Will they fix that oil spill thingie or do they just wait....

[Asher]

Hilarious. Did you say the same about Bush when he actually gave a ****? No you savaged him along with all the other democrats for not acting quickly enough. Nice to see the double standard in play.

Quote me, *****. Stop lying.

For the record, Katrina was not a thinking-man's-problem. It was a resource/manpower problem. And it was grossly mismanaged, as we all know.

[Dinner]

The Feds should be/have been more responsive to local authorities in trying to protect the coastline.

Specifically how? I would have liked to see oil booming done properly but apparently there just isn't enough oil booms in the country to contain this and they've literally bought all the spare oil booms in both Europe and Middle East so how else do you stop the oil? I suppose Congress could have passed a new law waving the environmental impact report for constructing barrier islands around the marshes but realistically it would take years to construct that many artificial islands so I don't see that as realistic even if it happened and, besides, it's not exactly with in Obama's power to force Congress to pass a law.

Laws should be put in place requiring oil companies to have all the needed oil booms needed for a worst case scenario BEFORE drilling starts but again that's not possible in the current situation. Heck, they should even be required to have a premade top hat doom sitting in a warehouse before drilling starts but again that's a future law change (if at all) and has nothing to do with the response to the current BP spill. I'm curious what more you think could be done at the present time.

[Dinner]

MANPOWER is sitting on its ass waiting for permtis from the EPA.

As I said, yes, this is true but Congress didn't give the President the power to wave the law in this matter so unless you're saying the President should break the law what is to be done? Secondly, I honestly don't think there is any chance someone could construct 500 miles of artificial islands off shore in just a few days or weeks so this whole discussion is academic and really wouldn't have changed facts on the ground. Even if construction started the second the rig exploded and the entire Army Corp of Engineers was put on the job there is no possible way to construct 500 miles of artificial islands before the oil reached shore. Just no way.

The only real way to stop the leak is to drill a relief well just like people were doing in the 1930's and 40's and I don't think the government could do a better job of drilling one then BP so now the government's job is to document all the damage, tally the costs, and then make sure BP is forced to pay for the whole thing.

[Dinner]

The video starts slowly but picks up around the 2 minute mark.

If you put an oil boom up parallel to the shore then it will fail. Proper booming means making multiple V shaped structures which funnel the oil to the bottom of the V where you have crews capturing and removing the oil. Unfortunately this spill is so large there simply is not enough oil booms to do the job correctly even after buying up just about the entire world's stock of oil booms so BP hasn't really bothered to do proper booming because it knows it doesn't have enough booms to do the job. Future regulations should require companies to maintain large stockpiles of oil booms on shore near were the drilling is occurring just in case as this will prevent such spot shortages in the future.

[Dinner]

An alternative thing the government possibly could have done was require the oil companies to spray oil coagulants instead of oil disbursents. Coagulants would have got the oil into large blobs which would have been easier to skim and collect but BP didn't want to do that because large clots of oil can easily be filmed and BP doesn't want it filmed so they spray disbursents thinking that if the oil is out of sight (in the water column) instead of floating on the surface then it is out of the public's mind.

[Wezil]

Is their motive something BP has commented on or is that just your presumption?

[Dinner]

It is were the evidence leads me. Hearing the hacks repeating "if the leak is so bad where is the oil?" over and over makes this obvious. If you spray disbursents on oil then it will sink into the water column where it will stay for some time but if you look on the surface then it is appears to not be there so there is nothing to film or photograph. The problem is 1) these disbursents are themselves so toxic most countries have banned them (they'll likely kill as much sea life as the oil itself) and 2) having a river off oil in the water column will likely kill more fish and sea life then if it was just floating on the surface.

[Wezil]

So it is a presumption then.

[MrFun]

While this economic and environmental crisis continues, more is revealed about the corruption of the agency that was suppose to keep tabs on oil wells.

[Wezil]

Oerdin -

I can think of a few alternative theories:

1) You are wrong. I accept you know more about this than I but I can't exclude the possibility that you are incorrect and the correct procedure/approach was tried.

2) Someone made a stupid decision. Stupidity has a knack for rising to positions of authority. Historical examples abound.

3) The right equip/chemicals weren't available in sufficient quantities. Again, a technical question.

I don't just jump automatically to "the evil corporations are screwing us all in the interests of PR".

[Ben Kenobi]

For the record, Katrina was not a thinking-man's-problem. It was a resource/manpower problem. And it was grossly mismanaged, as we all know.

Right. Wake me up when you say anything negative about Obama, ever. He's done nothing. A pylon would have shown just as much ability as he has in this crisis.

[Asher]

Ben, this is not a thread for partisan hackery. Some of us care about the specifics of every situation. I've no allegiance, I don't vote in US elections and I don't live there.

You're such a ****ing crybaby. "WAH WAH! I've never seen Asher be critical of Obama!! WAH WAH!"

Get ****ed. I stay the **** out of 99% of US politics threads for that reason. I'm posting in this one only because I saw inconsistencies from the Republicans too easy not to pick on.

I think Oerdin is being equally as douchey with his anti-BP ****.

[Asher]

And for the record, I'm not sure WTF anyone thinks a geologist has an area of expertise in oil coagulation on the surface of water. Wezil is just as qualified as Oerdin here.

[Wezil]

Not to diminish your argument but no, really I'm not.

Unlike economics (which I equally suck at) I find science to be incredibly interesting, I just don't get it most of the time.

I do find it odd that sufficient equipment/preparations to deal which such a reality weren't required before this well was even begun. That seems very strange on the face of it.

[Asher]

I'm 100% sure Oerdin has never studied oil management techniques.

He's just regurgitating something I'm sure he's read on one of his blogs. It's what he usually does anyway.