Oil Spill -- Non-Legal Issues

[BUM]

Sucking up an oil slick is hard enough but imagine how hard it is after showering hundreds of thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants on top. Kinda like picking up the feathers on a windy day after the pillow bursts.

Dispersants in spill response | Gulf of Mexico response | BP

 

[Westernskies]

As with life, it depends. My next door neighbor's kid works a drilling rig. We do not live in India, but Texas, some may get confused, and he works 3 weeks on 3 weeks off. That is why anecdotal evidence, like wasthat used on this board to support many points of view, is often is worthless. Drilling rigs leaving U.S. waters for foreign ports will hurt the U.S. economy, and especially the economy of the gulf states that depend on them, and, IMHO, it is totally unnecessary.

Oh, no Rustic, you have it all wrong, wrong, wrong. Exporting high-paying US jobs overseas helps our country. Losing our manufacturing base actually strengthens our economy. Having those rigs move out of US waters will lessen our dependence on foreign oil. Losing energy jobs will decrease unemployment. Imports make us stronger, exports make us weaker. Industry holds us back, Government moves us forward. We need to complete the transition to a sparkling clean green economy where we do nothing more than sell soyburgers, software, and adjustable-rate mortgages to one another, but knuckle-dragging old-school thinking is holding us back. Please get with the program, comrade.

 

[Rustic23]

My bad

 

[Texas Proud]

As with life, it depends. My next door neighbor's kid works a drilling rig. We do not live in India, but Texas, some may get confused, and he works 3 weeks on 3 weeks off. That is why anecdotal evidence, like wasthat used on this board to support many points of view, is often is worthless. Drilling rigs leaving U.S. waters for foreign ports will hurt the U.S. economy, and especially the economy of the gulf states that depend on them, and, IMHO, it is totally unnecessary.

I didn't say all are from India... just that the one that I had interviewed did.. I agree that them leaving will hurt.... but then again, this one had just come over from Africa... they can move around and at some point and time will probably move back.. it is just when and how many people have to find something else to do...

 

[Westernskies]

it is just when and how many people have to find something else to do...

10% of our workforce is already trying to find something else to do... with 400,000 census workers soon to be added to their ranks. (Not counting those who are being paid to pick up tarballs or scrub pelicans, of course.) Now is not the time to start shutting down anything, IMO- the social costs need to be weighed along with the environmental risks.

 

[ERD50]

the social costs need to be weighed along with the environmental risks.

It is probably impossible to answer, even within orders of magnitude, but I am very curious how oil drilling (on average, including this disaster) compares with other energy sources on overall environmental impact.

A properly done oil well seems fairly benign. Dig a hole, pump it out, close it up when finished. I keep reading about entire mountains being removed for coal, the erosion, the habitat destruction, the sulfur from burning the coal... I wonder how it plays out on average?

BP is up over 8% today, so something must be going right.

-ERD50

 

[kcowan]

...BP is up over 8% today, so something must be going right.

-ERD50

Speculators counting on some progress with the new cap?

 

[Westernskies]

Speculators counting on some progress with the new cap?

or speculating on oil futures in light of the new drilling ban?

 

[kcowan]

or speculating on oil futures in light of the new drilling ban?

Or counting on a takeover of some kind?