Here's what's apparent to me: No government regulation would have or is going to change what happened in the Gulf of Mexico. Drilling oil wells is an inherently dangerous activity. They blow out periodically on land but it's not the big deal that it is when they blow out under a mile of ocean.
It's ludicrous to politicize this thing. Either we drill the ocean or we dive headfirst off the cliff of peak oil. There is no political will in any viable party on the planet to jump off the cliff. Absent that, we're going to drill in challenging places and mistakes will be made.
Someone makes critical judgement calls in the drilling of a well in a matter of moments, even seconds, and this time, bad calls were made. Greed may have played a part in the disaster, but this can and will happen again as we test the limits of deep water drilling technology.
I've heard the difficulties in drilling a well off the coast of Brazil are similar to landing a ship on the moon. The wells will be drilled.
I am sick of hearing how BP is at fault. Or Obama. Or Salazar. If you're burning oil, you share the blame. (Which means I too share the blame.)
We tell these people to get us cheap oil and then crucify them when they fail. It's not unlike blaming a soldier for killing someone in a war he didn't start.
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Gotta call you on this one Don.
ReplyDeleteWe damn sure do need to find out who's to blame for this..., and do something about it. I just can't buy the fact that because I burn oil it is my fault that Hazelwood got drunk and the Exxon Valdez ran aground. My take on the Horizon blowout was that the "bean counters" (accountants) made the call to continue operations when they were told that the seal had been compromised.
I too detest the political grandstanding taking place..., but that is one thing that is inevitable. Disasters like this are not. Saying so is just enabling.