The lunacy lies in big oil's complete lack of regard for the environment and complete capitulation to record profits at any cost to others.
I was flabbergasted when BP first started trying to fix the Gulf leak. Every time something failed their excuse was that they had never done that in water this deep before. That they had begun deep water drilling in such a confined area as the Gulf apparently without knowing what they were doing or how to do it seems beyond absurd. It seems pure insanity. However, the Gulf is far from the largest oil spill in the world. Not counting Deepwater Horizon, the ten largest oil spills in the world are as follows: 1. Kuwait - 1991 - 520 million gallons. Iraqi forces opened the valves of several oil tankers in order to slow the invasion of American troops. The oil slick was four inches thick and covered 4000 square miles of ocean. 2. Mexico - 1980 - 100 million gallons. An accident in an oil well caused an explosion which then caused the well to collapse. The well remained open, spilling 30,000 gallons a day into the ocean for a full year. 3. Trinidad and Tobago - 1979 - 90 million. During a tropical storm off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago, a Greek oil tanker collided with another ship, and lost nearly its entire cargo. 4. Russia - 1994 - 84 million gallons. A broken pipeline in Russia leaked for eight months before it was noticed and repaired. 5. Persian Gulf - 1983 - 80 million gallons. A tanker collided with a drilling platform which, eventually, collapsed into the sea. The well continued to spill oil into the ocean for seven months before it was repaired. 6. South Africa - 1983 - 79 million gallons. A tanker cought fire and was abandoned before sinking 25 miles off the coast of Saldanha Bay. 7. France - 1978 - 69 million gallons. A tanker's rudder was broken in a severe storm, despite several ships responding to its distress call, the ship ran aground and broke in two. It's entire payload was dumped into the English Channel. 8. Angola - 1991 - more than 51 million gallons. The tanker expolded, exact quantity of spill unknown 9. Italy - 1991 - 45 million gallons. The tanker exploded and sank off the coast of Italy and continued leaking it's oil into the ocean for 12 years. 10. Odyssey Oil Spill - 1988 - 40 million gallons. 700 nautical miles off the cost of Nova Scotia. Which puts the Deepwater Horizon spill between number four and five at the present time. The total amount of oil spilled just in the ten largest is more than a BILLION gallons of oil between 1978 and 1991 dumped into the oceans. I'm not being an apologist for BP but just trying to put 84 million gallons in perspective. It's a horrific disaster, no doubt. But we will get past it and recover from it. I was also taken aback by the rest of big oil's attitude. Each said they'd never have done it the way BP did it yet they are all conducting deepwater drilling and even more dangerous drilling in highly sensitive areas in much the same way BP conducts its drilling operations. Full speed ahead and damn the consequences. It seems to me the best answer is to get our well-oiled asses out of oil as fast as we can. Like the ethanol ads say, 100 million gallons and no one injured, none spilled and the environment is cleaner for it. /e
