Latest on Top Kill Cliffhanger: Cross Your Fingers
If you look at the video a couple of posts below this one you can see there's still a lot of stuff blowing up, but the BP engineers seem optimistic. Here's what the New York Times had to say a few minutes ago (Thursday night).
Okay, so they're not giving up. They stopped and decided to do it differently, and now they're trying again to choke it off with mud so they can seal it permamently. I hate to see the destruction of the Gulf, the wildlife, the livelihoods of the people, I really hope they can get this thing under control. You feel so helpless just watching.
That link, by the way, looks like a good source of up-to-date information on the oil spill. They keep refreshing the information there.
BP halted its ambitious effort to plug its stricken oil well Wednesday night when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid they were injecting into the well was escaping along with the leaking crude oil. A technician at the BP command center said that pumping of the fluid had to be stopped temporarily while engineers were revising their plans. The company resumed the pumping Thursday evening. The Latest on the Oil Spill
Okay, so they're not giving up. They stopped and decided to do it differently, and now they're trying again to choke it off with mud so they can seal it permamently. I hate to see the destruction of the Gulf, the wildlife, the livelihoods of the people, I really hope they can get this thing under control. You feel so helpless just watching.
That link, by the way, looks like a good source of up-to-date information on the oil spill. They keep refreshing the information there.
posted by JimK at 10:12 PM
7 Comments:
What a disaster!
The Federal government response has been horrific.
When a factory catches fire, it's OK to fault the company but you still call the fire department to put out the blaze before it spreads throughout the neighborhood.
Jindal asked the Federal government weeks ago to start building sand bars to protect the Louisiana marshes before the oil arrived.
Too late now.
Why are we not mobilizing every available ship to skim as much oil out of the water as possible?
We could sell it to help pay for the costs.
Who's running this country?
Is anyone?
We need the name of the responsible party.
Admiral Thad Allen, with 40 years experience in the Coast Guard, has been leading the federal response to the oil spill since April. In his four decades of service, Allen has held operational command both at sea and ashore, conducting missions to support the maritime safety, security and environmental stewardship interests of the nation.
You might recall Allen received national attention in 2005 when Bush recalled then-Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael D. Brown to Washington and put the then-vice admiral in charge of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. At the time, Bush administration officials described Allen as "an action-oriented guy."
NOLA.com reports:
Jindal said the state believes the barriers, also commonly called berms, will be one of the most effective ways of fighting the oil. He said the oil is much easier to fight at the barrier island level, before it gets pushed into the state's fragile coastal marshes.
As pitched by Jindal and several others, notably Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, the plan would cost around $350 million, which the state wanted the Coast Guard to require BP to cover.
But federal officials have been cool to the idea.
"There are a lot of doubts whether this is a valid oil spill response technique, given the length of construction and so forth," said Admiral Thad Allen in making the announcement at Port Fourchon. "But we're not averse to attempting this as a prototype."
Nice that he's "not adverse" but the request was made weeks ago and was only partially approved yesterday. It could be blocking substantial amounts of the oil from reaching the marshlands already. Once the oil seeps into marshlands, it becomes extremely difficult to clean up. Pumping sand doesn't take long and is done regularly on the Atlantic coast so the equipment is readily available.
The cost for the 100-mile barrier requested by Jindal is considerably less than 350 million.
The buck shouldn't stop with Allen. Obama apparently hates Southerners.
The cost for the 100-mile barrier requested by Jindal is considerably less than 350 million.
NOLA.com reports:
"...while Jindal and the state's congressional delegation have waged an us-vs.-them battle with the federal government over what they term a slow, bureaucratic response, the state's plan itself is a work in progress that raises considerable financial and ecological questions.
In the two weeks since the idea was introduced, it has already been radically reshaped. Originally, the sand for the islands would have come from the nearby sea bottom. In its current form, the plan will require the sand to be taken from as far as 50 to 100 miles from the construction site, adding $100 million to the original $250 million projected cost...
The NYTImes reports:
"...The 80-mile barrier would require vast amounts of sand, which is in short supply along the Louisiana coast. According to an article in The Times-Picayune of New Orleans on Saturday, the state’s plan has shifted gears several times on exactly where sand would be dredged for the barriers. These are not trivial changes, as dredging sand far offshore could add as much as $100 million to the cost of the plan..."
Obama has failed to take care of this situation, or even do anything but point fingers.
Thanks, Barry, but that's the job of the press.
We need you to get back to Washington and find a solution.
The "endless summer" presidency is getting old.
"We need you [Obama] to get back to Washington and find a solution"
Wow! Look who's touting a tax-payer funded federal government fix for a private industry problem!
You just admitted the American free enterprise system is unable to handle this deep sea oil spill itself. This "accident" was caused by an oil industry giant taking every time-saving and money-saving cut imaginable in order to maximize their unparalleled profits without an apparent care in the world about the cost of the destruction of our nation's wetlands.
Tell us what you think about GOP Senators Murkowski and Inhofe insisting that BP be limited to paying only $75 million of the clean up costs versus raising that cap to $10 billon, Anonymous. Do you think all oil companies -- regardless of size -- should be allowed to risk fouling our coastline but only be responsible for $75 million clean up costs?
Safety drilling is still the key here. The Katch Kan is doing a safety drilling take this oil and gas report to have an idea what is the company all about.
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