Monday, August 2, 2010

B.O. Might Be More Damaging Than BP

There appears to be no consensus on the amount of oil that is washing up on beaches and marshes on the Gulf Coast. Some believe that much of the oil has dispersed and others believe that it has not. Of course with the good possibility that a great deal has indeed dispersed, the radical environmental groups now are grasping at straws by insinuating that the dispersant is indeed worse than the actual oil spill itself. If the oil is indeed dispersing, then that blows a good deal of the radical left's arguments out of the water. You see, they desperately need and want this oil spill to be an environmental disaster of unprecedented magnitude. It is very akin to the very strange phenomena of the ultra left needing, and some fruitloops indeed hoping, for some sort of attack on our sacred soil by some right wing Neo Nazi types. They want these things and need these things to validate themselves as relevant. Sad, sad people are many of them. One only needs to read the virulent and self loathing writings of some on the ultra left to gain some insight into their thought process. There is no way really to understand such hatred of self and country. I may call out some of these folks and their writings at some point in the near future, but that is not really the issue I want to discuss here. I will point out  however that some folks believe themselves to be Liberal but in reality they are not. I know some Liberals and read some Liberal writings, written by very decent folk, and there is a huge difference between Liberalism and those that call themselves "Progressive" I do not believe even the term "Progressive" describes some of the thought that is out there. Some of it is astonishing. My apologies from rambling- back to the issue at hand.
As noted, the worst (hopefully) is behind us with the BP oil spill. The oil spill does not appear to have caused the environmental disaster that many thought that it would. At least not at this point. There are those in disagreement however, Billy Nungesser, the President of Plaquemines Parish, says there is still oil out there that is washing up on coastal Louisiana's shores and indeed is visible from the air in the marshes, bays and inlets. There certainly is no reason to doubt this man who has been selfless and gutsy in his demand for more action by the U.S. Government and of course BP. He said today on the Michael Berry show that BP is actually standing down on some of their efforts to clean up the marshes etc.. If correct, then this is criminal. Not surprising however - it is well known among those who work in the oil and petrochemical industry that BP is a rogue player and safety is not their main concern. Well known! Now with that being said, just how bad is this oil spill in reality? It goes without saying that there has been some adverse environmental impact and there likely will continue to be problems, but has most of the oil that gushed out of the pipe dispersed and if so how? These are questions that do not seem to be answerable at this point. The waters are apparently clear enough to open up more areas to the commercial fishing industry. Would you eat the sea life that is taken from these waters? That is a question that each seafood lover must answer on their own I suppose. Hopefully the catch is indeed safe to eat and I suspect it to be so, but I certainly am not sure. Not sure I trust the opinions of various "scientists" on this issue. Those in the scientific community are so often wrong. It is a conundrum by cracky.
Today Michael Berry,  Houston (and soon national I'll wager) talk show host was broadcasting from the very popular  Drago's restaurant in the NOLA area. He interviewed Nungesser and a gentleman by the name of Smith of the commercial fishing interests. Nungesser reiterated that the waters are still fouled along the coast and Smith was cautiously optimistic that the commercial fishing industry would soon begin to get back on track. Very interesting discourse to say the least. In addition the main gist of the show was the damage that the so called moratorium is having and will have on the economy of the entire region. That is a fact and no mistake. The oil and petrochemical industries are one of the major players in the region and damaging it with an arbitrary moratorium will not only damage, but destroy many communities in the region and beyond. The fact that the ban on drilling has been overruled by the court system does not seem to have any effect on the federal government's push to enforce this moratorium. I personally know people who have been affected and sure more people I am acquainted with will soon be out of work. Michael Berry said that at some point the offshore drilling industry should just do as they please anyway as the Obama administration is proving to be irrelevant. Berry can tend to get out of hand at times, but I'm not sure I totally disagree. An action such as disregarding the federal government is a slippery slope indeed and careful thought should be taken on the matter. It is similar to the call for those in Arizona to ignore the legal rulings and proceed as planned. Another action that I am not sure I totally disagree with.
All in all it was one of the most interesting talk shows I have ever had the pleasure to listen to. This country is in a hell of a mess and the U.S. Government is a huge part of the problem. Incidentally one of the most sane things that I have heard in a while came from Billy Nungesser. He said that each rig should have a "Rig Marshall" aboard that had the final say in shutting down a rig no matter what the drilling company or the oil company wanted. The "Marshall's say would not be disputable in the least and the drilling and oil companies would have no recourse. That makes a great deal of sense to me and would alleviate the tendency to place profit and drilling schedule above safety and environmental impact. A good idea indeed.

7 comments:

Phil said...

Over two hundred million gallons of oil and fifty million gallons of a known highly toxic dispersant don't just disappear in two weeks.

Bartender Cabbie said...

Not saying you are wrong, but just where the hell did it all go? No one seems to know, at least according to the news reports.

Jayhawk said...

Having all that oil disappear is certainly making Keith Olbermann work harder in his crusade. And it is a blow to the people decrying the "huge profits" of the oil industry, which turn out to be a whopping 6% of sales volume and a mediocre 8% return on investment.

Bartender Cabbie said...

Yes, many people do not realize that the profit margins are rather slim. I actually thought that it was less than that but admittedly have not researched the margins.

Anonymous said...

The oil is still there. It is 10 15 feet below the surface. Never trust the media or the govt

Bartender Cabbie said...

Anonymous,
I don't trust the media or govt. Do you have any proof to back up your statement about oil being 10 to 15 feet below the surface? If so please enlighten me.

The Right One said...

When the leak or spill, if you prefer, first occurred, Rush Limbaugh said that it would not be as bad as initially predicted, because Mother Nature would take care of the largest portion of the mess. His reasoning was since it is light crude, much of the oil would simple evaporate. Of course, he was right again. Does anyone have any documentation as to how much has been skimmed and burned off, versus how much has been found on the beaches and marshes versus how much actually escaped the blown out well?
The bigger damage has been done by the U.S government’s lack of prompt action in the beginning: failure to fight the fire on the Deep Well Horizon rig with foam, which is the proper protocol, instead of salt water, turning down offers of help from numerous other countries, failure to approve requests to build sand berms, impeding skimmers by holding up approval of boats because of insufficient life jackets, fire extinguishers, where they were built and the drilling moratorium, which is causing untold financial and psychological damage to the residents, workers and businesses along the Gulf.
Let’s be honest, this administration is inept, corrupt and has an agenda of doing everything in their power to sabotage this once GREAT COUNTRY.
My concern is that if the Dummycrats insist on having a lame duck session of Congress after the Republicans take back the Congress, there could very well be an uprising on the part of the public if the dummycrats insist on passing Ammesty and Cap and Crap.