BP Bets the Planet—We Lose (In These Times)

[highplainsdem]

http://inthesetimes.com/article/6067/bp_bets_the_planetwe_lose/

June 10, 2010
BP Bets the Planet—We Lose
By Terry J. Allen


As the oil spreads, choking life and livelihood, the hearings and investigations into BP’s gulf hemorrhage are focused on human failures, technical flaws and short-term fixes. These silos of inquiry, while essential, sidestep the deeper problem: Deep sea drilling is inherently risky, and continued use of fossil fuels means increasing reliance on tenuous technologies and dangerous energy sources.

One factor ramping up the risk lies in frigid sediments that have rested for eons 1,000 feet or more below sea and tundra. At that depth, hydrate gas (usually methane) is a stable solid, compressed into molecular cages of ice. But if destabilized by a drop in pressure or a rise in temperature, the gas-water compound can quickly expand 164 times in volume. If ignited, even ice-bound hydrates burn.

“The well-recognized hazard in offshore drilling is the formation of gas hydrates could flow into the well bore from the reservoir (e.g., a kick),” U.K.-based scientist K. K. Østergaard wrote in a 2006 issue of Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. “This could potentially block the stack, kill lines and chokes, obstruct the movement of the drill string, and cause serious operational and safety concerns” including blowouts.

“From 1980 to 2006 there were 165 blowouts in U.S. waters, with over 500 worldwide,” wrote independent researcher Dan Zimmerman in a well-documented September 2009 report to Minerals Management Service (MMS), “and hydrates were the main contributor.”

Although MMS ignored his warnings, even that industry-captive agency recognizes that pockets of hydrate gases should be “identified in advance of subsea development activities.” (Among industry’s few tools to prevent hydrate complications are toxic chemicals, including methanol and glycol, that end up in the environment.)

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If BP cut the corners, MMS handed it a chainsaw. Capping a long-corrupted relationship with the oil and gas industry it is supposed to regulate, MMS signed off on continuing the well-capping operation after BP managed to produce successful results by dropping the pressure at which it was testing the blowout preventer from the usual 10,000 pounds per square to 6,500.

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[Gregin Orlando]

1. BP Oil leak worse than media telling us

Not only is more oil leaking than we have been told by the corporations and their corporate media, there may be up to three oil leaks in the gulf in addition to the three at the Deepwater Horizon site. Furthermore, this means more than just fouled beaches and dead marine life. Oil can clog the intakes of water from the Gulf that is used to cool coal and nuclear power plants, resulting in power outages. It can clog the intakes of desalinization plants that use reverse osmosis to produce drinking for cities on the GUlf coast. For more information, check out: http://www.examiner.com/x-38220-Orlando-Independent-Examiner~y2010m6d9-Satellite-imagery-shows-up-to-three-oil-leaks-in-Gulf-FL-power-and-water-supplies-may-be-at-risk

[highplainsdem]

2. kick