60 Minutes on the Oil Spill

[Tony]

You gotta watch this. There is a part 1 and part 2. Watch the video.

Compliments of Todd W.:

Here's the story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490197.shtml
Video: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490348n

[Water Monkey]

A lot of the info does not surprise me, just makes me sick......

[Unimog Bob]

It all makes me sick. What makes me most sick is the transparency (if you have half a brain) regarding the LACK of federal gov't oversight/punishment to prevent things from going wrong. IMO, the federal gov't exists for very few reasons. One reason they exist is to regulate large businesses that can do catastrophic harm to our environment while profiting from its resources. Instead, they practically encourage them to take risk by doing (close to) nothing. It's obvious to me that gov't bows to big business.

I saw in the second part that BP was fined 108 million for their negligence that cost 15 men their lives. I did some more research. BP averages 24 Billion a year profit. That's 65 million a day (profit).

So. They were fined less than two days profit for being negligent. Think about that. Any man that is divorced usually loses HALF of his worth that day, and then often pays for years after the fact. I don't bring this up for sexist reasons, but as a comparison. Why then isn't BP fined in a comparable manner? Say 1/10 of total value? That might encourage them to not be negligent in the future and spend money/put effort where needed to guard against more negligent mishaps. It'd then make sense to spend money to guard against losing it. As the penalties exist now, it makes NO monetary sense whatsoever to guard against destroying the environment, or losing 11 or 15 men/women.
It's beyond obvious (to me) that big biz has zero conscience and makes decisions based solely on the bottom line. Fining them comparable to two days work is just ridiculous and will never encourage proper behavior. If penalties are minimal, poor decisions will continue indefinitely.

Sounds like nearly all on the rig knew of the problem (with blown out BOP). The BP rep literally knew of the risk with removing "the mud" while putting in the plugs, but insisted (over TransOcean's recommendation) to do it to "expedite" drilling later. Pure greed, no conscience or concern for anyone or anything. It makes us all sick.

[Water Monkey]

Right on. I could rant my brains out on this but I think we are all on the same page. Instead I feel like my anger should be put towards something proactive. Time will tell what this oil is going to do.

I need to get rid of this anger towards the whole situation by doing something positive. I hope this is not in the form of cleaning our beaches. Maybe some sort of petition or work with a local legislator to make sure these bastards are held accountable. IDK...just frustrated.

[Unimog Bob]

Same here. I wish I was more positive about the proactive stuff.

[Steve-O]

BP=British Polluters

I am an avid watcher of 60 minutes as they usually tell it like it is.

Don't you think with all the money involved in the oil industry that a 3rd unbiased party should be involved in making decisions that effect us all.

Imagine the two head managers fighting over a decision, but the decision ultimately coming down to someone that has no ties to the bottom line.

The US Govt is really on a role lately. Go Team!!!!

[Unimog Bob]

Fat Cat retires : http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/05/17/oil.spill.resignation/?hpt=T1

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week announced he would split MMS into separate divisions -- one for regulating offshore oil drilling and the other for collecting royalties from oil companies. Salazar said that having both responsibilities in one agency created a culture of possible corruption.

No shit?

[Black]

I couldn't help but think of the Titanic watching the 60 minutes program on the oil disaster. The company pressured the captain to go faster and ignore the warnings. They said she could never sink.
Transocean's Deep Horizon rig was bigger, faster and set a record for the deepest drilling operation in history. They said that this couldn't happen.

It has happened and just like all the lives lost from the Titanic this makes me real sad.

[Erick]

Sorry I wish I could bring better news. Where are we going with this mess?

KEY WEST (AP) -- The U.S. Coast Guard says 20 tar balls have been found off Key West, but the agency stopped short of saying whether they came from a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Some 5 million gallons of crude has spewed into the Gulf and tar balls have been washing ashore in several states along the coast.

Scientists are worried that oil is getting caught in a major ocean current that could carry it through the Florida Keys and up the East

[Todd RT]

On one hand, I wished I hadn't watched 60 minutes... as now my oil-anxiety levels are even higher! But on the other hand, I'm really glad I now understand the big picture and how bad BP F*&%#D this whole thing up.

Thought the live video of the explosion was amazing. Go figure that 4 guys were fishing under the rig! LOL! They are lucky to have gotten away from the rig before it blew!

Let's hope they can stop the flow soon! Very soon! And I hope we don't see anything worse than tarballs.

[jim]

The oil is in the loop current which is how tarballs wound up in KW.

[Erick]

A little bit of good news:

KEY WEST (AP) -- The Coast Guard says the tar balls found off Key West aren't linked to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A report released Wednesday says tests show the tar balls don't match the type of oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill.

The source of the tar balls isn't known. Tar balls can occur naturally or come from other sources such as ships.

Twenty were found Monday and several others Tuesday.

Government scientists who surveyed the Gulf on Tuesday said tendrils of light oil were near or already in a powerful current that could take it to Florida.

The loop current circulates in the Gulf and takes water south to the Florida Keys and the Gulf Stream.


But most oil remains dozens of miles away from the current.

[Tony]

Scary part is there is no guarantee the relief wells will work in August. We all know the next thing they will try will fail (the cap) which they say will occur in 4 to 7 days. That means - at least 7 before that fails. Then the relief well is the only cure. There is no guarantee that will work - could mean years of oil spilling out. I hope they nail the guys responsible in Jail. It was completely preventable and not a parts malfunction. It is like saying my brakes failed even though I had the emergency brake on for the last 20 miles. They knew weeks before it blew they broke the blow out preventor.

Tony