Politics Plus

This is just a small part of a large article that each of you ought to read in its entirety, including the comments.  Many thanks to my friend Diane for the link.

The vast deepwater methane hydrate deposits of the Gulf of Mexico are an open secret in big energy circles. They represent the most tantalizing new frontier of unconventional energy – a potential source of hydrocarbon fuel thought to be twice as large as all the petroleum deposits ever known.

 

For the oil and gas industry, the substances are also known to be the primary hazard when drilling for deepwater oil.

 

Methane hydrates are volatile compounds – natural gas compressed into molecular cages of ice. They are stable in the extreme cold and crushing weight of deepwater, but are extremely dangerous when they build up inside the drill column of a well. If destabilized by heat or a decrease in pressure, methane hydrates can quickly expand to 164 times their volume.

 

Survivors of the BP rig explosion told interviewers that right before the April 20 blast, workers had decreased the pressure in the drill column and applied heat to set the cement seal around the wellhead. Then a quickly expanding bubble of methane gas shot up the drill column before exploding on the platform on the ocean’s surface.

 

Even a solid steel pipe has little chance against a 164-fold expansion of volume – something that would render a man six feet six inches tall suddenly the height of the Eiffel Tower.

 

Scientists are well aware of the awesome power of these strange hydrocarbons. A sudden large scale release of methane hydrates is believed to have caused a mass extinction 55 million years ago. Among planners concerned with mega-disasters, their sudden escape is considered to be a threat comparable to an asteroid strike or nuclear war. The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, a Livermore, California-based weapons design center, reports that when released on a large scale, methane hydrates can even cause tsunamis.

 

So it is not surprising to anyone who knows about the physics of these compounds that the Deepwater Horizon rig was lost like a waterfly crumpled by a force of nature scientists are still just getting to know… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Sott.net>

The article and its comments thoroughly document not only the the extreme risks involved with methane hydrates, but also, that the risks had to be well known in advance to BP.  They knew that the area in which they were drilling was rich in methane hydrates.  They knew the about the blowouts methane hydrates have caused in the past.  They knew that reducing pressure and increasing temperature are the two behaviors most likely to cause a blow out.  In spite of that, they opted to replace the heavy drilling fluid with sea water and heat it to quicken the setting time for the cement used to seal the drill head.  To completely understand the magnitude of their greed, please read the entire article.

They should never have been allowed to drill in such a high risk location, let alone do so without proper supervision.  We have GW “No Millionaire Left Behind” Bush, Dick ‘”Horney for Halliburton” Cheney, and the Republican Party to thank for that.

Why am I labeling the GOP with this?  Let me remind you that the regulations that could have prevented this had already been formulated at MMI.  Then Dick ‘Horny for Halliburton’ Cheney held secret meetings in which the giant energy corporations wrote our nation’s energy policy.  The GOP nixed the new regulations, forced out the serious regulators, and replaced them with political hacks whose qualification was willingness to take a loyalty oath to the Bush/GOP Regime.  Had this regulation been in place, different blowout prevention equipment would have been in use, and this tragedy would not have occurred.

Now the Dingbat of Drilling wants to blame Obama.

Reporting from Washington

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who helped popularize "Drill, baby, drill" as a slogan, suggested Sunday that President Obama’s campaign ties to the oil industry were impeding cleanup of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs responded that Palin should better inform herself about oil politics and policy.

Speaking on " Fox News Sunday," the former Alaska governor said she remained a "big supporter" of oil drilling but believed "these oil companies have got to be held accountable."

Pointing to what she termed the White House’s relationship with "the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now," Palin questioned whether "there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico."

Gibbs, on CBS News’ "Face the Nation," suggested Palin do some homework.

"I’m almost sure that the oil companies don’t consider the Obama administration a huge ally," Gibbs said. "We proposed a windfall profits tax when they jacked their oil prices up to charge more for gasoline."

Gibbs said, "My suggestion to Sarah Palin would be to get slightly more informed as to what’s going on in and around oil drilling in this country."

The oil and gas industry donated $2.4 million to Palin’s running mate, Republican John McCain, in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly $900,000 to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ opensecrets.org website.

One month after the BP rig exploded and sank in the gulf, thousands of barrels of oil a day continue spilling as experts struggle to devise a way to cap the break and contain the crude. A live webcam shows the oil spewing underwater in graphic detail.

Criticism has been mounting over the inability of the White House and BP to stem the flow that is threatening the economic livelihood of gulf coast communities and wreaking environmental destruction.

Gibbs said the government "is doing everything humanly and technologically possible to plug the hole."

"Every bit of government has been activated," Gibbs said. "The president has told the team to spare nothing in trying to cap this well."

Asked whether there would be a criminal investigation of the spill, Gibbs said Justice Department lawyers have been to the gulf "to gather information on this."

Republicans popularized "Drill, baby, drill" as a campaign slogan in 2008 as gasoline prices were on the rise and Democrats promoted alternative energy sources. The slogan gained prominence during the Republican National Convention, and Palin often was greeted by chanting supporters on the campaign trail.

Palin said Sunday that she remained "a strong supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted," and she said onshore drilling can be safer than in ocean waters… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <LA Times>

To quote Keith Olbermann, “That woman is an idiot.”  I’ll be quite surprised if he does not say so this evening in response.

But does she, and the others who keep saying that Obama should do more, have a case?  In my opinion, the most honest official we have on the scene is Admiral Thad Allen.

The U.S. official leading the response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill said Sunday that only BP had the expertise to plug the gaping hole in its deepwater well and that he trusted the oil company was doing its best.

The comments by Adm. Thad Allen, the commandant of the Coast Guard, signaled that the U.S. government wouldn’t take a larger role in stopping the five-week-old spill even as frustration in the Gulf coast grows over the Obama administration’s policy of letting BP run the cleanup… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <McClatchy DC>

The US Navy has our best expertise in underwater operations, but the operating depth of an Ohio Class SSBN is only 1,600 feet.  That’s not even one third deep enough.  The problem is that the MMS under GOP control did not ask BP to prove their claim that they had the ability to prevent such a disaster and contain it in the event of an accident.  Instead they just rubber stamped BP’s lies.

Now, I know you’re already angry, but prepare to become even angrier.

BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be "the best option for subsea application."

On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the London-based company 72 hours to replace the dispersant Corexit 9500 or to describe in detail why other dispersants fail to meet environmental standards.

The agency on Saturday released a 12-page document from BP, representing only a portion of the company’s full response. Along with several dispersant manufacturers, BP claimed that releasing its full evaluation of alternatives would violate its legal right to keep confidential business information private.

But in a strongly worded retort, the EPA said that it was "evaluating all legal options" to force BP to release the remaining information "so Americans can get a full picture of the potential environmental impact of these alternative dispersants."… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Common Dreams>

Do you even believe their arrogance?  Where do they get off claiming confidentiality given the magnitude of the human, animal, and economic suffering they have caused due to their unmitigated greed?!!?  My solution is this.  Over and above damages, we should charge BP $1 billion per day until the gusher is stopped, starting today.

Off topic: I have a commitment that may prevent me from posting tomorrow.  If I post at all, it will be much later than usual.  I know you expect my normal regularity, and I don’t want you to think that I’m not OK or have an emergency.

Just when I thought that Arizona Republicans could not do any more to demonstrate their bigotry, here they come again!

A Phoenix news station (KPHO) is reporting that the state Senator behind Arizona’s new immigration law, Russell Pierce (R), does not intend on stopping at SB-1070. In e-mails obtained by the local CBS affiliate, Pearce said he intends to push for an “anchor baby” bill that would essentially overturn the 14th amendment by no longer granting citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants born on U.S. soil. “Anchor babies” is a derogatory and “politically charged” term used to refer to the U.S. citizen children of undocumented parents. KPHO obtained a troubling email [pdf] from one of Pierce’s constituents who is encouraging him to pursue the “anchor baby” legislation. KPHO reports:

One of the e-mails written by someone else but forwarded by Pearce reads: “If we are going to have an effect on the anchor baby racket, we need to target the mother. Call it sexist, but that’s the way nature made it. Men don’t drop anchor babies, illegal alien mothers do.” […]

Pearce said his new idea is not only legal but constitutional. “It’s common sense,” Pearce said. “Again – you can’t break into someone’s country and then expect to be rewarded for that. You can’t do it.”

When Pearce was shown the e-mail referring to “anchor babies” that he forwarded, he said he didn’t find anything wrong with the language. “It’s somebody’s opinion…What they’re trying to say is it’s wrong. And I agree with them. It’s wrong,” said Pearce.

Despite Pierce’s confidence that his new proposal is constitutional, the 14th Amendment clearly stipulates that “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” … [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Pearce has strong ties to the nativist movement, whose primary raison d’être is the preservation of the ‘racially superior’ white majority.  What we have here is just one more example of GOP racism.

Now most of the Arizona Teabaggers supporting this bill are also Birthers, which begs the following question.  Why does propagating the lie that Obama does not have a legal birth certificate matter to them, when the fact that these young citizens have birth certificates does not?