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Old 04-26-2010, 07:56 PM   #1
Timber Loftis
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Default Drill Baby Drill!!!

Area of Oil Spill Expanding in Gulf
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and LESLIE KAUFMAN

NEW ORLEANS — Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana was now covering an area in the Gulf of Mexico of 48 miles by 39 miles at its widest points, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.

The response team was trying three tacks to address a spill caused by an explosion on an oil rig last week: one that could stop the leaks within hours, one that would take months, and one that would not stop the leaks but would capture the oil and deliver it to the surface while permanent measures were pursued.

On Sunday morning, officials began using remote-controlled vehicles to try to activate the blowout preventer, a 450-ton valve sitting at the wellhead, 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. The blowout preventer can seal off the well to prevent sudden pressure releases that possibly led to the explosion on the rig last Tuesday night.

If successful, engaging the blowout preventer could seal the well Monday or Tuesday.

The flow of oil from the leaks is about 42,000 gallons of oil a day. The authorities said it was still unclear what caused the explosion. Eleven crew members are missing and presumed dead.

The Coast Guard also said in a statement Monday that an aircrew from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service spotted sperm whales in the vicinity of the oil spill on Sunday.

“The unified command is monitoring the situation and is working closely with officials from Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service and NOAA to understand the impact the spill and response activities may have on whales and other marine wildlife in the area,” the statement said.

Officials determined through weather patterns that the sheen of oil and water would remain at least 30 miles from shore at least until Tuesday. But states along the Gulf Coast have been warned to be on alert.

“We have been in contact with all the coastal states,” Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the commander of the Eighth Coast Guard District, said at a news conference on Sunday. Emphasizing that the sheen was not estimated to hit shore anytime soon, Admiral Landry said contingency plans were being put in place.

“Everyone is forward-leaning and preparing for coastal impact,” she said.

Louisiana is erecting containment booms around sensitive coastal areas as a precautionary measure.

At the rate of 42,000 gallons of oil a day, the leak would have to continue for 262 days to match the 11-million-gallon spill from the Exxon Valdez in 1989, the worst oil spill in United States history.

The leaks were discovered Saturday in the riser, the 5,000-foot-long pipe that extended from the wellhead to the drilling platform. The riser detached from the platform after it exploded and sank, and it is now snaking up from the wellhead and back down to the sea floor. It is leaking in two places, both at the sea floor. The bends in the riser, like kinks in a garden hose, have apparently prevented a gush of oil. When the platform was on the ocean’s surface and the riser was still attached last week, oil and gas were shooting up through the riser, creating plumes of flame.

Another effort described by officials Sunday — drilling relief wells nearby — would take two to three months to stop the flow.

BP, which was leasing the drilling platform and is responsible for the cleanup under federal law, was mobilizing two rigs that could drill the relief wells, which could send heavy mud and concrete into the cavity of oil and gas that drilling apparently punctured by accident.

If the blowout preventer does not seal off the well, officials intend to place a large dome directly over the leaks to catch the oil and route it up to the surface, where it could be collected.

This has been done before, but only in shallow waters, said Doug Suttles, the chief operating officer for exploration and production at BP.

“It’s never been deployed in 5,000 feet of water,” he said. “But we have the world’s best experts working on that right now.”

Rough seas halted the cleanup efforts on Saturday and most of Sunday. But as the weather cleared Sunday afternoon, aircraft resumed dumping dispersant, or chemicals that break down the oil. By evening, 15 vessels were headed to the area to resume skimming the oil off the surface of the ocean.

The Coast Guard said 48,000 gallons of oil-water mix had been collected by Sunday.

Doug Helton, a fisheries biologist who coordinates oil spill responses for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, said the oil emanating from the riser was taking the shape of a giant ice cream cone as it drifted toward the surface. He said there were no reports of dead animals yet, although that was expected to change if the leaks were not sealed.

Mr. Helton added that wind data allowed officials to predict that the spill would not hit shore within three days, but that it was moving north.

“Louisiana is the closest area,” he said. “There is a potential for other Gulf states if the release continues unabated, but we have no indication in our trajectories that shorefall will happen in the next three days.”

Sea life that congregates at the surface and has no mobility of its own — like plankton and fish eggs — is the most vulnerable to the slick. A large-scale destruction of eggs could affect fish populations in the future.

Officials are monitoring the environmental effects of the spill by boat and planes.

“It will be more severe over time,” Mr. Helton said.
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Old 04-27-2010, 05:33 AM   #2
ElfBane
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

You can bet your @ss Florida "no-drill" peeps are watching this.
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Old 04-27-2010, 10:50 AM   #3
John D Harris
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

Stuff happens, It's been years and years since there was an oil platform spill. There are thousands of Oil platforms out in the Gulf of Mexico that aren't leaking.
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Old 04-27-2010, 02:42 PM   #4
Timber Loftis
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by John D Harris View Post
Stuff happens, It's been years and years since there was an oil platform spill. There are thousands of Oil platforms out in the Gulf of Mexico that aren't leaking.
The drilled at 5,000 ft below sea level, where they have virtually no technology to fix this f*k up. I ain't real smart, but I do know that that's purdy dumb.
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Old 04-27-2010, 06:19 PM   #5
SecretMaster
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

I really am hoping that this spill will draw some scrutiny to Obama's plan to open up offshore drilling in the U.S. I doubt it will, but it astounds me that Obama actually went through with that plan. It was purely a poltical play to woo the American public, but it has tremendous implications IMO.
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Old 04-28-2010, 06:51 PM   #6
Timber Loftis
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

As John D says, it's just one little spill. And there are lots of rigs out there. So, it's just a minor deal, right?

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOT...src=eorss-iotd
Wrong. Observe this one little spill -- from space.
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Old 04-28-2010, 06:54 PM   #7
Firestormalpha
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timber Loftis View Post
As John D says, it's just one little spill.
Well, to be fair, he didn't say little, but your point still stands. One spill or 10 spills, it's still a large and hazardous mess.

Their latest idea for a fix doesn't fill me with confidence either.

"how do we get rid of this oil spill?"
"I dunno, let's just burn it."

Yes, I'm sure I oversimplified that mock converstation.
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Last edited by Firestormalpha; 04-28-2010 at 06:56 PM.
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Old 04-29-2010, 01:46 PM   #8
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

Last week’s oil rig disaster should remind us that expansion of the environmentally risky practice is not the way to go.

Last week's explosion and sinking of an oil-exploration rig off the coast of Louisiana prompted that state's Democratic Sen. Mary L. Landrieu to call for a federal investigation. She also said the rig's owners should "commit every available resource to learn from this tragic event."

Here's what we've already learned: Offshore drilling is more dangerous than industry apologists claim (11 men are believed to have died in the explosion), and it can have environmentally devastating impacts. Somehow, though, we suspect that's not the lesson Landrieu and other Democrats who hope to expand offshore drilling — including President Obama — will take from the disaster.

Democratic leaders have calculated that the way to attract Republican support for their efforts to fight climate change is to open more of the nation's coastline to drilling. Never mind that there is no sign Republicans want to play along, and that the sole GOP senator willing to even a discuss a climate bill, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, is backing out. Last month, Obama announced a plan to give oil companies access to large areas of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Alaskan coastlines. Landrieu, meanwhile, has fought to add language to clean-energy bills that would grant states royalty payments for oil drilled off their coasts.

The crisis in the Gulf isn't changing many minds. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs shrugged off the ongoing oil leak, which could develop into the worst spill in U.S. history, by implying that it was just a fact of life. "I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last," he said. Meanwhile, 42,000 gallons of oil a day are pouring from a well drilled by the downed rig. The Coast Guard is scrambling to collect and burn the escaping oil, but that probably won't be enough to head off environmental catastrophe — experts say the oil could reach environmentally sensitive areas on shore in a matter of days if the flow can't be stopped, and it may take months to plug the leak.

This kind of environmental tragedy isn't unprecedented — a similar rig explosion happened last year off Australia — and we'll probably be seeing it more often if Congress expands drilling off U.S. shores. There's a better way of using our coastal resources to generate energy. On Wednesday, the Obama administration approved the country's first offshore wind farm, a 130-turbine project off Massachusetts that is guaranteed never to foul beaches with tar or emit carbon into the atmosphere. Cape Wind is the future; the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig represents a tarred past.

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times
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Old 04-29-2010, 03:08 PM   #9
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timber Loftis View Post
Area of Oil Spill Expanding in Gulf
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and LESLIE KAUFMAN

The flow of oil from the leaks is about 42,000 gallons of oil a day. The authorities said it was still unclear what caused the explosion. Eleven crew members are missing and presumed dead.
So, pretty much we need to have people who arent idiots build these rigs. Whats with all the stupid people poping up? They must think that since we have a stupid president its ok for them to let their stupid show.
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Old 04-29-2010, 03:27 PM   #10
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Default Re: Drill Baby Drill!!!

I recently reached day 500 without daily use of a car, so I feel less responsible for this than average.
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Last edited by Chewbacca; 04-29-2010 at 03:28 PM. Reason: I can out-walk any of you!!!
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