Big Oil Itching to Drill to the Last Straw

Big Oil Prods Congress for More Offshore Drilling

We’d like to rape and plunder some more before killing the marine environment: Big Oil

Big oil says they must have more offshore areas for oil and natural gas drilling, citing the same old, tired, discredited and pathetic excuse that America would be less reliant on foreign suppliers that way.

Offshore drilling: Rape and plunder in the high seas. Source of Photo: yourdemocracy.net.au

“There is some hypocrisy in locking these resources away while relying on resources produced in other countries,” said Marvin Odum, the President of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

“Instead, we should embrace policies that provide access to our own oil and gas resources,” Reuters reported Odum as saying to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at hearing on offshore energy production.

“The U.S. Interior Department is considering a five-year plan that might open new offshore areas to drilling.” Reuters reported.

“But many environmental groups oppose expanded offshore drilling, fearing oil spills could result, especially when energy companies move into the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico where platforms are susceptible to hurricanes.”

The recent Australian oil disaster in Timor Sea is but the latest deadly reminder of the perils of offshore oil and gas drilling. For about 11 weeks the leak from the West atlas drilling rig and the Montara wellhead platform, which eventually caught fire early November, spewed oil and gas condensate at a rate of at least 400 barrels a day, polluting the fragile ecosystems in the region leaving tens of thousands of marine creatures dead.

PTTEP Australasia, the company responsible for the major oil disaster in the Timor Sea, said they pumped mud into a relief well in their fourth attempt to plug the leak, which had spewed oil and gas condensate at at least 400 barrels a day for nearly 11 weeks, before extinguishing the platform fire.  (PTTEP Australasia).

“The potentially irreversible effects of oil pollution on marine ecosystems and their dependent economies do not justify the potential short-term economic gains that might accrue from offshore oil and gas development,” said Jeffrey Short with the international marine conservation group Oceana.

The big oil says they have improved their drilling technology which allows oil companies to rape the marine environment in a friendly way.

“These advances enable more production while reducing environmental impacts and allowing for efficient use of existing facilities and infrastructure,” said David Rainey, VP of Gulf of Mexico Exploration at BP America, the U.S. arm of the British giant BP Plc.

And this came on a day when early impact of climate change  wrought havoc on Britain, with torrential rains  and up to 153 km/h wind gusts battering several coastal regions, triggering waist-high floods in several cities.

“Finding oil and gas for the future requires exploring in areas that are ever deeper and more complex,” Rainey boasted.

“We must stop ignoring the fact that oil and gas will play a major part in meeting America’s energy demands for several decades as we transition to a more sustainable energy future,” said Shell’s Odum.

You know full well Mr Odum that  you don’t even have several years, let alone several decades. Stop the mass deception! Quit the unintelligent “transition to a more sustainable energy” mantra. You’re not fooling all of us all the time.

Take your sick economy and shoot her in the head because our oceans simply can’t cope anymore!

Related Links:

• Australia Blazing Oil Rig May Collapse
• Australia Oil Well on Fire
• Australian ecological disaster
• Timor Sea Oil Slick: Growing Australian Disaster
• Major Ecological Disaster Underway in Timor Sea
• Australian Oil Disaster May Get a Lot Worse
• Australia Fails to Plug Oil Leak in Timor Sea
• How Much Oil Pollution Is Too Much?
• FEWW Earthquake Forecast: Timor Sea

Related News Links:

• The oil spill in Timor Sea grows daily
• Timor Sea oil spill costs $5.3m – so far
• First attempt to plug oil leak fails
• Second attempt to plug oil leak fails

• Expedition observes hundreds of marine creatures in oil slick
  http://wwf.org.au/news/expedition-observes-hundreds-of-marine-creatures-in-oil-slick/

• Australian oil spill ‘contaminating one of world’s richest marine wildernesses’
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/23/australia-oil-spill?commentpage=1

Recent Oil Spills:

• Gulf of Mexico receives its regular ration of oil spill
• Oil Spills, Earthquakes and Faults

• Magnitude 6.8 EQ Strikes BANDA SEA
• Deadly Earthquake Strikes Java, Indonesia
• Exxon Pays Peanuts to the Monkeys

• 4m liters of crude spill into French nature reserve
• Old MacDonald Had a Fleet
• Shell Leaks in Shabby Style!
• Exxon Mobile Court Orders Only Fraction of Damages
• Another Day, Another Oil Spill in Alaska

• Chevron should pay $27 billion in compensation
• US Govt Sues BP America
• Australia hit by another man-made disaster
• Large spill at Canada’s oil sands terminal

UK Flooding

Human Induced Planetary Antiphase Events

UK Flooding: Military Helicopters Rescue Hundreds Trapped in Homes

Military helicopters were used to rescue hundreds of people after torrential rain triggered extensive flooding to Cockermouth, Cumbria, the UK.

The raging River Kent, Kendal, Cumbria, UK. Photo: A. Stephenson. Image source: BBC readers photos. Image may be subject to copyright.

Cumbria fire and rescue workers check flooded roads in Keswick after River Greta burst its banks. Photo: PA. Image may be subject to copyright.

Location Map of Keswick and Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK. Original Map from Google Maps. Image may be subject to copyright. Image Enhanced by FEWW.

Heavy rain reportedly battered northern England, northwestern Wales and western Scotland last night.

The village of Seathwaite in Cumbria recorded 173mm (6.8in) of rain in 24 hours, according to the UK Met Office, wich also forecast an additional 150mm (5.9in ) for the Lake District by noon Friday.

UK’s Environment Agency had issued 6 severe flood warnings, 25 flood warnings and 51 less serious flood watches for Cumbria alone.

Several other regions  in northwestern Wales, as well as  in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland, also reported flooding.

The effects of  the extreme rain event were worsened by severe gales and wind gusts of 100 – 120km/h (65- 75mp) in the coastal areas and hurricane strength wind gusts of up to 153 km/h (95mph) in the mountainous regions.

Our colleagues at EDRO estimate that climate change could directly affect about half the population in the UK  in the next 3 to 5 years.

Related Links

• Deadly Weather in Your Area?
• FEWW FORECAST: 2009 Likely Wettest Year on Record
• Snowstorm Destroys Chinese Forests
• Met Office warns of catastrophic global warming in our lifetimes [UK Guardian]

• Speaking of El Niño, OLR Anomalies in Australia
• Australia: The Lost Continent?