Just wanted to pop in and say how much this sucks. Saints win the Super Bowl? Successful Mardi Gras? Finally getting a new mayor? Things are going well? Well, too ****ing bad.

The cause of the spill has been discovered (from peta.org):


Spilling It re Oil and Meat, 'Plane' and Simple


Officials are scrambling to contain the beyond-massive oil spill that's headed for the Gulf Coast and its wetlands and wildlife areas. At times like this, I know it's popular to blame big business, and that's fair enough. But in a free-enterprise system, business only gets big (and sloppy and greedy) because of consumer demand. This morning, PETA delivered that message to Alabama residents by flying a banner over downtown Mobile reading "Meat on Your Grill = Oil Spill."

Raising animals for food causes environmental devastation on a massive scale, and oil spills can be blamed in large part on the oil-guzzling meat industry—which owes its existence to the meat-guzzling public. According to a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it takes more than 10 times as much fossil fuel to produce a calorie of animal protein as it takes to produce the same amount of plant protein.

This disaster will have a devastating, long-lasting impact on the region and its residents, including more than 400 animal species, but crying over spilled oil and blaming big corporations won't make a difference. To ease tremendous animal suffering, safeguard human health, and help prevent oil spills, go vegan.

Posted by Karin Bennett




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Comments

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Good idea! This oil spill is a tragedy, and it's a preventable tragedy. The less we use oil, the less there is to spill: plain and simple. And the best way to reduce your dependence on oil is by adopting a vegan diet.

mmmmm bacon

One day im going to slaughter and eat a PETA supporter on a webcam.

Also apparently your head coach as a vicodin problem: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201...html?eref=sihp

This is no more and no less dumb than your "environmentalists caused this" argument.

Personally I think pit bulls had something to do with it. Or perhaps that bitch that wouldn't go to prom with me. No wait, pretty sure it was automated phone support. Yeah that's it.

Im going with immigrants. It happened in the Gulf of Mexico after all.

Obama's real birth certificate was on that rig.

that certainly explains the hesitation.

"Let it burn!"

Use PITA bread instead. Little bits of a webcam can get stuck between your teeth. Hard to get out, even using dental floss.

Did I state otherwise? There's a big difference between not being capable of doing something at all (which [Phil] stated )and not being capable of doing something immediately.

Just heard that zombie Billy Mays has been dispatched to the gulf to plug the well with his Mighty Putty. Shamwow guy is doing the cleanup.

There's a reason sportsman don't eat those things. Nothing but gristle and bone.

Lifting for daily FB status.

what a surprise...

Halliburton in spotlight in gulf spill probe

Investigators look at the company’s role in cementing the deepwater drill hole in the Gulf of Mexico. Transocean and BP also face questioning.

Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safeguard Device


The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn't have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.

The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig last week.

.....

U.S. regulators don't mandate use of the remote-control device on offshore rigs, and the Deepwater Horizon, hired by oil giant BP PLC, didn't have one. With the remote control, a crew can attempt to trigger an underwater valve that shuts down the well even if the oil rig itself is damaged or evacuated.

.....

Remote control systems such as the acoustic switch, which have been tested in simulations, are intended as a last resort.

Nevertheless, regulators in two major oil-producing countries, Norway and Brazil, in effect require them.

.....

The U.S. considered requiring a remote-controlled shut-off mechanism several years ago, but drilling companies questioned its cost and effectiveness, according to the agency overseeing offshore drilling. The agency, the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service, says it decided the remote device wasn't needed because rigs had other back-up plans to cut off a well.

.....


On all offshore oil rigs, there is one main switch for cutting off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor.

....


An acoustic trigger costs about $500,000, industry officials said. The Deepwater Horizon had a replacement cost of about $560 million, and BP says it is spending $6 million a day to battle the oil spill. On Wednesday, crews set fire to part of the oil spill in an attempt to limit environmental damage.

....

Much still isn't known about what caused the problems in Deepwater Horizon's well, nearly a mile beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. It went out of control, sending oil surging through pipes to the surface and causing a fire that ultimately sank the rig.

Unmanned submarines that arrived hours after the explosion have been unable to activate the shut-off valve on the seabed, called a blowout preventer.

....

BP says the Deepwater Horizon did have a "dead man" switch, which should have automatically closed the valve on the seabed in the event of a loss of power or communication from the rig. BP said it can't explain why it didn't shut off the well.


........

Transocean drillers aboard the rig at the time of the explosion, who should have been in a position to hit the main cutoff switch, are among the dead.

.....

Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, said finding out why the blowout preventer didn't shut down the well is the key question in the investigation. "This is the failsafe mechanism that clearly has failed," Mr. Hayward said in an interview.


Industry consultants and petroleum engineers said that an acoustic remote-control may have been able to stop the well, but too much is still unknown about the accident to say that with certainty.

.....

While U.S. regulators have called the acoustic switches unreliable and prone, in the past, to cause unnecessary shut-downs, Inger Anda, a spokeswoman for Norway's Petroleum Safety Authority, said the switches have a good track record in the North Sea. "It's been seen as the most successful and effective option," she said.

The manufacturers of the equipment, including Kongsberg Maritime AS, Sonardyne Ltd. and Nautronix PLC, say their equipment has improved significantly over the past decade.

........

Industry critics cite the lack of the remote control as a sign U.S. drilling policy has been too lax.

.....

U.S. regulators have considered mandating the use of remote-control acoustic switches or other back-up equipment at least since 2000.

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The industry argued against the acoustic systems. A 2001 report from the International Association of Drilling Contractors said "significant doubts remain in regard to the ability of this type of system to provide a reliable emergency back-up control system during an actual well flowing incident."

By 2003, U.S. regulators decided remote-controlled safeguards needed more study.

.....




This strikes me as an example of more govt incompetence and dysfunction which includes Bush administration. Need to get to the cause of this disaster to understand why "fail-safe" plans failed. Some people have made the argument that deep water drilling is much more dangerous and is a result of USA not permitting more drilling on the continental shelf. It's more dangerous but I don't have a warm fuzzy about the effectiveness of the fail-safe mechanisms in place now.

Two members of Congress, Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), called on Halliburton on Friday to provide all documents relating to "the possibility or risk of an explosion or blowout at the Deepwater Horizon rig and the status, adequacy, quality, monitoring, and inspection of the cementing work" by May 7.

Yeah these two knuckleheads will get to the root cause of this for us.

As a meat eater who hates factory farming and believes strongly in only eating meat not raised on some sick cocktail of drugs, bred to the pont where it cannot survive adolescence, or skinned alive in factory line processing plants, I can safely say that PETA is an organisation I should support, but for reasons like this can't stand them.

So awesome.

/steals

+1

Damage control is well underway. The lobbyists are already hard at work on blame-shifting.

Look! Over there! Something shiny!

Am I allowed to ask an AC question here or do I have to start a new thread? The post above (including the attached article) had me wondering if AC theoriests had ideas on how this would be addressed. Specifically-

The Oil Rig did not have an acoustic shutoff switch. The article says they cost $500K so the oil companies. The oil companies did not want this to be mandatory.

As we can see with this example, the companies private efforts are going to have damaging effects to local wildlife, other businesses, etc.

The poster above questions the competence of govt. regulators in being too slack.

Which led me to the ponder this situation without government.

In an AC world with no govt. or central authority, can any business make an oil rig to whatever safety standards that they feel is sufficient or cost effective? What rights do I have if someone on a bordering property puts in an oil rig (or something analagous) that, if there is an accident, would result in damage (or possibly death) to myself and my family? How do I improve my safety?

apologies if this isn't where to post this.

In before evil state stops us owning the seas.

(and then suing the polluterzzzzz)

BP isn't going to be able to pay for all of this, no way in hell. I believe the legislation caps their responsibility at 750 million which is not even scratching the surface.

The AC world is a fantasy world.

I wish I could destroy a whole coast for only 750 million dollars