23 June 2010

at least someone has a plan of action

[click image]

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And once again, maybe it behooves us to THINK about some of the stuff he's screaming.
Oil gushing at spill site after vent damaged
Cap removed after sub hits vent; 2 cleanup workers die in separate events
BREAKING NEWS
NBC News and news services
updated 9:53 a.m. PT, Wed., June 23, 2010

NEW ORLEANS - Oil was again gushing from the BP spill site on Wednesday after the company was forced to remove the containment cap when a robotic submarine hit a vent. The news came as officials also reported two deaths of people who had been hired for the response effort.

BP hoped to reinstall the cap later Wednesday after fixing the vent and checking for safety.

When the robot bumped the system, gas rose through the vent that carries warm water down to prevent ice-like crystals from forming in the cap, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

The cap was removed and crews were checking to see if crystals had formed before putting it back on. Allen did not say how long that might take.

"There's more coming up than there had been, but it's not a totally unconstrained discharge," Allen said.

In the meantime, a different system was still burning oil on the surface.

Before the problem with the containment cap, it had collected about 700,000 gallons of oil in the previous 24 hours. Another 438,000 gallons was burned.

The current worst-case estimate of what's spewing into the Gulf is about 2.5 million gallons a day. Anywhere from 67 million to 127 million gallons have spilled since the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig that killed 11 workers and blew out a well 5,000 feet underwater. BP PLC was leasing the rig from owner Transocean Ltd.


Gunshot death reported

The deaths reported Wednesday were not tied to the containment operation. The Coast Guard said the workers had been involved in cleanup operations but that their deaths did not appear to be work related.

One death was a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound, a Coast Guard spokesman said. Further details were not immediately available.

Earlier Wednesday, BP said that Bob Dudley was appointed to head the new Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, which is in charge of cleaning up the oil spill.

BP said that the appointment was effective immediately.

Dudley, who had been in charge of BP's operations in the Americas and Asia, will report to Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward.

"We were always going to set up the organization," he said on NBC's TODAY show. "But we have across the Gulf Coast people that are there temporarily, rotating in and out. We are going to bed this down now — we're in there for the long haul and we're going to make sure we're sustained and efficient in working with the Coast Guard to shut off the well and through the spill response and clean up."

He also was asked if BP would start deepwater drilling again in the Gulf after a judge lifted a White House moratorium.
He replied that BP will "step back" from the issue while the April 20 rig explosion is investigated. "That process is going to take awhile," he added.

BP is the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf.


[Note harrowing LACK of information about deaths under this heading.]

New drilling ban order

On Tuesday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he will issue a new order imposing a moratorium on deepwater drilling after a federal judge struck down the existing one.

Salazar said in a statement that the new order will contain additional information making clear why the six-month drilling pause was necessary in the wake of the Gulf oil spill. The judge in New Orleans who struck down the moratorium earlier in the day complained there wasn't enough justification for it.

Salazar pointed to indications of inadequate industry safety precautions on deepwater wells. "Based on this ever-growing evidence, I will issue a new order in the coming days that eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."

The White House, which had hoped the ban would provide time to ensure other wells are operating safely, immediately said it would appeal.

The judge's ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by drilling companies to reverse the ban imposed by the Department of Interior, which halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf.

The federal judge in Louisiana granted the drillers' request for a preliminary restraining order that would prevent the ban from taking effect until a trial is held. He did not set a trial date.

District Judge Martin Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning and that the moratorium seems to assume that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deepwater drilling pose an imminent danger.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs countered that "continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense and ... potentially puts the safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment in the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now."


[Except, of course, they/we DO know what happened.]

[Oh, oh! All in a good cause, you say? Well, do think again. Lies in good causes tend to turn around and bite big chunks off yer ass sooner or later... and lately the karma is dizzyingly swift. So, yes, THINK AGAIN.]

Salazar said in his late Tuesday statement imposing a moratorium "was and is the right decision."

[Indeed, indeed, but it isn't exactly a moratorium at all, and certainly NOT for the reasons stated, and these should be amended YESTERDAY.]

"We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar said. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico."

Does judge own oil stock?

Feldman's financial disclosure report for 2008, the most recent available, shows holdings in at least eight petroleum companies or companies that invest in them, including Transocean Ltd., which owned the Deepwater Horizon. The report shows that most of his holdings were valued at less than $15,000, though it did not provide specific amounts.

It's not clear whether Feldman still has all of the energy industry stock listed in the report. Recent court filings indicate he may no longer have Transocean shares. He did not own any shares in big companies such as BP PLC, which was leasing the rig that exploded, or ExxonMobil.

Feldman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about his current holdings.

Josh Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group, said his ruling should be rescinded if he still has investments in companies that could benefit from Tuesday's ruling.

"If Judge Feldman has any investments in oil and gas operators in the Gulf, it represents a flagrant conflict of interest," he said. "It is possible that he has sold off those assets. We just don't know."


The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.
Good morning, everyone.

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10 comments:

  1. Off topic...

    the God particle...I've been following the Higgs boson thing, I'm getting some kind of clarity about it...but physics is a tough grasp sometimes...

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10385675.stm

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  2. Heh, I wonder if they will be able to hear anything while being sucked into the black hole they're trying to produce.... :o)

    I'm pretty sure all of mainstream physics has gone off down the garden path, that dead ends or just comes back to the start, that doesn't now do much more than dream up fantastic stuff to keep getting itself funded. I think they need to go back and start with the engineerable scalar physics in the old attempts at the unified field. They either skipped completely a universe of vital science or turned it black and are keeping it from almost everyone. It could even be that the bulk of quantum physics has been a waste of time, or will only end up peripheral to what they IGNORED in favor of slipping on this banana peel.

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  3. That's actually a big part of why I try to keep up with the space lizard researchers. They're the only ones talking about it, and some of them damn intelligently... but they keep making me wait for the next bits of news and information from the SERIOUS guys. Pretty frustrating. The excuse is that there's a means to literally blow up the planet in the REAL physics... but... well... humans REALLY need to get on the GROWN UP and RESPONSIBLE plane for a fucking change. We NEED that stuff.

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  4. 99...Do you think physics is kept unreachable for the masses for a reason ?...the obscure language and abstract imagery and all...when physics can be communicated in plain english and accessible imagery.

    You may be on to something...and yes the space lizard guys are educating better than almost anyone else out there.

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  5. Well, I'm pretty sure they keep it as abstruse-sounding as possible so as to comfort themselves in a sort of cheated aura of ultra-intellectualism... just like lawyers do with legalese and doctors do with medical mumbo-jumbo. The excuse is always that they need their own terms specific to their purposes, and there is SOME merit to that, but, really, the BIGGEST driver is SIMPLY to elevate their fields artificially. I don't think the bulk of the mainstream physicists even ALLOW themselves to think of the stuff they've skipped over to get where they are [aka NOWHERE]... though some of them surely see the error but are too afraid for their tenure or funding to make a peep.

    It really is, unfortunately, a pretty safe bet that there is a whole black arm of physics that knows all about this stuff and uses it where no one can see. I wouldn't make so bold as to say that except that I've heard too many people who are prone to the truth, and KNOW, that the scalar physics WORK... and, of course, we must NOT forget TESLA, even as they try to make us forget him.

    So, actually, I think the poor schlubs are FORCED to salve their wounded egos with jargon, making EVERYTHING as difficult and involved and costly as possible, all in their efforts to keep deluding themselves they aren't just front men to keep the masses off the scent of reality.

    They insist that scalar physics includes everything, while not exactly pinning down the exact action on particles... but it seems that the quantum guys aren't going to be able to get there from here... would HAVE to go back to the scalar and start over.

    That's my best guess.

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  6. Once busted for artificially making the incomplete harder to see into, their next excuse would be that the complete is too dangerous. This can't do. If it IS too dangerous that means we must grow, NOT that reality must be kept from us.

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  7. So Physics is kind of backwards marketed...not to be consumed by the ig-nant masses, kept mysterious and oblique in a "don't worry your pretty little heads with that stuff"? way...

    And conversely it's pimped out by academia for research funds...but of course not research that would actually be revolutionary for human existence...just enough for the plutocrats to exploit and sell to the useless eaters (us)...

    Makes sense to me...

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  8. Yuh. You have about right.

    I tried for a while to hang with the quantum mechanics buffs and mathematicians, but had to bolt my brain in place to accomplish it... only to realize these guys are talking about BUBKES! Just using highfalutin terms and maths to do it! Most of them are so impressed with themselves, so thrilled with their ability to blather this stuff according to its rules, that they don't EVEN realize they aren't talking about anything! Yessir. I shit you not. There are the few, though, who USE this for cover and for cognitive dissonance against the masses... beside, of course, the massive profits off selling us what we shouldn't have to pay for and charging too much for everything else.

    I guess it's good as a sort of trip to the gym for the brain, but that's about all....

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  9. Yep

    Have a good one 99...talk to you later...

    Peace and Love

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