Brian: This is what you’re famous for: Completely ignoring the actual facts and coming back with an argument that is meaningless.
briansd1 likes to take extreme points and try to create flame wars.
From here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575214593564769072.html
The process is supposed to prevent oil and natural gas from escaping by filling gaps between the outside of the well pipe and the inside of the hole bored into the ocean floor. Cement, pumped down the well from the drilling rig, is also used to plug wells after they have been abandoned or when drilling has finished but production hasn’t begun.
In the case of the Deepwater Horizon, workers had finished pumping cement to fill the space between the pipe and the sides of the hole and had begun temporarily plugging the well with cement; it isn’t known whether they had completed the plugging process before the blast.
As a marine biologist in a previous life, and current avid sportsman, I might be a bit biased in stating that this is a national emergency. The 10’s of thousands of folks that are affected, and will be affected, is grave cause for concern.
I agree. I think a simple solution would be to make an example of BP. They have spent way to much time futzing around and pointing fingers and not enough coming up with real solutions. They are also responsible for a spill on the Alaskan tundra where they decided not to do the maintenance clean on the insides of the pipes (by pushing a cleaning ‘pig’ through the pipe). This allowed a buildup of bacteria that eats at the inner wall of the pipe.
The easiest solution would be that BP must stop the leak by fixing the pipe or capping the well in 5 days (they have had several weeks so far), or all of their oil fields and drill holes within the US territorial waters become property of the US gov.
