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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cirrus who wrote (190761)	5/2/2010 3:09:54 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361855

That's what's wrong with the U.S. regulators of coal mining and oil drilling -- they aren't tough enough...they don't require ALL the available best in class safety measures to be used...BP should have to earn the right to drill a very risky ultra deep exploratory well in the Gulf...Regulators should question the use of Halliburton as a subcontractor (we know how Cheney's old firm has performed in Iraq)...Regulators should require an acoustic switch, which is activated from off-site when a platform is damaged and the primary shut-off system doesn’t work. Norwegian companies have used the system on almost all its offshore drills since 1993, and it is effectively required by Norway and Brazil. Why doesn't the U.S. go with best in class safety measures...?? The Oil Industry lobbyists have way too much influence but the Gulf contains very sensitive ecosystems and supplies over 1/3 of the nation's seafood...Everything possible should be done to prevent a catestrophic accident like the one BP is dealing with...And my hunch is that we'll eventually find out that BP and the U.S. regulators failed to do adequate scenario planning to insure the best possible response IF the worst case happens.

To: cirrus who wrote (190761)	5/2/2010 4:42:43 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 361855

Off-shore drilling is similar to nuclear power in that the disasters they cause are few and far between. The problem is that when those systems do fail, the results are catastrophic. A recent article regarding Chernobyl indicated that perhaps a million people died because of it. But we are still told that nuclear power is safe because the big accident didn't happen in this country. We have been listening to corporate propaganda about the safety of off-shore drilling for years. And now we find that when the rare event does come to pass, the entire tier of southern states will suffer, probably for decades. And don't think this will end off-shore drilling. As soon as possible, the United States government will restart continued drilling, just like they are restarting the nuclear industry...Even with the Dems and Obama in power we don't have a really strong commitment to make massive investments in "Clean" Green Energy technologies -- not on the scale that is required...It takes strong leadership and this country is WAY BEHIND China when it comes to our level of investment in wind and solar power.