New Orleans Residents Tell Oil Spill Commission: "Do The Right Damn Thing" in words and song
The Oil Spill Commission held its first hearing on the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Monday at the New Orleans Hilton. During the public comment portion, local residents came forward to tell their own stories of loss and fear and frustration over the oil spill and the moratorium.
When words failed, music prevailed.
I don't remember a time where I've seen a hearing like this. I hope another never needs to take place. Whether the Commission hears or not, I did. We all should.
But for all their passion and courage, they concerned me. Many comments concerned their fear that a moratorium would destroy their business and their livelihoods. Others expressed concern that New Orleans would die for certain under a moratorium.
Their testimony left me wondering how on earth drilling can be made safer without a moratorium. It's a no-win situation, unless there is a way to structure the ban in a way that fast-tracks safety measures or other procedures are put in place to keep these people from losing everything they've worked so hard for.
These are the voices of the ones on the front line. Six kids and a second chance slipping from the grasp of a mom. A fisherman. A musician. And a life they've known slipping away from them.
I don't envy this Commission. There aren't any easy answers. On the one hand, these people see a moratorium as insult to injury. On the other hand, not imposing a moratorium gives them at least a shred of a hope they'll survive.
Lyrics to BP Blues
grew up on the southern shore
Louisiana now there ain't no more
kickin mud off up a crawfish hole
barefooted with a fishin pole
make a living with my own two hands
hell it's part of being who I am
went to workin in the oil fields
that's the only way to pay our bills
and if i'm lucky i can have a son
take him hunting like his daddy done
get him workin on a shrimpin boat
up and down the Gulf of Mexico
eleven dead out on a deep sea rig
doin what it is they had to live
oil bleeding from a gaping hole
up and down the Gulf of Mexico
Morgan City down to Mobile Bay
Pascagula down to Fla
still i'm stuck out here for 7 more
watching everything turn black offshore
and brother even if they cap the well
hell it's just another oil spill
our way of life won't be around no more
and all I wanted was to go back home.
little brother he ain't feeling well,
what you spraying on that oil spill
how may of us gonna lose our lives
before the people get to work on time
kickin mud up off of a crawfish hole
barefooted with a fishing pole
goin back into the oil fields
that's the only way to pay our bills...
(h/t NewOrleans.com)
just a moratorium on B.P. drilling.
...and any other drilling company who uses Halliburton as a subcontractor.
...a moratorium on the use of corexit would be nice too.
audit-prosecute-incarcerate
If every there existed a corporation that
deserved the Death Penalty,
it's BP.
After all, corporations are "persons" too!
How many homicides has BP committed?
Would you or I be walking the streets as free men and women
if WE had killed as many people
as BP has killed?
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
Where is the difference???
This have their large oil spill in Alaska..
They got by with not paying the fines they should have or cleaning up the disaster they created..
They were just fortunate that they did not have this large of spill..
But there will be another one coming if they continue to let these Oil monopolies do as the please. With no oversight , laws and no concern for the environment they destroy..
None
I would put moratoriums on EVERY drilling platform put up since 2001
The year of chainey's classified meeting with oil execs and their PACs.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
And every platform has to be inspected ASAP
Since we don't know the last time they were inspected
Or if the inspections were passed with a wink and a nudge
By the Laurel and Hardy team of Nazis.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
At 2001.. 30 years ago they have problem stopping oil leaks at 200 feet in the Ocean.. BP had an oil spill in the Alaska pipe line which comes through U.S. The oil tankers do not have a double haul for safety because like every other safety factor it takes for the profit and funds for their stock holders..
None
Have local engineers conduct evaluations on each platform, write up reports, and shut down bad ones. The mandate should include that the oil industry will have to not only add safety measures, but pay for research into oil cleanup and prevention.
If other drilling operations by other companies copied response and readiness, then yes, ALL should be inspected. If they can provide proof of safety compliance and response readiness, then let them drill. If they can not, DO NOT let them continue until they comply.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Save the World.
The moratorium would effect only the
deep water wells. Roughly 35 out of 3400.
The worry they have is about oil in
general and I hope they all see less
of a future in oil and more of a
future in solar.
I mean, oil put the whaling ships out of
business. Things change.
The GOP wants to tell the unemployed
to take a different job? Why not the
same message for the oil industry
emplyees?
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
..that taking a lower-paying job is preferable to being a lazy leech on the nation.
That woman at the end is the one that got me. She broke my heart. Not only her story, but what it cost her to tell it.
Until they build those 100 new nuclear plants in 20 years..
Think Three mile Island or The Chernobyl nuclear accident was something.
Plus we are now going to take the whole world's nuclear waste and store it WHERE... No wonder The Bush Family has purchased a 98,840 acre ranch through a secretive land trust in Paraguay. The ranch, which is close to the Brazillian and Bolivean border is also located in proximity to natural gas reserves and a large water reserve...
These Global Empires run this government and country...
We do as they command///\\\
None
Start with a full and exhaustive investigation of all the technology and decisions made with regard to this and comparable wells. There won't be one cause. There will be many events and decisions that resulted in this fiasco. Then you try to engineer and regulate so that a repetition cannot occur. From the technical side there are many things that could be done to ensure better control of a blow out. Mandate twin shear rams spaced so that a drill collar won't prevent their functioning. Independent parallel control systems for all of the hydraulic actuators should be required as well. When you have done everything imaginable you will have significantly reduced the probability of a blow out. You will never eliminate the possibility.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
we can eliminate the possibility of a blow out , by getting off fossil fuels , really if " they want to offshore drill " let them do it on another planet . Oil does not make the world go around , its about money and power all else is bullshit to those in power .
It matters not to about billions of dollars to a parent trying to feed their family .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
the world go around it also makes just about everything we produce or use. Directly or indirectly it makes everything you eat, wear, drive or live in.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I'm a Louisianian, and I appreciate your empathy. My own job is in jeopardy now as a result of this, even though I don't work in the oil industry. The problem is, with oil and fisheries being the two largest industries in the southern part of this state, everything -- and I mean everything -- is connected to them in one way or another.
I don't want to be out of work, and I don't want to see others out of work. However, even if we manage to survive all of this, ultimately, Louisiana is going to have to change. For years, decades, we've known that something like this was eventually likely to happen, yet we took no steps to prevent it or to deal with it if it did happen. We've pretty much let the oil industry have its way with our state. Our wetlands have been in trouble for decades and are eroding at a phenomenal rate, yet we have allowed oil companies to cut canals through them with impunity. The people here have been downright contemptuous of environmentalists, and state government, while giving plenty of lip service to the ecological problem on the coast, has taken very few steps to actually address the problem.
Also, the people in this state need to realize that ecology is itself an industry. It's an industry that Louisiana should be leading. It should be thriving here, and Louisiana should be the model for the all the other coastal states. We should be the people who show others how to do it. If, whenever this is over, Louisiana doesn't change, if we go back to business as usual, then you'll not have cause to feel sorry for us the next time this happens. It'll be all our own fault.
And you're absolutely right. It's just a very, very painful process.
I'm coming back from Netroots Nation with a new, much better camera and then I'm visiting Mobile and Nawlins.
Website || Twitter
this affects us all , I mean us all ! .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
If the companies now employing up to 120,000 workers go on idle, then in order to retain their employees they will have to pay them for the down time. Valued and skilled workers are entitled to fair compensation since the industry requires scrutiny. Of course they will get paid to remain in idle until the imposed moratorium is lifted. Four and a half months of down time is not that big a deal when we're talking billions in profit from oil companies who get mind blowing exemptions for their sloppy, makeshift, shoddy, corner cutting, over-stating, oil spilling, environment wrecking work.
I do think claims for job losses in the five states effected should be met, whether you're an entertainer, table waiter, dishwasher, restaurant owner, or a janitor BP must pay!
Perhaps it is because it dealt with the complexity and paradox
involved in this issue without finding a villain to excoriate.
Perhaps not.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
But NewOrleans.com and Huffpost did both pick it up...at least the Drew Landry part, thanks to Karen Beninato. Hey, if Drew gets some gigs out of this, then at least we helped one guy out.
27,000 abandoned oil wells in Gulf of Mexico
July 7, 2010
There are 27,000 abandoned oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. In spite of the potential for oil leaks due to corrosion and underground pressure, the wells are not inspected by the US government or any agency within the oil industry. These revelations were uncovered as part of an investigative report conducted by the Associated Press which describes the Gulf of Mexico as “an environmental minefield.”
According to the AP, over half of the 50,000 wells which have been drilled in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico have been abandoned, with 23,500 of them considered permanently sealed. As many as 3,500 of the wells are considered “temporarily abandoned.” The oldest of the abandoned wells investigated by the AP date back to the 1940s.
Donaldd
Remember the Rick Roll?
In honor the Gulf spill disaster I'd like to introduce you to the Slick Roll: http://sjmdesign.com/yougotslickrolled.htm
Directions: just add http://bit.ly and enjoy:)
Example of use:
The gushing oil well has finally been stopped!: http://bit.ly/907hp7
You just have to drill the relief well at the same time that you drill the production well, so that if you need it you can do the bottom kill in days instead of months.
That, however, would require the oil company to spend some money and lose some profit, and we can't have that now can we?
Good News:
Ecuador has a new constitution that gives rights to nature!
http://*******.com/25fbzlq
Chapter: Rights for Nature
“Art. 1. Nature or Pachamama, where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution. Every person, people, community or nationality, will be able to demand the recognitions of rights for nature before the public organisms. The application and interpretation of these rights will follow the related principles established in the Constitution.
Art. 2. Nature has the right to an integral restoration. This integral restoration is independent of the obligation on natural and juridical persons or the State to indemnify the people and the collectives that depend on the natural systems. In the cases of severe or permanent environmental impact, including the ones caused by the exploitation on non renewable natural resources, the State will establish the most efficient mechanisms for the restoration, and will adopt the adequate measures to eliminate or mitigate the harmful environmental consequences.
Art. 3. The State will motivate natural and juridical persons as well as collectives to protect nature; it will promote respect towards all the elements that form an ecosystem.
Art. 4. The State will apply precaution and restriction measures in all the activities that can lead to the extinction of species, the destruction of the ecosystems or the permanent alteration of the natural cycles. The introduction of organisms and organic and inorganic material that can alter in a definitive way the national genetic patrimony is prohibited.
Art. 5. The persons, people, communities and nationalities will have the right to benefit from the environment and form natural wealth that will allow wellbeing.”
[skycipher, I suspect that you're using a url shortener there. If so, just use the regular url in edit. Site Monitor]
O'Leary has just accepted an invitation to serve as Official Director of Ecuador Affairs for the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization, affiliated with the United Nations, effective immediately.
He writes:
"The recent news of the BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is a wake-up call to humanity that we can no longer afford to gamble with sources of energy that are killing our planet. Any oil in sensitive environments should be kept in the ground."
Source:
I'm too late to edit.
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