Merged Judge blocks moratorium on off-shore drilling

[leftysergeant]

What is the safety flaw in oil rigs that was discovered? Knowingly using a damaged blow-out preventer? Not repairing possibly damaged casings?

Incorrect operator headspace.

 

[Newtons Bit]

Incorrect operator headspace.

I think it's: insufficient manager cranium capacity.

 

[dtugg]

They can be if they rule in favor of an industry in which they have a financial stake. It's called "corruption."

Lots of that went on in regards to the courts under the misguidance of the previous POTUS.

Let me know when you can prove this happened.

 

[rwguinn]

Let me know when you can prove this happened.

Is lefty doing a Beck here?
Sounds like it to me!

 

[fuelair]

Let me know when you can prove this happened.

It's been proved at least as of an hour ago. He has stock in the company that built the rig that caused the spill. Paper records shown on air. Now for his, I hope, impeachment/de-barring!!!

 

[leftysergeant]

It's been proved at least as of an hour ago. He has stock in the company that built the rig that caused the spill. Paper records shown on air. Now for his, I hope, impeachment/de-barring!!!

Ah, Schadenfreude! Obama may get to appoint another judge.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

If some drilling equipment parts are flawed, is it rational to say all are? Are all airplanes a danger because one was? All oil tankers like Exxon Valdez? All trains? All mines? That sort of thinking seems heavyhanded, and rather overbearing.

If a new and not well-tested airplane goes down and something about the design of the plane is suspected as the cause of the crash, you're darn right we should ground other planes of that design until we at least know the cause of the crash.

And again, the moratorium would only affect 33 out of 3600 oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf. No way is this the major cause of economic hardship in the region. And BP should pay those affected by it anyway, since their disaster is what led to the moratorium.

 

[leftysergeant]

If a new and not well-tested airplane goes down and something about the design of the plane is suspected as the cause of the crash, you're darn right we should ground other planes of that design until we at least know the cause of the crash.

During the operational phase of the Osprey program, they grounded all of them everytime one crashed.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Hmmm.

Whad'Ya Know?

Not much. . . .you?

(Somebody had to say it.)

 

[dtugg]

It's been proved at least as of an hour ago. He has stock in the company that built the rig that caused the spill. Paper records shown on air. Now for his, I hope, impeachment/de-barring!!!

Evidence?

 

[defaultdotxbe]

Just checking - was it BP or Obama who violated several of their own safety regs - and - according to their own memos - underplaced safety devices that would likely have prevented any major spill and likely any spill at all. At least our loathing of bush and all his butt buddies had a basis in the real world.

so why shut down all drilling if it was BPs lack of safety that led to the accident? why not shut down BP drilling

And again, the moratorium would only affect 33 out of 3600 oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf. No way is this the major cause of economic hardship in the region. And BP should pay those affected by it anyway, since their disaster is what led to the moratorium.

how many of the 3567 remaining rigs are operated by BP? do we know they follow proper safety procedures?

During the operational phase of the Osprey program, they grounded all of them everytime one crashed.

but they didnt ground all arcraft, or even all propeller-driven aircraft



personally i think obama is using the situation to further his political agencda, but honestly i could give a crap about that, thats what politicians do, push agendas

what gets me is to see all the people who applaud this, are the same people who criticize bush for doing the same thing (and the people criticize this applaud bush for the same reason)

 

[thaiboxerken]

so why shut down all drilling if it was BPs lack of safety that led to the accident? why not shut down BP drilling

It wasn't just BP's lack of safety, but the MMS lack of oversight. Because of this, we have no idea if the other drilling operations are safe or not. It would be smart to stop all drilling operations until they can be inspected at this poing. This isn't the first time a moratorium has been issued due to an oil spill, just the first time the conservatives made a big stink about it.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

It wasn't just BP's lack of safety, but the MMS lack of oversight. Because of this, we have no idea if the other drilling operations are safe or not. It would be smart to stop all drilling operations until they can be inspected at this poing. This isn't the first time a moratorium has been issued due to an oil spill, just the first time the conservatives made a big stink about it.

so then would the lack of oversight not apply to all offshore drilling, not just deep water? would it apply to all oil drilling not just offshore? would it apply to all mining, not just oil?

i understand that there have been moratoriums before, but on the side of the issue the reasons dont seem to match the action, which is why i think there is another reason obama is targeting just deep water rigs

to go back to the plane crash analogy, if it turns out the problem was a malfuntion in the individual aircraft, or a design flaw in that type of aircraft, but a problem with the FAA or ATC not doing their job, grounding just the one type of plane doesnt really help

 

[thaiboxerken]

I agree, the moratorium should encompass even more than it does now. If nothing else, the entire energy industry should have to undergo new inspections after the MMS has been restructured. The politics would never let a moratorium on the entire industry happen, but it's good that he's started with the most dangerous part of the oil industry.

 

[leftysergeant]

Targetting just the deep water rigs makes sense. It is the least adverse action for the industry over-all, because it involves the fewest rigs.

A naked man with good lungs and a llead-weighted line can check out a lot of the in-shore rigs.

Some species of whales can't reach the botom of the Deep Water Horizon site.

It will take specialized equipment to inspect them, and that stuff is all kind of tied up right now because some empty suit with a matching brain case could stand to wait to have the job finished, even if it meant throwing the safety manual overboard.

OoooH! Ooooh!. I just got an idea. Send Ptomaine Tony and the judsge down to have a look at the effected bore holes.

 

[defaultdotxbe]

Targetting just the deep water rigs makes sense. It is the least adverse action for the industry over-all, because it involves the fewest rigs.

so its just a feel good law with no real effect one way or the other. gotcha

 

[thaiboxerken]

so its just a feel good law with no real effect one way or the other. gotcha

How you came up with this as Lefty's position is beyond me. Maybe they should send you down to the Gulf of Mexico. The amount of straw you have could soak up all the oil.

 

[leftysergeant]

so its just a feel good law with no real effect one way or the other. gotcha

No. It targets the most potentially disasterous scenario first. Just the fact that they are deep enough to cause particular threats to all life on earth and the fact that their start-up was overseen by a gang of drongos appointed by a corrupt moron must give us all pause. Let's be sure they haven't screwed up as badly on the other deep-water rigs and, if they have, take all safety measures now, before we have more oil spilling into the ocean than it can ever absorb.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

so why shut down all drilling if it was BPs lack of safety that led to the accident? why not shut down BP drilling

Because we don't know exactly what led to the accident, and we do know that the industry in general has done a poor job with contingency plans (relying instead on "fail safes" that we now know are not).

how many of the 3567 remaining rigs are operated by BP? do we know they follow proper safety procedures?

The moratorium was only for those in deep water. A blow out in shallow water can be capped. Apparently there are no viable contingency plans for an accident like this in deep water. (Other than letting the oil spew while relief wells are drilled.)

but they didnt ground all arcraft, or even all propeller-driven aircraft

And the moratorium wasn't for all oil drilling in the Gulf. It was only for similar platforms (that is, in deep water). The judge is using a faulty analogy suggesting that the moratorium would be analogous to grounding all airplanes. It would be more like grounding all of that same aircraft if a design flaw were suspected--at least until the cause of the crash is determined.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

so then would the lack of oversight not apply to all offshore drilling, not just deep water? would it apply to all oil drilling not just offshore? would it apply to all mining, not just oil?

Again, problems in shallow water wells can be dealt with. We have learned the hard way that there are no viable contingency plans for problems like this in deep water wells. We have learned that what works in shallow water doesn't work in deep water.

to go back to the plane crash analogy, if it turns out the problem was a malfuntion in the individual aircraft, or a design flaw in that type of aircraft, but a problem with the FAA or ATC not doing their job, grounding just the one type of plane doesnt really help

And once the cause of the crash were determined NOT to be a design flaw (or in this case, once a viable contingency plan for deep water well problems is developed), the grounding would be lifted. Again, with new aircraft, this happens a lot. We want to err on the side of safety.

ETA: Just to clarify: I see two valid reasons for the moratorium. One is that we're not sure exactly what caused the disaster at Deepwater Horizon (could be just BP's cutting-corners with standard safety practices to save money, or it could be a problem with the nature of deep water drilling--either way, it's a good idea to stop those other projects until we're sure they're not doing the same thing that led to the disaster), and the other is that even if we're taking every precaution, we shouldn't allow them to go forward until viable contingency plans are in place in case of failure of the "fail safes". It's unacceptable that the only solution to a leak like this is to slow it a little while relief wells are drilled. I think the moratorium should remain in place until both issues are addressed.