oil slick..

[fragged8]

hiya

Has anyone got any more news on the oil slick ?

has it reached you in Florida yet Mike ?


Rich

[sofadoc]

Some oil has washed ashore in the Florida panhandle, as well as Alabama.
But one good hurricane is all we need to make it all look the same throughout the Gulf. How can BP possibly have enough money to pay for all of this?

[wind_rose_2]

Toronto,Canada has just hosted the G20 for the past 4 days and have spent a billion yes a BILLION Dollars for security for those few days.
BP has boasted having reimbursed buisness men and fishermen and others eeking a living from the Gulf waters a BILLION dollars....what a freakin joke...it will have profound impact and untold horrors for the next century if not longer!
Multiply that Billion by a million and it may be enough to support the people affected but what of the unknown loss of fish and animal life some of which is extremely fragile and had been prior to the oil spill(s).
Shed a tear for those thousands that will suffer.
Dave

[gene]

Nothing here in Ohio, but we've still got 3 more years on this current president.
Gene

[Mike8560]

No oildown here in southwest Florida rich.

[bobbin]

I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday about the number of businesses that operate largely under the the tax code radar... opting for cash and not ponying up tax money.  They can't document their earnings and therefore cannot get money from BP.  I agree with Wind. , we have only begun to see the horror this disaster will wreak on the gulf states, let alone the natural environment and the wildlife. 

Another interesting story was about the downgrade in BP's credit rating... and how so many companies are really trying to distance themselves from BP because they are now beginning to question their longterm viability and solvency.  I speculated early on that this could bankrupt them. 

[fragged8]

hiya

it's all a nasty situation but i hope one way or another it gets sorted out.

we do have experience of oil slicks like when the Sea Empress lost 70,000
gallons off Milford Haven.

And Exxon made a mess in Alaska with the Valdez,

But the point is, it is possible to clean up beaches and rescue the
wildlife. Nobody wants to see this happen but life does return to normal.
we all use the oil and accidents do happen no matter how hard you try to
prevent them. I think the important thing is to just get on with it and if BP
goes down the toilet doing it then someone will just jump into their shoes
and do exactly the same somewhere else.

I do hope the rescue package helps those that need it and not those who
are clever enough to fiddle the paperwork.

Rich

[sofadoc]

I remember a greater public outrage over the Exxon Valdez. Probably because we had a name and a face to villify. We all pictured a drunk captain with a bottle of rum in one hand, while wildly spinning the steering wheel with the other.
The face of BP is distinguished looking British guy, with a calming reassuring voice. Their commercial promises that everything will be allright.
They show scenes of happy people just waiting by the shores of the Gulf to clean it up. They never actually show any tainted beaches in the commercial.
Bobbin's story about the businesses that can't verify their income for proper re-imbursement is another angle of this mess that most of us hadn't thought of. I'm sorry for those people, but that IS a risk that you run when you aren't straight with Uncle Sam.
BP continues to promise that the leak will be plugged. But as days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months, I think their plan is simply to wait for it to run dry.

[bobbin]

This is the worst "spill" the world has yet seen.  I have very serious doubts that this will be "cleaned up" in my lifetime.  What you have seen in the North Sea is piddlng in comparison, which doesn't make it any less serious, nor does it minimize the impact in the short term.  The point with this disaster, however, is the sheer scope of it... we won't see the "end" of this one for decades.  And this is hurricane season... all it will take is one hurricane to disrupt collection efforts.  Not to mention what a storm surge will do to the affected shorline and marshes. 

Move on? it'll be a long damn time before anything moves "on".  We need to very seriously investigate what went "wrong" at BP, and how such a large Gov't. branch assigned to "oversee" such a large, lucrative, employer in the Gulf of Mexico was permitted such latitute. 

Moreover, we, as a nation need a thorough, comprehensive energy policy.  The last time one that addressed oil dependency was put forward was in the Carter administration.  (Good reading, btw).   Everyone laughed at him...

[byhammerandhand]

Yes, I heard this too.  It sure made me feel less sympathetic for them.  I spend at least an hour a day keeping my books with income and expenses, bills and receipts.  Once a month, I have a date with my accountant where we do the state sales tax, that has to be reported separately for each of the six or more counties I work in each month.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128169388

If you read some of the comments, I think I'm not alone.

I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday about the number of businesses that operate largely under the the tax code radar... opting for cash and not ponying up tax money.  They can't document their earnings and therefore cannot get money from BP. 

[Jim101]

We hear a lot about the oil gushing out of the Gulf of Mexico but there is another one happening on the other side of the world that we don't hear about so much.

The Timor Sea is between Australia and Indonesia and they've had an oil leak there for just about a year.

Take a look at these websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timor_Sea

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/timor-sea-oil-spill-forcing-ntt-fishermen-to-migrate/382331

Light, sweet crude coming to a beach near you thanks to the worlds oil industry.

Jim

[bobbin]

Thanks Jim!

It amazes me that the "inevitability" of such disasters manages to be so suppressed in world-wide coverage (at least the coverage that is still "free"). 

We definitely need to get a hold on our addiction to oil.  How ironic that a boy born and raised in oil wealth was the first President to coin it as an "addiction".  Lol. 

[Jim101]

"We need to end our dependence on foreign oil by 1980."

Richard Nixon

Well, that was a good idea.

Jim

[bobbin]

And Jimmy Carter has been a laughing stock and pariah for years now, too!

[hdflame]

"We need to end our dependence on foreign oil by 1980."

Richard Nixon

Well, that was a good idea.

Jim

You know, they talk about the millions of gallons of oil that is coming from this one well, and it is only one well.  I may get this wrong, but I think I heard that we had 36,000 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico alone.  Then we have all the wells in Texas and Oklahoma and I'm sure other states as well.....plus all of the oil that comes from the Alaskan Oil Pipeline.

There is absolutely no way that any of this oil should be allowed to be exported outside the US until all of our demands at home are met.  This hasn't JUST HAPPENED folks.  The deep pockets of the oil companies have been buying votes in Washington for years.  I believe our dependance on foreign oil has been a fabricated lie, just like the oil shortage of the early 70's was.

Isn't it amazing how when the price at the pump gets up to where the big oil companies want it, we then have ALL the gas/oil we need/want!???

We're ALL being screwed by the GREED of big oil.  Just look at how prices soared when Katrina hit the Gulf.  Supposedly because the refineries were down.  Why didn't prices go back to pre-Katrina after they got back up in production?

I was living in Charleston when Hurricane Hugo hit.  They arrested people for price gouging when they tried to make too much money because of a natural dissaster.  How have the oil companies acted differently, other than make billions in profits quarterly off the American public?

We're being taken advantage of and all we can do is smile and take it up the wazoo!

Excuse me while I go take my blood pressure medicine! ???