Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (22061)	7/23/2010 12:57:28 PM
From: Eric	Respond to of 86356

Spill Commission Hires Counsel The presidential panel investigating the BP oil spill has taken on one of George W. Bush’s top lawyers in the Florida recount battle as its chief counsel, the commission announced on Thursday. Fred H. Bartlit Jr., a founding partner of the law firm Bartlit, Beck, Herman, Palenchar & Scott, will lead the investigation into the causes of the April 20 blowout and fire aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Bartlit is considered one of the nation’s top litigators, having led a variety of white-collar, product liability, financial fraud and antitrust cases. He was one of the lead investigators in Piper Alpha North Sea Oil Platform disaster in 1988, in which 160 people died. He was part of the team that successfully represented Mr. Bush in the legal battles that led to the Supreme Court decision that halted the recount of the disputed Florida ballots. “This is an extraordinary appointment,” said Richard Lazarus, a Georgetown law professor recently hired as the commission’s executive director. “It underscores the commission’s commitment to a searching, rigorous and fair inquiry into the root causes of the gulf oil spill disaster.” Mr. Bartlit was trial counsel during the Piper Alpha hearings in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1990, according to a news release from the commission. His investigation underpinned the judicial Cullen Report, which brought broad changes in North Sea drilling practices, the panel said. Mr. Bartlit is a 1954 graduate of the United States Military Academy, with a degree in engineering, and a former Army Ranger. He received his law degree from the University of Illinois. The commission, named in May by President Obama, is led by Bob Graham, a Democratic former Florida governor and senator, and William K. Reilly, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under the first President Bush. It is expected to complete its work early next year. An earlier version of this post misstated the timing of the Piper Alpha North Sea Oil Platform disaster. It was in 1988, not 1989. green.blogs.nytimes.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (22061)	7/23/2010 2:44:24 PM
From: Eric	Respond to of 86356

First details on China oil spill's cause emerge BEIJING — The first details emerged Friday on the cause of China's largest reported oil spill, while environmentalists urged the government to do more to warn local residents of potential danger, saying children are playing still off nearby beaches. Chinese authorities gave no update Friday on the size of the oil spill, which had spread over at least 165 square miles (430 square kilometers) of water after a pipeline at the busy northeastern port of Dalian exploded a week ago. The disaster has caused China to take a hard look at its ports, some of the busiest in the world. The explosion was caused when workers continued to inject desulfurizer into the pipeline after a tanker had finished unloading oil, according to a statement posted Friday on the website of the State Administration of Work Safety. A desulfurizer is a chemical substance used to remove high sulfur content from crude oil. The statement said the explosion remains under investigation. The pipeline is owned by China National Petroleum Corp., Asia's biggest oil and gas producer by volume. State media have said oil operations at the Xingang port have resumed. China's transport ministry ordered ports across the country to have emergency response plans and hold regular safety drills, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. The ministry will also establish a database of all ports that handle dangerous goods, the People's Daily newspaper reported. Officials have warned of a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality as China's latest environmental crisis spread off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city. One cleanup worker drowned this week, his body coated in crude. Cleanup workers have reported using chopsticks and their bare hands to remove the gooey oil from the sea, while state media said 2,000 soldiers, 40 oil-skimming boats and hundreds of fishing boats were helping with the cleanup. Environmental group Greenpeace, which has a team at the scene, urged the government to warn residents on nearby coastlines of the dangers. "Greenpeace was ... surprised to see that the beaches have not been closed to visitors and lack any warning signs," Greenpeace China said in a statement Friday evening. "As a result, locals and visitors unaware of the extent of the oil spill were playing in the water with their kids, risking exposure to petroleum." It said fishermen without equipment were doing most of the cleanup work at one of Dalian's most popular beaches, Jinshitan. "They don't even have face masks, the most basic and necessary of precautions. They don't even know that they need to protect their skin from crude oil," said Zhong Yu, one of the Greenpeace workers. "We strongly urge the government to send professional staff and safety equipment to work on the cleanup process," Zhong said in the group's statement. The foreign affairs office for the city of Dalian did not immediately respond to questions Friday about the cleanup or warning signs on beaches. State media has said no more oil is leaking into the sea, but the total amount of oil spilled is not yet clear. China Central Television earlier reported an estimate of 1,500 tons of oil has spilled. That would amount roughly to 400,000 gallons (1,500,000 liters) — as compared with 94 million to 184 million gallons in the BP oil spill off the U.S. coast. chron.com

To: Road Walker who wrote (22061)	7/23/2010 4:05:06 PM
From: Eric	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

Deepwater Horizon alarms were switched off 'to help workers sleep' Alarms and safety mechanisms on gulf disaster oil rig were disabled, chief technician at Transocean reveals Vital warning systems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were switched off at the time of the explosion in order to spare workers being woken by false alarms, a federal investigation has heard. The revelation that alarm systems on the rig at the centre of the disaster were disabled – and that key safety mechanisms had also consciously been switched off – came in testimony by a chief technician working for Transocean, the drilling company that owned the rig. Mike Williams, who was in charge of maintaining the rig's electronic systems, was giving evidence to the federal panel in New Orleans that is investigating the cause of the disaster on 20 April, which killed 11 people. Williams told the hearing today that no alarms went off on the day of the explosion because they had been "inhibited". Sensors monitoring conditions on the rig and in the Macondo oil well beneath it were still working, but the computer had been instructed not to trigger any alarms in case of adverse readings. Both visual and sound alarms should have gone off in the case of sensors detecting fire or dangerous levels of combustible or toxic gases. The evidence of deliberate dilution of the rig's safety mechanisms is likely to have wide ramifications for BP and Transocean, the world's largest offshore drilling company. It switches the spotlight of blame away from BP and towards the subcontractor which took the decisions. Of the 126 crew on board the rig on 20 April, seven worked for BP and 79 for Transocean. Williams said he discovered that the physical alarm system had been disabled a full year before the disaster. When he asked why, he said he was told that the view from even the most senior Transocean official on the rig had been that "they did not want people woken up at three o'clock in the morning due to false alarms". Williams' testimony will raise questions about whether lives could have been saved had the alarms been properly set and the disaster mitigated. He also revealed that a crucial safety device, designed to shut down the drill shack in the case of dangerous gas levels being detected, had been disabled, or bypassed as it is called. When he saw that the system had been bypassed, Williams protested to a Transocean supervisor, Mark Hay, who dismissed his concerns. Hay responded: "Damn thing been in bypass for five years. Matter of fact, the entire fleet runs them in bypass." In a third significant disclosure, Williams also revealed that a computer system used to monitor the drill shack was constantly freezing up, and on one occasion even produced wrong information. The system failed to indicate that a vital valve inside the blowout preventer, the device designed to shut down the well in case of problems, had been damaged. Pressure is now likely to mount on Transocean to explain the discrepancies. The New York Times reported earlier this week that a survey of workers carried out by Transocean shortly before the blast suggested key safety practices had not been followed. Workers said that, while they were aware of unsafe practices on the rig, they were afraid to report mistakes for fear of reprisals. A BP spokesman said last night: "The investigations continue to demonstrate that a range of things went wrong and that responsibility lies with a whole load of different companies." guardian.co.uk

To: Road Walker who wrote (22061)	7/30/2010 2:44:29 PM
From: TimF	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 86356

Employing more people to produce the same amount of energy is a cost not a benefit. Considering it to be a benfefit brings to mind an old story about Milton Friedman in India - -- Reportedly, while traveling by car during one of his many overseas travels, Friedman spotted scores of road builders moving earth with shovels. When he asked why powerful equipment wasn’t used instead of so many laborers, his host told him it was to keep unemployment low. If they used tractors, fewer people would have jobs was his host’s logic. "Then why don’t you give them spoons?" Friedman inquired. mackinac.org