I am still upset over the spill by Exxon in Alaska! Yes, I am really upset to see this happening to the white beaches of the gulf!
Kit
by flipper 233 Replies latest jw friends
I am still upset over the spill by Exxon in Alaska! Yes, I am really upset to see this happening to the white beaches of the gulf!
Kit
LEAVING WT- Thanks for posting the link about Florida getting this oil in it's area now. I still think criminal charges should be levied against BP and the U.S. Government should insist on HIRING some other hotshot oil company to stop this spill. Hire whoever is the BEST at doing this kind of oil spill stoppage. Obviously BP doesn't have a clue. This is going to be the worst disaster, not only in American history- but quite possibly the history of the planet if it doesn't get stopped quickly
Maybe somebody can calculate better about the volume that's gushing out daily - but if the 70,000 bls is accurate, then by my reckoning that's an area approximately 20.4 miles wide and long and a foot and a half thick, EVERY DAY!
BP generates $30 billion per year in free cash flow, $10 billion is paid to shareholders as dividends and $20 Billion to operations.
Now there's something that can be drilled.
There is a call today for BP to halt payment of dividends until the spill is cleaned up and all payments owed have been issued.
There are also protests in 50 cities called 'seize BP'..
I watched a woman in Louisiana whose husband was a fisherman expose what's going on with BP down there. Her husband is one of those that has taken ill from the toxic air. When asked why reporters can't get anyone to talk about what's happening down there, she said they are 'afraid'. She said that 'BP is king and you do not cross them'. The interview seems to have gone away but isn't it sad that whole communities are gripped with fear from a corporation ...guess they can't keep on rockin in the free world. sammieswife
SAMMIE'SWIFE- Thanks for the info. I also heard on the news that not only are the workers getting sick from the oil and chemicals cleaning it up on the beach- but animals inland on the coast are dying now from toxic fumes. It is so ridiculous that BP is being allowed to be the oil company to clean this up when they are so damned inept. Why in the world doesn't the federal goverment HIRE ANOTHER oil company with higher skills to clean this mess up and then BP can pay THEM ? I don't get it. We've become a bumbling catastrophe of a society for sure
BP has denied that fumes from the cleanup make people sick. I know for a fact that even with good atmospheric analyzer readings that the "smell" of crude oil can make you very ill after a short period of time. Baffles me why BP would still claim there is no need for respirators and deny it makes people sick, when people are getting sick and people with experience in the industry know working around it with no respiratory protection can make you sick.
Obama should have done more long before this. BP is considered a laggard in the industry, and time & again has shown incompetence.
Think About it
I just read it is getting ready to hit the Florida coast Friday...
What Happens to the Oil Spill if There is a Hurricane?
. . .
So what happens if a big storm hits?
"There's a bunch of impacts," says William Drennan, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami's Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
"If you get a storm which is coming toward the coast you can get a significant storm surge," Drennan told me in an interview Thursday afternoon. "If you get a storm surge, then the top meter of the water is going to go...certainly hundreds of feet possibly miles inland."
That, he said, could propel oil "deep into the marshland," where the ecological impact could be worse than if the oil remained on the surface or slightly below.
"The ideal situation would be to keep it away from land," Drennan says. "If it could be kept away from lands, the wet lands tend to be very good hatcheries of everything from fish to birds.... Once you go the oil deep into the wetlands it'll take a long time before it gets flushed back."
Similarly, Drennan said, a big storm will cause mixing in the ocean, drawing oil from the water column below back up to the surface, where it can again be flushed ashore.
All of this is to say nothing of the impact on the ongoing efforts to cap the gushing well. Not only would work crews have to be brought in to port to wait out the storm, but the storm could damage the rigs being used to drill the two relief wells.
"They'd have to shut down completely the process of drilling," Drennan says. "If it were to damage the rig which is drilling the two relief wells, if it were to damage those rigs--that would be an issue."
All of this, he says, is something that the government and other agents in charge of the rescue effort "should be quite worried about."
And they are. NOAA was quick to release talking points about the potential impact of a hurricane on the oil spill, which reinforce much of what Drennan told me, but also seek to downplay the risk, and don't touch on the more pragmatic consequences a 400-mile wide storm would have on rescue and cleanup. By the same token, the fact sheet highlights some of the salutary effects a hurricane could have on the spill. "The high winds and seas will mix and 'weather' the oil which can help accelerate the biodegradation process," reads one bullet point.
Additionally, NOAA advises, "A hurricane passing to the west of the oil slick could drive oil to the coast. A hurricane passing to the east of the slick could drive the oil away from the coast."
What you won't find, however, is anybody saying that a big tropical storm or hurricane will make things easier.
Tar Balls Wash Up in Fla. as Obama Heads Back to Gulf
(June 4) -- Tar balls suspected from America's worst-ever oil spill began washing up on the Florida panhandle's pristine white beaches this morning, while BP said a containment dome is capturing some of oil gushing from its underwater well. President Barack Obama, who canceled another overseas trip to deal with the crisis, is heading back to the Gulf Coast today.
ABC News aired video of lumps of semi-solid oil littering Pensacola Beach, but it's not yet confirmed that they're from the BP spill. "To hear that there is oil there is one of the most disturbing things that we could imagine," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist told ABC's "Good Morning America."........