Oil Drilling Offshore. (USA)

[capin Rob]

I think this was a proper thing to happen, now mabey we'll listen and use better fules.

 

[Zorg Machine]

It's one of the few environment question that I care about (the rest also have to do with oil) and I think we should get rid of all of the rigs as soon as we can.

Alright, I have to ask, even though it's opening a personal can of worms, but do you think we should pull out of Iraq too?

Anyway, I'm for offshore drilling, I actually like the idea. I live in one area under heavy consideration for offshore drilling, and yeah. I don't have anyproblems cutting gas prices, and the platforms look relatively badass. And I don't really care about a few problems that have happened here and there, or the massive wave of incompetence going on in the gulf right now (If they've fixed it, I don't know, The Daily Show's my main news source, and they've been off this week.)

We need oil. It's one of the worst materials that we use but we need it. Iraq troops are necessary atm though I don't really care about that stuff.
What most people don't seem to understand is that offshore drilling is not just bad because they drill for oil, it's bad because they are drilling down into the ocean, damaging wildlife enormously. It's about the same thing as going into the middle of the rainforest and clearing out all the trees in an area and construct giant drills...for each oil rig made.

 

[Veylon]

it still causes pollution, and we have alternative fuel sources (geothermal for example).

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that geothermal is not viable in most areas (i.e. the majority of the earth's crust). Iceland aren't the only ones using it to a large extent because no one else thought of it, it is only viable in areas where the earth's crust is sufficiently thin.

i used geothermal as an EXAMPLE. there are others. bio fuels, wind, solar, nuclear, hydrothermal, even antimatter (when we have enough money to develope it) and others (i couldn't remember them)

We don't have alternative fuel sources ready to go. Bio fuels require additional crops, hence additional fuel to clear, fertilize, and harvest the additional land. Wind power requires giant turbines in windy areas as well as additional infrastructure to transport to less windy areas. Solar power is ditto for sunny areas. Nuclear is okay when it's good, but terrible when it goes wrong and, again, is infrastructure intensive. Hydrothermal involves giant ocean equipment that probably has the same impact on the environment as oil rigs, except many more will be needed. As for antimatter and fusion, they're supposedly about 25 years out and have been for the last 50.

So the stark fact is that we need oil and can't do without or make do with much less. At least until we've spent enormous sums producing the vast capital investments required to generate and transport alternative energy. And even then we still have to make the tradeoffs between cost and environments.

 

[likalaruku]

The only thing I'm expecting is a steep price jump in seafood. That area was a spawning ground for the endangered Bluefin Tuna.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

The only thing I want to come of this is for BP to just leave the industry. They failed to include any of the three safety valves for their rig and have probably the worst safety record among the oil companies. Seriously, they need to go.

 

[Agrosmurf]

Nothing will happen.

We need oil, no matter what the source is. And massive oil leaks are too rare for preventative measures to be taken. These are corporations, not governments.

Of course they aren't governments, but governments have a tool to interfere with companies procedures, called regulation. I'm fairly sure our government wouldn't do a thing about it if they had the choice. But I think they are going to give into public pressure and enforce some extensive (Not necessarily effective) safety guidelines for companies that drill off shore to follow.

Even realizing that we had found the risk of a spill of this magnitude manageable, doesn't mean people won't over-react or disregard the original statistics.