BP Has Built An Artificial Island To Get Around Offshore Drilling Ban In Alaska
Posted by Alexander Higgins - July 22, 2011 at 11:31 pm - Permalink - Source via Alexander Higgins Blog
Rolling Stone and Business Insider report that after Obama allowed BP to get away with murder, the oil giant has built an artificial island in the arctic, from which they plan to drill 2 miles deep, to get around a drilling ban in Alaska — and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop it.
As if it wasn’t already bad enough that federal courts are dismissing lawsuits against BP for the Gulf Oil Spill by the bundle, effectively letting them get off the hook for environmental damages, BP has now built a 31 acre artificial island in the arctic from to get around a drilling ban in a delicate wildlife reserve in Alaska.
All of this while Obama has lied to the public about implementing new offshore drilling safety measures when the truth is congress has not passed a single new law singe the BP Gulf Oil spill.
(Video) Obama Blasted For Lying About Offshore Oil Drilling Safety Changes
I really couldn’t believe my ears as I listened to Rachel Maddow absolutely tear the Obama into pieces over lying to the public about changes in Offshore Oil Drilling Regulations.First Obama says new rules and regulations assure us that we will not face another BP Gulf Oil Spill. Then Rachel then tears him apart for lying and points out everything that has changed… ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. And that’s after she sets the record straight on the propaganda that the US produces its own oil, when in fact all the oil that the US produces is sold onto the Global market which is where the US buys it from – which means no much how much oil we produce we still by it from our “enemies”.She also tells of a government study conducted by a Norwegian firm that was released last week that shows that blow out preventors don’t work, period. In short they fail even when used as directed and the government study recommends that all blowout preventors need to be redesigned period. She uses the analogy that blow out preventors are lead parachutes. and no matter how much you buff them, they aren’t going to work if you try to use them to jump out of an airplane.Maddow also points out how a new permits are being issued at records rates, even permits using pre BP oil spill response plans. In case you don’t remember we all found out during the BP Gulf Oil Spill that all of the oil companies are absolute bullshit. Every single oil company executive admitted during testimony before congress. To make matters worse Rachel tops it all off by pointing out that the latest permit issued allows a well to be drilled will be using the same exact blowout preventor that was found to be at fault for the BP Gulf Oil spill, the worse accidental oil spill in history.Here are both video segments:Facts Don’t Support Obama’s Assurances On Drilling Safety
March 30: Rachel Maddow expresses skepticism about President Obama’s insistence that deepwater drilling safety has been improved given revelations of flaws in blowout preventer design and emergency response plans that have not been updated since 2009.
Business Insider reports:
The offshore drilling moratorium that is falling apart in court already contains one major loophole — and there’s little surprise which company is threading the needle.BP plans to begin drilling two miles under the sea just miles away from a delicate wildlife reserve in Alaska. The company will get around the deep-water moratorium by constructing an artificial island — 31 acres of gravel — and registering as an onshore rig. Not exactly the safest operation, reports Rolling Stone but Don’t expect the White House to crack down on the loophole.
In a scathing 3 page article blasting BP and Obama for letting BP get away with murder Rolling Stone reports:
BP’s Next Disaster
On June 15th, as BP’s catastrophic spill in the Gulf neared its third month, President Obama addressed the nation from the Oval Office. His administration, he assured the American people, would not let such a disaster happen again. He had put an indefinite hold on plans to open up new coastal areas, including Florida and Virginia, to offshore exploration. And he had frozen all new permits to drill in deep waters for six months, to give a blue-ribbon commission time to study the disaster. “We need better regulations, better safety standards and better enforcement,” the president insisted.[...]But Obama’s tough-guy act offers no guarantee that oil giants like BP won’t be permitted to repeat the same mistakes that led to the nightmare in the Gulf. Indeed, top environmentalists warn, the suspension of drilling appears to be little more than a stalling tactic designed to let public anger over BP’s spill subside before giving Big Oil the go-ahead to drill in an area that has long been off-limits: the Arctic Ocean. The administration has approved plans by both BP and Shell Oil to drill a total of 11 wells in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas above Alaska — waters far more remote and hostile than the Gulf. Shell’s operations could proceed as soon as the president’s suspension expires in January. And thanks to an odd twist in its rig design, BP’s drilling in the Arctic is on track to get the green light as soon as this fall.Here’s what BP has in store for the Arctic: First, the company will drill two miles beneath its tiny island, which it has christened “Liberty.” Then, in an ingenious twist, it will drill sideways for another six to eight miles, until it reaches an offshore reservoir estimated to hold 105 million barrels of oil. This would be the longest “extended reach” well ever attempted, and the effort has required BP to push drilling technology beyond its proven limits. As the most powerful “land-based” oil rig ever built, Liberty requires special pipe to withstand the 105,000 foot-pounds of torque — the equivalent of 50 Mack truck engines — needed to turn the drill. “This is about as sexy as it gets,” a top BP official boasted to reporters in 2008. BP, a repeat felon subject to record fines for its willful safety violations, calls the project “one of its biggest challenges to date” — an engineering task made even more dangerous by plans to operate year-round in what the company itself admits is “some of the harshest weather on Earth.”[...]
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