Crude lies

People evidently don’t understand just how bloody deep we went to get oil, without adequate mitigating technologies to be used if something went wrong. BP’s technology for getting at extremely remote oil has increased in a manner not dissimilar to Moore’s Law, but without any sort of oversight, without anyone to tell them to invest some of their profits in stopping spills, their leak-stopping technology has stagnated since the 70’s. This infographic shows just how far down we managed to get. It’ll hopefully put the scope of what we were attempting into perspective.

The main reason this spill is so difficult is that it’s so far beneath sea level. This didn’t stop the drilling efforts, of course! The fact that we don’t really have appropriate technologies or plans for stopping this leak, suggests that we never should have been attempting such a deep drill. But even if it was 100% necessary to outstrip our Plan-B capabilities, it’s pretty obvious Plan-A, a safe and successful well, was not in the offing from the outset. Rig survivors have accused BP of ordering several shortcuts, including the use of sea water instead of mud to speed the drilling process up on the day of the blowout, as it was already five weeks behind at that point. The heavy mud was used to keep the drill’s pressure down. The lighter sea water would have meant increased pressure. Increased pressure could have caused the catastrophic failure of the cement in question.

We’re already well aware that nobody wants to take the blame in this disaster. I almost can’t blame the parties involved for wanting to dodge the brunt of the public outcry over the whole debacle, honestly. One would basically have to own up to the fact that they’re personally responsible for killing almost everything in the Gulf of Mexico. Whether we’re talking humans or animals, that kind of swathe of destruction would weigh heavily on any man with the least shred of conscience, even if you discount the humans whose livelihood depends on the ocean’s bounty. You’d think that anyone who knew they had that kind of blood on their hands would be running damage control on the actual DAMAGE, rather than stymying the media coverage of said damage. But the latter seems to be the case in this particular situation. It’s rather galling that there would be a request to avoid pictures of dead animals. I’m assuming BP knows how damaging they would be to your public reputation.

The rig survivors are demanding that BP be held responsible. I believe they are innocent until proven guilty, but I also believe that in clamping down so hard on the media, BP is being allowed to control the flow of evidence that they are, in fact, guilty. These lies need to be exposed. And the liars — such as BP Bob — need to be held accountable for their obfuscation and bluster.

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Crude lies
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2 thoughts on “Crude lies

  1. 2

    I think it’s rather telling, as well, that the states along the gulf coast seem to be much more concerned about a six-month moratorium on drilling than they are about what could likely be permanent damage to their ecosystems, some of which also provide income for thousands of families as well as the states.

    The local and state governments, as well as portions of our federal government, have been bought and paid for by the energy conglomerates. They’ll get everything they want until the money runs out.

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