Invincible in the sense that Republicans and the healthcare industry couldn't dismantle it altogether, despite a PR and lobbying onslaught that derailed attempts by the Clinton administration. It's so sad and weird to see corrupt parochialism so easily neuter the guy, when that's what he grew up with in Chicago.Thats kind of a weird view to take. The HCR bill that passed was very pro corporate and not even universal. Certainly, the industry would have been better off for now if nothing passed, but not that much better off. And the democrats had a filibuster proof majority, something they didn't have in '93.
Earlier, I posted on how the top energy industry execs who testified before House lawmakers Tuesday came in with the game plan, judging from what they said, to distance themselves from BP.posted by saulgoodman at 12:59 PM on June 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
Which made it somewhat inconvenient that lawmakers kept harping on the fact that all the companies essentially had the same emergency oil-spill response plan for an accident in the Gulf of Mexico as BP.
They all apparently contracted with the same company for the plan, with its absurd reference to how the plan would handle affected walruses (there aren't any in the Gulf) and its inclusion of a scientist who's been dead for years as a go-to expert in the event of a spill.
Yes, you heard that right. Drilling projects in the entire central and western Gulf of Mexico have what the government calls a “categorical exclusion” from detailed environmental studies. The Gulf, by the way, is where most of the nation’s offshore drilling takes place. (Here’s a handy flow chart from the government showing the approval process.)Remember Cheney's secret energy policy task force meetings? Wish we'd been allowed to learn what they were all about.
How such a broad exclusion was established is an enduring mystery.
On its website, the MMS says categorical exclusions are established “based on experience,” and only after “hundreds” of studies have been completed without showing significant impacts.
That raises the question: When did the MMS do so many studies in the Gulf that it decided they were no longer necessary? And who approved that decision and why?
posted by ennui.bz at 1:06 PM on June 22, 2010 [3 favorites]
What is likely to happen now?
Well...none of what is likely to happen is good, in fact...it's about as bad as it gets. I am convinced the erosion and compromising of the entire system is accelerating and attacking more key structural areas of the well, the blow out preventer and surrounding strata holding it all up and together. This is evidenced by the tilt of the blow out preventer and the erosion which has exposed the well head connection. What eventually will happen is that the blow out preventer will literally tip over if they do not run supports to it as the currents push on it. I suspect they will run those supports as cables tied to anchors very soon, if they don't, they are inviting disaster that much sooner.
Eventually even that will be futile as the well casings cannot support the weight of the massive system above with out the cement bond to the earth and that bond is being eroded away. When enough is eroded away the casings will buckle and the BOP will collapse the well. If and when you begin to see oil and gas coming up around the well area from under the BOP? or the area around the well head connection and casing sinking more and more rapidly? ...it won't be too long after that the entire system fails. BP must be aware of this, they are mapping the sea floor sonically and that is not a mere exercise. Our Gov't must be well aware too, they just are not telling us.
All of these things lead to only one place, a fully wide open well bore directly to the oil deposit...after that, it goes into the realm of "the worst things you can think of." The well may come completely apart as the inner liners fail. There is still a very long drill string in the well, that could literally come flying out...as I said...all the worst things you can think of are a possibility, but the very least damaging outcome as bad as it is, is that we are stuck with a wide open gusher blowing out 150,000 barrels a day of raw oil or more. There isn't any "cap dome" or any other suck fixer device on earth that exists or could be built that will stop it from gushing out and doing more and more damage to the gulf. While at the same time also doing more damage to the well, making the chance of halting it with a kill from the bottom up less and less likely to work, which as it stands now?....is the only real chance we have left to stop it all.
It's a race now...a race to drill the relief wells and take our last chance at killing this monster before the whole weakened, wore out, blown out, leaking and failing system gives up it's last gasp in a horrific crescendo.
Carol Browner, the president's top environmental advisor, said that President Barack Obama is hoping that the independent commission he had appointed to investigate the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is able to generate solutions as quickly as possible to recommend how to drill safely in deep water.Please keep it civil, saulgoodman. I believe I've agreed with you in a lot of arguments on this site in the past, and there's no need to get nasty. Somebody's got to argue the other side.
"We certainly hope so, but it is an independent commission," Browner said during an appearance on CNN of whether the administration expects solutions on drilling safer quickly, leading to them ending a moratorium on drilling more quickly than expected.
Here’s a list of Feldman’s income in 2008 (amounts listed unless under $1,000):posted by ericb at 1:22 PM on June 22, 2010 [7 favorites]BlackRock ($12000- $36000)In his opinion today, Feldman wrote, “Oil and gas production is quite simply elemental to Gulf communities.” Indeed, it is so elemental that the justice system is invested in the oil and gas industry. As TP’s Ian Millhiser has written, “Industry ties among federal judges are so widespread that they are beginning to endanger the courts’ ability to conduct routine business. Last month, so many members of the right-wing Fifth Circuit were forced to recuse themselves from an appeal against various energy and chemical companies that there weren’t enough untainted judges left to allow the court to hear the case.”*
Ocean Energy ($1000 – $2500)
NGP Capital Resources ($1000 – $2500)
Quicksilver Resources ($5000 – $15000)
Hercules Offshore ($6000 – $17500)
Provident Energy
Peabody Energy
PenGrowth Energy
RPC Inc
Atlas Energy Resources
Parker Drilling
TXCO Resources
EV Energy Partners
Rowan Companies
BPZ Resources
El Paso Corp
KBR Inc
Chesapeake Energy
ATP Oil & Gas
people who work on the rigs are NOT cutting tusks off of elephantsRight, they're just involved in an industry that's cooking the entire planet.
they're engaged in legitimate business and they pay real taxesThat's a strange defense. I mean, presumably ivory dealers were involved in 'legitimate business' when it was legal too. It's just a strange point to make. It may be legal today, the question is whether or not it's a good idea for it to remain legal. And the answer is no.
I wonder if the horse industry felt the same way about the railways, the automobiles and the first industrial revolutionI'm not sure the comparison is terribly apt. If the transition from horses to automobiles was being promoted as a way to escape from resource crash from grain shortages, and horse traders insisted that there was no such problem and that we just needed better horses, it might be a little better.
any books on the transition back then, be interesting to see if the debates were as furious and the protectionism as fierce
The federal judge who overturned Barack Obama's offshore drilling moratorium reported owning stock in numerous companies involved in the offshore oil industry — including Transocean, which leased the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig to BP prior to its April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico — according to 2008 financial disclosure reports.posted by kirkaracha at 4:27 PM on June 22, 2010
JOSH: No one who's ever said they wanted bipartisanship has ever meant it. But the people are speaking. Because 68% think we give too much in foreign aid, and 59% think it should be cut.posted by zachlipton at 10:56 PM on June 22, 2010
WILL: You like that stat?
JOSH: I do.
WILL: Why?
JOSH: Because 9% think it's too high, and shouldn't be cut! 9% of respondents could not fully get their arms around the question. There should be another box you can check for, "I have utterly no idea what you're talking about. Please, God, don't ask for my input."
So you'd be cool with it if the DMV told you "No driver's license for you," and when you asked why they just said, "Because." -- Jahaza
I wouldn't be happy about it, especially considering I don't live in a part of the world where I have many other commuting options, but I'd accept it. I would have to.I don't think you're thinking very clearly here. What you were replying to was this:
In fact, they will already effectively say "no license for you" if you don't renew your license on time (as my wife recently learned the hard way). Hate to break it to you, but having a driver's license is literally nothing more than a privilege bla bla bla bla -- saulgoodman
and why it can be revoked for no reason more than your failure to pay to renew it.Again, that's a fairly reasonable reason. I don't see why you're saying 'for no more reason' as if it was some minor thing. I don't think there is anything unreasonable about having a rule that says you have to renew your license.
Furthermore, gulf oil represents very tiny proportion of the world's oil supply, so the consequences of shutting it off for a little while are far less drastic.And on top of that, no one "Shut Off" the gulf's oil supply. The only thing that was shut down was drilling for new wells . No oil stopped flowing. There are something like 4,000 wells in the gulf and 33 are on hold.
What's important to measure, Overton said, is the concentration of oil in the seawater. High concentrations of sub-surface oil have the effect of depleting oxygen, killing fish, microbes and other living things. "If it's parts per million, you are looking at a dead zone," Overton said. "If it's parts per billion then it's not so bad."In other words, we are probably now looking at a Dead Zone the size of the entire Gulf of Mexico.
Drilling could begin as soon as the fall, assuming a final application is submitted by BP and approved by regulators.So there's still a final approval step pending, too.
Every two years or so, the United States Joint Forces Command publishes its “perspective on future trends, shocks, contexts and implications for… the national security field.” The latest version—the 2010 Joint Operating Environment (JOE) report [PDF] includes some rather disturbing precursors of impending doom.posted by saulgoodman at 8:45 PM on June 24, 2010
Like the 2008 version, it reiterates that “oil and coal will continue to drive the energy train” until 2030, though it warns that in order to do so, “the world would need to add roughly the equivalent of Saudi Arabia’s current production every seven years” (p. 24). Perhaps most significantly, the JOE includes a text box titled ‘Peak Oil,' which reads: “Assuming the most optimistic scenario for improved petroleum production through enhanced recovery means, the development of non-conventional oils (such as oil shales or tar sands) and new discoveries, petroleum production will be hard pressed to meet the expected future demand of 118 million barrels per day [in 2030].”
The JOE then warns, “A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity” (p. 28) and emphasizes that “By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 MBD”. (p.29) That's a 10 million barrel shortfall every day....within five years from now. Say it ain't so, JOE.
This claims in the report are consistent with other statements and reports issued over the past 18 months. A sampling:
Jeroen van de Veer, CEO of Shell: “Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.”
Fatih Birol of the IEA: “From now to 2015, the market and the oil industry will be severely tested. In the next five to ten years, oil production from non-OPEC producers will reach a peak before starting to decline, for lack of sufficient reserves. As each day passes, new evidence of this fact appears. At the same time the peak of the economic expansion phase of China will take place. The two events will coincide: the explosion of the growth of the Chinese demand, and the fall in production of non-OPEC oil. Will our oil system be it able to answer this challenge, that is the question.”
« Older Re-introducing the work of George Condo.... | Rudy Rucker's Ware Tetralogy i... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
And I'm just anxious to hear how many conservatives are going to scream about activist judges here.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 11:53 AM on June 22, 2010 [4 favorites]