Did British Petroleum choose perceived profits over safety? Did they cut corners to save pennies and sacrifice dollars, lives and livelihoods. Have they as some indicate committed ecocide? Even BP now calls the Gulf spill an ‘environmental catastrophe’.
Not only has BP made cost savings decisions that will cost the company and taxpayers billions they also have not made the necessary investment in technology to deal with disasters. Consider the report from Rachel Maddow below then read this 1997 report discussing the inevitable failure of a blow out preventer at great depths and notes that developing a foolproof blowout preventer is not possible but technological investment in such technology is paramount to mitigate possible blowouts and damage from the inevitable ultra deep blowout.
…Underground blowout risk is substantial in ultra deepwater wells. Low kick tolerance and minimal differential between pore pressure and fracture extension pressure heighten this risk…The greatest drilling risk would involve a kick up the drill pipe. This risk is easily mitigated by use of an effective drillstring float valve. The major problem is the current generation of float valves have limited useful life in the typical ultra-deepwater environment of high mud weights and high circulation rates.
Then we have some hopeful news of a microbial solution to the Gulf oil spill used in the ’90s and championed by Texas Land Commissioner, Garry Mauro. But action has to be swift for this method to work.
BP CEO, Tony Hayward says he would like his life back. So too would the shrimpers, the fishermen, the gulls and the turtles, the dolphins, the whales and the people of the gulf coast. They deserve their life back, you sir, do not.
