NEW ORLEANS — Coast Guard officials said Monday afternoon that the oil spill near Louisiana was now covering an area in the Gulf of Mexico of 48 miles by 39 miles at its widest points, and they have been unable to engage a mechanism that could shut off the well thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.
The flow of oil from the leaks is about 42,000 gallons of oil a day.
Good Reason Why We Shouldn’t Be Drilling Off Our Shores: The Oil Spill Off The Louisiana Coast
37 Comments to “Good Reason Why We Shouldn’t Be Drilling Off Our Shores: The Oil Spill Off The Louisiana Coast”
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Living near the ocean myself, it seems to me that those who are in favor of off-shore drilling are being incredibly shortsighted. Oil is not going to last forever, and the environmental damage caused by off-shore drilling, like what we’ve just seen in Louisiana, is simply not worth the small gains we make. We should be putting the majority of our resources into renewable energy sources…nothing else will solve this problem.
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[nevermind the name change…I got tired of being so sleepy]
Another thing to keep in mind is that the majority of all marine life exists in the shallow waters off the coasts of the planet’s continents. What is the cost, then, of extracting oil in these waters? At what point do we say, “Enough”? Aside from the fact that it is very short-sighted to keep drilling for oil in these places and not devote more time and energy to renewable energy sources, the cost to the ecosystems that exist in these waters will be catastrophic. We have a moral duty to protect our planet, not destroy it because of our addiction to oil.
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Green technologies as they are now do not work economically . I am not against developing them . I am against deploying them . There is no such thing as free money . I know that is heresy to you Democrats . From Ethanol, to Solar Farms, to Wind Farms, it is all a colossal waste of money . The money has to be stolen from somewhere else . And in a country like ours that our heroic President has run in to debt, we cannot afford it .
As far as this big spill, I won’t minimize it . But looking at the “big” picture, drilling is safer than importing the same oil in tankers . You innocents believe that shutting down domestic production will decrease our oil usage, it won’t . You believe that shutting down domestic production makes our coast lines safer, it does not . You believe that siphoning off capital to be thrown down the “green energy ” Black Hole will improve our lives and the environment, it won’t .
It’s kind of funny . This economic recession has had many wonderful benefits for you liberals. Number one, it is the reason Obama and the Democrats were able to take control. Number two, decreased energy use, way less green house gasses . I feel it getting cooler already . Number three, more people dependent on Government handouts . Number four, more poor people makes it easier to bash Wall Street and play class envy .
I can see why you guys like green energy . It helps keep the recession going . Why would you want it to end ? It’s been bery bery good to you .
Oh and if you want to see our future with the new entitlements and debt that the man you folks put in the White House, has enacted, take a look at the big Greece fire over in Europe that is spreading to Italy, Portugal, and Spain . Remember Spain and it’s solar fiasco ? Bet they wish they had all of that money now, instead of sending it down the “green rat hole” .
At some point people “economics” matter .
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Ms. Holland,
” I have never ever ever heard anyone anywhere anytime say that shutting down domestic production will decrease oil usage. Ever. ”
That is an amazing statement . Be honest and ask yourself what the planned result is of strangling Domestic offshore drilling . And actually in a sick way you guys do decrease oil use . A country permanently in a depression does not use as much oil . You guys have proven that . You will be happy to know that by keeping millions of Americans unemployed and the rest of us drastically underemployed you are saving millions of barrels of oil .
It must give you a warm feeling killing all of those beautiful baby seals . Oh didn’t you know polar bears eat cute baby seals for breakfast ? But then seals eat fish, so the fishermen are happy .
Oh, and I know you will love this cause I know how you liberals hate all oil companies . Valero the big refinery company that was making big bucks a few years ago is now losing money in the US . Not really good for America but, good for Obama .
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Ms. Holland,
” Honestly, you seem to only recognize a parody of liberal positions. I guess that’s easier than doing a little due diligence and finding out what liberals are really about. Greenpeace and Tim Robbins are not the mainstream liberal voice. ”
What difference does any of that make ? I look at the big picture . You all look and sound alike where it counts . All of you voted Obama in . All of you are against what ever I am for . All of you bought into the Demonization of George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, Tea Party People, and the citizens of Arizona .
What else do I got to know ?
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I was reading a little about the blast that caused the oil spill . I admit I don’t understand much of what I read . Before the event they poured concrete into the well to keep oil and gas out . This supposedly was inspected by Haliburton and it passed . I’m still not clear on what and why they did all of this .
Also you’d think they would have some fail safe measure in place to handle a worst case .
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Mr. Hoffman,
There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal. BP has a history of subcontracting and problems . They had leaks in their Alaskan pipeline . Some people were killed at one of their refineries a few years ago . In 05 their Thunderhorse Platform tilted 20 degrees .
After the Exxon Valdiz spill, now Exxon actually is considered the Gold Standard for safety .
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Ms. Holland,
Leaving out the fact that this event was a Godsend to environmentalists and that we really do not know who is to blame other than BP and it’s partner Transocean, imagine if this had taken place while Bush was still President . Not only would he have been blamed for being an advocate of offshore drilling but, as he was blamed after Katrina, he would be blamed for the inadequate response by the Federal Government .
The first response by the Obama Administration was not good . Granted, they relied on bad information from BP . The Bush Administration also got bad local information during Katrina .
I am not just taking news from Obama hating FoxNews . I offer the following .
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/us/01gulf.html?hpw
” The Department of Homeland Security waited until Thursday to declare that the incident was “a spill of national significance,” and then set up a second command center in Mobile. The actions came only after the estimate of the size of the spill was increased fivefold to 5,000 barrels a day.
The delay meant that the Homeland Security Department waited until late this week to formally request a more robust response from the Department of Defense, with Ms. Napolitano acknowledging even as late as Thursday afternoon that she did not know if the Defense Department even had equipment that might be helpful. ”
Since we are playing the blame game , I just threw all of this in . I mean we don’t know if Haliburton did anything wrong . They may have, or their tests may have met the standards for the concrete that some other engineering firm set . Those standards may not have been correct for this depth .
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Ms. Holland,
” AND the fact that this well seems to fall into the category of “too big to fail”. ”
Your logic does not make sense . Too big to fail, as in Fannie, Freddie, AIG, Chrysler and GM . The well did fail . Now if Obama bails out BP or Transocean, which I do not foresee only because an oil company is not as much fun to run as a bank or car company, then your “too big to fail” comment will make some sense .