Drill baby, drill.

Extra safety measures would have cost too much money. And get this: an updated Wall Street Journal report finds documents showing that British Petroleum, owner of the leaking well, specifically opposed these safety measures. Excerpt:
But…but…free market glibitatians keep telling me that corporations can police and regulate themselves, or they will all go Galt on us and withhold their productivity!
Free markets and no regulations are supposed to be the answer to everything!

The chickens of neoconservatism coming home to roost. Our “regulators” are basically just industry lobbyists. We can expect many more like this with the new plan to allow drilling virtually everywhere along US coastlines.

Let’s see if this can translate into a push in the Congress for more robust regulation, with real teeth, to help prevent this from happening again. I honestly doubt it, given how many of our legislators (on both sides) are in the pockets of corporate interests. But it will hopefully be a campaign issue this fall, especially for those candidates from the affected states.

“A Canadian oil spill expert tells the BBC today that the Louisiana oil spill is going to dwarf the Exxon Valdez disaster, and with the possible exception of the Kuwait oil field fires following the first Gulf War, will be the worst oil field disaster in history.”
How old is this Canadial “Oil spill expert?” Thirteen?
The largest oil spill in history was the Bay of Campeche blow out, also in the Gulf of Mexico. This one is not even close.

Rod, here’s the link you were needing:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8652686.stm
As for me, I can’t stop thinking of this song:
Sunset on Louisianne
Zachary Richard
When I was young and full of dreams,
My whole life in front of me.
But things are not always the way they seem,
Some things will always change.
My papa’d been a trapper living hand to mouth,
But when I made shop foreman, I had it all figured out,
I thanked god each and everyday
When the industry came to town.
Chorus:
Sunset on Louisianne,
The sun going down on the promised,
I’ve given you everything I can,
I’ve got nothing left to lose.
Married a girl from Pauché Briide,
Raised a family of Cajun kids,
Nobody did no better than we did,
But things can always change.
My sister lost her baby premature,
And my papa got the sickness that got no cure,
And what they told us about it at the plant,
We could not be sure.
Chorus
Bridge:
Smokestacks burning on the river,
From New Orleans to Baton Rouge.
How can I go on believing
When the won’t tell me the truth.
I take my grandson fishing down at Camanida Bay,
I hope some of this beauty will last,
But, lord, it’s changing so damn fast,
Each and every day.
I love the river and I love the swamp,
The snowy egret and the old bull frog,
But they’re harder to find one and all
Since the industry came to town.
Z. Richard–B. Stoltz; Bayou des Mystères Music–Cross Keys Music

Aw, Alicia 10:41 AM beat me to it. I haven’t heard much from
Ms. Drillbaby on this, have you? (Never mind, this isn’t a political blog)

And here’s the think to the full report you probably heard:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/news/2009/03/000000_newshour.shtml

The largest oil spill in history was the Bay of Campeche blow out, also in the Gulf of Mexico. This one is not even close.
not yet – but if it goes on for months as they fear it may – it will be a big deal. And biggest spill or not – it is enough to do enormous damage to the area.
The Coast Guard is trying contained burn off now to control the spill – couldn’t get the url to copy but the smoke clouds are gruesome looking.
This is a true disaster – and just goes to show that the optimism about new technologies to allow deeper drilling were misplaced.
It is heartbreaking to think of the damage this will do and all because we can’t deal with the notion of curbing our appetite for oil.
Captcha is becoming an adventure with each post – this time it was “moment the” – prophetic maybe?

as others have pointed out this problem doesn’t even come close to the Bay of Campeche (Ixtoc I) blowout “when the Ixtoc 1 well blew out and released an estimated 3,000,000 barrels of crude oil ”
http://www.britannica.com/facts/5/219707/Ixtoc-1-as-discussed-in-Bay-of-Campeche-bay-Mexico
and let us not forget that Ixtoc I was being drilled by Pemex the national oil company of Mexico
“Approximately ten thousand to thirty thousand barrels per day were discharged into the Gulf until it was finally capped on March 23, 1980″
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixtoc_I
I think i’ve read that the current blowout is spewing about 5,000 barrels per day
and before people call for the end of offshore drilling consider this side benefit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LhxLMcIIsQ

I’m optimistic that it will be capped in reasonably short order (3 weeks?). There was a massive leak off of Mexico a decade or so back and they dumped tons of stuff on it and slowed it down. However, I don’t doubt that there will be severe ecological damage. But it may not be worse than Exxon Valdez.

Let the Free Market clean the oil up, since we keep hearing it is so much better at everything than the government.

No, we haven’t, Michael. To the best of my awareness, Ms. Drillbaby has been mum about this oil spill.
I realize my “Drill baby, drill” was a flip response to a very sad and excellent post by Rod. That imbecilic slogan, more than anything, was what caused me to totally write off the Republican Party as I watched the Republican National Convention in 2008.
I’m not necessarily opposed to offshore drilling, as long as it can be done in a way that doesn’t pose significant risks to the environment (and to the workers, let’s not forget those who lost their lives). But, clearly, we are not there. As Rod pointed out, technology exists that could have reduced the risks, and it was judged “too expensive” by BP.
As it turns out, this is going to be much more costly, and not just for BP. For everyone who lives in Louisiana and New Orleans, and other affected areas, and for the area of the Gulf of Mexico that is impacted by this toxic oil slick. Words don’t describe how sickening this is.

I’d like to contribute a little balance and perspective. There is no reason to believe that these vaguely defined acoustic activated switches etc… are a panacea. All wells are drilled with “blow-out preventors” (BOPs) and it is my understanding that this well had two BOP systems. In addition, at 5,000 feet of water depth, these BOPs would necessarily be triggered remotely. If the BOPs were damaged in the blowout, it might not matter what kind of triggering system was used, acoustic or otherwise. Second BP and industry have a lot of motivation to “self-regulate”. These deepwater wells cost over $100 million to drill and BP is losing millions in lost production and will incur millions in cleanup costs and litigation. Third, I would question BP’s supposed opposition to “acoustic switches” for offshore drilling. BP does not drill wells. It hires drilling companies, in this case, Trans-Ocean. They and their trade group – the IADC would be the ones commenting on this requirement. Finally, the fundamental problem is that the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is a very difficult place to operate. Water depths >5,000 feet and well depths of >30,000 present adverse operation conditions such as extreme subsurface pressures and temperatures that companies have not had to deal with before. Unfortunately, this is where companies like BP have to look in order to supply our insatiable appetite for oil.

I have a layman’s question here. This well site is under at least a mile of ocean. The Blow Out Preventors failed, for what ever reason, as yet to be determined.
Would the use of a large explosive device, in close proximity to the Well Head cause a collapse, and shifting of the Well Casing, and stop the unchecked flow of oil? The size of the device, to be determined by Engineers, but of course it would be quite large. The intent would be to cause a shifting of the substrata layers, and block off any additional flows.
Would it work? Should it be tryed? The alternatives seems to be a three month plus wait for Relief Wells!

Doubtful that an explosion would do anything but make it MUCH worse. The oil release rate is already restricted somewhat by the piping that is in place.. Set off a big bang and you will rip away the pipes and let the thing flow freely.
The extra actuator theory is total bull. The surveys of the valve by robot sub showed that the valve was actuated (there are several ways it can be actuated including a ‘dead man mechanism’ that no doubt triggered when the explosion occurred). The subs actuated it too. The problem is the valve itself failed to work. BP said that one of the things they were trying is to repair the broken hydraulic systems on the valve.
And all this about worst oil spill ever is baloney too. The Valdez wasn’t even in the top ten. KUwait was the worst, followed by the IXTOC well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico that ran for a year. IXTOC spilled some 140.000,000 gallons, 14 times more than the Valdez.

The Gulf catastrophe could have been avoided if we were growing algae for biocrude. No fires, no explosions, no deaths, no future environmental problems.