Drill Baby, Drill!!

[tampa24]

I figured I'd start a thread about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico since I live in a state that will be affected by it fairly soon. It seems there is a whole lot of propaganda and spin going on from all sides. Meanwhile new oil keeps pouring out by the second. It doesn't care what's being said by whom.

At the Republican convention in 2008 the sound bite of the day was, "Drill baby, drill!" Sarah Palin, John McCain and all the party faithful were touting the need for more domestically produced oil...an argument for which a case can be made. And that all this caution and resistance urged by environmentalists was the work of a bunch of out of touch, tree hugging, buffoons. In other words, by people who had no grasp of reality.

The GOP went with rosy scenarios pushed on them by Big Oil and the ideologues of the party. By those who said that our new technology is so good that we can safely tap oil just about anywhere off the U.S. coast at a reasonable depth. And that not doing so would be a danger to our national security. Or as the simpleton wannabe MENSA case Sarah Palin likes to say about every little conservative "outrage" of the day.... (You fill in the blank) "It would make us less free."

Meanwhile the oil encroaches on the coast of Louisiana and the damage is being done. The coast of Alabama and Florida are next in line. The powdery white sand beaches of Destin in the Florida panhandle, and the livelihoods of all the shrimpers and fishermen on the northern Gulf coast, are now at risk. If the oil continues pouring out at its present rate, by the third week of June it will be bigger than the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989.

BP claims that it was never prepared for a spill of this magnitude. What does that tell us about the priorities of these multi-billion dollar corporations? Or about our technology?

 

[tampa24]

My apologies to any members from Mississippi. The coast of that state will also being dealing with the effects of the spill very soon.

 

[johnuk1986]

Scary Scary Scary stuff...
My sister visits Florida every year for a Holiday, and they had planned as usual to go again this year. They have decided to still go ahead with their trip, but they have decided it may not be a typical theme parks, shopping and beach holiday. Her and her Partner along with his family are all going, and if they are needed to help - thats what they will be there for. His father worked for BP at their Oil refinery in Grangemouth, Scotland, He feel it is his moral obligation to help out.
A situation similar, but not of this magnitude, happened off the English Channel in 2001 I was 15 and my sister drove me and my other sister down to the worst affected areas so we could join in with the efforts to help save wildlife and clean up the beaches. The devestation was pretty horrific.
I hope for everyones safety and hope that there can be some damage control done so that the local economy of these effected areas, is not effected too much. I know its a huge ask, but how many blows can one country take.
Lets also hope that Obama & co take afirmative action to help those effected. I hate to bring up Katrina, but i cant think if another example.

My Thoughts and Postive energy goes out to you Tampa24 and to those who will be effected by this disaster.
PEACE AND LOVE
J x

 

[tampa24]

Thank you John. You're very kind.

 

[raysvq]

We had a situation here off our east coast a few weeks ago where a coal ship ran aground on the reef & spilt diesel oil. Not to the magnitude that is happening off the Gulf Of Mexico thankfully, but I can appreciate the anxiety of the people living along the coastlines that this tragedy is already affecting & those that have yet to be affected.
Didn't the Exxon Valdese teach us anything!

 

[joninliverton]

According to one of the UK's Sunday papers, BP knew about a problem some time ago but instead of dealing with it, were too busy counting their pennies that they extort out of working class people by charging too much for fuel (comment guaged at UK). Only a couple of weeks ago BP boasted about making billions of pounds profit in the first quarter of this year. This is when the price of fuel in the UK is at it's highest ever.

Shame on BP and I hope the USA takes them to the cleaners regarding financial compensation. However, before the compo, I also hope that this disaster is solved soon and sympathise with the residents of the East coast of America.

 

[tampa24]

Thanks John,

It's really the residents of Louisiana that I most worry about. Hurricane season will start again in 4 weeks. And this is one more thing they didn't need right now.

And what's up with record prices for petrol in the U.K.? Oil is in the $80+ range right now. And it's been much higher than that before. One would expect the price of petrol to only reach record levels when the price of oil got back up to the $145 range again. And the U.K. is a net EXPORTER of oil! There's something underhanded going on there. They're manipulating the price.

Or as we say over here,"Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."

 

[angelone]

Someone is responsible for this disaster and I want their balls! I don't care whether they're Republicans or Democrats, someone must pay and I don't mean BP either. Someone in Washington allowed the oil industry to "shortcut" safety features that would have prevented this kind of disaster. They let the oil industry off and screwed the American people again. They even had a law that prevents the government from penalizing the oil company more than 80 million dollars - That's ridiculous!