What were they thinking

[grayeagle48]

To start drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, or
any ocean for that matter without having a plan
in place to stop a potential catastrophic disaster
such as the one in Gulf of Mexico is just utter
insanity, what on earth were these people
thinking.

Should criminal charges be levied???


Jeremiah 50:38 A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad (insane) upon their idols.

 

[ModCon]

Criminal charges-definately.

Our goverment needs to correct the problem of not being able to step in and fix the negligence that BP did.

Know the fix, then know what to do if the fix doesn't work. Maybe even plan on what to do when the second backup doesn't work.

this case, the fix was to shut off the valve, but something went wrong and the valve didn't work. They stepped back and threw their hands in the air, with no direction to go.

Proaction beats reaction everytime.

Criminal charges for the inspectors too. The ones that passed this well. It sounds like they were corrupt or inept.

 

[trunks2k]

Our goverment needs to correct the problem of not being able to step in and fix the negligence that BP did.

Which sounds nice, but the resources that would require would be immense, and that's just for one situation. It's realistic to properly regulate, but it's not realistic to expect to be able to fix every problem. Unfortunately, there's not straightforward solutions to how to fix things when they do go wrong.

this case, the fix was to shut off the valve, but something went wrong and the valve didn't work. They stepped back and threw their hands in the air, with no direction to go.

I disagree. They didn't throw their hands up in the air. They tried at least two other tactics (putting that "top hat" thing over the leak in two different configurations). Those both failed as well. So plan A, B, and C failed. It'd be nice if we were sure other steps would work, but I doubt it's that easy.

Proaction beats reaction everytime.

I agree. Unfortunately human nature seems to like to wait until there's a serious problem, before trying to fix the root cause.

 

[BotanicalBob]

Which sounds nice, but the resources that would require would be immense, and that's just for one situation. It's realistic to properly regulate, but it's not realistic to expect to be able to fix every problem. Unfortunately, there's not straightforward solutions to how to fix things when they do go wrong.

Except these things happen about once a decade.

It should be required that all wells have those shutoff valves, and that a list of contingency plans be developed and put into working order before an oil leak.

That big dome they tried to use should have been built and sitting in a dry dock just waiting for this to happen. Should have been out there in the first 48 hours.

Then again, a spill of this magnitude should have had a small nuke detonated near the well. Would have stopped a lot of damage we now have to deal with.

 

[interpreter]

Yes, the EPA should slap a huge fine on BP, whose stuff is always blowing up and polluting the earth.
And why doesn't someone at BP pick up the phone and call Red Addair's company here in Houston which has capped numerous wells like this?

 

[DaisyDay]

We don't know that there was no plan, just that no plan was successfully implemented (yet).

 

[JamesAH]

First they need to ban all foreigners from drilling in our waters.

 

[grayeagle48]

That big dome they tried to use should have been built and sitting in a dry dock just waiting for this to happen. Should have been out there in the first 48 hours.

Excellent point BB

 

[ArnautDaniel]

If they'd paid the full cost for damages, then there'd be no need for criminal sanctions.

However, they wont really pay the full cost, and once again we will have a case of private profits and socialized losses.

I suppose if damages will be socialized, then we should have criminal sanctions.

Realistically, I suspect if BP had to pay the full cost for damages, well the residents of the Gulf Coast would end up owning every last bit of BP that the US government could get its hands on...and that still wouldn't pay the full damages.

...

I've noted that free market types believe markets shouldn't be regulated by the government, but should effectively be regulated by the courts and the damages that are awarded when companies screw up (so you don't need regulations when the cost of damages is enough to persuade you to do things right).

However, when the screw up is big enough that the local public should really just end up owning the company, well free market types oppose that as amounting to socializing the company.

So free market types always end up believing damages should be socialized at some point.