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5 comments:
Greg-
With all due respect, trying to tie the complaints about the BP screwup on the hypocrisy of spoiled "liberals" is misguided.
Here are a few realities of the oil drilling game-
*the oil/gas drilling rig is one of the most dangerous working environments on earth. The floor of an oil rig is a slick, constantly wet environment where massive steel machinery, pipe, chains, etc are in constant lethal motion from all directions. It is rare to find a roughneck over 40 who still has all of his fingers. Most drillers run a tight ship with strong regard to worker safety- but some don't.
Ever seen a man crushed to death by a 10,000lb steel drilling kelly? I asked the tool pusher about the accident and his reply was "oilfield is a dangerous place." The man's last week of pay was sent to wife and children.
*Regulations are not some silly liberal intrusion on hardworking drillers. Drilling regulations deal with not only rig safety but with proper procedure to avoid contamination of local water well reservoirs. Proper specs of steel casing, type and consistency of cementing jobs, dealing with the thousands of gallons of rig liguid waste, fencing livestock out of toxic reserve pits, planning access roads to avoid land damage, production piping and tanks to avoid most spillage during production etc are all important working regulations. And most forthright drillers understand the necessity of following those plans and basic regulations.
And yes, I have witnessed some bad drilling outfits where workers are in constant danger- usually morale on such outfits is very poor. I have seen one oil company remove toxic wastes from the rig reserve pit by night and dump them all over the publics lands to avoid paying for proper disposal.
The oil/gas drilling business has always been a tough go. The folks that run oil companies are often hard-bitten individualists who often will cross over the line in pursuit of their operations. Sometimes they go over the line and need to be reigned in. However most smart operators will work within the laws and regulations most of the time and have clean efficient operations. And some don't- BP apparently was cutting a lot of corners and has badly damage their own industry along with many individual oil companies both big and small.
Word in Houston is that 50,000 oil jobs will be on the line due to the BP screwups. How do you think the folks who have run clean operations feel when they are unemployed due to the screwups by bad operators who bypassed proper operating procedures?
Regards, Marshall
Marshall; what you're saying is obviously from direct experience, but confirms what the rest of us are concerned about, namely the wild-west element of the industry where profit comes from cutting corners. Sometimes the cost is in lives and injuries, sometimes in environmental disasters (overt or covert).
I've never visited the tar-sands but I understand the environmental degradation and pollution is on a vast scale.
In my lifetime we've gone from cutting edge technology in 150' of water in the North Sea to cutting edge in one-mile-deep water in the Gulf of Mexico. The North Sea used to regularly kill divers (I know; I was nearly one of them), now the Gulf is killing much, much more.
At what point do we decide to slow all this down and carefully consider what we're doing here? When does a government say they have to turn around this destruction? When will some politician have the courage to stand up to the oil & gas lobby, auto lobby, trucking lobby et al, and say enough is enough?
Marshall:
Where did I try to "tie complaints about the BP screwup on the hypocrisy of spoiled liberals"?
I am very willing to accept the consequences of a cessation of drilling in deep water... I don't believe I have a lot of company.
The space shuttles Challenger and Columbia were similar engineering challenges with similar probability of catastrophic failure.
Even strapping oneself into seat 23b on a commercial airliner is a leap of faith... low probability HIGH consequence failure ratio...
If you drive, you are complicit. The meat eater and the butcher are on the same more level....
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/08/rethinking_our_oil_drenched_lifestyles/
SLOWLY, the conversation continues.
Deep water drilling will not stop for very long .. mark my words.
Also, how do you feel about this little drop in the Dow/S&P 500, Jeffers? How do you feel now about missing the phony-baloney market rebound since March of '09?
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