Obama ban on deepwater drilling overturned

reply to post by TheRedneck


Maybe they should of. How many complacent inspectors are out there? How many getting paid under the table? Not only should all the plants be inspected, there needs to be an agency shake down as well.

BTW, I had a friend whose dad died in a very, very similar accident. They decided to take him off life support instead of living life amputated from the waste down, from all the shrapnel and oil.



[edit on 22-6-2010 by nixie_nox]

The judge has a point. Just because one rig failed doesn't mean the rest are about to suffer the same fate. But our two party system believes this kind of thinking and lives by it. The Republicans say if one Democrat is a tax evader then they all are tax evaders. The Democrats say if one Republican is an adulterer then they are all adulterers. I guess it figures that the current administration thinks if one bad rig spoils the bunch. The problem is the ban on drilling is further compounding the economic strain the same way the oil in the gulf is killing the fishing and seafood industry.

reply to post by black cat


At least in my case the concern is that these vastly complex arrays of machinery that come together to form an "oil rig" are probably all manufactured by the same one or two companies. If there is a design flaw in the way that they work then chances are it has the potential to happen elsewhere. Enough time should be taken to ensure the safety of the workers and the environment. BPs profits are not more important than the lives of others or the stability of our ecosystems.

I could have let this go by, but then you made the elitist 2nd grade remark when it was obvious that it was YOU that did not know what you were talking about.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
The threats of moving rigs by oil companies is just that, threats.

Where are they moving too? If there is another resovoir, isn't there already a claim on it?

More than one well can be drilled into a claim (reservoir). It actually increases oil output.

If they have to drill a a mile deep in the first place, I am sure there are not dozens of places sitting around waiting to be drilled.

Alas (for you), you did NO research before posting your latest attempt to defend obama.

How easy is it to move a rig? Probably takes the same amount of time that the moratorium is. So will they go to the extreme expense of moving a rig to have the ban lifted a week later?

Hint: The rigs are basically ships. Unlike you, the drilling companies will do the math and it will be obvious to them when losing more than $1 million a day on each rig means it would be cheaper to move them to another location.

Anyone who falls for it, should go back to second grade.

But they'll still be ahead of all you first graders ...

Educate yourself:

offshore drilling

and

article

Main offshore fields

Notable offshore fields today are found in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the Campos and Santos Basins off the coasts of Brazil, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, several fields off West Africa most notably west of Nigeria and Angola, as well as offshore fields in South East Asia and Sakhalin, Russia.

In other words, plenty of other places for drilling rigs to go ...

[edit on 6/22/2010 by centurion1211]

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by black cat

 

At least in my case the concern is that these vastly complex arrays of machinery that come together to form an "oil rig" are probably all manufactured by the same one or two companies. If there is a design flaw in the way that they work then chances are it has the potential to happen elsewhere. Enough time should be taken to ensure the safety of the workers and the environment. BPs profits are not more important than the lives of others or the stability of our ecosystems.

That's a good point, however has the cause of the Deepwater rig been determined to be a design flaw? This article says the investigation focuses on the blind shear ram in the blowout preventer (www.nytimes.com...). They don't ever come out and say the design is flawed, nor do they say other rigs have tested their blowout preventers to make sure they are working or not.

reply to post by black cat


I am not arguing that at all, and it may well turn out to be true. But any standard safety plan would involve at least a basic overview of similar sites. Even there is not a design flaw, a procedural issue might have been to blame - such as a shortcut or training flaw that is systemic within the industry. I've personally seen an industrial accident or two (though not on this scale) and making sure that nobody ever got hurt the same way again was always the priority afterwards.

reply to post by nixie_nox

As I understand it (and I am taking a big chance of someone correcting me here ) there is no mandatory safety inspection, at least for the major companies like BP. In that respect, I totally agree with you that there should be mandatory safety inspections for all drilling platforms.

If Obama wants to implement a safety inspection agency and require all rigs to be inspected, I am all for that! If Obama wants to shut down rigs that fail safety inspections, heck yes! The only thing I see wrong is that Obama is talking about shutting down all rigs in the Gulf of Mexico regardless of how safe they are or what their safety record is. That is overkill and a lazy attempt to buy favor with the public without doing anything to actually help the problem.

It always saddens me to hear a story like yours. My deepest condolences. I could repeat others I have witnessed, but there are probably weak stomachs reading. Suffice it to say construction can be a very dangerous profession.

TheRedneck

So if there was an accidental release of radiation from a nuclear plant, would Pres. Obama shut down every nuclear plant in the nation for 6 mths? No.

But Pres. Obama instantly threw the kill switch on the livelihoods of thousands of oil worker families that have no other sources of income - and in this economy to boot.

He just needs to tighten (or enforce) the regulations in the drilling industry.

There can be a happy medium.

So if plane was taken over by terrorist would they shut down all the airlines? Wait Bush did that! Bad example I guess. By rge way why did he do that? The public saftey? What about all those people who worked for airlines being out of work? "Watch me hit this golf ball!" Says Bush.

reply to post by kinda kurious

Originally posted by mishigas
Were the airlines shut down when the Airbus broke apart in NY?


Here ya go Sherlock: (Similar current situation)

American Airlines inspecting 767s after crack seen


American Airlines is inspecting 56 of its Boeing 767 jets after cracks were detected on at least two planes.

Not even a close comparison, Pancho. A better comparison would be if all US automotive traffic were stopped because Toyota had some cars that accelerated wildly.

As another member said: slap a moratorium on BP, not the entire industry.

Originally posted by JBA2848
So if plane was taken over by terrorist would they shut down all the airlines? Wait Bush did that! Bad example I guess. By rge way why did he do that? The public saftey? What about all those people who worked for airlines being out of work? "Watch me hit this golf ball!" Says Bush.

No, that would be Obama. For Bush it was, "Watch me clear this brush".

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

No, that would be Obama. For Bush it was, "Watch me clear this brush".

No, that was actually Bush.



But as for this ban on deep water drilling, well, it was in my opinion kinda stupid. Frankly all it did was immediately put a lot of people out of work. I don't think it's right to punish everyone for the idiocy of BP.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
The threats of moving rigs by oil companies is just that, threats.

Where are they moving too? If there is another resovoir, isn't there already a claim on it?
If they have to drill a a mile deep in the first place, I am sure there are not dozens of places sitting around waiting to be drilled.

How easy is it to move a rig? Probably takes the same amount of time that the moratorium is. So will they go to the extreme expense of moving a rig to have the ban lifted a week later?

Anyone who falls for it, should go back to second grade.

This post is uncharacteristic for you, nixie. A quick rundown of some terms used in your post:

"If they have to drill a mile deep in the first place, i am sure..."
"How easy is it to move a rig? Probably takes....."

Then you end it with:

"Anyone who falls for it, should go back to second grade"

What will they learn in second grade? A bunch of "I'm sures" and "Probably's"? Neither of those get you any closer to facts, nor will they help solve any problems. Terms like "I'm sure" and "Probably" usually end up in debates where one has no clue what it is that is being discussed, and want to enter a supposition.

reply to post by whatukno


Yeah, i remembered him saying that right after hitting "Reply". But since Obama plays so much golf, i thought i would leave the post as is.



They need to bring out Biden some more. The one thing i miss about Bush was some of the stupid and funny things he would say. We need some comic relief...can't they send old "Plugs Biden" out to give a speech at some marine sanctuary in Florida or something? Get us some good soundbites?

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

They need to bring out Biden some more. The one thing i miss about Bush was some of the stupid and funny things he would say. We need some comic relief...can't they send old "Plugs Biden" out to give a speech at some marine sanctuary in Florida or something? Get us some good soundbites?

Oh good GOD no!

Biden is a human gaff machine! What the white house needs to do is wire his mouth shut and shove him in a closet somewhere.

Every time I see Biden I think "Don't say anything stupid, don't say anything stupid." Then he opens his mouth, and DOH!

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

Yeah, if you want some good laughs check out Bush Bloopers

I have come to the conclusion that we only get to vote for the lesser of 2 weevils.

Peace

I just want to point out to the people earlier in the thread who were fresh off the Glenn Beck train and hopping mad about Obama cuddling up with Petrobras - it's completely untrue. The source of this blatant piece of disinformation originated from a silly chain email that somehow links Obama and taxpayer dollars to a commitment from the self-sustaining Export-Import Bank of the United States to Petrobras for a loan of up to $2billion in to finance exports. Factcheck.org points out that at the time of this loan agreement no Obama appointees sat on the board of the bank, but two Bush appointees were present. Furthermore, George Soros sold five million of his shares of Petrobras months before an deal was reached, seriously discrediting any notion that this is an Obama-Soros generated conspiracy. In fact, the president of the Export-Import Bank fully expects the loan to work in favor of the US by leading to the purchasing of US goods and services. Not to mention the prospects of a close oil ally with America.

It is easy to bash Obama for his drilling ban. While I agree to an extent, it would be economically damaging. But we can't continue to put profit over people and profit over the environment. I hope to see BP bled dry for what they have done to the Gulf, its ecosystem and the way of life it provided for a vast swath of our country. Of course, we need to point the finger just as much at the government - afterall, it was their regulatory agency that was smoking crystal meth, doing blow, watching porn, crawling into bed (literally), and accepting gifts from the oil companies.

Originally posted by Someone336
But we can't continue to put profit over people and profit over the environment.

I think we shouldn't put our selfish self-gratifying self-serving needs before the environment.

These people that whine and cry because they might have to find other work or have to move to where work is and/or they are loosing their homes because of this catastrophe aren't going to get much sympathy from me. I went through hell a few years ago, a medical issue (cancer) that caused me to loose my $200k home and the 80% equity I had in it because I didn't have medical insurance. And if that wasn't bad enough, BHAM, 5 months later I was back in the hospital for 10 days for a thoracotomy operation which resulted in another huge $90k medical bill. It's all paid off now, and because of it I'm living in a small one bedroom apartment and my only toys is this computer I'm typing upon and my camera/lens. And do you know what? I survived! And I'm 1000 times happier today too. And it's because I'm alive, healthy, and stronger today.

Life comes with no guarantees. Sometimes it's easy, other times it can be darn hard and even extremely painful. But that's life. This off shore drilling is just too damn risky and the potential for environmental damage and death for wildlife is not worth anyone's damn job or career or pension or housey or comfy or whatever excuse they're using. Suck it up, people, and move on, find something else to do.

These lame self-serving excuses people are blowing out their food hole is as disgusting as that oil blowing out of that hellhole in the gulf. Oh boo hoo to those that lost their jobs because of this man-made disaster in the gulf. People loose jobs every day for many other reasons. Suck it up and move onto another and something else to do. No sympathy from me after what I've gone through. If I can endure what I went through, they can deal with a little inconvenience to their cash flow too.

Our self-serving selfish self-gratifying needs do not justify these risks and crimes against nature and the future our descendants face on this raped and polluted planet. What should I tell my grand children about why the gulf and the coast was destroy? Should I tell them that it was necessary so Popeye the sailor man could pay his mortgage? Some people need to wake the hell up and stop putting their self-serving needs before the environments needs and our descendants future!

Interior secretary to issue new drilling ban

[edit on 22-6-2010 by Divinorumus]

reply to post by Divinorumus

Do you want to stop ALL drilling or just deep water drilling?
2

It appears that the Obama administration doesn't believe in checks and balances provided by the judiciary.

Interior Secretary to Issue New Drilling Ban

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Tuesday he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one.