Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Climate Change and Environmental Issues BP Oil Spill

I suspect this oil spill thing should probably be broken into three separate thread; cleanup, plugging, and politics. This, I think, would make it easier to deal with in threads.

The cleanup thing, for instance, is interesting. The leak is, I think, hundreds of miles off the coast and yet nobody really stopped it going the distance and fouling the shoreline. I have seen reports that booms are not understood, are not getting cleaned and are being abandoned. The number of skimmers are limited, (this list is long and depressing).

The plugging of the leak has virtually taken over almost all reporting, to the detriment of all the rest.

The politics of this thing are entertaining and also somewhat depressing. Obama went down for 3 hours and then went on vacation. Various elected fly down, get their faces on tv and leave. What happened to NOAH? Why is the Coast Guard in charge? Where is OSHA? Why isn't there REALLY somebody in charge?

See what I mean?

I would add that perhaps there should be a separate thread dealing with issues leading up to this whole circumstance. What were the govern,ent/industry factors that made the whole mess possible,

Maybe we should have a BP Forum as we did for Katrina a few years ago.

Gulf Oil Spill? The government's Katrina Rescue Plan seems brilliant and well executed by comparison. I suspect as this unmitigated disaster drags on that we'll eventually see the "terrorists",er, peasants, er, effected American citizens on TV with their WMD, er, pitchforks protest signs, rebelling protesting.

...just a thought.

What if a CAT5 hurricane were to hit the area. Would mother nature take care of the problem?

Given that tomorrow is June 1st and the start of the hurricane season.

Rick, pour a bunch of olive oil on your floor, dump a few gallons of water in there, turn on a high-speed fan, and see what happens.

Or think about those big waves at Galveston.

Or think about water and oil standing in the streets of any city.

I dread the thought of a hurricane...if only because I think it might be the absolute end of the Gulf Coast population.

Uhh--remember rick that the source of the oil is more than a mile under the water surface. I don't think a Hurricane would have much effect on that.

What problem are you referring to? Oil residue from the oil volcano is already showing up in the rain in Tampa Bay area and the Keys. This disaster is only going to get worse. We need effective leadership, transparency, and truth, and not some stupid finger pointing congressional hearings to score a few points. Hearings are for after the problem has been solved.

Yes, it is a horrible horrible problem, and will only get worse, and persist for a very long time even after the leak is fixed... which does not appear to be soon.

But... and correct me if I am wrong... I do not see that anyone was at all prepared to this eventuality, And for that reason many steps to prevent the problem were not done. And
there was very little preparation to address an ongoing spill like this,


The net result is that there is very little additional that can be done at this point?

I am saying that the main "preventable" problems happened before the spill ... prevention. preparation, review, regulation, processes... etc. Now we are learning how horrible can be the problem we did not prepare to address.