Which was the result of gross negligence which is easily addressed. In the meantime the country is going straight to financial hell.
Which is the result of deregulation and lax enforcement, which is easily addressed.
See how easy it is to fix the world when we work together?
We can screw it up fast and easy with teamwork too:
Bush administration reversed Clinton requirement to model deepwater spills
It’s more than that though.
Redundancy does not help if the redundant system is incapable of operating in its environment.
Perhaps these things kinda maybe sorta work down there but frankly no one really knows because none of it has been suitably tested at these depths (IIRC from the earlier cited article the shear rams have problems with the pipes themselves at that depth because the pipes are incredibly thick to withstand the pressure…cutting through the joints is unthinkable and as it happens they just leave it to luck to not cut a joint which is 10% of the pipe).
All the inspectors in the world will not solve that. It is an engineering problem that needs to be worked on. Till it is done deepwater drilling (note not all drilling) should be stopped.
The oil companies clearly have not invested in the safety side of things for this. If this colossal debacle is not enough to twist their arms into putting the work in on this then cross your fingers and pray because that will be all that is standing between us and another catastrophe.
No, the system did not work correctly and they proceeded anyway. The correct response would be to stop what they are doing and fix it. Not only did they continue but they cut out additional safety measures by removing mud and reducing the number of plugs installed.
It’s as if they were building a nuclear plant and ignored backup systems and then ran the system dry. It literally blew up in their face. This would not have happened with inspectors who ensured procedures and equipment were maintained.
This is correct for the events leading up to the explosion.
My take on it is about the systems that are supposed to seal the well after everyone fucks up. Those systems failed and if you read my link to the MMS study they actually fail rather regularly. They simply are not reliable at those depths but it is what the industry currently uses.
A boatload of inspectors might have prevented the problem from ever occurring but we know that despite all precautions shit happens. If or when it does you want procedures/tech in place to deal with it. The current procedures and tech are woefully inadequate as it stands today. That much is abundantly apparent as we head into 70(ish) days of non-stop disaster.
that’s why we have redundancy. They ignored it. I’ll use the Buffalo crash again as an example. The plane was trying to tell them it was stalling. Not only was it ignored but they did the exact opposite of what was necessary to keep it in the air. They sabotaged the plane out of ignorance just as BP did with the rig. What I propose is a “check pilot” in every rig so they can smack the stupid out of rig managers.
There may be room for additional redundancy and I’ve posted my thoughts on it but it’s not going to happen in 6 months. In the meantime we should be able to take stupid out of the equation.
The oil companies are just a reflection of the oligarchies that our system breeds. They are against free trade. They want to control the markets. But on an individual basis ,they want to cut costs to improve bottom lines so the execs can keep their jobs and get huge bonuses. They cut corners, use as few workers as they can, trim back as much safety as they dare and pay off regulators and the politicians. What do you expect to happen?
It used to be when a horrible accident happened, the pendulum would swing away from the perpetrators and sort of fix the problems. Those days are gone. The financial bill just resolved is proof. Too big to fail and the wall between banks and investment houses is intact. It allows the whole debacle to happen again.
MMS has been renamed. I don’t really believe that solves the problem. One MMS boss has been removed. OK ,problem solved.
I agree the best accident is one that never happens.
That said accidents do happen despite all precautions. The Space Shuttle is gone over with a fine tooth comb over and over again and we have lost some.
Extend your analogy to what happens after the Buffalo crash. Imagine there was no (or ineffective) fire response teams and a fire burns out of control for 70 days with no end in sight causing massive damage.
It is the response after the fact I am talking about. Things like the blind shear ram are there when the stupid gets out and is a last resort. The accident has already happened. It is there to mitigate the effects of the accident. It failed. The BOP failed.
We need better response measures for when the unthinkable happens because the unthinkable does have a way of happening (unfortunately) despite the best laid plans to stop it.
Before you start quoting Lennin verbatim you might consider that all the other drilling participants in this incident were against BP’s rig manager’s decisions. Your assessment of the industry as a whole reeks of political hyperbole. Events of this size are extremely rare and that is because it is bad business for them to occur.
From here.
If I was misinformed, I retract my objection.
Ditto.
I knew the info was outdated (from 2008) but the last I read up on it the more current info was not available (for what reason I have no idea).
If he’s clear of his financial interests in these firms then no conflict of interest.
Also glad to see they use a fancy program to automatically recuse judges. I thought they had to recuse themselves and we just had to hope they would be ethical about it. IIRC there was an issue in front of the SCOTUS awhile back where one justice seemed to have a conflict of interest and refused to recuse himself. Personally I thought it stunk that there is no mechanism in place for the other justices (or the Senate or someone) to be able to tell the judge to bow out of a particular case. Instead we just have to hope they will and if they don’t, in the court of final appeal no less, that’s that. Tough tooties.
I agree with basically everything you’ve said. I do think the system in place is reliable enough to continue using in the interim with lots of government oversight.
As for the future government changes, I’d be buying stuff like the Dutch skimmer system and charging it back to mineral rights holders. I’d also put out bids for oil booms designed to work in the ocean. The money to make all this happen is circulating around the Gulf. It would be nice to tap into it before it floats away.
My only quibble here is the potential damage.
They are playing Russian Roulette. Maybe the odds are pretty good but then the stakes are pretty freaking high too.
If I gave you a revolver with two chambers and one bullet and said I’d give you $100 every time you pointed it at your head with a random spin and pulled the trigger no way you would do it. One in a million you might. Where is the tipping point?
So too with the Gulf. The downside is massive. How good do the odds have to be for you to pull the trigger?
Govt. cannot do adequate oversight yet:
I don’t get this as a matter of funding.
Why doesn’t the government charge industry for the necessary oversight?
Simplistically say that for every 50 (random number) rigs/platforms there is one inspector. That guy/gal gets paid $50,000/year (random number) and the people running the rigs/platforms pay that salary on a percentage basis (100 platforms/rigs in the Gulf and you own 5 you pay 5% of that to the US government [5% of $100,000 since 1/50 rigs and 100 rigs means 2 people]).
Granted that is overly simplified but surely someone could come up with a fair division of payments for the industry to pay for its oversight. Have them send their checks to the US Government in general c/o Obama and be done.
In this way you ensure appropriate levels of people for oversight and it costs the government nothing. Since the government is not in business it should be revenue neutral for them (they can make money on the lease if they want). The more rigs/platforms that come online the more inspectors that are hired automatically. The industry pays for it, no need to ask Congress for anything.
Make sure the payments are well separated from the inspectors so they do not feel beholden to the oil industry. Personally I have never had success telling a cop they should let me go because I pay their salary as a tax payer.
Seems absurdly simple so why isn’t it done that way?
You don’t need one for each established well. You need 12 of them for another BP deep-water project.
My reading on the judge overturning the ban is that basically the Interior Department must have assumed no one was going to challenge them on the six month moratorium simply because of the scale of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and the public outcry against it. What you end up with is them issuing a moratorium without dotting their i’s and crossing their t’s, and since that is exactly the kind of thing a judge is required to consider (and they are explicitly required to not consider things like the massive public outcry and other things outside the realm of the law.)
I’ll also say it is a bit disingenuous that most people are focused on the ‘oil companies’ involved in operating the deep water rigs. The truth of the matter is the people who were hurt the most by that moratorium are regular, blue collar Americans. People that work a hard job for pretty good pay, and who probably can’t find employment that provides an income anywhere close to that elsewhere. Not to mention all the blue collar Americans who are working on the boats that are owned by the various companies that provide services to deepwater oil rigs.
It’s not unreasonable that people who have suddenly found themselves without their livelihoods might try to change that situation.
I expect people will bring up all the other gulf residents who have lost their employment because of the spill (people working in the fishing industry and etc), and that’s an important part of the effects of the oil spill but it has nothing to do with why people who lost their jobs working on the rigs might you know, want to go back to work. In the real world these people have bills to pay and families to feed just like the out of work shrimpers.
The only difference being, when the shrimpers fuck up, the oil workers don’t lose their jobs.
In related news: Judge In Moratorium Case Sold Exxon Stock On The Day Of The Ruling
Looks like he sold it before he made the ruling, so it’s kosher. But just barely. Looks like he really, really, wanted to make that ruling though.