Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

That's true. Up to a point.



Keep in mind what the ultimate objective is, particularly at this time in world and oil history (Peak Oil).



All of the 'easy-to-get-at-(relatively)'-oil has been harvested. What remains (and there's a good deal of it) is hard to get out, and the risk of catastrophic failure to harvest it is immense.



The technological gains the oil industry has made is in its ability to get to that oil and harvest it, but not safely. The oil industry hasn't made any technological gains (nor has it tried) in what to do when there's a blowout or other accident where oil and gas spew uncontrollably into the seas.



The EPA can fine BP, the US government, citizens, et al, can sue to recoup money from BP, into its bankruptcy. So BP, a corporation (it's not really a person), is finished. That's not going to change the fact of the ruination of the Gulf of Mexico and, perhaps, the N. Atlantic Ocean, etc.



BP's not the only company drilling offshore. I think BP only has 2 or 3 rigs (and 2 in partnership with another company) of the THOUSANDS of oil rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico. It's the rest of the industry that benefits from the ruination.



"Since there's nothing to save, since it's all ruined, why should we have to spend anything being careful? All regulations should be lifted and let the drilling begin!"
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

In addition to Bobby Jindal's request, we've already seen Mary Landrieu make a pitch for more drilling the very day after this disaster began. Obama hasn't shut down BP's other operations in US waters (Atlantis is potentially a worse nightmare than Deepwater Horizon and is still operating in the Gulf of Mexico, and according to reports last week, BP is moving ahead with drilling in the arctic). Obama's also moving ahead to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf at shallower depths, despite the fact that the Ixtoc and Montara blowouts that gushed for months were in shallow water.



If Louisiana's industries are 1) oil, gas, chemicals, and 2) fishing and tourism, and fishing and tourism is destroyed, how else is Louisiana going to make up the state's lost revenues if not by increasing offshore drilling?



And if BP were held responsible, 100%, for the damage & went bankrupt, the costs would fall to the US taxpayer (or it wouldn't be paid or cleaned up at all). Other oil conglomerates would step up & reap the benefit of unlimited drilling in a ruined Gulf of Mexico.



We need to get off of an oil economy, and not gradually. This isn't a job for the "split the difference"-"cut the baby in two"-Barack Obama. This calls for bold leadership.
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

Not long ago, someone tried to argue that BP has a vested interest in getting that well capped ASAP as they are liable for the environmental damage that will be caused.



At a certain point, when enough oil and gas has gushed, that becomes moot.



I facetiously argued that BP doesn't really have a vested interest in getting it done ASAP. Aside from the cap of $75 million & a reasonable expectation of a favorable outcome from any judgments against them in US courts (the judiciary branch of government stacked with corporate wh.ore.s that let corporations game the system to escape justice), an argument can be made that by destroying the entire region ecologically, BP & all pro-drilling interested parties (politicians included) can & will push for an increase in offshore drilling increase, "since it's all ruined anyway".
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

Then there's Dick Cheney in Saudi Arabia just after the explosion -



http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/05/why-was-dick-cheney-in-saudi-arabia-oil-halliburton-logan-act-riyadh
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

Obama is resuming offshore drilling, and leaves BP's other drilling operations, like Atlantis (critically unsafe), continuing, along with thousands of other oil rigs in the Gulf, NONE OF WHICH HAVE RELIEF WELLS.
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

Obama needs to put BP under temporary receivership.



Why in heII isn't he doing this?



http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-why-obama-should-put-bp-under-temporary-receivership-2010-5
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impact: Get Involved

Which brings us back to executives' compensation and shareholders having no voting rights.



http://www.ibj.com/editorial-executive-pay-policies-not-salaries-need-reform/PARAMS/article/20222



It all comes back to politicians' (more specifically Obama's and Democrats', because they control government now) cozy relationship with the Corporatocracy, and their refusal to make any meaningful change.
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Obama Gulf Coast Visit: President Arrives To Check Oil Spill Progress

Don't assume because I'm a Louisiana native, I'm pro drilling. I'm not. I think it's sad our economy is so dependent on it. And we're about to make the same mistake becoming dependent on natural gas in North La.

No, I haven't spent "decades" studying it. I understand the devastation, the underestimation, the lies. Clearly, you are more knowledgeable, but that doesn't mean everyone else has to have your level of knowledge to understand how bad this is and how much worse it can become.

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I did not mean to imply, and I didn't assume. I'm sorry if you thought I had.



As far as our economic dependence on oil and gas, I agree and think the only solution and salvation for our economy is ending that dependence now.



Now would be a good time for Candidate Obama, with his pledge to reinvent the US, turn it all around on green technology & energy, to re-emerge and assume the office that President Obama stole from him.



I'm being generous to those who think well of Obama, who don't believe as I do, that the man's a charlatan and a fraud.
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Obama Gulf Coast Visit: President Arrives To Check Oil Spill Progress

While Jindal's given name is Piyush, he goes by the name Bobby. What's your reason for not doing so?
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Obama Gulf Coast Visit: President Arrives To Check Oil Spill Progress

In practical terms, it's an argument about the marshaling of resources, the best & most efficient way to respond to a crisis. The kind of know-how & equipment & personnel necessary to have on hand for use in an event such as this (like the building of berms to protect the barrier islands) costs a fortune to purchase and maintain for a 'once in a lifetime'-event. That then becomes an expense and a job for the federal government because the feds have the know-how, the equipment and the personnel for responding to all kinds of disasters (tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, etc.) that affect the different states. Or did have, before Republicans have been steadily deregulating, privatizing government (and the DLC-controlled Democrats have been helping make their argument about government's incompetence).



Jindal's complaint is that he can't respond to his state's needs because of the restraints of federalization. Had Obama fulfilled the feds' part of the agreement and in a timely manner (crisis-mode), Jindal wouldn't have been able to make that argument.
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Obama Gulf Coast Visit: President Arrives To Check Oil Spill Progress

No, that isn't what Bobby Jindal or conservatives mean when they talk about smaller government and states' rights.



Whether you agree with them or not (& I don't) the argument they make is to keep the money, government services (state government) & the responsibility for citizens well-being local.



Instead of citizens paying taxes to the federal government, citizens would pay taxes only locally (city, county, state), where citizens would have a much more direct experience of what the money is being used for. Republicans believe that as a result of citizens only paying local taxes, they would only have to pay for what they need, what directly affects & benefits them. They believe that this would result in their paying less, having more control, more say & more participation in their government, & be better able to direct resources to where they're needed.



That's one part of their argument.



The other part, why you're wrong about what Jindal is doing, is this:



That because this isn't how government operates now, there are policies and systems in place for how government (both federal & state, & local authorities) responds to an emergency like this. The procedures for the response to this catastrophe were laid out long ago & based on agreements between the federal & state & local agencies -- "You (state government) are being given X-amount of money to perform A, B & C in the event of a major oil spill, and We (the federal government) retain X-amount of
About Gulf Oil Spill
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Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

I was reading BBC.uk this morning and per them the new cap is only collecting about 64K gallons of the estimated 500K to 1M gallons of oil that are exploding out of the well.



Once BP gets the 'flow-dispersion-pressurization' right the cap will collect up to 600K gallons per day estimated, but a significant amount of oil will still escape in to the gulf.



It appears that, as always, BP is still all about saving that oil for profit vs. killing the well.



Of course, per our BP managed news releases, only 527 birds have been found dead, 235 sea turtles and 30 mammals have also been found dead.



I guess the disaster isn't really a disaster and we can all go back to whatever we were doing on April 19th.

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Also, as hurricane season has only begun (and it's anticipated to be one of the worst we've ever experienced), the tanker will have to stop collecting the oil from the cap, be disconnected and moved from the area.



The oil and gas will then resume gushing into the Gulf of Mexico (and into the loop current and the N. Atlantic Ocean beyond) at its original rate, plus the 20% increase that has resulted from the slicing off of the portion of the pipe that had been crimped in the April 20th explosion.
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