Congressional review on the oil leak (that is still happening) began today.<\/p>\n
The oil leak was called a “cascade of failures”.\u00a0 That may be true, but there was basic science at work here involving temperature of the ocean water, gas expands when released at that temperature to a warmer temperature, and at what force, a mile below the ocean’s surface — basic science that should have been studied by BP and the owners of the oil rig.\u00a0 What happened should not have been the big surprise they are claiming it was.\u00a0 The only way to prevent this from happening again is to stop offshore oil drilling. Onshore oil drilling should also end, but offshore drilling is a no-brainer. One good point recently made by a writer, Dan Froomkin, is that this is what fossil fuels do to the planet every single day. If this oil hadn’t spilled into the ocean, it would have been processed, moved, sold and burned, pumping tons of CO2 into our skies, instead of into the Gulf of Mexico. Anyway you look at this oil, where ever it ended up it would have done, and is doing, enormous damage to our world and the people who live in it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the oil continues to spill.\u00a0 For more information, here is the official government\u00a0 website of the US government’s response to this catastrophe. \u00a0 My main question: Why hasn’t the U.S. government pulled out all the stops to do everything possible to stop this leak?\u00a0 The latest action seems to have been to call for more ideas and to approve of BP’s plans for the smaller cap.\u00a0 Yes it’s BP’s, and Transocean’s\u00a0 and Halliburton’s fault and they will pay for it, but they don’t seem to really know how best to plug the leak.\u00a0 They had no real plan and no backup plan for this type of disaster.\u00a0 (What does that indicate about the other Big Oil companies and their drilling operations?) \u00a0 If President Obama doesn’t want this to be his “Katrina” he better stop whatever it is he’s doing and stop this leak, which should be his main priority at this point.<\/p>\n
This is paraphrased from Legal Planet: – The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held hearings today on economic and environmental impacts of the oil spill . \u00a0 Witnesses included representatives of the three companies, and representatives of fishing, tourism, and state interests. An environmental law perspective will be provided by Meg Caldwell of Stanford\u2019s Law School and Center for Ocean Solutions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
These hearings are only the first of what will be several Congressional hearings on the Deepwater Horizon disaster. They opened today in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this morning. \u00a0 Witnesses included Elmer Danenberger, described on the Committee\u2019s web site as \u201cFormer Chief, Offshore Regulatory Program, Minerals Management Service.\u201d Based on MMS\u2019s web site, Mr. Danenberger was in charge of the agency\u2019s [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Congressional review on the oil leak (that is still happening) began today. The oil leak was called a “cascade of failures”.\u00a0 That may be true, but there was basic science at work here involving temperature of the ocean water, gas … Continue reading