In Memoriam: Gulf of Mexico…

20 Comments on “In Memoriam: Gulf of Mexico…”

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmhxpQEGPo

   Rachel Maddow says it all, again.

2. Unfreakinbelievable… Boys and girls the word of the day today is inept.

   Inept
   –adjective
   1.
   without skill or aptitude for a particular task or assignment; maladroit: He is inept at mechanical tasks. She is inept at dealing with people.
   2.
   generally awkward or clumsy; haplessly incompetent.
   3.
   inappropriate; unsuitable; out of place.
   4.
   absurd or foolish: an inept remark.

   My favorite is “happlessly incompetent”.

3. From a friend in Mississippi:

   “It’s not your ordinary oil spill … I do believe it’s a gusher / geyser / spewer … kind of like Old Faithful, and it IS CATASTROPHIC! In fact, catastrophic is a delicate word in relationship to the disaster. I look for the Gulf to become the Dead Sea. It will kill all marine life; destroy the wetlands with the bird, mammals, gators, etc. habitats, killing them in the process; it will seep into and contaminate the soil inland; it has destroyed the livelihood of the fishermen; ruined the seafood industry; and the chemicals they are using are making the residents sick. That’s just the beginning. IF they can’t stop it, it is my understanding it could gush forever …

   I blame the Federal Government for its failure to regulate and oversee … for allowing a company like BP with THE WORST safety record to operate in our waters posing such a threat. WE WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM THIS. I’m afraid the End Time is definitely near. I just don’t know how much faster man can destroy the Earth.”

4. If there is any sanity left in America the BP spill will be the event that ends free market-laisse fair-plutocratic-neofascist-earth spoiling corporate capitalism….

   Obama=inadequate for the task at hand…

5. Who would we blame if this was a caused by an underwater earthquake? What would the government do to stop it? Send the national guard?

   Perhaps it is good time to remember how much at the mercy of nature we are and how powerless we are to change the what it is directed to do.

6. vachatterus @5

   Had BP been forced to comply with even the most standard of prophylactic measures this disaster could have been averted; earthquake or not.

   We could play ‘if’ about all kinds of hypotheticals regarding this ecological holocaust…but the only ‘if’ that really matters is ‘IF’ BP had complied with common industry safety measures this disaster would have been much less destructive or averted totally.

7. If it had been a natural disaster, there would have had to be an attempt to mitigate the destruction as well. This was NOT a natural disaster, it was entirely man-made. The short cuts on safety and lack of plans for “what if” are unforgivable.

   But non e of that matters as much as figuring out some way to STOP IT!

   I mean, how about lowering trawler sized net bags full of rock and marl until there is a mountain of it on top of it. Do we have to be so delicate?

8. They wanted this to happen on Obama’s watch. Now that we know there’s no ‘there’ there, the knives & pitchforks will be sharpened. Good luck to us all. Peace with my brothers and sisters, the animals, the fish, the foul, the land, the water, the tides. Pray, for the tide to turn in the mind of humankind.

9. whoops-meant fowl, not foul! foul=BPHalliburton!

10. Obama should get the most brilliant minds from academia, engineering, the oil industry, environmental fields, etc. Get the top 50 from the best university’s staffs… Commandeer them actually. “Guess what folks, you guys are GS-15’s now. Get in that room over there, let me know if you want some pizza or burgers, and figure out how to stop this leak.” That’s how America rolled back in the day. I could respect that, a lot. At least try something instead of hand wringing quotes like “It’s in BP’s hands”. Put BP on the axis of evil and tell them to go home

11. Thanks Brad for all you do/have done. It is/was a brilliant move by BP to use dispersants. They have made 50%+ of the oil stay underwater and become INVISIBLE! The invisible, dispersed oil will wreak the most death. Kind of like a massive radiation leak traveling the current. Out of sight, out of court. Again, those responsible will not lose their home or livelihood. A tsunami of real estate default awaits the Gulf and East Coast.

12. Did anyone see this comment on prisonplanet – there is a non-toxic dispersant that the government won’t use because the toxic one is made by Exxon!!!

    JohnnyDiamond1971 Reply:
    May 30th, 2010 at 12:40 pm

    Hi Tony. I own Sea Brat. I need to defend my self a little if you are interested. The Sea Brat #4 issue is misinformation to protect Corexit from compettition. Sea Brat is much safer than Corexit. Appendix B of 49CFR 172.101 List of Marine Pollutants and 49 CFR 171.8 require the chemical to be present at a concentration of 10% or more by weight. Sea Brat has 1.91% NPE which would break down into approximatley 0.72%. This is then diluted with 9 parts water before application. But wait there’s more!

    Sea Brat is also a bioremediation product. It has 5 to 10% percent liquid oil eating microbes and enzymes which are totally harmless. These bugs will actually eat the fraction of NP within the chemical mix as they begin to produce enzymes to get the carbon out of the hydrocarbon crude oil… Sea Brat will even eat the Corexit because that is just more hydrocarbon poison. The LC50 (lethal concentration required to kill 50% test subjects) for Sea Brat (with microbes) actually goes higher within a few days to verify this. The current information on EPA website for Sea Brat does not show test results with bugs! But still Sea Brat is way safer than any of the Corexit products.
    The small amount of chemical NPE in Sea Brat can be removed. The formula was made about 10 years ago when it was of less concern. Having microbes secretly within made this a non concern. Our intention was always as above… products that really got rid of pollution.

    BP knows this. BP has been buying and using similer bioremediation products for many years but never really large scale. They knew Sea Brat worked and was a better choice. They called us. But after they ordered 100,000 gallons plus… a conflicting inside opposition appeared to hold up the deal. They wouldn’t pick up the containers. They said they didn’t know where to deliver them. They had not paid. They required more testing and proprietary formula to determine safety and this was to be sent to Exxon reseachers! Exxon invented Corexit and still supplies the raw materials for this product!
    It was all nonsense.

    The deal is really simple. The oil industry makes Corexit just like kerosene, anti freeze, paint thinner, lighter fluid, etc. This is the solvant they use to hide thier oil spills. When one of the oil companies pays to use Corexit on a spill the other makes money selling it.

    They do not want a much safer product that actually works to be used in such in a high profile event. Especially one with microbes that accelerate the bioremediation process. 1st this will probablly get Corexit banned or knocked off the list for reformulation. The tried to steal everyone else’s formula’s in case of that one. 2nd A product like Sea Brat will mean they may have to actually start cleaning up pollution. Take Valdez… never cleaned up. 3rd they have some explaining to do. They have known about and been using bioremediation products for decades on a small scale. But never allowed newer and better environmental products to threaten the monopoly.

    The issue of Sea Brat #4 having 0.72% NP in the original formula came up later. We were under confidentiality clause in the purchase agreement not to tell until that point.
    BP was being pressured by EPA to get a less toxic dispersant. BP announced they were using Sea Brat and going to phase it in. However, they claimed we could not manufacture enough product to replace Corexit. The media swarmed us and discovered the 100,000 gallons on hold. Now it was public that we actually could make enough product and that BP had stalled and hidden this for over a month, lied to congress and EPA!

    EPA gave them a few days to change. Specifically they made my exact toxicity figures as posted on the original EPA data for Sea Brat. I was the only product on the EPA list with those specific requirments. So BP comes up with a story about how they discovered a small amount of NP (less than 1% before dilution and microbes will eat it) in my product and out of concern for the environment… would rather pour paint thinner into the oil spill.

    Meantime they told us they were sticking the Sea Brat into permanent storage. So
    EPA is conducting several new tests at various locations to prevent corruption of results by BP. These results have microbes in them and should verify Sea Brat is safer.
    By the way does not mean I think pouring unlimited amounts of anything is safe!
    But to set the record straight.

13. Steve @10

    Do what ?

    Seriously…what you derisively term “wringing our hands” is actually doing something…given the fact that is the extent of our options. There is nothing else left to do but voice of outrage at BP and the government agency they bought off.

    Also given the fact that you sir took the time and energy to chide us for “wringing our hands”; I ask you just what your noble effort did to alleviate the situation ?

    Your framing of this assumes that there is something we can actually do besides vent here…do you think us going down to Louisiana to commandeer the clean up and cap the well ?

    Steve most social/environmental action is initiated by us “hand wringers” and belly achers…hell it’s the American way…when something is unjust, askew or downright unbearable…we speak out.

    I suggest that you at least write BP, the MMA and the Whitehouse a letter offering your expertise in this matter…and let us know what they say.

    Thank you

14. Not all the anger, hate and virulence that we can spew forth will change what happened and will continue to occur. Each of us have contributed to creating a world that is vile. However, it seems we only get angry and upset when something affects our pleasures or something we think we love. It occurs to me that we have other valid alternatives available to us to prevent this from happening again. Stopping all off-shore drilling, weaning ourselves from oil, developing technology to cope when this happens again, cleaning up government, cleaning up ourselves are some of the constructive things that can be done. Praying deeply from our inner hearts is another.

15. Please visit http://www.theoildrum.com for the best non political, non religious, scientific information on oil wells and solutions to the Gulf of Mexico gusher. Kind of like a Bradblog for oil. Only when company and oversight people face arrest and court for their behavior will the system change.

16. Bluehawk @ 13

    Excellent points, you changed my mind sir. Nothing can be done so there’s no use in trying anything.

    At any rate, BP should have the relief well drilling completed by August so there’s only a couple more months worth of oil to deal with. Sorry about you folks who are losing everything, sorry wildlife and plant life, we’re doing all we can here by “WRINGING OUR HANDS IN ANGST”.

    Yep bluehawk, this is an excellent plan. Thanks for setting me straight.

17. Steve @16

    Or we could be like you; smarmy wannabe-satirists…

    Us sharing info and our grief about the death of the Gulf of Mexico at the hands of anarchist capitalist-corporate greed…some call it community…others call it ‘hand wringing in angst’.

    Let me know how BP and the whitehouse receive the generous offer of your expertise …maybe you’ll get a Freedom award or something…

    Keep us in the loop…

18. bluehawk @ 17 Yeah, really. Or we could be like you. Sarcastic defeatists who know that wringing of the hands is all that can be done. So just give up….

19. Steve…I ask again….just what useful purpose does your trollish behavior serve ?

    You obviously don’t share the views or opinions of the posters here, yet you don’t offer any ideas or info of your own, no worthy discussion; just hot button words like “hand wringing” and “angst”.

    One would think you’re simply a bored to dullness individual trolling the internet for any human contact…

20. Here’s an idea: Now that corporations are “citizens” perhaps this is the time to discuss if the “death penalty” is an appropriate punishment.

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