The environment thread

[Balta1701]

Based on continuing analysis of the video feeds, the government has increased its official estimate of the leak rate from the oil well, prior to BP's line cutting exercise from last week, to somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels per day. The most recent estimate was 12,000 to 19,000 bpd.

 

Assuming a constant leak rate since day 1 of the spill, that gets you somewhere between 3 and 6 exxon valdez spills currently in the Gulf, up to a week ago when BP cut the pipe to try to install their top hat.

 

Also, if BP's estimate for a 20% increase in leak rate upon cutting the pipe was accurate, and the higher of those numbers is also accurate, that would mean an 8000 barrel per day increase in the leak rate upon cutting the pipe. The newly installed hat has been collecting somewhere in the range of 10,000 barrels per day. Secretary Salazar the other day estimated it had been a 5% increase, but no one knows where that number came from.

 

Finally, it's worth noting that higher estimates than this number still do exist. This number could be increased again in time.

[kapkomet]

Of course kap. The capitalist, that has ruined hundreds of capitalist ventures could never be wrong, it must be the president. Hail BP, the most christian and noble of all organizations, they were just trying to make a dollar, and therefore, are closest to jesus. Hail hail hail!!!

 

 

Show me where I've supported BP and said they weren't wrong. But, that's okay... keep protecting the guy who has to go to professors and other acedemia to figure out who's ass to kick.

[kapkomet]

Some semi-good news. The Senate resolution expressing disapproval over the EPA using its powers to regulate CO2 emissions failed today, with 47 votes in favor, including a handful of Democrats.

 

If nothing else, that means there's not currently a Senate majority in favor of blocking the EPA from doing so. That could change come November. But it also means there's certainly not a filibuster-proof majority in favor of blocking the EPA, so it's entirely possible, with the collapse of any sort of climate bill, that the administration will start pushing this route. Technically, by court ruling they're required to do so by current law.

 

 

It's always a good thing when you can whore out making laws to your courts and executive branches. Yup. Whores.

[Balta1701]

It's always a good thing when you can whore out making laws to your courts and executive branches. Yup. Whores.

If the Congress has been completely broken to the point that it can't pass necessary legislation (i.e. if, for example, there was a huge financial meltdown and a couple years later Congress still hadn't done anything to correct the problems), then we're actually better off with the courts and executive branches doing the work, because someone has to do it.

[bmags]

Show me where I've supported BP and said they weren't wrong. But, that's okay... keep protecting the guy who has to go to professors and other acedemia to figure out who's ass to kick.

 

Show me to where that would've ever come up? All you've done for 3 weeks is attack any criticism directed towards BP and tried to fling it elsewhere. This is a company that has poisoned lake michigan, and now ruined the gulf and will cost those states sooooo much money in tourism and fishing money. But they are great. BEcause they made a lot of money, they must be right.

[Balta1701]

Alabama getting swamped today. Haley Barbour's commercials about how the beaches are clear are now a waste of money.

[kapkomet]

That is about as perfectly said as it can be. Remember being critical of the federal response doesn't mean you are absolving BP, despite the rhetoric otherwise.

Look at this thread for exactly that point.

[kapkomet]

Show me to where that would've ever come up? All you've done for 3 weeks is attack any criticism directed towards BP and tried to fling it elsewhere. This is a company that has poisoned lake michigan, and now ruined the gulf and will cost those states sooooo much money in tourism and fishing money. But they are great. BEcause they made a lot of money, they must be right.

 

 

Keep deflecting the point. I have never deflected criticism at BP. But I sure as hell have said BEFORE this ever happened that this guy can't handle anything real. He's an empty suit who likes to look pretty (ugly) in front of the cameras.

[bmags]

Keep deflecting the point. I have never deflected criticism at BP.

 

bahahaha

[southsider2k5]

Seal the leak? MOAB it.

[Texsox]

Are you talking loss from purchase price or loss from a previous high?

So basically, I'm probably better off figuring out how to take the $600 loss rather than having it all worthless.

[Balta1701]

Are you talking loss from purchase price or loss from a previous high?

From previous high. I haven't a clue what the purchase price was, I didn't pay for it.

[southsider2k5]

From previous high. I haven't a clue what the purchase price was, I didn't pay for it.

 

Well then you didn't take a loss on it.

[Balta1701]

Seal the leak? MOAB it.

The more I think about explosives, the worse an idea I think it is.

 

The big benefit of a nuke is the temperature; you get hot enough that you actually melt all the rocks around the explosion site, and that melt can quench into a glass, fusing everything together.

 

You don't get the same temperature with a conventional explosion that you do with the nuke.

 

And, if you don't know the geology perfectly, when you're trying to seal the thing with the explosion, you also likely generate a whole lot of new fracture paths in the layer you're nuking. You hit a set of joints, and bang, suddenly you've blown the entire reservoir open.

 

Right now, I'm just not sure I trust our knowledge of the reservoir geology there. Especially after a month and a half of explosive spilling.

[southsider2k5]

The more I think about explosives, the worse an idea I think it is.

 

The big benefit of a nuke is the temperature; you get hot enough that you actually melt all the rocks around the explosion site, and that melt can quench into a glass, fusing everything together.

 

You don't get the same temperature with a conventional explosion that you do with the nuke.

 

And, if you don't know the geology perfectly, when you're trying to seal the thing with the explosion, you also likely generate a whole lot of new fracture paths in the layer you're nuking. You hit a set of joints, and bang, suddenly you've blown the entire reservoir open.

 

Right now, I'm just not sure I trust our knowledge of the reservoir geology there. Especially after a month and a half of explosive spilling.

 

It sounds like a terrible idea to me, but I know nothing about it either.

[Balta1701]

It sounds like a terrible idea to me, but I know nothing about it either.

I can see why he's saying that the water pressure would contain the shock wave, but I think he just doesn't understand the way rocks behave under those kinds of shock.

 

A nuke could actually work, but it's a large gamble.

[Texsox]

Sell. I'm not certain what cost is used to determine your tax liability. Zero would suck because it was a gift.

From previous high. I haven't a clue what the purchase price was, I didn't pay for it.

 

 

Well then you didn't take a loss on it.

[lostfan]

Keep deflecting the point. I have never deflected criticism at BP. But I sure as hell have said BEFORE this ever happened that this guy can't handle anything real. He's an empty suit who likes to look pretty (ugly) in front of the cameras.

I was unaware that the Nobel Price he was given was for physics and he has the knowledge to handle this by himself but he just doesn't care and/or is too incompetent to do so?

[lostfan]

The British government is whining. Someone tell me, who else are Americans supposed to be blaming for causing this if not for BP? Surely not the company that caused it...? Hey guys, I'm sorry if it was a British multinational company that f***ed up so badly and has to take it on the chin...

[kapkomet]

I was unaware that the Nobel Price he was given was for physics and he has the knowledge to handle this by himself but he just doesn't care and/or is too incompetent to do so?

 

As was highlighted numerous times before this incompetent boob was elected. He has no real world experience, management skills, organization (OMG the irony there...) abilities, etc. to lead and get things done. He's too busy trying to figure out how to cover his ass (or figure out who's ass to kick) instead of actually dealing with the problem itself.

 

This is what happens when you elect someone who is an idealist, utopian dreaming idiot instead of someone who can actually be an executive.

[Balta1701]

This is what happens when you elect someone who is an idealist, utopian dreaming idiot instead of someone who can actually be an executive.

An MBA and a CEO will save New Orleans!

[Balta1701]

The British government is whining. Someone tell me, who else are Americans supposed to be blaming for causing this if not for BP? Surely not the company that caused it...? Hey guys, I'm sorry if it was a British multinational company that f***ed up so badly and has to take it on the chin...

They have a reasonable gripe...BP is one of, if not the, most widely held company by British stock owners. Everyone in Britain is losing their retirement savings over this. And since its the shareholders and not the useless little people, it's even more important.

 

Blaming Obama for being mean to them is obviously stupid, even though he's the easiest target, but everyone in Britain has lost money in the BP Stock price meltdown.

[Balta1701]

I was unaware that the Nobel Price he was given was for physics and he has the knowledge to handle this by himself but he just doesn't care and/or is too incompetent to do so?

Secretary Chu has actually done a decent job. There's a great anecdote in the Post a few days ago about Secretary Chu joining the BP team for a while and suggesting they use gamma ray imaging to get a better picture of inside the BOP, the BP guys being dumbfounded for a bit, trying it, and discovering that it worked

[Texsox]

As was highlighted numerous times before this incompetent boob was elected. He has no real world experience, management skills, organization (OMG the irony there...) abilities, etc. to lead and get things done. He's too busy trying to figure out how to cover his ass (or figure out who's ass to kick) instead of actually dealing with the problem itself.

 

This is what happens when you elect someone who is an idealist, utopian dreaming idiot instead of someone who can actually be an executive.

You forgot to add Democrat

[Texsox]

Secretary Chu has actually done a decent job. There's a great anecdote in the Post a few days ago about Secretary Chu joining the BP team for a while and suggesting they use gamma ray imaging to get a better picture of inside the BOP, the BP guys being dumbfounded for a bit, trying it, and discovering that it worked

 

Which kind of makes me wonder, shouldn't this be a world wide response, not just a BP / US response?