

BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher - ssclafani
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill;_ylt=AnPKeJBcLNkoUZtliYKkmN6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNoNnYwZjVkBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNzE1L3VzX2d1bGZfb2lsX3NwaWxsBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNwRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDYnBzYXlzbm9tb3Jl

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simonw
Third paragraph:

> "Finally!" said Renee Brown, a school guidance counselor visiting Pensacola
> Beach, Fla., from London, Ky. "Honestly, I'm surprised that they haven't
> been able to do something sooner, though."

Seems like an odd choice for the first quote in the article. Shouldn't they
have chosen someone obviously qualified to comment?

~~~
jorgem
Most people think it's just a long pipe going down there, and you can put your
thumb in it.

~~~
timmaah
Most people think they should have this "cap" on stand-by on every drilling
rig out there.

~~~
fr0sty
They do, in theory. The Blow-Out-Preventer, basically an automatic cap, it
installed in-line on every well currently being drilled.

Yes, it failed but there is no guarantee that "this cap" will succeed in the
case of another BOP failure.

~~~
stcredzero
I still think the industry should put together a consortium that develops and
builds such equipment and keeps it ready to go in the event of deep-water well
failures like this. Seems like a lot of trial and error and onsite
improvisation and engineering were done after the disaster. If it had been
done ahead of time, then we may well have gotten to this point perhaps weeks
sooner. A lot of oil might not have been spilled.

~~~
qq66
If a private company had built such a cap and kept it on standby, they could
have probably sold it to BP for over $20 billion.

~~~
uxp
I'm a liberal, but I really don't like reading or watching liberal biased news
constantly. It's as uninteresting and un-though-provoking as watching
conservative shows all day.

That said, Rachel Maddow compared this gulf oil spill to the gulf oil spill of
1979 by using news clips from then, and the sad part is, the new technology we
used for this spill is the exact same technology they used back then. Check it
out:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHmhxpQEGPo>

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gnok
This is not entirely true. The seal in place is considered temporary until a
pressure test can be completed. This is expected to be completed within the
next 48 hours. If that test is not successful, then this seal comes straight
off and the leak resumes.

~~~
necubi
Not exactly. The new tight-fitting cap is there to stay, but they may re-open
the valves which are presently preventing oil from escaping if the well is
determined to be insufficiently sound. In that case, the new cap will still
allow them to collect all the oil, preventing any from leaking. That may take
a week or so until they can get more collection ships, though.

~~~
gnok
My bad; I had misread the other story. Thanks for the correction..

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mindcrime
Well, obviously it sucks that it took so long, and so much damage has been
done, but nonetheless... this is great news, if true. Let's just hope that
this new cap holds up until the relief wells are finished and things are truly
under control.

Wonder how long the cleanup process will take? Can something of this magnitude
even ever be completely cleaned up?

~~~
Psyonic
"Can something of this magnitude even ever be completely cleaned up?" Likely
no. Certainly improvements can and will be made, but there will be
irreversible damage, at least on a human timescale.

~~~
ams6110
Crude oil is a natural substance. It leaks out of the earth all over the
place. This is obviously an extreme case, but I think that with time, the
environment will absorb this and return to some sort of normalcy.

~~~
code_duck
There is never going to be a return to normalcy for this area. It has already
been under relentless pressure from human activities, to the point where we
have a dead zone the size of Rhode Island floating around near this area
already due to criminally irresponsible over-use of agricultural chemicals.
Way too much pollution has already been coming out of Houston and New Orleans
for a long time. BP wasn't satisfied dumping millions of gallons of oil into
the water, they also felt it was necessary to dump hundreds of thousands of
gallons of unnecessarily toxic dispersant chemicals into the water, mainly for
cosmetic PR purposes. Louisiana's marshes are already in serious physical
decline from the change in water flow and silt buildup caused by hydrologic
engineering in the area.

As far as something being natural, that has little to do with it's ability to
destroy ecosystems. Sure, many synthetic chemicals are worse, but don't we
have plenty of examples of very harmful natural phenomena? Radiation is
natural, for instance. Perhaps you'd like to absorb a couple thousand rems,
and see if the naturalness makes a difference in your return to normalcy. Or
drink a big glass of oil, why not! It's natural! Several thousand dolphins,
sea turtles, jellyfish, fish, sting rays, eels and octopi surely gave that a
try recently.

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invisible
You are ranting and I honestly don't understand your need to compare an oil
spill to a specific tragedy of radiation poisoning or an individual dying from
exposure to oil. Oil spills are dangerous and hurt the environment greatly in
the short term, but we are talking about a small region of the entire ocean
that (while beautiful) doesn't sustain the large portion of the world's ocean.

Saying "never" and "always" is just a way to push propaganda unless it can be
proven otherwise.

~~~
code_duck
Ever so sorry, when someone says something insensitive, insulting and
incorrect I guess a proper response could be characterized as a 'rant' as the
amount of information you need to convey to give them half a clue is a lot.

The radiation example is related to the statement about oil being 'natural'.
Again, radiation and cyanide are natural, but it's all a matter of
concentration. Oil has overwhelmed this area and is killing massive amounts of
sea life, regardless of it's fabulous property of 'naturalness'. So, while an
x-ray might not hurt you, sticking your face into a bucket of plutonium might.
A drop of oil may not kill you. YOUR ENTIRE BODY BEING COVERED IN OIL UNTIL
YOU SUFFOCATE WHILE ALSO BEING POISONED BY HYDROCARBONS IS DIFFERENT. Do you
agree?

By 'Never' I mean 'maybe sometime in the future, outside of a human time scale
and definitely when none of us are alive'. The changes to the ecology of this
area are irreversible.

It's not propaganda, the lying people on the other side of the issue who try
to insist everything is OK because they have $$$$$ at stake are the ones
feeding you propaganda. Thoughtful, intellectual honest men like Rush Limbaugh
were the first to insist that this man-made disaster is a 'natural
phenomenon'. It's absolutely ridiculous. To believe and repeat that ACTUAL
propaganda, one must be uninformed and easily manipulated, or have something
to gain from misleading people.

To me, killing one frog by accident with my lawnmower is upsetting. These
people are killing millions of animals, then dumping more chemicals in the
ocean for PR purposes. They WILL be killing people through their actions, if
you're concerned at all about that. Of course, this is on top of a scene of
fishing industry whose main plan is to go around dredging with heavy chains
ont he ocean floor, or dragging 500 meter nets, keeping what they want,
killing the rest and throwing it back. It's not even 'collateral damage', to
these people, ocean life is as worthless as shit. Sorry, some of us disagree.

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ck2
Except there are probably dozens of little leaks all over the pipes from the
failure event. That's what they kept arguing why the couldn't just close the
top, it would make all the little leaks into big leaks.

So basically they've just shut off the one that was getting the most
attention.

Geez the amount of wildlife they have killed - no-one will go to prison and
it's practically the crime of the century.

~~~
whatajoke
> Geez the amount of wildlife they have killed - no-one will go to prison and
> it's practically the crime of the century.

The Iraq invasion by USA happened in this very century.

~~~
ck2
Very good point. I can't believe I've fallen for the lack of that in the news
cycle.

Going to war is like a different, almost underground part of society now.

~~~
sliverstorm
It's just hard to sustain public interest when it isn't getting particularly
worse, isn't getting particularly better, isn't going away, and we are not in
imminent danger. If we felt threatened and outraged like we did in past wars,
people would be hanging on every word out of the news.

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Tichy
One week after the moratorium on offshore oil drilling has been rejected.
Coincidence?

I've heard the theory that with the relief well approach, BP would have been
able to continue getting the oil. With the threat of the moratorium, the
relief well would have been the only way to continue getting the oil.

Maybe it is too much paranoia, but ever since I heard that theory, I can't
completely shake the feeling that there might have been something to it.

~~~
jmg
probably too much paranoia.

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jeb
Let's look at the positive parts of this:

1\. All oil companies are going to upgrade their safety standards

2\. A lot of new knowledge on how to seal oil leaks has been brought into the
world. This knowledge will have various applications, and if a bigger leak
happens again, then there will be more preparation

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dedward
Anyone notice the BP or whoever spokespeople deliberately referring to it as
"Hydrocarbon release" rather than "Oil volcano" or "oil spill" now?
"uncontrolled hydrocarbon emission" and things like that..... that MUST be a
deliberate PR move.

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adolph
The terminology is more correct, even if it sounds more weasel-y. If they said
"oil spill" then someone would be complaining about them being inaccurate and
ignoring all the other hydrocarbons that come out of the well, like natural
gas.

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monos
US was lucky that it was such a big spill.

~ 15.000 barrels per year spill in nigeria since 50 years. won't fix. (half of
what deepwater spilled per day).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Nig...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues_in_the_Niger_Delta#Oil_spills)

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justin_hancock
I find it all rather sad. BP has committed an appalling act of negligence
however the parties operating the rig and the company that provided the Blow
Out Preventer (Trans Ocean and Halliburton) still seem to be avoiding the
worst of the flack. They are culpable too, yet the administration chooses to
ignore it. This has been a marvellous political tool for them.

Wonder if Dow Chemical has fixed the issues in Bhopal yet?

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CoachRufus87
i'd like a 2nd opinion from a 3rd party, just to be sure.

~~~
mkramlich
yep ideally from another large firm with oil experience. such as Halliburton
or Exxon. ;)

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DaemonXI
Phew. Now I can go buy BP gas again.

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joubert
great news if the oil leak is finally stopped, however, i will really miss the
quips from @bpglobalpr

~~~
tvon
Well, it's not as if the disaster is over.

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motters
Not before time.

