Funny thing is a big spill happened back in 1969 off the coast of Santa Barbara when they were getting ready to massively expand offshore drilling on the west coast: http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/sb_69...articles2.html

Conspiracy? God?

So this is how it ends. An ocean of oil.

If only we had listened to Cosmo Kramer....

Im already gearing up to blame the terrorist groups of Greenpeace and PETA. It is just the kind of dumb **** those guys do.

Happened on 4/20, clearly NORML was involved.

Um, first, I think your number is off by an order of magnitude, even using the high-end 5,000 bpd estimate currently being used.

And second, I was under the impression that it's light sweet crude.


Not that it means that the Puerto Rico sized oil slick is instead magical fish-food or anything, but, like others have said, it could be worse.

Another sticky mess the environmentalists have got us into.

By insisting that we only drill out far in the deep water, when we do have a disaster, it is a mile deep in the ocean where only remote controlled submarines can reach, a very inefficient tool to seal a well.

We would have a much less bad spill if we drilled on land or in shallow water.

But the environmentalists and the stupid politicians that listen to them have screwed us big time by forcing drilling into the deep.

I have to believe you are trolling here. I will not succumb

If only environmentalists would let us spill our **** closer to shore, we'd all be better off. Those hugely powerful environmentalists always get everything they want.

I'm pretty sure over-regulation caused this somehow. Have Cato or mises spoken yet?

What I say is true. This rig drilled the deepest oil well in history. The question is why do we need such deep wells when we have so much oil on land in Alaska and elsewhere and in shallow waters everywhere?

Just like nuclear power, we extend ourselves to our technical limits in order to avoid having anything in anybody's backyard, and when it fails, the environmental kooks that forced us to extend ourselves to our technical limits are to blame, no ifs ands or buts.

Read about this rig:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon

Deepwater Horizon was an ultra-deepwater, dynamically positioned, semi-submersible drilling rig (oil rig) built in 2001. The purpose of this rig was to drill oil wells deep underwater, moving from location to location, as needed. Once the drilling was complete, pumping production was handled by other equipment.

Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean and leased to BP through September 2013. In September 2009, it drilled the deepest oil well in history. Deepwater Horizon sank on April 22, 2010, as the result of an explosion two days earlier.

Yes, if only we had a massive oil spill in shallower water, we would have finally realized that the green-freaks are wrong, and drilling is safe. Wait. What?

That is some twisted twisted logic. Drilling disaster happens -> so let's allow drilling closer to shore or in ANWR. Nevermind lax safety standards at BP, their penny-pinching corporate culture, a supposedly failsafe extraction system that failed up and down the line, or just inherent dangers in any kind of drilling.

Nope, One Big Ass has scientifically determined all of those to be negligible contributors compared to the challenge of drilling in deep water, no ifs ands or buts. But when BP has shiny new technology for drilling and keeping ANWR safe, we should intrinsically trust them. They have awesome scientists. Except for drilling in deep water. And running a refinery without it blowing up. And keeping oil from spilling in Prudhoe Bay. And keeping methanol from leaking in Prudhoe Bay. And keeping their employees alive.

But really. Trust us on ANWR. No problems this time.

Alaskan oil isn't recoverable for at least a decade iirc.

The oil industry would have drilled in the deep water anyway because there's enough potential profit. Otherwise they wouldn't have ducy?

Way to ignore rich folks with beachfront property objecting to shallow water drilling. It's all hippies in Birkenstocks.

Safeguards BP had failed in deep water but would be just ducky fine in pristine Alaskan wilderness or right next to wetlands. Solid logic.

I'm still pretty convinced you're a gimmick.

Which is something I'm sure they were saying at least a decade ago.

This post is disgustingly full of win.

Environmental disaster..."good job environmentalists! Bunch of eco terrorists!"

DRILL BABY DRILL

Skimmed the thread, so I don't remember if this point has been made, so I'll make it. A massive expansion of offshore drilling, even if it could somehow hypothetically produce enough oil to fuel our cars/planes/tractors/lawnmowers etc (unlikely), will never make the US "energy independent" in any meaningful sense. Because oil is a fungible product, anything we produce goes right into the "world supply" where it will be bid by other countries and their petro-dollars as well as ours. The only impact we can have is on the world supply curve, not the U.S. one. This is why an "energy independent" country like the U.K. (a net exporter) doesn't pay any less for a gallon of gas then we do (not counting taxes obv)

The real argument for drilling offshore isn't strategic (OH NOEZ sending maney to dictators who don't like us!!11) but rather economic, and only if the following condition can be met: The real wealth available offshore can be extracted safely and profitably. I'll let the experts argue whether that condition is true or not.

stop cluttering this up with logic

ENERGY INDEPDENCEEEEEEEEEE

FREEEEEEEDOMMMMMMMM

some sense... no one admits this it seems

id much rather this had happened in ANWR. having a leak in the ocean and plugging a leak deep in the ocean is a lot different than one at the surface of a tundra

And capitalists who rely on sludge-free beaches to attract tourists. Goddam capitalists!

Some amazing pictures: it blowed up real good.

I was in favor of some increase in off-shore drilling. Not because it would make us energy independant or create a ton of jobs. I looked at the track record and we seemed to have figured out how to do this without ****ing everything up. Based on that I was willing to trust them.

Not anymore. Put the oil company bastards in the same jail with the wall street bastards and blow that ****er up!

Seriously, how could they have no, soild contingency for the shut off valve failing? "Uh, lets go drill a mile under the sea." "Are you crazy? What happens if there's a problem?" "Oh we have that covered. We'll put this little rubber, stopper thingy that will plug the little hole." "And what if that fails?" "Alright guys, Donuts are here!?" "Donuts! Meeting over!" "Mmm, jelly donuts. I like when you bite them they leak down my double chin."

Cro

lol