Mark,
There were multiple problems with the rig in the months previous to the disaster. The drill itself started bringing up parts of a vital seal that had failed and BP decided to continue drilling. One of two "failsafe shutoff" valve switches had gone down and BP decided to continue drilling. Many of the safety standards "required" by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) were overlooked and none of the required rig and spill plans had been examined by the MMS as they were basically in bed with, and "owned" by BP so it was a bit of a Fox in charge of the henhouse situation. On they drilled.
When the disaster first occurred BP had no idea how large the spill was or how badly damaged the equipment was. There have been rumors (I cannot comment on the validity) that at first they were more concerned with recovering the oil than they were in containing it. Add to that the scarcity of materials to deal with a spill of this magnitude, what some of us see as an unwillingness by BP to accept outside help, the fact that the problem was greater than anyone, BP included, could have imagined, a focus that was on getting oil OUT of the ground instead of stopping oil from flowing uncontrollably INTO the Gulf, our old friend Greed, and this is what you get.
Idiots here in the US STILL think we can drill our way out of the problem and provide our own domestic resources. They are misguided and wrong, or greedy and wrong but I am, quite frankly, Tired of arguing with them.
The oil companies here drill on public lands to procure crude oil that costs them much less than it does on the oil market... yet they sell it at the same price to us and to OTHER countries. We apparently need to break our dependence on foreign oil by drilling domestically and then making windfall profits selling it to other people. Even T. Boone Pickens, America's most famous oil man, stated "This is not a problem we can drill our way out of".
There is a "moratorium" on new drilling... but most of the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico (and probably all over the world) are in the same half fannied shape as the Deepwater Horizon was.
But oil is big business and lots of Americans own oil company stock so we have plenty of people who are willing to destroy everything except their wallets. Rant much Mac? :kill:
