Fallout From The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-05-03/fallout-gulf-mexico-oil-spill
A satellite image view of the oil spill off the Gulf of Mexico, April 29
NASA Goddard Photo and Video via flickr
A spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens shipping, wildlife, fisheries and tourism along the coast. Diane and her guests discuss how the government and the oil industry are responding.
Guests
Rayola Dougher
senior economic adviser, American Petroleum Institute
Michael Tidwell
author of "Bayou Farewell" and director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.
Jackie Savitz
Pollution Campaign Director, Senior Scientist,
Oceana
Stephen Power
reporter, Wall Street Journal
Comments
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Not ensuring that BP pays for the Gulf Coast clean-up--or that any other corporation pays for environmental damaged caused by its operations--would amount to corporate welfare of the worst kind. Isn't personhood good enough for BP without getting on the dole from Uncle Sam?
I'm curious if the guests have any information about plans for cleanup or organizations that might be involved in those efforts. Specifically, I'm interested in how listeners might be able to get involved without getting in the way.
I'm a recent college graduate (B.A., Environmental Policy) and still unemployed, and I would jump at the chance to travel to Louisiana to help. As college students are released for the summer across the country, I am sure there are others that feel the same way.
They say they do everything they can but why didn't they already have booms to contain a potential spill "pre-deployed" this seems very simple and cost effective. They didn't have this on the 2 billion dollar rig, but I bet they had a ping pong table.
why can they not use some type of large underwater crimping device to seal the well pipe?
We can probably anticipate the same kind of reaction from BP as we have seen from Exxon Mobile. Stall, delay, let the people parish. Exxon Mobile's actions should be examined carefully so we can better understand how we work with BP
There has been a lot of seismic activity in the Caribbean near the Gulf. Could this seismic activity contributed to the surge in pressure that preceded this oil well disaster?
Before the conspiracies begin to flourish about this incident, can anyone address Obama's dispatching of SWAT teams to examine other oil rigs and the rumor that some kind of deliberate submarine action caused this disaster?
at what velocity is the oil leaking through the hole? what size is the hole?
Regardless of how; bottom line is we do not need to be drilling. What price are we willing to pay? What price? Take this money and work on other sources of energy.
could a leak like this happen from a natural seismic occurrence?
Could someone comment on the involvement that Halliburton may have had with this incident?
America has some of the brightest minds and creative thinkers in the world. Why not release details of the underwater problem to our academic and engineering worlds - they may be surprised by the creative solutions which will be proposed. Apparently now they need to start thinking "out of the box" as the oil industry answers have failed.
TERRORIST ANGLE: Given the tremendous scope of the disaster, and learning that there are literally THOUSANDS of these pumps throughout American waters, what measures are in place to ensure that these pumps are safe and protected from terrorists? from Nancy in Philadelphia
It is increasingly clear that modern energy-intensive Western economies are destructive and parasitic in the extreme. We rape and destroy the Earth's environment just so we can drive around in our SUVs, eat cheeseburgers, and buy pointless things at Wal-Mart and other stores. It is all pointless, ridiculous, and entirely unsustainable.
If you all think this oil spill is bad, have you ever heard of what Western oil companies have done to the much more lush and important Niger Delta? BP and other Western oil companies have utterly destroyed large portions of the Niger Delta, so much so that it will likely never fully recover. A 2007 article in "Vanity Fair" explored this - http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/02/junger200702
Is it possible to require oil companies to prepare(invest capital) into worst case scenarios and at least have preparations in theory. It seems they spend million in lobbies and marketing to prepare for the best case scenarios. I'm not buying the lack of forethought.
I wish someone would comment how wind and solar is great, but we can't get enough from those sources.
The one person is talking about a new wind farm around 400 to 500 mega watts, enough for 150K homes. We have 300 million people. Also wind and solar are peaking sources, and there isn't a good way to store the energy yet.
Off shore drilling isn't what we should do but there is no way we can stop coal, gas, and oil for a long time.
It is clear that the modern mass-industrial system is entirely unsustainable. I'll be surprised if it lasts another few decades.
I hate to say this, but Ted Kaczynski was exactly correct in what he wrote in his tract "Industrial Society and its Future" - http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Industrial_Society_and_Its_Future - I reject the violence he committed in the name of his beliefs, but many of his ideas were exactly right:
1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering—even in "advanced" countries.
I always wonder why it is so painful for me as as a woman to hear another woman (in this case, Rayola Dougher) speaking as an apologist for a corporate form of exploitation like the oil industry.
"Even the apologists of industrialism have been obliged to admit that some economic evils follow in the wake of the machines. These are such as overproduction, unemployment, and a growing inequality in the distribution of wealth. But the remedies proposed by the apologists are always homeopathic. They expect the evils to disappear when we have bigger and better machines, and more of them. Their remedial programs, therefore, look forward to more industrialism." - http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/White/anthology/agrarian.html
Your guest and other commentators have enumerated the various options BP is planning to exercise to capture and/or stop the underwater oil leak.
I want to know why the oil industry did not have these methods developed earlier and maintained in readiness in the event an incident such as this did happen. I have a experience in emergency preparedness, and haven't seen any evidence real planning.
I find it interesting that we hear of disasters like this one, the Exxon Valdez and Katrina... but we never hear of similar disasters from Europe. They is extensive drilling in the North Sea, under much more severe conditions, likewise Holland higher flood risk than New Orleans. Yet they remain safe.
Perhaps the problem is that our politicians talk big but fail to implement regulations to prevent disasters. Over the last 10 years American businesses seem to have reverted to the ways of the wild west and manage to get away with almost anything. We might need to swallow our pride and start studying and learning from the Europeans about how to run a country in a way that benefits its people rather than a few magnates.
Since this disaster will eventually affect the economy and the ecology of the entire word, has BP opened up the problem-solving team to the public as well? The private sector has always been a major element in innovation, and it makes sense to use that resource now.
-John Parham
Hickory, NC
This may sound a bit low tech, but it seems to me that a external blow out preventer could be attached to a submarine, clamped around the pipe, and with large hydrolic cylinders, choke the pipe down?
I don't know how high the pipe comes, but couldn't a saddle valve be installed on it, and the oil sucked from a pipe attached to the saddle valve?
It's time to stop pointing fingers; the sad fact is that if you're listening to Diane's show in your gas powered car, you share some of the blame. Let's stop making excuses, and start making safer energy sources.
Qoute"
I find it interesting that we hear of disasters like this one, the Exxon Valdez and Katrina... but we never hear of similar disasters from Europe. They is extensive drilling in the North Sea, under much more severe conditions, likewise Holland higher flood risk than New Orleans. Yet they remain safe.
Perhaps the problem is that our politicians talk big but fail to implement regulations to prevent disasters. Over the last 10 years American businesses seem to have reverted to the ways of the wild west and manage to get away with almost anything. We might need to swallow our pride and start studying and learning from the Europeans about how to run a country in a way that benefits its people rather than a few magnates."
I agree but try getting most Americans to admit we are not the best at everything.
It's that very arrogance that has us in such a mess now.
The only rational solution to this problem is for the government to create a "fossil fuel hazard super fund" from which all expenses related to repairing the damage from oil spills and other negative environmental consequences attributed to coal and petroleum extraction will be paid. The sole source of revenue for this fund should be a surcharge on all fuels and other products made from extracted fossil fuels. This would bring the price of such products in line with their true costs and make clean energy relatively more affordable.
Bud in Cincinnati
Spill baby Spill
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0501/C-mon-how-big-is-the-Gulf-of-Mexi...
Interesting. And how close to the truth is this?
Best, Dan.
While it is necessary to pursue energy alternatives, wind and solar will not power automobiles, trains, and airplanes and wind and solar can not be used to create chemicals, plastics, and lubricants. The argument needs to be creating fuel from something other than crude oil. The April 30 edition of Science Friday discussed eco-friendly, renewable fuel sources meant to replace creating fuel from crude oil, that needs to be the focus and pursuit. While wind and solar may replace coal to help keep the lights on (not to mention everybody is in favor of a wind farm as long as they don't have to look at it), wind and solar is a pointless argument to getting the nation off its dependency on crude oil. Wind and solar will never be able to power trucks, trains, boats, and planes to transport people and goods around the world nor can wind and solar be used to create plastics, lubricants, and chemicals that are critical ingredients of things people use everyday.
Within days if not hours, the consumers of oil will feel the real cost of this national disaster, when they fill up at the gas pump, or get their next heating bill. I picture the entire oil industry and speculators hot and anxious to suddenly raise the market price of crude. Look at how quick we see prices jump whenever there's a big storm around refineries, for instance. Don't fool yourself by thinking that only BP companies will see price hikes. AMERICANS will pay for all of this, as tax-payers and oil consumers, not BP and certainly not the Oil Industry as a whole.