am i the only one freaked out about the massive oil screwup?

[mikemc]

so, once upon a time there was a massive oil company with advanced technology that allowed them to put up an oil rig waaaaayyy out in the middle of the gulf of mexico only it caught fire in an unexplained way for unknown reasons and tipped over completely and nobody has interviewed any of the people that escaped from the rig on TV.

And, oh, the advanced technology they had still left out a piece that other oil rigs have that allows them to shut off the wellhead by remote control from a boat and the the thing that was supposed shut the well head didn't work and now there will be oil from here to everywhere the gulf stream flows because it will take months to shut it off and that is probably bullshit because nobody's ever done it before and they are pure unadulterated pure absolute fail all the time anyway.

[edit] and they suck. if we were venezuela or peru we would have seized all of their stuff and nationalized them but we aren't so we will wank ourselves.

[edit edit] and no more all you can eat shrimp bitches!

[UKRuss]

You are right to be concerned Mike.

a million barrels of oil a week that sukka is pumping out and it will do for the next three months.

[tadpole fingers]

I'm sure someone who is sipping on $50,000 wine while lounging in his $100,000,000 fortress would love to answer those questions for you.

[beats me]

Expect gas to be $4.00+ a gallon by mid summer. Of course this disaster doesn't justify that hike but they'll use it anyway and the ignorant public will just roll with it.

[H20nly]

^ no fucking joke.



I hate the fact that the wild life and beaches have to be hit like this. From the human perspective though this is good. People will eventually finally get the message and start to make the changes. This is one more giant fucking reason to illustrate why all those other solutions that have been ignored for so long are... just better. When the beaches and tiny little toes that walk on them are covered in black shit, all the seafood is grossly overpriced and the price of gasoline goes up too... the shockwave will be felt - and maybe even heeded.

[nebulae]

I'm concerned for Louisiana. They've been hit hard enough. Why not go after fucking Sweden or some place that never gets shit on.

[ethios4]

Yea, this is super fucked. I'm glad it at least happened before bills were signed allowing much more off-shore drilling. Unbelievable that measures were not in place to deal with this....inexcusable.

[beats me]

I'm glad it at least happened before bills were signed allowing much more off-shore drilling.

Oh I don't think the timing is a coincidence.

And all the tree huggers will see this as a huge warning/triumph while there's still no viable backup alternative to oil. I still need to get my ass to work fuckers.

[nebulae]

The world is about to become a much bigger place again.

[H20nly]

I'm glad it at least happened before bills were signed allowing much more off-shore drilling.

Oh I don't think the timing is a coincidence.

And all the tree huggers will see this as a huge warning/triumph while there's still no viable backup alternative to oil that Exxon didn't already buy up all the patents on.

fixed.

[beats me]

I'm glad it at least happened before bills were signed allowing much more off-shore drilling.

Oh I don't think the timing is a coincidence.

And all the tree huggers will see this as a huge warning/triumph while there's still no viable backup alternative to oil that Exxon didn't already buy up all the patents on.

fixed.

Oh no you din't!!!


OK, you did.

[H20nly]

I read an article in High Times around '94 where this old dude in New York had converted his VW bug so that it would run on vegetable/canola/corn/you name it oil. He would fry up fish and french fries for dinner and then strain the oil and put it right in to the gas tank. The mileage was just as good. It was in High Times because they were going off about how cheap and easy hemp oil is to produce. Anywaaaaay, to make a long story short, Exxon made him rich and that was the last we heard of that. Apparently they have a room full of filing cabinets with similar innovations gathering dust.

Have you ever read about the Stanley Steamer? My dad used to go on and on about it... it ran on... steam. It went just as fast in reverse as it did going forward. It broke land speed records around the turn of the century. The amount of moving parts in the engine?... LOL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Mo ... ge_Company

Much like the Gulf War and the War on Terrorism, its not about the oil, its about the money. As long as oil is worth more it'll keep getting pumped, despite the relevance or irrelevance of outdated technology like the internal combustion engine.

[LoopStationZebra]

nationalized them

Oh god. Oh god no.

[Angstrom]

I read an article in High Times around '94 where this old dude in New York had converted his VW bug so that it would run on vegetable/canola/corn/you name it oil. He would fry up fish and french fries for dinner and then strain the oil and put it right in to the gas tank. The mileage was just as good. It was in High Times because they were going off about how cheap and easy hemp oil is to produce. Anywaaaaay, to make a long story short, Exxon made him rich and that was the last we heard of that. Apparently they have a room full of filing cabinets with similar innovations gathering dust.

That's a really well known process... and was commercialized as Biodeisel.

The homebrew variety just needs a bit of Lye processing to lower the viscosity of the cooking oil (although you can just use straight cooking oil if you hate your engine). The main problem is that it doesn't scale up to commercial levels very well. There may be a lot of deep fat frying going on in the USA, but it wont cover the fuel requirement.

Anyway - there's no conspiracy there - it's just simply not possible to scale it up without raping the third world utterly.

Current worldwide production of vegetable oil and animal fat is not sufficient to replace liquid fossil fuel use. Furthermore, some object to the vast amount of farming and the resulting fertilization, pesticide use, and land use conversion that would be needed to produce the additional vegetable oil. The estimated transportation diesel fuel and home heating oil used in the United States is about 160 million tons (350 billion pounds) according to the Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy -.[51] In the United States, estimated production of vegetable oil for all uses is about 11 million tons (24 billion pounds) and estimated production of animal fat is 5.3 million tonnes (12 billion pounds).[52]

Oh, and note - in the UK our petrol (gas) is currently $7.75USD per gallon
prices across Europe are similar

[mikemc]

nationalized them

Oh god. Oh god no.

you don't think? Of course British Petroleum is no more British than Exxon is American, it is a supranational entity that has laid a huge turd in an economically and ecologically important place. If they can't stop it, they go to court, and what do you bet the court says "hmmm... you owe us... all your stuff. That's right, the bill comes to All Your Stuff".

[edit] the Gulf Stream, man... it is incredibly important.