Because they are one of the best at it in the business, because they use state of the art technology, because they do it around the world with rare problems. You say they had a horrible safety record, where do you get your information or proof? If this had been Exxon/Mobil or Conoco/Phillips or Panamex or whoever, I becha their safety record is pretty comperable. Drilling in the ocean a mile deep is a high risk/high reward game. Yes, there should be strict rules and regulations in place and that is why I stated in my post that you agreed do, that it was purely "human error/mistake and human caused" meaning some human bypassed standard regulations and tried to shortcut something or maybe even just plain screwed up. BP didn't want this.

By the way, I didn't know BP stood for "Broken Pipes!"

Well, leave it to our good ole Okie politicians to poke their nose into the fray. This article (http://www.greenchange.org/article.php?id=5899) is in a progressive environmental publication and is fairly vitriolic. Prepared to be offended if you don't agree with what they have to say.

We could trade all the Oklahoma republican congressmen for Nancy Pelosi and we would be at least 100% ahead. But 100% of nothing is still nothing.

Well, scoff if you must, but Cole's staff may be on to something. After all, it can't be the work of the Devil, for two reasons.

Oil is money and money is good and besides, if this was the work of the devil, the stuff might stay lit when they set fire to it.
8^)

This has been a rant of mine on many occaisions.

The government of the people, for the people is essentially the puppet of big oil, big tobacco, big insurance and it seems that nobody will stop them for fear that they be ousted from the list of beneficiaries.

While I admire the notion of smaller government, in a hypothetical, unicorn kinda way, I just can't seem to reconcile it with the fact that those who truly propose it are those to whom regulation would do the most harm.

If industry is not regulated, and the sway of the vote not given proper elevation above the sway of the dollar, who will reap the benefit? Why is it that a portion of this country feel it their obligation to deny government interference in what can only be described as political sodomy by these huge industrial interested parties?

I hear it time and again from people, good regular people that: "I should have the right to make as much as I want and the government should stay out of it..." Again, in theory this is fine, but when your making as much as you want begins to influence what should be democratic, public domain, you need to be regulated.

is there not some sort of capturing process that you could vacuum the area under water, picking up sea water and oil of course and containing it on ships, at least to stop it from spreading....

This has been a rant of mine on many occaisions.

The government of the people, for the people is essentially the puppet of big oil, big tobacco, big insurance and it seems that nobody will stop them for fear that they be ousted from the list of beneficiaries.

Uh-oh, here we go. Just as predictable as the inevitable use of the race card in some matters, here is the highly predictable playing of the anti-capitalist card. Yes, we've now seen your statement "big this", "big that", "big profit." Everyone has villified BP for what happened in the Gulf when, in fact, we don't know what happened in the Gulf.

Rep. Cole made the statement that it could have simply been an "act of God" for which the left immediately hooked into making him look like some sort of religious nut when, in fact, he was trying to say we simply don't know what happened yet.

The author of the "Green Change" article says "The Valdez spill was an act of Exxon. Bhopal was an act of Union Carbide. But the BP spill is an act of God." What people forget is that Exxon, Union Carbide and BP are companies - non-human entities that are made up of thousands of human beings. All human beings are falable and my money is on the liklihood that some low level management-type made a terribly bad decision either out of ignorance or, more likely, out of a desire to stay within budget or time limits and it literally blew up in his face. The president of BP didn't want this to happen and he has made some PR errors. The investors of BP, who are people just like you and me, certainly didn't want this to happen. What BP has to do is to step up and pay out the costs.


While I admire the notion of smaller government, in a hypothetical, unicorn kinda way, I just can't seem to reconcile it with the fact that those who truly propose it are those to whom regulation would do the most harm.

For those of us who are not in the O & G business, its impossible for us to know what the rules and regulations are. I have heard several theories that proper procedures may not have been followed. I have heard that it could have been somethign as simple as a technician not watching the dials and not seeing a gas bubble come up through the pipe before the blowout. Whatever the reasons, its very possible that governmental regulations were more than adequate, its just that the people who managed the operation of the well didn't follow guidelines. Government needs to be sure it doesn't act before it knows the likely cause of the blowout or its going to shoot itself in the foot (see my previous post on bankruptcy).


If industry is not regulated, and the sway of the vote not given proper elevation above the sway of the dollar, who will reap the benefit? Why is it that a portion of this country feel it their obligation to deny government interference in what can only be described as political sodomy by these huge industrial interested parties?

As I said, O & G and offshore drilling is highly regulated. The question is did the humans on the platform follow the regulations or are more needed?


Green Change: Democrats have been only slightly less devout. They're giving no serious consideration to the demand from some on the left, including Robert Reich, to put BP into temporary receivership.

This is purely a call to socialism, specifically nationalization of a foreign asset. If Mr. Reich called for such a "temporary receivership", he is calling for seizure of private assets. Again, the investors in BP are certainly the rich, but they are also everyday people like you and I through our investment savings and our retirement plans. Not to mention the employees of BP who own company stock - Mr. Reich apparently advocates that the US Government simply seize private assets from private individuals.


I hear it time and again from people, good regular people that: "I should have the right to make as much as I want and the government should stay out of it..." Again, in theory this is fine, but when your making as much as you want begins to influence what should be democratic, public domain, you need to be regulated.

And it IS regulated. The question is, are the regulations in the right places? Or are the regulations in place and the government didn't do their job in enforcing the regulations. Or were the regulations simply not followed because everyday humans made decisions not to? WE DON"T KNOW YET.

People need to remember that BP isn't some huge Godzilla-like creature smashing everyone and everything to bits. BP is a company run by people and a company that employs close to 100,000 people. These are people all the way from pipefitters and roughnecks to engineers and accountants to the President of BP (who needs some lessons on Public Relations). BP is PEOPLE, not some piece of drywall.

is there not some sort of capturing process that you could vacuum the area under water, picking up sea water and oil of course and containing it on ships, at least to stop it from spreading....

I have wondered the same about some kind of large tanker ship with a "vacuum" type of attachment and on-board filtration system. It could suck up the gunk, filter it, and then put the filtered water (not perfectly clean, but obviously much, much better) back into the water.

Problem is, this "spill" got out of hand so quickly, one has to wonder if anything would really be effective given the massive area of the dispersed oil.

@FritterGirl

Kevin Costner

BP Oil Spill: Kevin Costner's Oil Extractor Machine For Gulf Clean Up - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kevin-costner-machine-bp-oil-clean/story?id=10689928)

who would have thought kevin costner......ha

On a bright note: I guess this BP situation pretty much calms any previous fears about British Petro possibly trying to "buy out" Chesapeake Energy.

On a bright note: I guess this BP situation pretty much calms any previous fears about British Petro possibly trying to "buy out" Chesapeake Energy.

Maybe it will be the other way around, now. If BP's share price goes much lower, look for someone to do it. (LOL)

@FritterGirl

Kevin Costner

BP Oil Spill: Kevin Costner's Oil Extractor Machine For Gulf Clean Up - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/kevin-costner-machine-bp-oil-clean/story?id=10689928)

WOW! Thanks for that link. Hopeful bp will take them up on the offer.

WOW! Thanks for that link. Hopeful bp will take them up on the offer.

I read an article earlier that stated that BP officials had committed to paying for 6 of the largest Centerfuges to be deployed to the gulf as a test of the system.

I can't now for the life of me remeber where the artlicle is...if I can find it I will post the link to it.

Kevin Costner's Anti-oil Machines To Be Deployed - WWL - AM870 | FM105.3 | News | Talk | Sports (http://www.wwl.com/Kevin-Costner-s-anti-oil-machines-to-be-deployed/7441867)

Thanks mugz! It is a different article but shows the same info, although I am encouraged that they have ordered so many more. If it works as well as they are projecting this could be a great first response strategy to avoid the spread of devastation in the future. Lets all hope this works!

I guess the thing must work or they wouldn't have ordered that many.

is there not some sort of capturing process that you could vacuum the
area under water, picking up sea water and oil of course and containing it
on ships, at least to stop it from spreading...
Yes
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Last night there were two guests on Sean Hannity's show who had
developed two ways of cleaning oil spills. I can't find a video clip. One of
the guests is from Pittsburgh University.

Invisible-hand-of the-free-market-man! - This Modern World - Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/entertainment/comics/this_modern_world/2010/06/15/this_modern_world/index.html?source=newsletter)

Yes
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Last night there were two guests on Sean Hannity's show who had
developed two ways of cleaning oil spills. I can't find a video clip. One of
the guests is from Pittsburgh University.

Looks like the makin's of some good corn squeezin's!