Saturday, May 1, 2010

DRILL BABY DRILL?... REALLY BOBBY? SARAH? JOHNNY MAC? ANYONE??



Stories from CNN

(CNN) - Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal expressed frustration Saturday with efforts to clean up a massive oil spill creeping toward the Gulf coast, saying "we continue to be concerned with BP's ability to respond to this incident."

Jindal said he has been working with local officials to develop cleanup contingency plans, but needs funding approval from BP and authorization from the U.S. Coast Guard's incident commander to move forward.

"We need to empower our locals on the ground," he said in criticizing the response effort thus far.

"The oil that is leaking offshore, the oil that is coming onto our coast threatens more than just our wildlife, our fisheries, our coast, this oil literally threatens our way of life," he said.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/01/louisiana-governor-critical-of-oil-spill-response-efforts/?eref=politicalflipper&fbid=3fyccrEcxji

(CNN) -- There's no way to stop oily water from reaching land along the Gulf Coast, but experts will use tools both massive and microscopic to clean it up.
Oil-soaked sand on beaches in the eastern Gulf Coast can be scooped up with heavy equipment, but the grassy marshes in the Mississippi Delta can't be handled that way, said Ralph Portier, a professor of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University.
Along the Louisiana and Mississippi coast, "you're talking about a sea of grass, if you will," similar to the Florida Everglades, Portier said. "When it gets oiled, if you try and remove some of this stuff, you're going to do more damage than good.
"In Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Destin, Florida, you can do that, but not here in what we like to call the Redneck Riviera," the southern Louisiana native said.

Tides, wind and rain will drive the oil deeper into the marsh, down into the vegetative mat, making it impossible for humans to go in and clean manually, he said. But once the flow of oil is stopped -- and no one knows when that will be -- scientists will spread fertilizer to boost several species of microscopic plants that degrade hydrocarbons such as oil.
In areas of especially heavy oiling, millions more of these microbes, grown in laboratories, could be brought in as reinforcements, Portier said. In warm spring and summer weather, the light, sweet crude "will degrade in weeks to months," he said.
Asphalt-like balls of petroleum embedded in the marshes "will be a little more complicated," he said.

"The microbial community will have to bite off little pieces and degrade them a bit at a time," he said.
There is no environmental concern with the technique because the microbes are not toxic and are native to the area, with different species thriving in fresh, brackish and salt water, Portier added.
"The question is what that long time frame will do to those plant species and what that will mean for habitat for seafood and migratory birds," he said. "Picture if the Everglades were being oiled, what a national tragedy that would be. And this area is even more fragile and productive."
The Gulf Coast is home to vast numbers of birds, animals and fish that need to be protected, said Tom MacKenzie of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Endangered sea turtles are due to come in to shore soon and lay eggs in the coastal sand.
"A whole generation could be affected," MacKenzie said.
Floating booms to block oil from coming in cannot protect the entire coast, he said, so crews are prioritizing sensitive wildlife areas, including nesting grounds for pelicans and butterfly migration areas.
"This has the potential to be truly devastating," he said.

The oil spill response team has recovered 23,968 barrels (1,006,656 gallons) of an oil-water mix, according to the Deepwater Horizon Joint Information Center. Nearly 70 boats, including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels, are being used to deploy booms and chemical dispersant, which makes the oil evaporate more readily.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/01/oil.spill.geography/index.html

Drill Baby Drill? Really Bobby? Sarah? Johnny Mac? Anyone?? Ya Think? Now that the shit has hit the fan, you still wanna drill?? What happened to "These Drill Rigs are High Tech and Safe"?? Cat got ya tongue? Did you talk to Sarah about it yet?? Where is she by the way...She's kinda silent just about now Huh?...You Betcha she's silent...Put more Lipstick on the pig...see if that will help with the cleanup.

18 comments:

  1. I read today we can blame Cheney/Bush, for deregulating the oil drilling...kind of like how they deregulated the mining industry. WE saw how well that went.

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  2. Bee, They had something to do with the regulation on Wall Street too, didn't they? That went well also didn't it? These guys are worse than the Plague.

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  3. Bee, BTW I love your post on your blog.

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  4. Give these right wing jokers a week to ten days of spinning blame to Obama nad calling this a "natural disasyer" Teeluck. After their base of bigots, homophobes, religious nuts and idiots is satisfied, they will start calling for more drilling to make up for "Obama's" oil spill.

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  5. Judge Truth, they already started to call it his "Katrina" today.

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  6. I did hear on FOX that the environmentalists caused this problem in the Gulf.

    Here is the logic, courtesy of Bill Kristol. Since the Santa Barbara spill in 1969, oil companies have been forced from near in drilling to far out [50 miles] drilling, thus making this type of accident more likely because of heavy seas.

    Also, you should check out the North Korean angle, of course covered up by Obama. It is the equivalent of saying Bush ordered the 9/11 events to boost his Presidency.

    Should be a fun week.

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  7. Dave Miller, Ole Billy will soon change his story, apparently Halliburton botched the pipe-sealing job 22 days before the accident. This had some bearing on the failure of the safety systems not functioning after the accident. It is so far not being speculated that Halliburton had any link to the actual accident...so far.

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  8. This tragedy in the Gulf just keeps getting worse every day. I hope this is the beginning of the end of Big Oil's stranglehold on this country. Even if rightwing demagogues like Kristol and Limbaugh try to spin this as being Obama's fault and environmentalists' fault, the only people who believe them will be the Republican "base." You know the type, the people who couldn't find their way out of a one-room apartment; couldn't find American on a map.

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  9. "The microbial community. . ." LOL, what a phrase.

    There will be no admission of error and change of mind about oil drilling by the political right. Their goal is getting money from BiG Oil interests, including investors and related businesses. Money, so they can win more elections and regain power. That's what they care about, damn near all they care about.

    Men of the political right, especially, look on an environmental disaster such as this one as a nasty bit of luck. They will lay relatively low for awhile. But they won't change their tactics. What's more, many on the right look on environmentalism as sissy stuff, not for real manly men.

    I suspect, though, that if an environmental disaster were to ruin golf courses and pleasure-boating coasts, rivers and lakes across the Sun Belt, we might see some signs of genuine upset from the right wingers. Who knows, even Limbaugh might be put out about it.

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  10. Its a freaking fossil fuel Chernobyl, actually I think it will be far worse.

    Asphalt-like balls of petroleum embedded in the marshes "will be a little more complicated," he said.

    It took years to clean up sandy beaches, once this stuff gets in the food chain and in the mud of the marshes I really don't see it ever coming out.

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  11. Tom Harper, yes they will try to blame the intelligent among us for being the cause in some way but the truth is easy for the rest including their base and the independents to see, I think they have lost this one.

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  12. SW, I think you are correct, and they will indeed try to lie low for a while, I hope we can use this as a big stick to whack them with and win more seats in the elections. Is this disaster the price we will pay to get energy independence with renewable energy sources? I hope this is the only one...

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  13. Beach Bum, alas my friend, we are in the thick of things and it looks like it will get much worse, we have to keep it in their faces and make sure they lose ground in the elections as a result. I think that is a more effective way to help the environment immediately and in the future than any other.

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  14. I thought it was funny that right before this accident, right around the time of Obama's drill announcement, the right was up in arms that he didn't include areas close to Alaska...

    Now where are those same critics?

    If you are going to support drilling, support it, but don't cower from your positions. These politicians are hoping this will disappear so they can go back to "drill, baby, drill."

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  15. Kevin K, welcome, those critics, like Rush and Hannity are now saying that the Government did not respond for ten days, thereby making it a bigger disaster. Now Sarah wants more Gov't regulation.

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  16. You can't respond to teh stupid. It's a waste of time to get the melonheads to understand that BP is responsible for the oil rig disaster--and that Louisiana state government and FEMA were respoonsible for the disaster after Katrina.

    They're NOT the same things.

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  17. I was initially in favor of the President's compromise on oil drilling. Now I'm not so sure. At the very least of it, this was a well that was far, FAR, too deep under water. My position now is that if a leak cannot be readily plugged, it shouldn't be allowed. End of discussion.....Oh, and to Mr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., please, stop the hpocritical opposition to the Cape Cod wind farm. If we EVER want to get off of this nasty addiction to oil, coal, etc., then we ALL have to cease and desist on this "not in my back-yard" lunacy.

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  18. Shaw, you are right... you can't fix stoopid, lol

    Will, I like that idea, if you can't plug it, don't drill it.

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