Originally Posted By mousermerf <<<You come off as conceited and ignorant. Stick to photgraphing construction walls at Epcot, that seems more befitting a person of your mental capacity.>>> You're just a hypocrite.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Anyone who says this is not an environmental disaster has been spending too much time around gas fumes. Two of the biggest industries to the Gulf Coast (fishing and tourism) are going to be significantly impacted by this. My coworker cancelled her trip to Pensacola because her husband didn't want to "smell the oil". Whether the oil gets there or not isn't even relevant. It is about perception and the hoteliers and restauranteurs who see sales decline will certainly label this a disaster. Now, after all of that I have to say I'm not ready to state that drilling in the gulf should be banned. But, let's call this what this is....a disaster.
Originally Posted By Mr X Wahoo...you continue to surprise. You are the type of reasonable conservative that it is a pleasure to have a *real* conversation with (no matter the subject matter). Thanks.
Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575214593564769072.html" target="_blank">http://online.wsj.com/article/...072.html</a> That liberals rag, the Wall Street Journal, is reporting the culprit might be the cement pouring done by...Halliburton. Lovely. First they scam us out of billions in Iraq, provide our soldiers with subpar services, and now this.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Well, to be fair I am a Floridian and I do have a bit of an agenda in that I'm the incoming President of a professional association that is very much concerned about Florida's outdoor spaces. I'm also a realist. We depend too much on foreign oil and alternative energy sources just aren't coming to market at affordable prices. So, oil is a necessary evil. Until such time as a real alternative presents itself we either continue relying on foreign oil (and deal with the trouble that gets us into) or we continue drilling close to home. It sucks...to be sure.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<Until such time as a real alternative presents itself we either continue relying on foreign oil (and deal with the trouble that gets us into) or we continue drilling close to home.>> Actually, even if we drilled ALL of the local sources available to us, I think we would still only be able to supply less than 50% of our energy needs with domestic oil production. (I'd have to go do some research to get the "exact" percentage.) So, drilling in the Gulf doesn't really do much of anything - we STILL have to deal with those foreign sources if we continue to rely on oil to produce the vast majority of our energy needs. And the sad thing about all this is that even in the face of this disaster, I don't here anyone calling very loudly for America to "kick the oil habit". All I here is how they're going to find safer ways of drilling, blah, blah, blah. For some reason I'm getting the feeling that ALL of our polititions, on both sides of the aisle, are in the pockets of Big Oil, and nothing is going to change that anytime soon.
Originally Posted By ecdc In fairness, I don't know who to believe when it comes to oil drilling. One side tells us that drilling in Alaska or off the coast would practically result in 99 cent gas again. The other tells us that doing so would only help our oil problem for about 5 minutes. That's my hyperbole, of course, but it seems difficult to know for sure. What does seem clear, regardless of who you believe, is that oil is a finite resource fraught with hazards, both environmental and political. I just do not get this country sometimes. This is yet another issue that seems so obvious - we need renewable resources and a new way of thinking about how to generate power and move into the future. How do these things that aren't really political issues in other countries - the environment, energy independence, etc. - become so polarized here? How do we end up with a group of people screaming, "Drill baby, drill!" as if defying common sense is hyper-patroitic, bordering on fetishist? I'm at a loss.
Originally Posted By fkurucz >>The area that is hurting failed to plan. Fail to plan, plan to fail. They were warned.<< Seems to me that it was BP who "failed to plan".
Originally Posted By wahooskipper To pls point, I have to assume that there is greater flexibility when you are relying on foreign interests for 50% of your oil instead of 80%. And, I'm with ecdc on the benefit/risk. I risk sounding like a NIMBY person here...but...I remember a comedian talking about the protests to drilling in Alaska. He said something like, "ask the thousands of people opposed to drilling in Alaska to keep their arms up if they have ever BEEN to Alaska...or plan on going. The not-so-subtle point being that the dangers to the economy in the Gulf somewhat outweigh the dangers to the economy of Alaska.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<He said something like, "ask the thousands of people opposed to drilling in Alaska to keep their arms up if they have ever BEEN to Alaska...or plan on going.>> That's not really all that great of an argument - just because I've never lived in or visited Alaska doesn't mean that I can't want to protect that environment from destruction. What about the rainforests of South America? Do I have to live there or visit to object to their being cut-down? Let's face it, these types of issues are no longer just limited to the areas where they happen - they have far more global impact than that, and are therefore something that we all need to worry about.
Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/03/oil.spill.environmental.impacts/index.html?hpt=Sbin" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/...hpt=Sbin</a> More on how this is a pretty big deal: >>As oil began approaching the coast of the United States, environmental scientists said the effects of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico could have ecological and biological consequences for years, if not decades. The intricate ecosystem is a major source of seafood for the United States and hundreds of species of animals and plants are at risk, experts said.<< Please note that one of the experts is a biologist in Houston who studies coastal wetlands. So that seems to fit mousemerf's request to listen to "local" biologists.
