The BP Oil Disaster: One Year Later
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-04-19/bp-oil-disaster-one-year-later
Tomorrow will mark one year since the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded a mile off the U.S. Gulf Coast. The fire and explosion killed 11 men and touched off the nation's worst oil spill. It took months to cap the well. By then millions of gallons of crude oil had gushed into the Gulf. The disaster caused untold damage to the environment and local economy. Tourism and fishing were hit particularly hard. But many of the worst fears did not come to pass. After a temporary moratorium, oil companies are being granted permits for deep-water drilling. A look at the resilience of an ecosystem and a region - and what still needs to be done.
Guests
Joel Achenbach
reporter, The Washington Post; writer for Achenblog; author of "A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher."
Frances Beinecke
president, Natural Resources Defense Council; former member of the National Oil Spill Commission.
Randall Luthi
president of the National Ocean Industries Association and former director of the Minerals Management Service.
Read an Excerpt from Achenbach's Book
From The Hold at the Bottom of the Sea: The Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher. Copyright 2011 by Joel Achenbach. Excerpted by kind permission of Simon & Schuster.
Comments
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Oceans are going to die first, and this will be a blow toward the demise of Earthly life as we live it, not because of lost seafood, but because of phytoplankon and the oxygen balance.
Corporations are using technologies with downsides beyond their control to extract and produce energy. The Gulf spill has had a direct impact on the US economy that is not admitted, just as Chernobyl was the concrete block that sunk the USSR. Right now the Pacific Ocean is receiving a crippling dose of radiation from Fukishima as plans are made to drill, drill, drill off our coasts in mile deep water. Utah stands in the shadow of tar sands mining. The wealthy worldwide Oligarchy is addicted to an accelerated revenue stream and is killing us all. If you can't see it look hard at the depleted uranium munitions being used in Libya. It's not that Quaddafi is so bad in a relatively developed and prosperous country but that Libyan oil is nationalized and cannot provide the "spice" economic addicts need in its present configuration. Reviewing old media from my childhood I find that sustainable clean energy forms have been repressed for 40 years so that the Oligarchy could keep control. Now who do you blame for the oily, detergent, dead organism mat covering the floor of the central Gulf? Apologetic charities that take your contribution do nothing. We have to get angry. For confirmation see yesterday's Democracy Now broadcast.
We are being assured that a similar accident could be handled better by the industry due to their experience, but what about a similar accident occurring in place like the north sea (the Arctic Wildlife Refuge) where simply putting the recovery teams in place might take a week in itself and mother nature may not be as kind to the efforts to clean up a mess?
Please keep in mind that many of the folks that have been financially impacted by BP's screw up are in businesses that often pay under the table to avoid taxes. These folks can not support their loss of income accurately without exposing themselves to tax evasion charges and other illegal income charges. We can feel for their current dilemma but must keep in mind that they have created this problem for themselves.
Lioyd: You may not understand that people in the seafood business subsidize their food budget by regularly consuming the product they harvest or process themselves, and that this amounts to an "in kind" payment. Persons operating a large enough business to be taxed understand that they benefit from FDIC deductions in the long haul. It is the underlings and temps who are forced to work as contractors, though they may not even have tools; and it is gray market workers who receive less than customary or minimum wages to begin with who suffer most. Employees like these cannot file for compensation. Their situation is the fault of the government for not enforcing the law, and of predatory employers. So lax regulation is always a problem, spill or not. Propaganda prompts you to blame the victims. Think for yourself and imagine having your major food source and livelihood destroyed by oil extractors. Your country has been gravely wounded as well. So you're a victim too.
Michael Enn Sirvet: No new regulations have been put into place (except expired moratoriums) and drilling technology remains almost exactly the same. The regulators have lost some funding. Congress has not raised the liability limits for spill accidents nor fully investigated, not taken any actions to punish or prevent future incidents. T-party radicals want to cut regulations and let extractors use their own judgment. You're correct that the Arctic is more fragile and more hostile to operations, but if you'll check BP operations you'll find they are drilling in the Siberian Arctic in partnership with Russian oil corporations right now. Look for the next blowout there. Remember how poor TransAlaskanPipeline maintenance has been, but little has been done there (besides slap on the wrist fines) either. If you have trouble sleeping tell yourself these are the end times of petroleum, not the end times of civilization. And eat some fish for good health. How 'bout dat? Libya has more oil reserves than all the USA, so maybe we should go slow on drilling our own.
While it's nice to hear that executives sit around doing what if scenarios, I wonder what level of investment is made in technologies specially designed to help in emergencies.
It's easy to talk about emergencies and write plans, but it takes serious effort to develop the technologies that can help when bad things happen. We see this inadequacy in the oil, nuclear and coal industries.
What level of investment is being made, say as a percentage of profits? I suspect it's minuscule.
Dealing with emergencies is like a war, and like a war the first casualty is the plan. Fighters need the tools to deal with the expected and the unexpected, and these tools don't just magically appear when they are needed.
The deal on oil in the Arctic is this: Friendly companies—Shell, BP, Chevron …—do the drilling in the Arctic off Alaska or it will be done by Russian companies. If the latter, not only do they get the oil we still get the spills.
How come we never ever ever get to talk about the 9/11 WTC #7 Disaster.
A steel framed building has collapsed. Millions of people are working in such high rise office building. Where is the public and open and scientific and unbiased investigation.
Were there any moritorium on high-rise buildings?
Did the rents around high-rise buildings went down in half?
Why did WTC #7 has collapsed all by itself?
Why did the Owner said.... we brought down the building ourselves on 9/11 ... but yet, Bush appointees, bunch of defense contractors pocketed well over $200 million in 8 years to invent theories that is absolute garbage.
http://www.AE911Truth.org
http://www.TrumpTowers.org
http://www.wtc7.net
C'mon Diane .... show some courage. Stop being part of the problem