Yesterday we learned that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was five times worse than first thought. The oil is spilling at a rate of 210,000 gallons of oil per day. That oil is now hitting the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
Unlike what we were told, offshore drilling is not so technologically advanced that they can prevent oil spills. The failsafe mechansims meant to prevent the disaster did not work and drilling companies did not have experience with spills in the deep part of the ocean. The robots could not turn off the valves. The capture domes do not exist yet (BP is working on one, which may be available in 2 weeks). People are trying everything they can think of to contain the spill:
While BP prepared to drill a relief well and finished up the design and fabrication of a pollution dome system to capture the oil flow at it source, the company also began investigating lowering coiled tubing to douse the three oil leaks with chemical dispersants.
The leaks are in the rig’s mangled riser, a pipe that once connected the well on the ocean floor to surface equipment. Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said engineers believe the chemical might dissolve the oil and keep it from rising to the surface.
More than 100,000 gallons of the chemicals have been applied to the surface slick since the accident to help break up the spill. And on Wednesday, the Coast Guard conducted controlled burns to consume some of the oil on the Gulf’s surface.
The federal government has now declared the spill a “spill of national significance,” which means the navy and other federal resources will become available to help combat the environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf.
There is also a human cost. The explosion of the drilling rig killed 11 people. Just yesterday we learned that 2 coal miners were killed in a coal mine collapse in Kentucky, of course from a mine with numerous safety violations. These deaths are in addition to the 29 miners killed in West Virginia earlier in the month. That makes the recent energy death toll 42 people, just in one month.
The spill has perhaps halted plans (at least temporarily) to expand offshore drilling. Even the dirty hippies that read the Wall Street Journal now believe offshore drilling shouldn’t be expanded, by a 2:1 ratio.
I no longer care if conservatives believe in the science of global warming anymore. Switching to a clean energy economy is in the nation’s best interest. It will create jobs, since it will take research and investment to learn how to harness solar, wind and geothermal energy. Becoming our own producer of energy will also mean that we’re no longer dependent on unstable countries and regions to provide us with energy. Yes, it will take money to switch our economy but our current system is not free.