Showing posts with label gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gulf oil spill. Show all posts
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Externalities of Deep Ocean Drilling
It's not completely conclusive, but coral reefs seem to have died as a result of the oil spill. I'm not sure how you would price this, though, since it is not really known how much value living coral reefs are. This is why I think it would be difficult to price all the externalities of carbon emissions.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Misplaced Blame
The Gulf Oil Spill threatens the way of life of Gulf residents and marine life. Besides clean-up and capping the flow, investigating the cause of the spill in order to prevent future spills is an important task. A government panel is having hearings to investigate, and this past week they found that an alarm was "inhibited".
The Obama Administration has issued a drilling moratorium so that risks are minimized until investigations are completed that would either be able to confirm the safety of drilling operations or come up with new safety standards. The administration has also issued commercial fishing and shrimping bans. Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal has already lifted the recreational fishing ban and has been urging the federal government to lift the commercial fishing ban.
Some of the Gulf residents have been understanding of the bans, but many have become angry at the government for the bans and even for the spill itself. This is frustrating to me because as voters and taxpayers, people should take some responsibility of these problems rather simply directing their anger at the government. If they really wanted the government to determine the safety of the seafood faster, then they'd have to support giving more resources and funding to the FDA. Plus, at this stage, it may well be that the seafood is not safe, in which case there is not much the federal government can do.
Gulf residents insist that their livelihoods depend on oil and seafood and tourism, but if they knew they were so dependent on the well-being of the Gulf and the cleanliness of the beaches, then they should have paid more attention to the oil industry and the drilling operations. The local government and thus the local people need to be the first line of defense from local disasters. Instead, they want the economic benefits of the drilling while leaving the burden of regulating and cleaning up to the federal government. In fact, in order to attract businesses and economic benefits, local government tend to lobby the federal government to reduce regulations so that the cost of business is cheaper. Meanwhile, the tax revenues from people from other states pay for cleanup and what little regulation there is left.
People are upset that the regulators at the MMS "didn't do their jobs," but then they should have been more supportive of their jobs prior to the spill. Even now, many conservatives say there is too much government regulation. Everyone thinks someone else should take the blame and absorb the cost for the spill, but perhaps everyone has forgotten that this is a participatory democracy, and that you not only get the government that you deserve, but also the corporations and resulting disasters.
At hearings this week here, crew members have described repeated failures in the weeks before the disaster, including power losses, computer crashes and leaking emergency equipment...
Mr. Williams, who filed a lawsuit against Transocean in federal court in New Orleans on April 29, added several new details about the equipment on the rig, testifying that another Transocean official had turned a critical system for removing dangerous gas from the drilling shack to “bypass mode.”
When Mr. Williams questioned that decision, he said he was reprimanded...
Mr. Williams recalled that Mr. Hay added, “The entire fleet runs them in ‘bypass.’ ”
The Obama Administration has issued a drilling moratorium so that risks are minimized until investigations are completed that would either be able to confirm the safety of drilling operations or come up with new safety standards. The administration has also issued commercial fishing and shrimping bans. Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal has already lifted the recreational fishing ban and has been urging the federal government to lift the commercial fishing ban.
Some of the Gulf residents have been understanding of the bans, but many have become angry at the government for the bans and even for the spill itself. This is frustrating to me because as voters and taxpayers, people should take some responsibility of these problems rather simply directing their anger at the government. If they really wanted the government to determine the safety of the seafood faster, then they'd have to support giving more resources and funding to the FDA. Plus, at this stage, it may well be that the seafood is not safe, in which case there is not much the federal government can do.
Gulf residents insist that their livelihoods depend on oil and seafood and tourism, but if they knew they were so dependent on the well-being of the Gulf and the cleanliness of the beaches, then they should have paid more attention to the oil industry and the drilling operations. The local government and thus the local people need to be the first line of defense from local disasters. Instead, they want the economic benefits of the drilling while leaving the burden of regulating and cleaning up to the federal government. In fact, in order to attract businesses and economic benefits, local government tend to lobby the federal government to reduce regulations so that the cost of business is cheaper. Meanwhile, the tax revenues from people from other states pay for cleanup and what little regulation there is left.
People are upset that the regulators at the MMS "didn't do their jobs," but then they should have been more supportive of their jobs prior to the spill. Even now, many conservatives say there is too much government regulation. Everyone thinks someone else should take the blame and absorb the cost for the spill, but perhaps everyone has forgotten that this is a participatory democracy, and that you not only get the government that you deserve, but also the corporations and resulting disasters.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Monday, May 31, 2010
Oil Spill Update
The latest attempt by BP to stop the leaking called "top kill" officially failed over the weekend. Now they are going to try to contain the spill by cutting the riser, which is the broken pipe, which would temporarily increase the flow, and then fit a new pipe to the surface. Meanwhile, relief wells will be drilled, which could stop the spill by August. I'm skeptical of all these efforts, of course, since they're all being performed by the same people that caused the original spill, and all the information about these maneuvers are likewise controlled by those companies. Meanwhile, the government and independent scientists attempt to figure out what the facts are.
From the BP May 29 press release
BP also has recently come out in denying the existence of underwater plumes of oil/dispersant. BP clashes with scientists over deep sea oil pollution. Hopefully scientists can manage their public relations better this time and finally gain more credibility than BP.
Today I was just saying how it's hard to really feel empathetic with Louisianans over this spill when many of them still support the oil industry and ridiculed those who warned of inevitable environmental destruction. Ironically, right after I said that a Louisianan congresswoman came on the radio and talked about how she and her constituents are against the 6 month off-shore drilling moratorium imposed by Obama.
From the BP May 29 press release
Despite successfully pumping a total of over 30,000 barrels of heavy mud, in three attempts at rates of up to 80 barrels a minute, and deploying a wide range of different bridging materials, the operation did not overcome the flow from the well.
The Government, together with BP, have therefore decided to move to the next step in the subsea operations, the deployment of the Lower Marine Riser Package (LMRP) Cap Containment System.
BP also has recently come out in denying the existence of underwater plumes of oil/dispersant. BP clashes with scientists over deep sea oil pollution. Hopefully scientists can manage their public relations better this time and finally gain more credibility than BP.
Today I was just saying how it's hard to really feel empathetic with Louisianans over this spill when many of them still support the oil industry and ridiculed those who warned of inevitable environmental destruction. Ironically, right after I said that a Louisianan congresswoman came on the radio and talked about how she and her constituents are against the 6 month off-shore drilling moratorium imposed by Obama.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Letters to the Editor
Some interesting comments published in the NYT. Some of the people are in the oil industry.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Lynn Posts on Gulf Spill
Lynn wrote a blog post on the gulf oil spill at the Green Blog.
Gulf Oil Spills Onto Political Shores
Gulf Oil Spills Onto Political Shores
Yes, the House Republican Conference has assembled an “Energy Rapid Response Team” ready to convince you that more offshore drilling is necessary, for great fear of rising costs of importing oil and fueling at the pump.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Delay The Inevitable
NYT presentation about the The Gulf Before the Spill, pointing out that there is a lot of environmental degradation anyway that are happening slower than the oil spill so it is not as noticeable. Maybe the Gulf was screwed anyway or maybe the oil spill will cause it to be cleaner than it otherwise would be due to clean up efforts.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Expensive Spill
Spill is here to stay for a while.
Honestly, if people can move, I think they should move.
I think that the surprise that people are expressing about the spill shows how most people don't really understand the nature of engineering. In engineering, Murphy's Law is the law of the land, "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." The only question is how much money and time are you willing to put into designing a system to decrease the failure rate. Many consumer products like laptops and cellphones seem like miracles to people, and they are. However, a lot of resources go to quality control where the factories screen for the defective products so that consumers may have overly positive idea of what engineering is capable of. I think if people really understood that, they wouldn't be so cavalier about offshore drilling and other risky engineering projects where the chance of a mistake is low but can be devastating.
1969 Oil Spill off the coast of California shows that any for-profit company will try to spend the minimum amount on disaster-proofing their operations. It may not just be because they want extra profit but because it may be critical to keeping their businesses afloat.
Honestly, if people can move, I think they should move.
I think that the surprise that people are expressing about the spill shows how most people don't really understand the nature of engineering. In engineering, Murphy's Law is the law of the land, "anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." The only question is how much money and time are you willing to put into designing a system to decrease the failure rate. Many consumer products like laptops and cellphones seem like miracles to people, and they are. However, a lot of resources go to quality control where the factories screen for the defective products so that consumers may have overly positive idea of what engineering is capable of. I think if people really understood that, they wouldn't be so cavalier about offshore drilling and other risky engineering projects where the chance of a mistake is low but can be devastating.
1969 Oil Spill off the coast of California shows that any for-profit company will try to spend the minimum amount on disaster-proofing their operations. It may not just be because they want extra profit but because it may be critical to keeping their businesses afloat.
Union Oil's Platform A ruptured because of inadequate protective casing. The oil company had been given permission by the U.S. Geological Survey to cut corners and operate the platform with casings below federal and California standards. Investigators would later determine that more steel pipe sheating inside the drilling hole would have prevented the rupture.
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