," the company listed several marine mammals, including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals, that do not live anywhere near the Gulf.

The names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M University marine life specialists are wrong. So are the numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida that are no longer in service.

In Houston, BP spokesman John Pack said the inclusion of Lutz's name in the 2009 response plan "was clearly an error, something we should have picked up."

When he died of pancreatic cancer at age 65, Lutz was well-known for his research on sea turtles and his role in several scientific societies. He joined FAU in 1991 after several years at the University of Miami, where he conducted one of the only experiments involving sea turtles and oil contamination.

According to Milton, Lutz and his UM colleagues added oil to a tank containing several sea turtles to study its effects. Those effects were "fairly dramatic" and detrimental, she said, but the study was ended before any of the turtles died.

A native of Glasgow, Scotland, Lutz also studied the effects on turtles of beach renourishment and latex balloon ingestion. He also invented a pop-up satellite tag used to track turtle movements.

"One of the complaints [Lutz] made often is that we don't have enough studies on physiology" of marine life affected by oil spills, Milton said.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-oil-spill-florida-professor-20100610,0,884195.story

Seshmeister

06-12-2010, 06:01 AM

Nickdfresh

06-12-2010, 08:05 PM

BP is really BP-Amoco and BP-Castrol. They bought out Amoco years ago and inherited a large U.S. based operation and refinery network. They also now own (formerly "Burma Castrol") Castrol lubricants, one of the bigger motor oil players in the U.S. market as well as in Europe and Asia. In fact I'm changing oil using quarts of their stuff bought years ago tomorrow using so called "German" Castrol SYNTEC 0W-30...

Igosplut

06-14-2010, 06:13 AM

Guys I know that Tuna fish say that the fish (coming up from the Gulf as they do this time of year) are few. Also the large (700LB up) are mostly missing.They figure there's a connection....

Seshmeister

06-14-2010, 07:59 AM

Do you speak to fish often? :)

What did they think of Finding Nemo, too far fetched?

PETE'S BROTHER

06-14-2010, 10:58 AM

Do you speak to fish often? :)

What did they think of Finding Nemo, too far fetched?

well yeah, who ever heard of talking sea turtles?

Igosplut

06-14-2010, 11:03 AM

Do you speak to fish often? :)

What did they think of Finding Nemo, too far fetched?

You can speak to them all you want....when they talk back, THEN you have problems.....

I'm actually gonna go with one of the guys sticking for tuna. I've never done it that way before, we always lay-to and fished them with Tuna poles. THAT's the most boring shit I'll tell ya, you have two live bluefish hooked through their back swimming at a set depth (with a float, usually a soda bottle) and wait. You have to be quiet, no radio, nothing, even talking for the most part. If a fish hits, then you drop anchor, let the fish take some line, and then let him pull the boat around to tire him out. Most of the time though, you just sit around....

Sticking's a whole different ballgame. Usually you have a plane spot them for you, and you chase the school, trying to pick one out. The boats have flying bridges (pilot stations on top to see the school) and pulpits off the bow for the harpoon man. If you can manage to harpoon one (the barb comes off the end of the harpoon, and has line attached) then most have a zapper button that kills the fish before they can bruise themselves (buyers will turn it down for that). I've always wanted to try my hand at sticking, but it's not something most are offered because you're out there to catch, not miss ( from being inexperienced). But these guys figure I can stick, so maybe in a week or so I'll have some pictures.....

Jagermeister

06-14-2010, 11:24 AM

You can speak to them all you want....when they talk back, THEN you have problems.....

I'm actually gonna go with one of the guys sticking for tuna. I've never done it that way before, we always lay-to and fished them with Tuna poles. THAT's the most boring shit I'll tell ya, you have two live bluefish hooked through their back swimming at a set depth (with a float, usually a soda bottle) and wait. You have to be quiet, no radio, nothing, even talking for the most part. If a fish hits, then you drop anchor, let the fish take some line, and then let him pull the boat around to tire him out. Most of the time though, you just sit around....

Sticking's a whole different ballgame. Usually you have a plane spot them for you, and you chase the school, trying to pick one out. The boats have flying bridges (pilot stations on top to see the school) and pulpits off the bow for the harpoon man. If you can manage to harpoon one (the barb comes off the end of the harpoon, and has line attached) then most have a zapper button that kills the fish before they can bruise themselves (buyers will turn it down for that). I've always wanted to try my hand at sticking, but it's not something most are offered because you're out there to catch, not miss ( from being inexperienced). But these guys figure I can stick, so maybe in a week or so I'll have some pictures.....

Cool..

PETE'S BROTHER

06-15-2010, 03:26 PM

shit...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100615/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_fire

BigBadBrian

06-15-2010, 03:33 PM

These bozo's comments were in another thread where Binnie and I said how irrelevant they are.

In any case BP are more American than they are British which most people seem to be ignoring. Half the board and twice as many employees are from the US.

So why are the Brits across the pond getting their panties in a wad when we talk smack about BP?

ELVIS

06-15-2010, 04:08 PM

Because one in seven British pensions are at stake..

Va Beach VH Fan

06-17-2010, 09:15 AM

As usual, Jon Stewart reminds us that these "alternate methods of energy" suggestions aren't exactly a new concept....

<table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com'>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'>Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'<a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-june-16-2010/an-energy-independent-future'>An Energy-Independent Future<a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/'>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:312470' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/'>Daily Show Full Episodes</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.indecisionforever.com'>Political Humor</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/Tea+Party'>Tea Party</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

Seshmeister

06-17-2010, 09:19 AM

Because one in seven British pensions are at stake..

But only a little.

BP shares only make up 1.5% of British pensions, but most pension funds seem to have some.

Nickdfresh

06-17-2010, 11:01 AM

PETE'S BROTHER

06-17-2010, 03:25 PM

"I'm not speaking for anybody in the House of Representatives but myself," Barton explained, "but I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion shakedown."

what a fool

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_ts2660

Seshmeister

06-17-2010, 04:08 PM

He's not a fool at all, just owned.

Barton has received more than $1.5 million in campaign donations from the oil industry

"Citizens for Ethics reported that Barton paid his wife Terri $57,759 in salary and bonuses, from his campaign funds in the 2006 election cycle. A spokesman said that Terri served as the campaign's outreach director and planned fundraising and special events.[6] Barton's daughter Kristin was paid $12,622 in salary and bonuses and his mother, Nell Barton, was paid $7,000 for a car."

PETE'S BROTHER

06-17-2010, 04:23 PM

he certainly says foolish things...

Wind energy could alter wind patterns and aggravate global warming.
"Wind is God's way of balancing heat. Wind is the way you shift heat from areas where it's hotter to areas where it's cooler. That's what wind is. Wouldn't it be ironic if in the interest of global warming we mandated massive switches to energy, which is a finite resource, which slows the winds down, which causes the temperature to go up? Now, I'm not saying that's going to happen, Mr. Chairman, but that is definitely something on the massive scale. I mean, it does make some sense. You stop something, you can't transfer that heat, and the heat goes up. It's just something to think about."

Humans will simply "adapt" to climate change.
"I think that it's inevitable that humanity will adapt to global warming. I also believe the longer we postpone finding ways to do it successfully, the more expensive and unpalatable the adjustment will become. Adaptation to shifts in temperature is not that difficult. What will be difficult is the adaptation to rampant unemployment -- enormous, spontaneous and avoidable changes to our economy -- if we adopt such a reckless policy as cap-and-tax or cap-and-trade."

Global warming is a "net benefit" to mankind.
"CO2 is odorless, colorless, tasteless - it's not a threat to human health in terms of being exposed to it. We create it as we talk back and forth. So, and if you go beyond that, on a net basis, there's ample evidence that warming generically -- however it is caused -- is a net benefit to mankind."

Barton claimed via Twitter to have stumped Energy Secretary Steven Chu with a "simple question": "How did all the oil and gas get to Alaska and under the Arctic Ocean?" Watch the video for yourself to see if Chu, a Nobel Prize winner, was truly stumped.

Sometimes, however, Barton prefers to let his actions do the talking. During a hearing on the Waxman-Markey climate bill last year, Barton read the paper while his former upper-chamber colleague, John Warner (R-Va.), testified.

By Matt DeLong | June 17, 2010; 1:23 PM ET

PETE'S BROTHER

06-17-2010, 04:24 PM

Blaze

06-17-2010, 05:27 PM

Isn't it ironic that a product from a mass extinction on Earth is what we are compelled to pull from the ground at alarming rates.

PETE'S BROTHER

06-17-2010, 05:30 PM

Isn't it ironic that a product from a mass extinction on Earth is what we are compelled to pull from the ground at alarming rates.

yes :baaa:

chefcraig

06-17-2010, 06:39 PM

Isn't it ironic that a product from a mass extinction on Earth is what we are compelled to pull from the ground at alarming rates.

No. What would be ironic is if man had to go back in time to retrieve a couple of extinct animals to prevent destruction in the modern day. This is also the plot outline of Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1153/startrekivstill1.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/startrekivstill1.jpg/)

Blaze

06-17-2010, 06:44 PM

No. What would be ironic is if man had to go back in time to retrieve a couple of extinct animals to prevent destruction in the modern day. This is also the plot outline of Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home.

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/1153/startrekivstill1.jpg (http://img19.imageshack.us/i/startrekivstill1.jpg/)

There were dinosaurs in Star Trek IV ?

I really must catch - up with my movie watching.

Are there any other updates I should know about from the Star Trek series? ~Joshing!~ :biggrin:

PETE'S BROTHER

06-17-2010, 06:53 PM

There were dinosaurs in Star Trek IV ?

I really must catch - up with my movie watching.

Are there any other updates I should know about from the Star Trek series? ~Joshing!~ :biggrin:

kahn is dead

Blaze

06-17-2010, 07:51 PM

kahn is dead

Khan was the gray haired dude that ran Fantasy Island, right? I knew his buddy the short guy was dead. Take care Khan. :waves:

binnie

06-18-2010, 02:52 AM

So why are the Brits across the pond getting their panties in a wad when we talk smack about BP?

We're not, really. The Right Wing press and several persons in the government are trying to whip up the story a little to detract from the severe cuts in public spending that are being put through at the moment.

Some of the anti-British rhetoric is a little galling - and I think Obama has surprised people with that - but overall I'd say most people sympathize massively with the US people on this issue.

Seshmeister

06-20-2010, 08:33 PM

This is what 25 000 barrels(1 days worth or maybe half a day) looks like

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PETE'S BROTHER

06-25-2010, 03:17 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100625/ts_nm/us_oil_spill_cap;_ylt=Aon.E7l7f0B0SIng9_MLsnBH2ocA ;_ylu=X3oDMTM1MXEyMGg0BGFzc2V0A25tLzIwMTAwNjI1L3Vz X29pbF9zcGlsbF9jYXAEY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3Bvcw MyBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDc3Rvcm10 aHJlYXRl

HOUSTON (Reuters) – With a storm threatening to disrupt oil-siphoning efforts at BP Plc's blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, the U.S. Coast Guard on Friday said collection efforts would be suspended five days before the forecast onset of gale-force winds.
A tropical disturbance over the western Caribbean could deal a big setback to efforts by BP to contain oil gushing from the well, estimated by the U.S. government at up to 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons/9.5 million liters) per day.
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the U.S. government's point man on the oil spill, said it would be necessary five days before gale force winds are forecast to arrive to take down operations involving ships and other equipment siphoning some of the oil spewing from BP's ruptured deep-sea well.
During this period, the oil could flow unchecked from the ruptured well into the sea for up to 14 days, Allen said.

Jagermeister

06-25-2010, 03:21 PM

PETE'S BROTHER

06-25-2010, 05:39 PM

of course...:(

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service says oil spill victims who receive BP payments for lost wages will have to pay up come tax time.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100625/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_taxes

Igosplut

06-25-2010, 07:28 PM

Yep, that's unearned income so the tax bracket is higher even. Something like 40% and I bet they get it on 1099's so it's a direct deduction for BP...

PETE'S BROTHER

06-29-2010, 04:29 PM

i wonder if this is tax free?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100629/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_spill_bp_at_the_pump;_ylt=AkCBeOK7ih_hpTGY6 2RrmPxvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJzcXZhN2tqBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwM TAwNjI5L3VzX29pbF9zcGlsbF9icF9hdF90aGVfcHVtcARjcG9 zAzEEcG9zAzMEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDZnVsbG5ic 3BzdG9y

HOUSTON – Oil giant BP PLC is floating a financial lifeline to the owners, operators and suppliers of the gas stations around America that bear its name and have been struggling because of boycotts prompted by the Gulf spill.
The head of a trade group that represents distributors of BP gasoline in the U.S. told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the company is informing outlets that they will be getting cash in their pockets, reductions in credit card fees and help with more national advertising.
The cash component will be based on distributors' volume and will be higher for outlets along the Gulf Coast than for those elsewhere in the country, said John Kleine of the BP Amoco Marketers Association.
"They are going to get a check," Kleine said. "They're being given these dollars for use in their business."
He estimates the total package BP is offering at roughly $50 million to $70 million.

Seshmeister

06-29-2010, 04:42 PM

PETE'S BROTHER

06-29-2010, 04:59 PM

so you could have venezualan gas in a pump at a phillips 76 station? i don't believe that to be true.

PETE'S BROTHER

06-29-2010, 05:07 PM

BP owns just a fraction of the more than 11,000 stations across the U.S. that sell its fuel under the BP, Amoco and ARCO banners.

but the tiger was exxon

http://www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/

Seshmeister

06-29-2010, 08:35 PM

I never said it wasn't.

Exxon is called Esso here, I even translated that for you. :)

Nickdfresh

06-29-2010, 11:38 PM

Something that not many people know is that BP gas stations don't sell BP gas just like Exxon gas stations don't sell Exxon gas.

It's all mixed up and they are franchises that just buy it as a commodity from whoever.

That's why gas commercials with fucking tigers or whatever are just total and utter bullshit. It's also kind of bullshit to boycott a particular gas station franchise for the same reason.

I can't speak for Europe, but you're sort of correct and wrong at the same time. IIRC, the gas is based on a pool system, but the additive package is added (via jugs by the truck driver) just prior to delivery the petrol station. There is a difference in additives varying from company to company. In the U.S., there are now "Top Tier" rated refiners, that supposedly use extra detergent in their gasolines...

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

Jagermeister

06-30-2010, 01:09 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The State Department said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.

The identities of all 12 countries and international organizations were not immediately announced. One country was cited in the State Department statement -- Japan, which is providing two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom.

More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The State Department hasn't indicated why some offers have been accepted and others have not.

IT"S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!

PETE'S BROTHER

06-30-2010, 01:25 PM

just in time for them to stay at the dock during hurricane season:(

ELVIS

06-30-2010, 01:25 PM

Yeah, but government studies and testing are being applied prior to any of these methods and vessels to be hired by BP...

:mad2:

Seshmeister

06-30-2010, 03:43 PM

http://randommumblings.net/uploads/b3ta_elvis_bush.jpg

Nickdfresh

07-06-2010, 10:52 AM

BP board game foreshadows Gulf disaster

In BP Offshore Oil Strike, the first player to earn $120,000,000 wins.

LONDON -- An obscure BP-themed board game in which players aim to avoid rig disasters has become an unexpected hit at a British toy museum.

BP Offshore Oil Strike was released in the early 1970s and allows up to four players to explore for oil, build platforms and construct pipelines. The first player to earn $120,000,000 wins.

Its "hazard cards" include "Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million."

BP announced Monday that it has spent $3.12 billion dealing with the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The game was recently donated to the House on the Hill Toy Museum in Stansted, Essex.

"The parallels between the game and the current crisis... are so spooky," museum owner Alan Goldsmith told Britain's Metro newspaper. "The picture on the front of the box is so reminiscent to the disaster with the stormy seas, the oil rig and an overall sense of doom.

"I was just knocked over by how relevant this game is, despite being made some 35 years ago, to BP’s troubles today."

Goldsmith said the game is worth about £75 ($115).

- By Jason Cumming, msnbc.com (http://fieldnotes.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/07/06/4621357-bp-board-game-foreshadows-gulf-disaster?Gt1=43001)

ELVIS

07-06-2010, 10:54 AM

That's some pertinent info there, Dickforbrains, keep it up...

Nickdfresh

07-06-2010, 11:06 AM

That's some pertinent info there, Dickforbrains, keep it up...

Much like your contributions in the forum you're supposed to mod. Why don't you go listen to some Van Hagar, you fucking inbred...

ELVIS

07-06-2010, 11:09 AM

Maybe i'll go google a David Lee Roth board game...:biggrin:

Nickdfresh

07-06-2010, 11:18 AM

Maybe i'll go google a David Lee Roth board game...:biggrin:

I'm sure you'd prefer to google Sammy Hagar and Yngwie reach-around....

Blaze

07-07-2010, 05:21 AM

Blaze

07-07-2010, 10:23 PM

PETE'S BROTHER

07-15-2010, 04:30 PM

potential progress.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100715/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

NEW ORLEANS – A tightly fitted cap was successfully keeping oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for the first time in three months, BP said Thursday. The victory — long awaited by weary residents along the coast — is the most significant milestone yet in BP's effort to control one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Kent Wells, a BP PLC vice president, said at a news briefing that oil stopped flowing into the water at 2:25 p.m. CDT after engineers gradually dialed down the amount of crude escaping through the last of three valves in the 75-ton cap.
"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.
The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

Blaze

07-15-2010, 04:44 PM

Good news!

vh rides again

07-15-2010, 08:31 PM

looks like bp's job is done. it will be back to business as usual, alot of back slapping and unleash the lawyers. they will do a halfass cleanup. withhold money and bank it collecting billions in interest while fighting it out in courts for the next twenty years.anyone whos living was made from the gulf will lose everything. it wont effect the people who work for oil companies in the gulf though.

Little Texan

07-15-2010, 09:01 PM

Here's what I want to know: This latest cap they put on the well that has stopped the leak, why didn't they put it on to start with instead of the loose fitting, leaky one they've had on there the past couple of months that has spewed millions of more barrels of oil into the gulf? This whole disaster could have been handled so much better and more competently than it has been.

vh rides again

07-15-2010, 09:32 PM

Blaze

07-22-2010, 11:14 AM