I'm surprised there isn't an open thread for opinions regarding the BP disaster in the Gulf. Heidi just said something that made me look for one and I didn't see it.

So, besides that "oh, it's terrible" comments, what are the general thoughts and opinions of those on PUG regarding the spill?

Does anyone have any suggestions about what can be done regarding cleanup, consequences, off shore drilling? Anything?

Start your car drive around the block then repeat day after day……..you'll forget soon enough

and life will go on as usual! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

See ya at the pumps!

I don't always have complete control over my emotions and get very "amped up" very quickly over certain things. This has been a hot button issue for me for since it went down and I've kept my mouth shut except for the comments I've made over in the caption thread.

I don't have all the facts regarding the matter so I don't want to speak out of turn. I'm outraged that this has happened and am further freaked that even though this is ONGOING that they still may allow off shore drilling to continue in other areas…? WTF? I'm not a political person, nor am I a "tree hugger" per se, but it appears obvious that there is more at stake here then just the obvious….how many knockout punches is the gulf supposed to take? The gov't still hasn't straightened things out after Katrina, so what confidence would I have now? I don't want to hear that Obama isn't doing enough as it's a catasphrophe of epic proportions that's never been seen before…how's he supposed to react? But when I hear that there may be a loop hole created by other administrations that would allow the oil company to pass on the safety valve that would have prevented all this for the sake of HALF A MILLION DOLLARS? That pisses me off.

/angry.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':D' />

Well prices have not sky rocketed so I guess its not that bad but still

it never should have happened

I see this as a disaster. And an accident. Did BP wake up one day and say, "Oh lets go out and and disregard all safety measures?" IMO no. This spill will be fixed. Not as soon as needed but it will. What worries me is that a government can arbitrarily tell a company that they will not pay a dividend and they will pay billions of dollars in retributions without due process. People seem to forget that shareholders are more then just fat cat rich people. Stocks are owned by old people and not so old people trying to build up their retirenment funds. Some of the talking heads, for ratings, want to say only the rich have stocks. So how do retirenment funds get funded?

Also other countries with the experience in this type of cleanup have offered help…but they were turned down.

They may not have woken up one morning and said "oh lets go out and disregard all safety measures" but they certainly KNEW that there were problems.

And what did they do to fix it? Nothing!

BP knew 11 months prior

The US turning down help from other countries just proves how very arrogant we are. We'd rather take advice from unqualified celebrities than other countries that might actually help. /blink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':blink:' />

I had also read the MME had cited Deepwater 6 times. Once for the fail safe switch that failed to to work and inspections took roughly only 2 hours to complete. THis inspection time appears to be short from what I've read and the MME MAY not have been thorough enough. From this info, I remember Deepwater as beng billed as one of the safest rigs, ever.

I'm apalled our government checked the rig, made regular inspections and deemed it safe. I forgot, I think there are two other countries which require the $ 500,000 switch on all their off shore platforms. Yup, I can see that being spent on safety on over 3,000 wells in the gulf. lol

Maybe Deepwater was just simply too deep, and way too risky for this reason.

The enviroment will be done in by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, enacted 8/82005 imo.

The bill gave 28 bil in tax breaks, to oil, coal, gas, nuclear, and electricity industries.

The bill also weakens public safety and enviromental issues like the Clean Water Act.

I watched Gasland a docu on HBO, on Demand. This was a very good docu, loads of info! This is scarey, people can light their water on fire from gas wells being drilled by or on their land in the area.

North eastern Pa may start drilling, effecting the one single biggest water sheads we have. NYC, N J, De, and PA ( PHilly) water may be effected.

The chemicals used to drill this wells is beyond belief.

The Gulf States were mentioned as already having their water supply contaminated, by gas drilling.

People are getting sick, animals loosing hair and weight all over our country by feeding and drinking by these wells.

We are consuming this through the animals and produce.

Delaware, may be drilling off shore in a few years.

Yup, use our resources, become less dependant on foreign oil, and kill us.

This needs to be regulated by those who are not greedy.

Well so far so good w/the new cap…but since building pressure in the pipeline is an issue, I hope that cap has a valve they can run piping off of…awww who am I kidding, it's "big oil" i'm sure they thought of that, they're so clever!

/unsure.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='<_<' />

apparently one of the professor's down at Berkeley submitted a cap designed by someone he's calling "the mysterious plumber " who emailed them to him. If you GOOGLE "the mysterious plumber " you should see more of this bizarre story angle.