The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

This has the potential to be the worst oil spill in History. Who's responsible for the Gulf oil disaster?

BP?

THE MAGNITUDE OF THE BP OIL SPILL CONTINUES TO INCREASE
http://www.energyboom.com/policy/magnitude-bp-oil-spill-continues-increase

The news regarding the BP offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has yet to get better.

Yesterday, BP announced it had spent US$450 million in its containment and clean-up efforts thus far. This number increased by $100 million between Monday and Thursday.

The total amount this disaster will cost the company is tough to quantify yet. However, it appears clean-up and containment of the oil spill will reach over US$1 billion.

Meanwhile, the company's efforts to contain the oil that is spewing forth from the bottom of the ocean have not gone according to plan. BP has successfully capped one of the three oil leaks. The company's attempt to cap the largest leak -- a 20" inch hole --have not failed, twice now.


A third attempt to cap the main leak with a containment dome was supposed to take place today, but as of yet no news has been released.

Original estimates stated that the oil was leaking at a rate of 5,000 barrels per day -- the equivalent of 210,000 gallons or 795,000 litres per day.

However, today it was announced that experts, after analyzing data and viewing the shocking new footage of the oil flowing from its source, believe the oil could be leaking at a rate of 70,000 barrels per day -- the equivalent of 2,940,000 gallons or 11,130,000 litres per day.

I wish BP would spend more time trying to stop the leak instead of trying to figure out how to profit from it.

Once this shit hits the marshland you're fucked.

WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?!

When humanity fucks up, we make sure we're king. Heh.

I wanted to start a thread (the issue seems relevant and getting worse) but I remembered this one so save the mods a headache I'm posting here. That said,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100528/ap_on_an/us_obama_my_responsibility_analysis

I'm confused. BP causes the spill. BP says they are going to clean-up the spill, since it is their mess. Yet some people are blaming Obama? I've seen similar sentiments on the news. Is it just the news spekaing for a vocal minority?Something seems amiss here.

I've always assumed that if someone made a mess, then it was their responsibility to clean it up. I don't even think Obama has the legal authority to push BP out of the way and swoop in and try and clean the thing. Personally, I blame BP. I'm not sure what some people are expecting.

I believe when the Exon Valdez did its oil thing a few years ago, it became the company's, not the governments, responsibility. I believe its a fed law stating something to that fact...

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:I'm confused. BP causes the spill. BP says they are going to clean-up the spill, since it is their mess. Yet some people are blaming Obama? I've seen similar sentiments on the news. Is it just the news spekaing for a vocal minority?Something seems amiss here.

I think you are a mite confused. People aren't blaming Obama directly for the spill. However, they can blame him for a lengthy response time, poor government inspection and handling of BP's rigs, and for allowing more off-shore drilling in the first place. Now, on the heels of this disaster, he's pushing for even more off-shore drilling, rather than make a strong call for clean, renewable energy that doesn't rely on oil production. (Remember how he was all 'we're gonna find clean energy for everyone so we don't have to drill' and now it's 'we need to drill off-shore to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.' HELLO?!?)

I wouldn't lay the blame for this completely at Obama's feet...there were breakdowns at the company, state, and federal levels that shouldn't have occurred. But he's getting the hate right now for being slow in response (even so far as turning down help from other countries) and for pushing for even more off-shore drilling even though we've yet to stop or clean up the current spill/leak.

I blame Bush, seriously. When he was president he made it really easy for these oil companies to get drilling permits and stuff. He's an oil man himself so...

I think way too much time is being taken figuring out whose to blame, instead of stopping the FUCKING LEAK.

Seriously..it's been a month. I don't care what type of federal regulations there are. Send the fucking Navy in there, and get shit DONE. Honestly...how long was it before they actually TRIED to stop the leak? WEEKS? You're telling me that they don't have a leak solution at the ready at all times?

See now I could be wrong but I'd hear that this site had been inspected recently and they'd been told there were issues and that BP chose not to fix them because they were only "renting" the site.

Besides, the man has enough of a mess to clean up with what was left for hi, he can't drop everything and focus only on this, after all then he'll be ignoring the war, or the budget crisis, or the unemployment rates.

Poor Obama walked in and said I'm gonna do my best to clean this mess up then realized how much fucking red tape there was in his way and is getting sruck in it.

He DOES have a point in off shore drilling, if we can get out from under the thumb of another country then maybe when we start discussing alternate technologies they won't be able to go "Oh you want to switch to wind power huh... let's raise the price of oil $30 a barrel."

Also... have you noticed how the folks at Fox News never call him "President" Obama... it's always Mr. Obama. WTF, just cause he's not your guy doesn't mean you shouldn't give him the respect of the title. Get over it. *sigh*

Ok enough politics for me... They were watching CNN at the garage today while I was waiting on my car I'm overloaded.

Sapphire Gypsy wrote:
Besides, the man has enough of a mess to clean up with what was left for hi, he can't drop everything and focus only on this, after all then he'll be ignoring the war, or the budget crisis, or the unemployment rates.

He is ignoring these.

Sapphire Gypsy wrote:
Also... have you noticed how the folks at Fox News never call him "President" Obama... it's always Mr. Obama. WTF, just cause he's not your guy doesn't mean you shouldn't give him the respect of the title. Get over it. *sigh*

So its ok for CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS and ABC to assisinate Bush's character for 8 years but it is not ok for one news network to be critical of the current president. I thought it was everyone's patriotic duty to go against the previous administration? Now it is considered uncool and rude if someone is critical of the current one? If Bush or a white Republican were in office right now, the media would crucify him worse than anything Obama is receiving. There would be conspiracies abound about how the president wants to kill all the black people in the Gulf Coast. Kanye West would go back on SNL and say that the President hates black people and the rest of the world would be up in arms.

Also, Dr. Wade, I believe the government does have the authority to tell BP to move the fuck out of the way and assume command of the incident. Read it the other day but can't remember the exact wording they used to describe it.

I think there's a difference between questioning his policies and not giving him the respect that comes with the office. Just because I might not have liked former President Bush's policies doesn't mean I called him Mr. Bush. I STILL give him the right to the respect that should be earned when voted into that particular office.

Just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean that you have the right to talk shit about them. I didn't ever go on TV talking crap about Bush. So I'm not going to argue with you over the preferences of Democrats and Republicans.... I personally will vote for anyone who I think can get the job done and not run the country into the ground.

But if you're gonna get all shitty about it I'll be glad to play that game with you... until such a time I'll keep my opinions on former President Bush to myself.

If they're just trying to save time by not saying President then just call him Obama... they did it with Bush ALL the time.

Ric Magnum wrote:
If Bush or a white Republican were in office right now, the media would crucify him worse than anything Obama is receiving. There would be conspiracies abound about how the president wants to kill all the black people in the Gulf Coast. Kanye West would go back on SNL and say that the President hates black people and the rest of the world would be up in arms.

You have no way of proving this thus I'm choosing to ignore it. It's just trying to pick a fight I won't take part in. Sorry.

Seriously though... this has been going on long enough for Marvel to have written, edited, printed, and shipped a story about Namor stopping the leak. Put a cork in it already!

I don't get into politics much, but if it's my call, I fix it with tax money then fine the heck out of the companies responsible AFTER the leak is stopped.

I'm all for that idea.

I do wonder why it's taking them so long. Are they trying to train dolphins to put a cap on the thing or what?

Dolphins with Mops.

superdoug wrote:

Dr. Wade Fucking McNasty wrote:I'm confused. BP causes the spill. BP says they are going to clean-up the spill, since it is their mess. Yet some people are blaming Obama? I've seen similar sentiments on the news. Is it just the news spekaing for a vocal minority?Something seems amiss here.

I think you are a mite confused. People aren't blaming Obama directly for the spill. However, they can blame him for a lengthy response time, poor government inspection and handling of BP's rigs, and for allowing more off-shore drilling in the first place. Now, on the heels of this disaster, he's pushing for even more off-shore drilling, rather than make a strong call for clean, renewable energy that doesn't rely on oil production. (Remember how he was all 'we're gonna find clean energy for everyone so we don't have to drill' and now it's 'we need to drill off-shore to reduce our dependency on foreign oil.' HELLO?!?)

I wouldn't lay the blame for this completely at Obama's feet...there were breakdowns at the company, state, and federal levels that shouldn't have occurred. But he's getting the hate right now for being slow in response (even so far as turning down help from other countries) and for pushing for even more off-shore drilling even though we've yet to stop or clean up the current spill/leak.

I see it as:

Sapphire Gypsy wrote:Poor Obama walked in and said I'm gonna do my best to clean this mess up then realized how much fucking red tape there was in his way and is getting sruck in it.

Then there is the fact that people have been commenting on how they do not want government involved in business affairs. It seemed like he was trying to do what some people have been fussing over: limiting government involvment. Now people want government involvement when BP has done little to try and clean-up. It seems like some people don't know what they want.

Sapphire Gypsy wrote:
Also... have you noticed how the folks at Fox News never call him "President" Obama... it's always Mr. Obama. WTF, just cause he's not your guy doesn't mean you shouldn't give him the respect of the title. Get over it. *sigh*

Yeah, I always thought that was silly.

As a Gulf Coast resident in New Orleans, I'm appalled how we continue to get screwed by everybody! Obviously this is BP's fault and I'm at least glad that Obama made it clear that BP will pay for ALL of it, and not the taxpayers. I think the country doesn't realize the impact this will have on so many people's livelihoods here for years to come. My heart goes out to them and I hope they will somehow be compensated. As well as the 11 workers that died in the explosion, who are kinda getting lost in all this. And I didn't even mention the ecological impact this will have on our coast, which will be disastrous.

In terms of President Obama's response, I honestly don't see what else he and the government could have done differently. I'm not sure what all the critics want, them to just act like they're doing something important for photo-ops? The fact of the matter is, the government doesn't have the know-how or technology to push BP aside and fix this problem themselves. It's not only BP's responsibility, but they're the only ones that have the know-how and proper technology to get the job done. All the government can do is be there for support, but only BP can plug the hole at this point.

Ultimately, the ROOT problem of all this is the corrupt culture of the relationship between oil companies and government. Oil companies have to be very strictly regulated with proper safety checks so something like this never happens again. Not only that, but the implementation of cleaner alternative energies MUST be started now so we can put the whole "drill, baby, drill" nonsense to bed. We have to get off oil if we're ever gonna get serious about saving this planet.

To be fair, BP hasn't shown any fucking KNOW-HOW, as far as I'm concerned.

Silent K wrote:To be fair, BP hasn't shown any fucking KNOW-HOW, as far as I'm concerned.

Don't get me wrong, not saying their competent cuz they've proven they're not. But this is their "expertise". Them and a handful of other oil companies are the only ones in the world that have the people and tech to specifically fix these kinds of problems. So unfortunately, it's mostly in their hands.

agreed c-man. the reason we are still indebt to big oil is because big oil tells us how limited we would be with out them. Look up the DVD/movie who killed the electric car.

Basically it was an electric car by Saturn. It would go about 120-150 miles between charges, in LA. Well basically big oil came in and persuaded the local government to not put in any recharging stations. Then Shell bought the place that made the electric motor and issues a whole bunch of recalls stating the engine was faulty.

Then Shell said the car could not do what americans needed, side note: Most americans drive less than 70 miles a day. The movie also talks about how car/oil/and tire companies bought up the trolley cars and replaced them with buses.....

Big oil tells us why other forms of electricity does not work, but then you hear all the wonderful stories of it working, and oil tells us that those are just made up stories....


Plus what do we want the Navy to do? send some divers down there, gijoe style, with a giant cork?

That's the point guys, Big Oil has WAY too much power and control over our politicians and ultimately our lives. These companies make hundreds of billions of dollars because the people in power look after their interests instead of the people's interests and society in general. Big Oil's main priority is to keep the status quo, things have to change if we're ever going to progress as a society.