...And up from the ground came a bubbling crude
 

Here in South Louisiana, there is a tinge of petrol in the air. Get ready to pay some outrageous prices for your seafood. Louisiana govt has implement its "No Price Gouging" policy for gasoline.

New Orleans, LA Local News, Breaking News, Sports & Weather - NOLA.com

Oh, and it's also Ray Nagin's last day in office as mayor of New Orleans.

And away goes Obama's plan to drill off shore.......:D

Haven't heard from "Drill Baby Drill" Palin. Has her tongue been covered in oil?

I thought this was a clever and witty response to the "Drill Baby Drill":

Drill baby Drill, until you Spill baby Spill, now I have to take a pill baby pill while I look at the bill baby bill of the cost to clean up the spill baby spill which will kill baby kill every living thing in it's path and we will baby will for the next decade or more be cleaning the spill baby spill while you continue to promote drill baby drill without thought of the consquences of a spill baby spill.

Oil needs to come from somewhere...Instead of developing new safer ways to drill we've been buying overseas where the pollution and regulations are worse. Last I remember my X5 was pretty poor on gas mileage.

Crackes me up. Don't go away just not in my neighborhood.

Please clarify?

They have been drilling in the Gulf for decades, and oil exploration is the biggest revenue generator in the state. This is not the first spill, however, none as big as this one. Built in 2001, the Deepwater Horizon is/was the most state of the art offshore oil platform there is.

BTW, I am for offshore drilling. Just got to be preapred for the consequenses.

Very witty indeed:thumbup:

But otherwise, a sad and tragic news story. This might eventually make the Exxon Valdez look like a kid's squirt gun. I really feel bad for you guys having to deal with this shit...after Katrina and all.

ALSO: Can someone well-versed in resource allocation explain something to me? Am I supposed to be "impressed" when I read that the US Navy has 1,000 personnel devoted to the clean-up?? Or that the Coast Guard has sent a whoppng 2 (TWO!) C-130 Hercules transports to drop chemicals on the spill?

Last I checked we have over 150,000 US troops in Afghanistan, including numerous specialized Marine Expeditionary Units consisiting of THOUSANDS of trained Marines. We've got whole squadrons of $20 million-per-copy Predator drones flooding the skies over the Paki-Afghan border. With $1 million-dollar Hellfire missiles on each of those $20-million-dollar Predators.
OK, I guess I can be persuaded that Afghanistan is a worthwhile endeavor, even if it's on the other side of the planet and none of us will ever need to set foot anywhere near it.

But meanwhile, we are in the middle of an unprecedented man-made disaster right here in the United States. And all the Federal Government can do is throw a few sailors and a couple of C-130s into the fray?:dunno: I mean I realize that the US military's main goal is to fight and win wars...but how about using all that SKILL and MANPOWER to protect our very own COASTLINE from this spill....instead of (or in ADDITION to) blowing up barefooted Taliban dudes hiding in their caves.

If we can deploy massive and overwhelming amounts of firepower and thunderous hell on any spot on the planet within 48-hours of a "GO" order...why can't we deploy at least a third of that manpower and firepower to clean up this huge, shitty oil spill right in our own coastal waters?:dunno: Yes, I agree that Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan can eventually, somehow translate into a blown-up passenger airliner. I get it. I really do. But this oil spill is just as much (if not more) of a threat to our national economy and security. It is capable of inflicting huge losses on the local fishing industry and the fragile eco-system of the Gulf. Am I just being naive here?

I don't take credit for the little drill dity. I saw it on a local news blog.

It's kinda strange down here. People are upset, but are not up in arms about it. I guess because its more of an economic impact than an emotional one. Louisiana coastlines are not known for its white sandy beaches. The biggest impact will be on the seafood industry. Shrimp season is about 2 weeks away, and it doesn't look good for them. Oyster (or as they say doen here "erster") and scallop beds are threatened, and will likely not survive. Brown Pelican (state bird) habitats will be destroyed. The environmental impact to the ecosystem will last for decades. What everyone is worried about is whether this spill will be cleaned up before the hurricane season begins. What a mess that would be. Oil would travel up the Mississippi and into the wetlands and lake Pontchartrain and to the numerous canals that criss-cross South Louisiana.

Yeah and the consequenses are a bunch of folks standing around
wondering what to do including Obama. You know he has already
been accused of causing the whole thing.

But the timeline doesn't support blaming Obama for acting too slow:

April 20 (10 p.m.): Oil rig explosion. An April 21 ABCNews.com article reported, "An overnight explosion in the Gulf of Mexico rocked the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off the Louisiana coast, sending spectacular bursts of flame into the sky. The fires were still raging today." The U.S. Coast Guard's National Oil and Hazardous Substances Response System assigns primary responsibility for cleaning up oil spills to the spiller as the responsible party.


April 21: Deputy Secretary of Interior, Coast Guard dispatched to region. An April 22 White House statement noted that following a briefing with President Obama, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen, Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, EPA Deputy Administrator Bob Perciasepe, and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, "Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes was dispatched to the region yesterday to assist with coordination and response." The Coast Guard announced that four units were responding to the fire, with additional units en route.

• Search and rescue efforts begin for 11 missing. An initial focus of the response was the search for 11 missing crewmembers. The search was called off April 23

• BP confirms U.S. Coast Guard was "leading the emergency response" In an April 21 press release, British Petroleum stated that it was "working closely with Transocean and the U.S. Coast Guard, which is leading the emergency response, and had been offering its help - including logistical support."

• CNN.com: "The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort." An April 22 CNN.com article reported:

The U.S. Coast Guard launched a major search effort Wednesday for 11 people missing after a "catastrophic" explosion aboard an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico engulfed the drilling platform in flames.
Another 17 people were injured -- three critically -- in the blast aboard the Deepwater Horizon, which occurred about 10 p.m. Tuesday. The rig was about 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, said Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike O'Berry. As of late afternoon Wednesday as many as six firefighting vessels were working to contain the massive fire caused by the explosion.
"It obviously was a catastrophic event," O'Berry said.

April 23: Coast Guard "focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water." On April 23, the Coast Guard stated:

The Department of the Interior, MMS [the U.S. Minerals Management Service], and the Coast Guard continue to support the efforts of the responsible parties to secure all potential sources of pollution. Both federal agencies have technical teams in place overseeing the proposals by BP and Transocean to completely secure the well. Until that has occurred and all parties are confident the risk of additional spill is removed, a high readiness posture to respond will remain in place.
Although the oil appears to have stopped flowing from the well head, Coast Guard, BP, Transocean, and MMS remain focused on mitigating the impact of the product currently in the water and preparing for a worst-case scenario in the event the seal does not hold. Visual feed from deployed remotely operated vehicles with sonar capability is continually monitored in an effort to look for any crude oil which still has the potential to emanate from the subsurface well.
"From what we have observed yesterday and through the night, we are not seeing any signs of release of crude in the subsurface area. However we remain in a 'ready to respond' mode and are working in a collaborative effort with BP, the responsible party, to prepare for a worst-case scenario," Landry stated early Friday morning.

April 25: Response team implements plan to contain oil spilling from source, weather delays cleanup.

• Storms delay response efforts. An April 25 Associated Press article reported, "Stormy weather delayed weekend efforts to mop up leaking oil from a damaged well after the explosion and sinking of a massive rig off Louisiana's Gulf Coast that left 11 workers missing and presumed dead." AP further reported:

The bad weather began rolling in Friday as strong winds, clouds and rain interrupted efforts to contain the spill. Coast Guard Petty Officer John Edwards said he was uncertain when weather conditions would improve enough for cleanup to resume. So far, he said, crews have retrieved about 1,052 barrels of oily water.

• Oil recovery and cleanup were to resume after adverse weather passed. On April 25, the unified command team responding to the spill stated:

The unified command is implementing intervention efforts in an attempt to contain the source of oil emanating from the wellhead at the Deepwater Horizon incident site Sunday.
The unified command has approved a plan that utilizes submersible remote operated vehicles in an effort to activate the blowout preventer on the sea floor and to stop the flow of oil that has been estimated at leaking up to 1,000 barrels/42,000 gallons a day.
Also, BP is mobilizing the DD3, a drilling rig that is expected to arrive Monday to prepare for relief well-drilling operations.
Additionally, the oil recovery and clean-up operations are expected to resume once adverse weather has passed. These efforts are part of the federally approved oil spill contingency plan that is in place to respond to environmental incidents.

April 26: Response crews "to resume skimming operations." On April 26, the response team stated, "Sunday, an aircrew from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sighted five small whales during an over flight in the vicinity of the oil spill, which currently measures 48 miles by 39 miles at its widest points with varying levels of sheening, and is located 30 miles off the coast of Venice, La." The command team further stated, "Following adverse weather that went through the area, response crews are anticipated to resume skimming operations today," including 1,000 personnel, 10 offshore vessels, 7 skimming boats and more than 14,000 gallons of dispersant. At that point 48,384 gallons of oily water had been collected.
April 28: Federal officials realize spill was far more severe than BP led them to believe. An April 28 New York Times article reported, "Government officials said late Wednesday night that oil might be leaking from a well in the Gulf of Mexico at a rate five times that suggested by initial estimates." The Times further reported:

In a hastily called news conference, Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had concluded that oil is leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, not 1,000 as had been estimated. While emphasizing that the estimates are rough given that the leak is at 5,000 feet below the surface, Admiral Landry said the new estimate came from observations made in flights over the slick, studying the trajectory of the spill and other variables.

An April 30 Associated Press article reported, "For days, as an oil spill spread in the Gulf of Mexico, BP assured the government the plume was manageable, not catastrophic. Federal authorities were content to let the company handle the mess while keeping an eye on the operation." The article continued:

But then government scientists realized the leak was five times larger than they had been led to believe, and days of lulling statistics and reassuring words gave way Thursday to an all-hands-on-deck emergency response. Now questions are sure to be raised about a self-policing system that trusted a commercial operator to take care of its own mishap even as it grew into a menace imperiling Gulf Coast nature and livelihoods from Florida to Texas.

April 29: Napolitano declares spill "of national significance"; BP insists its "plan can handle this spill." On April 29, BP official Doug Suttles appeared on ABC's Good Morning America and stated, "At this point, I believe our plan can handle this spill, and that's what we're doing." That day, Napolitano declared the spill "of national significance," explaining that "we can now draw down assets from across the country, other coastal areas, by way of example; that we will have a centralized communications because the spill is now crossing different regions."

• EPA preparing for oil to hit shore. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson commented at an April 29 press briefing: "[A]s the oil does hit the shoreline, EPA will provide support to assess the impacts on the coastal shoreline and play a key role in implementing the cleanup. As a daughter of the Gulf Coast, I know that it is our job to ensure people that we will be eyes and ears working with the states who have valuable and vital resources to monitor air, water and land quality." Jackson also stated that the EPA has deployed air-monitoring aircraft "that is gathering information on the impact of the controlled burn on air quality, both in the area of the burn, and, of course, further away."

• AP: "Air Force sends planes to help with Gulf oil spill." An April 30 Associated Press article reported: "Two Air Force planes have been sent to Mississippi and were awaiting orders to start dumping chemicals on the oil spill threatening the coast, as the government worked Friday to determine how large a role the military should play in the cleanup."

• WSJ: Navy joins Obama's "robust response." An April 30 Wall Street Journal article reported that "The U.S. Navy said it will send more than 12 additional miles of inflatable oil booms to the Gulf, as well as seven towable skimming systems and 50 contractors with experience operating the equipment." The article continued: "The Navy is making two large facilities available to the Coast Guard personnel and BP-employed contractors who are currently taking the lead in fighting the spill. Military officials said the booms and skimmers were being sent to a Naval construction base in Gulfport, Miss. The Navy also opened its air base in Pensacola, Fla., to the effort.

Wasn't that the plan....

Nope his plan "WAS" to drill.
Now it goes away.

Excuse my sarcasm but When it come to placing blame on Obama
who cares about facts...........:rofl:

On his FNC program Hannity, Sean Hannity was doing his best to sell the oil spill in the Gulf as Obama’s Katrina, when he flat out lied to his audience and said,
“The fact is they sat back for nine days and did absolutely nothing.”

I'm talking about the US policy on oil drilling in general. The Left loves taking jabs at Sarah and though I think she was a TERRIBLE choice for a running mate I do agree with her on this point. We should eliminate our self reliance on foreign oil ASAP. Green yes, when the technology becomes cost effective but right now drill cap and pump.

What are the ersters down there like? Just down the road from me is Bodega Bay and oyster farms up down the coast. Problem is the Pacific Oyster is GIANT and chewy. Not really the shooters I prefer. They are good for BBQing but that's about it for these monsters.

Nice medium size with no off flavors. There are several good oyster bars around here. Try Acme in the Quarter, Drago's in Metairie, Chimes in Baton Rouge. Chargrilled with garlic butter and romano cheese is the way to go!

Try this recipe:

Drago’s Style Charbroiled Oysters Recipe
The Sauce:

1 Stick Unsalted Butter, very soft
1 Pinch Kosher Salt
1 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Minced Garlic
4 Tbsp Pecorino Romano
1 pinch Cayenne
1 pinch White Pepper
1 Spritz Lemon Juice
1 tsp Minced Italian Parsley
Whisk together all ingredients.
For the Oysters:
1 Dozen Large freshly shucked Oysters on the half shell (preferrably Louisiana) Watch my quicktime video on How to Shuck an Oyster
1 Recipe of the Sauce, above
Pecorino Romano to finish
Minced Italian Parsley for garnish
Fresh Bread
Lemon wedges
Mix together all of the ingredients.
Heat a charcoal or gas grill until very, very hot. Place the oysters on the hottest spot on the grill and let them cook in their own juices for a few minutes, just until they start to bubble and the edges curl. Top each with a generous portion of the sauce, enough to fill up the shell. When the sauce starts to bubble and sizzle sprinkle each oyster with about a Tbsp of Pecorino Romano. Let the Oysters go until the sauce on the edges of the shells gets nice and brown. Garnish with minced Parsley.
Serve while still sizzling with Lemon wedges and fresh bread.

So nearly one month later, is everyone still happy with the Gov't response to this disaster?

This article refers to "misdirected protective booms or skimmers that sat on trucks ashore". It sort of reminded me about the busses that sat idle during Katrina.

Louisiana demands federal action on dredge plan - CNN.com

Meanwhile the actor Kevin Costner has already put millions of his own dollars into a machine that separates the oil from seawater... Why is a single person doing more than BP and the Govt. combined?

Gulf oil spill: Kevin Costner donates 'Ocean Therapy' invention to clean oil from sea; BP OK's tests

Althouth a great concept, Costner's machine does nothing to stop the leak. What good is it at this point to separate oil from seawater if oil continues to flow at a rate of millions of gallons a day? I don't know of any expert that has come forward with a fail safe plan to stop the leak. I just hope that the "top kill" scheduled for Wednesday will work.

I like Jindal's plan to dredge up sand to build a barrier to protect the estuaries. But again, where are the solutions on how to stop the leak?

BP and the oil industry have the expertise and intellectual capital to stop the leak. Hell, the industry as a whole, not just BP, should have an interest of shutting down this leak as soon as possible. Has Exxon, Shell, Chevron/Texaco offered any solutions to stop the leak? It would be great PR if they did.

Man...we just don't deserve this planet.

How many months/years would it take to dredge enough sand to protect the entire gulf coast? Not a practical idea.

Agreed. By estimate, the project would cost $200 million and take four to six months to complete its first phase, adding 43 miles to extend the Chandeleur island chain off Louisiana's eastern coastline in both directions.

I hope this makes people rethink the whole offshore drilling thing. It doesn't seem like the small amount of oil we can get this way is worth the risk.

Costner's machine is only to help with the MASSIVE cleanup after the leak is stopped, but it's loads more than BP or the government would do.

BP really needs to step up their game on fixing their fuck up, and much proactively than they are now...

he's the man!

tatonka

actually he's got a bunch of them and the machines can clean more per minute than the well actually spills out. (97% clean the article said which is pretty good in my opinion. still need to do something about that other 3%)

Yeah, BP could employ Costner's biggest version of it right at the leak and clean 97% of it as it comes out, which would at least give BP time to figure out a way to actually SOLVE the problem.

fortunately the planet has enough of it's own resources
to repair itself? Sometimes with natural disasters.....:D

I've learned to watch my mouth with that! Last time I said aloud and in public that "This town needs an enema" (yes, a quote from a batman movie) guess what happened... KATRINA! That was the biggest enema New Orleans ever had in known history, and we're entering hurricane season any day now, I don't want to spraypaint the entire gulf coast with raw crude...

So Quick, for anecdotal reasons KNOCK ON WOOD!

I believe you can relax. I'm fairly positive that you like the rest of us
have no prophetic abilities....:rofl:

THE END IS NEAR! :blah: :rofl:

I am not clear that this issue should be overlaid only on offshore drilling. All oil production, and transportation, involves risks. Perhaps what needs rethinking is the focus on using petroleum as if it is free (because it almost is at today's prices), without regard for the total societal cost of oil. We are addicted to oil, and that is the real problem. We need to demand more fuel efficient vehicles, move to smaller vehicles, and drive less in single passenger vehicles.

I agree with you, but it just seems like it is harder to contain/repair if something goes wrong a mile beneath the surface of the water. I guess I am just saying drilling offshore isn't going to fix our oil dependency problems. Plus, these rigs do not produce very much of our oil and the risks in this case seem astronomical, so why bother? Let's forget about the small percentage of oil we can get offshore and focus on reducing dependency 5-10%. It would be a wash.

Maybe at the very least this fiasco will ensure proper safety protocol and equipment is all in place and maintained in the future... Just the known about issues that were intentionally overlooked by the execs would have stopped the major leak in the event of the failure/explosion. And the explosion itself could have been avoided had they not pushed on with known equipment problems simply because "it still worked before".

If anything it will give even more safety regulations/procedures for drilling, just like airport security was/is now. Kinda like slamming the barn door after the horses run out... too little too late.

BP Advertisement, updated by Second City:

:rofl:

I don't care what any of you say.
I know OBAMA is responsible for
this fiasco........:nanana:

:thumbup:Nice.

Don't we have something called "The Army Corps of Engineers" in this country?? Aren't these guys able to build bridges in like 1 day, for 20-ton tanks to cross deep rivers and streams? Why can't Obama call on them and their technical expertise to plug this hole?

This whole scenario of having BP try and plug the hole for over a month, is sort of like sending a rapist back to his victim to do vaginal swabs and semen analysis. Or sending a murderer back to a crime scene to clean up the shell casings and wash away the blood stains. It's pretty retarded if you ask me.

Because they are civil/general engineers and do not specialize in drilling/repairing oil wells.

If the administration takes over and makes the problem worse, then what?

If Bush was responsible for Katrina and its aftermath, well then yes you are correct. :thumbup:

Except that the MMS is still filled with Bushies. The people who were found to be receiving gifts from oil companies since 2005 and surfing porn all day.

Six weeks later...

Looks like this is going to go on until August at this point. Now the white sand beaches of the Florida panhandle are being threatened. What a mess.

Actually, BP said this current attempt to cut and cap the well looks very promising. Then again, BP said it.

Except that they just got their saw stuck. Wonder if they cut in a direction that puts the weight of the pipe on the saw blade?

Probably so... you don't think the ROV operators are that smart do you? I saw the live feed of it earlier and they were cutting in straight from the side vs the top....

Well, I hope they can figure it out, but I am afraid that the relief wells are what it is going to take.

BP's Windfall to the Rich:

Rick Outzen – Thu Jun 3, 2:05 am ET
NEW YORK – As Gulf fishermen suffer, a BP program to hire cleanup boats has resulted in windfalls for rich pleasure-craft owners, a Daily Beast investigation reveals. Rick Outzen on a growing outrage.

As the black tide of BP crude oil moves toward the Florida Panhandle, thousands of fishermen are trying to salvage a way of life. BP's lifeline: Vessels of Opportunity, a program designed to hire the fallow charter and commercial fishing boats to clean up the very mess that has caused untold numbers to lose their livelihood. But a Daily Beast investigation reveals that this much-touted program is far more effective as a PR stunt than a financial savior. Specifically, a large number of the 1,900 contracts BP has issued across the Gulf have gone to the owners of pleasure boats: doctors, lawyers, and the like, who use their vessels for Saturday fishing trips or family outings, rather than the decimated commercial fishermen.

“They have activated freaking ski boats, while my husband, who has been in the charter business for two decades, sits idle.”
"We have these weekend warriors taking away jobs from those who fish for a living," says Biloxi boat captain Tom Becker, an officer of the National Association of the Charterboat Operators, who estimates that as much as 90 percent of the BP contracts in his Mississippi harbor had gone to pleasure boats. "Every day I see the boat trailers fill the parking lot as the pleasure boats get their assignments for day while the commercial fleet sits idle. This is like stealing. These jokers are taking money away from those who are trying to feed their families."

Read the rest: BP's Windfall to the Rich - Yahoo! News

^ That is terrible.

Oil companies with the deepest Gulf wells. Only those in "blue" are subject to the moratorium.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/2010/...06/10/main.jpg

Another video...

LiveLeak.com - Heart Breaking Video From The Louisiana Coast

A freakin nightmare, long term, for the deep waters/food source(s) of the Gulf, imo.
Do a GOOG on hydrates, and the oxygen depletion induced by the bacteria that live
on that millions of pounds of nat gas that is flowing every week.

No tree hugger, and I suspect the "beaches" will recover pretty quickly,
but the ever diminishing marsh land/edge of land filters, and the deep water
impact, will not get better any time soon, imo.

I'm for home based hydrocarbons, but any company must reduce the risk and
increase the containment of the normal process, expecting sh(& to happen.

Later, or sooner, our Oceans will give it up...and then, some generation(s) in
the future, Our Home Joint is toast, for human beings.
GL, mD

Yeah, this thing is going to be so much worse than most people think. I think we need to rethink how deep we should drill and be more prepared in the future.