The Gulf Of DEATH

[RR-ElectricAngel]

I live only 125 miles from the Gulf Of Mexico. In the next few weeks it will become a vast wasteland of oil and death due to BP's lack of intelligence to control the pipeline that is gushing 1 mile down. I am pissed beyond words. 70% of all oyster production in the U.S. comes from the coast of Louisiana and bordering states. I would like anyone's opinion of this man-made disaster. Personally speaking, I believe they should go way beyond the $75 million dollar limit oil companies are liable for. It's hard to believe it might very well eclipse the Exxon Valdez disaster which occurred in Alaska March 24, 1989. If a hurricane develops in the Gulf of Mexico and the oil is still floating out there you could feasibly have lightning strikes igniting the oil on the water. That is almost apocalyptic if you ask me...

[shawn]

Well I have fished from even before I can remember, so my parents tell me. I love almost all seafood and respect the ocean. I am extremely lucky and am able to go out when ever I have the free time. There is a world that most do not even know about, if they just had a chance to see and experience could change their lives. Once the excited conversations finish, the profound silence that often follows after you have taken a novice into the water says it all.

When I first heard of this I can not even repeat the words I uttered. Money will never repair the damage this has caused, only time to enable the ecosystem to repair its self will do. The lively hoods that are effected by this, well money will help them but…..

Only $75 million what a joke!

[Trigger]

When companies like BP or any of the other oil compaies big or small trade and set about crreating hige proffits they take on a responsiblity to not only the nation where they work but also the planet as a whole.
As a result all those concerned should bare the cost of a clean up that they have caused or has been caused in their name, not only do these greedy companies owe the nations they work in a duty of care but that goes for for all the nations and peoples of the planet! it is clear when things like this happen that the very companies we trust have not really become as advanced and careful as we have all been led to believe.

[johnorlitta]

Offshore drilling has been around for quite some time, so you would think that there would be some type of emergency plan in place as soon as things like this happen. It took days to have a structure fabricated to try to cap it off, shouldn't something like that been made ahead of time and on standby? The latest solution is to siphon the oil from the break up to the surface and into a ship, also the Coast Guard has been given the go ahead to use an oil dispersing chemical under water, something that has never been tried before and could have harmful effects on the ocean floor. To make matters worse, oil is seeping out of a 10 mile stretch across the ocean bottom. Alternative fuel sources are sounding really good to me right about now folks.

[Shockwave]

It definitely sucks, I think this will be the nail in the coffin though for oil and the USA. We will up all efforts into other alternatives for fuel instead of oil most likely as the result of this.

I for one am a believer of the obvious, Solar is the way to go, all money should be dumped into solar energy research. Its there, we just need to tap it correctly and not with these useless solar panels that cost thousands of dollars and only power a few light bulbs. By the time you get a payback you have to buy new panels again. Also i believe in the ocean tides creating energy. Every time a wave its the coast it could be moving a generator to create electricity. The amount of power could easily rival Niagra Falls as far as output if done correctly.

[johnorlitta]

I like the idea of the windmill system that is currently being used in the North Sea (?) to generate electricity, and hydrogen to power cars and trucks. I remember a program on TV where someone demonstrated how to extract hydrogen from water, using a system that operates on solar power.

[rice_pudding]

New energy scources are a must in the longterm, but i think the US will turn to Gas first. I watched a programme on CNBC last year, they were debating energy solutions and supposedly the US has more gas than Russia. Im sure the fish would prefer to go green all the way but governments are goverments so gas would be a no brainer...

Rob

[johnorlitta]

Natural gas burns cleaner than oil, but oil burns hotter and is more energy efficient than gas. But I prefer gas between the two, because with oil you are a slave to the fluctuating cost per gallon, and you have to depend on an oil delivery truck to fill your oil tank, which can be quite often if it gets very cold outside. Also, if your oil furnace burner is not set up properly, or is dirty, your whole house will smell of oil. And if water condensates in your oil tank, it might get in the fuel line and get sucked into the burner, which really screws things up. Natural gas furnaces will have problems, but not as many as oil fired furnaces.

[Tito]

ARMAGGEDON WE ARE GONNA BE BURNT ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Sarab]

It is going to definately going to hurt us. People will not want to come here. We are already seeing the increase of price on seafood. One of our slogans "Sportsmans Paradise" is now a joke. This is worse than Exxon Valdez. As of yesterday, they still don't know if what they did to stop the leak worked. They'll know in a couple days. I'm so sick of all of this. This problem should have been fixed a long time ago. I hope that if y'all have been here have had some of our seafood, as the next time, it'll probably be imported in, rather than freshly caught in the gulf, and pay a hefty price.

[johnorlitta]

The "top kill" method that BP was putting so much faith in to stop the leak does not seem to be working.

I live in the Newark Bay/ Raritan Bay area of NJ, there is no shrimping here but some people go for crab, fluke, stripers, ect. We have quite a bit of oil refining going on in the bay area, and although I love to eat fish I think twice before eating anything that is caught around here. It's getting better than what it used to be like though, thanks to the efforts of environmentalists and the EPA. But still you would have to go out more than 5 miles to put some trust in what you catch. Taking into consideration the damage that a century of polluting has done in the NJ bay areas, it really bothers me to see what is happening in the gulf.

[RR-ElectricAngel]

Here in Texas at Luby's Cafeteria they put a sign up, "Due to the Gulf Oil Spill all seafood will be imported from northern areas." Today I read that BP will not be able to stop the leak until at least August. This is from AOL News:

BOOTHVILLE, La. (May 30) -- There is still a hole in the Earth, crude oil is still spewing from it and there is still, excruciatingly, no end in sight. After trying and trying again, one of the world's largest corporations, backed and pushed by the world's most powerful government, can't stop the runaway gusher.

As desperation grows and ecological misery spreads, the operative word on the ground now is, incredibly, August - the earliest moment that a real resolution could be at hand. And even then, there's no guarantee of success. For the United States and the people of its beleaguered Gulf Coast, a dispiriting summer of oil and anger lies dead ahead.

Oh ... and the Atlantic hurricane season begins Tuesday.

The latest attempt - using a remote robotic arm to stuff golf balls and assorted debris into the gash in the seafloor - didn't work. On Sunday, as churches echoed with prayers for a solution, BP PLC said it would focus on containment rather than plugging the undersea puncture wound, effectively redirecting the mess it made rather than stopping it. Yet the new plan carries the risk of making the torrent worse, as top government officials warned Sunday.

"We failed to wrestle this beast to the ground," said BP Managing Director Bob Dudley, doing the rounds of the Sunday talk shows.

As the oil washes ashore, crude-coated birds have become a frequent sight. At the sea's bottom, no one knows what the oil will do to species like the newly discovered bottom-dwelling pancake batfish - and others that remain unknown but just as threatened.

Scientists from several universities have reported large underwater plumes of oil stretching for miles and reaching hundreds of feet beneath the Gulf's surface, though BP PLC CEO Tony Hayward on Sunday disputed their findings, saying the company's tests found no such evidence of oily clouds underwater.