Gulf Coast Oil Spill

[firebug]

Originally Posted by Azure

Point.

100 million gallons of oil cannot ruin 625 quadrillion gallons of seawater; that ratio is only 1:6,250,000,000. You probably have more oil in your drinking water...

Better let the homeopaths know.

We could probably replace the entire US domestic fuel requirements with just a few gallons of this 5C diluted Super Oil.

/derail

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by Azure

Point.

100 million gallons of oil cannot ruin 625 quadrillion gallons of seawater; that ratio is only 1:6,250,000,000. You probably have more oil in your drinking water...

You probably have more of just about anything in your drinking water than that.

[worth]

peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[photon]

Originally Posted by Pinner

Really sorry about that.

You OK ? Again, I'm really sorry.

I'm fine, I was only asking you to stop posting in bold because you aren't a unique snowflake that needs to stand out, thereby inconveniencing everyone else by making the whole thread more difficult to read, but I asked politely because it would have been rude to say that out loud.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Why did Nancy Pelosi block an independent investigation into the Deepwater Horizon oil spill?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38284

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stripped out authorization for an independent investigation into the Gulf disaster."

“To investigate what went wrong and keep it from happening again, the commission must include members who have expertise in petroleum engineering. The President’s Commission has none,”


This fails the smell test....

[Phaneuf3]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100729/...exas_rejection

BP denies Texas a cash advance for oil spill cleanup and Texas is not happy about it. Wasn't the congressman that bitched about the setup of this fund and called it a shakedown and felt the need to apologize to BP for it, from Texas?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Phaneuf3

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100729/...exas_rejection

BP denies Texas a cash advance for oil spill cleanup and Texas is not happy about it. Wasn't the congressman that bitched about the setup of this fund and called it a shakedown and felt the need to apologize to BP for it, from Texas?

Sounds like reasonable grounds for a rejection to me.

BP is responsible for considerable damages, obviously, but those claiming damages should have to justify their claims instead of expecting an arbitrary blank cheque as Texas requested.

There is considerable potential for fraud in this process and, for BP, the bill is already large enough without having to deal with that factor as well.

Cowperson

[CaptainCrunch]

I agree Cow, it didn't take people long to try to defraud after 9/11/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=2183522&page=1

[Azure]

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Nearly three-fourths of oil from the BP (BP.L)(BP.N) spill is gone from the Gulf of Mexico, with 26 percent remaining as a sheen or tarballs, buried in sediment or washed ashore, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday.

"It is estimated that burning, skimming and direct recovery from the wellhead removed one quarter (25 percent) of the oil released from the wellhead," the scientists said in the report "BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Budget: What Happened to the Oil?"

Another 25 percent naturally evaporated or dissolved and 24 percent was dispersed, either naturally or "as the result of operations," into small droplets, the report said.

The rest of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude spilled into the Gulf after the April 20 rig explosion that triggered the leak is either on or just beneath the water's surface as "light sheen or weathered tarballs," has washed ashore where it may have been collected, or is buried in sand and sediments at the sea bottom.

The report found 33 percent of the oil has been dealt with by the Unified Command, which includes government and private efforts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0424782620100804

[Cowperson]

Where did the oil go?

A scientist says a newly discovered microbe ate it. Loves the stuff.

The Gulf of Mexico ecosystem was ready and waiting for something like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and seems to have made the most of it, a new scientific study suggests.

Petroleum-eating bacteria - which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor - proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing the amount of oil in the undersea "plume" by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?nav=hcmodule

Cowperson

[Bill Bumface]

*yawn*

... I for one welcome our new oil eating bacteria overlords and all of that...

That is pretty amazing. I wonder what eats that bacteria? There is probably going to end up being some happy fish out of the deal. Hopefully they are edible and tasty.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Where did the oil go?

A scientist says a newly discovered microbe ate it. Loves the stuff.

The Gulf of Mexico ecosystem was ready and waiting for something like the Deepwater Horizon blowout, and seems to have made the most of it, a new scientific study suggests.

Petroleum-eating bacteria - which had dined for eons on oil seeping naturally through the seafloor - proliferated in the cloud of oil that drifted underwater for months after the April 20 accident. They not only outcompeted fellow microbes, they each ramped up their own internal metabolic machinery to digest the oil as efficiently as possible.

The result was a nature-made cleanup crew capable of reducing the amount of oil in the undersea "plume" by half about every three days, according to research published online Tuesday by the journal Science.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...l?nav=hcmodule

Cowperson

Wait.... so does this mean the tar sands actually are worse than the Gulf Coast Oil Spill?!??!

In all seriousness, that is amazing--and I'm no scientist, but it sure sounds like good news to me.

[Bobblehead]

Here is a bit more in depth article.

Speaking of deep-sea plumes, “I’ve heard rumors they might have gone missing,” notes David Valentine, a microbial geochemist at the University of California, Santa Barbara — but currents might simply have moved them into hiding. It would be nice to think the oil has been removed, he says. “But if it sounds too good to be true,” he cautions, “it probably is.” And yes, “This sounds too good to be true.”

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gene...e_goes_missing

Reading this article it sounds to me like some scientists are just afraid to declare the bacteria as a saviour, but it would be nice to know that mother nature took care of herself.

[flylock shox]

Dear God. This is right out of Spy Daddy.

Only Jackie Chan can save us now.

[Pinner]

Eco-warrior Brad Pitt is so appalled by the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico he wants those responsible for the chaos to be executed.

The movie star insists he's an opponent of the death penalty, but he'd make an exception for the BP bosses behind the 100-day-plus oil leak, which has become America's greatest environmental disaster.

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world...enn-story.html

[CaptainCrunch]

Wow, so he's oppossed to murderers and child rapists getting fried, but not oil company executives.

Its called priorities Brad.

[zuluking]

Brad Pitt makes me laugh.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yup, pretty much on the same level as Matt Damon in Team America.

Tim Robbins: Let me explain to you how this works: you see, the corporations finance Team America, and then Team America goes out... and the corporations sit there in their... in their corporation buildings, and... and, and see, they're all corporation-y... and they make money.

[Barnes]

Bacteria.

Cleans Jamie Lee Curtis' bowels and oil!

[burn_this_city]

I wonder if eco warrior knows his private jet doesnt run on hopes and dreams. According to scientists the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez leaks in the gulf every year through natural seeps. Its not surprising the bacteria have multiplied rapidly to consume the oil.