Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills

[Pepper]

LA Times Blog:

Obama's speech: There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf, so let's build more windmills

June 16, 2010 | 2:26 am

For all his reputation as the nation's Top Talker, Barack Obama took his sweet time giving a maiden Oval Office address to the country. And waiting another nearly 60 days to speak nationally about the oil spill that’s become the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history.

Obama, the first modern president to pass his first full year in office without addressing the country from his historic desk, had the setting right. Just back from a day-and-a-half on the gulf coast listening, reassuring, talking tourism, eating seafood. He wore the proper suit, had the requisite flags and family photos in the background.



But watching the president and hearing him was a little creepy; that early portion of the address was robotic, lacked real energy, enthusiasm. And worst of all specifics. He was virtually detail-less.

After almost two months of waiting through continuously contradictory reports, an anxious American public wanted to know, HOW are you going to accomplish all this?

Even Obama's cheerleaders over at MSNBC were complaining. "Where was the How in this speech?" demanded Keith Olbermann. Seriously.



Picture of Charley Christ - but the left part of photo contains fabulous beach scenes for the men of TRRR only)

[Geee]

I didn't see one article in my news scanning this morning that had anything good to say about the speech, all negative.

[NCTexan]

If you didn't click through to the LATimes article...

 

Their feature picture (and caption) with the article was as snide as their headline. "So let's build more windmills"

 

Gov. Charlie Crist checks a Florida beach for signs of oil

 

Yea.... right! "Hey Charley, what you looking at you sunny beach!"

[Pepper]

NCTexan!

 

Trolling for votes.

 

 

I had that at the "tail end" of my post above.

 

Picture of Charley Christ - but the left part of photo contains fabulous beach scenes for the men of TRRR only)

[NCTexan]

Trolling for votes.

... or just plain "trolling".

[Pepper]

FOX

 

Am listening to Gibbs and Carol Browner now about the escrow account.

 

 

I want to hear how the hole in the ocean floor is going to be plugged!

 

<<Crickets crickets crickets>>

 

 

Let's put Barney Frank in charge of the BP escrow account.

[Argyle58]

FOX

 

Am listening to Gibbs and Carol Browner now about the escrow account.

 

 

I want to hear how the hole in the ocean floor is going to be plugged!

 

<<Crickets crickets crickets>>

 

 

Let's put Barney Frank in charge of the BP escrow account.

 

I am literally shocked that BP let themselves be talked into this. This is one of the dumbest moves ever. I wonder if they got some pressure from the British government.

[Pepper]

Still droning on and waffling. Not a word about stopping the oil gusher.

 

That dress that Browner is patterned of a giant ball of rubberbands.

 

[Pepper]

This is insanity. Big words: we are moving expeditiously, claims are being honored, we are responding to claims, if the federal government adjudicates the claims, people can make repeated claims.

 

Question they like to answer: how quickly will the money be handed out?

 

Question not asked: when will the gusher be stopped? What is being done differently than was being done yesterday?

 

 

 

Gibbs: If you are a fisherman, we don't know how long the Gulf will be closed, you can file now, file later, until you may file until you are made whole.

 

Your claim will be seamlessly moved over to (our) independent new process.

[clearvision]

In memory of Jimmy Dean

 

Big Bam (pronounced 'bomb')

Big Bam

 

Ev’ry mornin’ at the Oval, you could see him arrive

He stood six foot one and weighed one eight five

Kinda thin at the shoulder and plump in the lip

And everybody knew, you didn’t knock the chip, on Big Bam

 

Big Bad Bam

 

Nobody seemed to know where Bam called home

He just drifted into town and wanted a throne

He didn’t say much, though he talked all the time

And if you spoke at all, it might be a crime, to Big Bam

 

Somebody said he came from Hawaii state

Where he got in a fight about a certain date

And a crashin’ blow from a huge left hand

Sent an Arizona fellow to the Promised Land, Big Bam

 

Big Bad Bam

 

Then came the day at the bottom of the Gulf

When an oil pipe cracked and men started cryin’

Drillers were prayin’ and hearts beat fast

And everybody thought that they’d breathed their last, ‘cept Bam

 

Through the oil and the smoke of this man made spill

60 days later in walked this man from a far away hill

Grabbed a bushwacker and gave out a groan

And like a old oak tree, he just stood there alone, Big Bam

 

Big Bad Bam

 

And with a little of this strength he gave a mighty shout

He wanted an ass to kick, needed someone to pout

He called for meetings, and called for a czar

In the end, he got fund for those with tar, Big Bam

 

With submersibles and cameras they continued back down

Then came that rumble way down in the ground

More oil and the gas belched than guessed first time

Everybody knew it was the end of line, for Big Bam

 

Big Bad Bam

 

Now they never reopened that worthless Gulf

They just moved their rigs to another shelf

No one seems to remember, except for the dirty sand

At the bottom of this disaster lies a big, big man, Big Bam

 

Big Bad Bam

[SrWoodchuck]

Clearvision! Outstanding!

 

If only he could be at the bottom of this disaster.

[Pepper]

Clearvision! Yes to SrWoodChuck. Excellent job.

[SrWoodchuck]

This is insanity.

Pepper!

Truly, an insane bad dream.

 

One of my clients is a retired petrophysical engineer, that is still a consultant & has owned his own gas & oil company, but now is much happier in semi-retirement. He gave me an angle on the problems of the leak: first, it may never be completely sealed. You have immense pressures from underneath that were released when BP hit the gas/oil pocket. Usually, heavy drilling muds are sent down the drill shaft, to equalize the pressure from below. On land there are fewer problems, but the nature of this BP well is that they're down over a mile, just to begin drilling, and that kind of depth has it's own special pressure problems, as well as cold temperature. Things don't flow, like up on dry land. [Example: Extreme cold caused methane crystals at that depth & interfered with the original top kill]

Next, the drill shaft itself was supposed to be re-inforced with concrete, which also didn't cure properly at depth, and resulted in a brittle & already fractured shaft, under the sea bed. When BP hit the oil pocket, oil saturated with liquid natural gas pushed up the shaft. As this mix rose, the natural gas warmed & became a gas again, generating even more pressure, inside the shaft. There is probably no way drilling mud could have equalized that kind of pressure. When a spark hit that column of oil & gas, it not only destroyed the rig & platform; it fractured the shaft, under the sea bed. They put the new collar cap on the well head, with louvres [they say it's to allow proper placement] but didn't shut the louvres. If they shut the louvres to stop the oil, pressure will cause a leak in a different part of the drill shaft, under the sea bed....where no one will be able to...fix it. [Example: leaky garden hose, with pin hole leaks- put a cap on the end, and leave the water running, and it's going to leak in one of those other areas ] This leak may last for the rest of my lifetime [20-30years], or until the pocket is depleted, or relief wells can help siphon some oil pressure. We should be looking at oil recovery & reclamation methods around the well site, and barrier islands around sensitive eco areas, like marsh & wetlands.

[Pepper]

Thanks, SrWoodChuck.

 

Is he saying that the busted well is so far below the oil level of the underground reservoir that oil is forced up through the opening due to that oil plus liquid natural gas?

 

At some point, the leak would have to end, right? Because that oil, like a submersed pump on a water well, would have to drop at some point below the intake wouldn't it?

 

If I posted that question on The Oil Drum I'd be banned for life.

 

Too bad the well is so deep. Or else you could build a berm all around it, pump sea water out and let it become an oil bath. Drive up and fill up.

 

This will be worse than Katrina, Ivan, Rita, Hugo, Andrew, and Ike put together.

[SrWoodchuck]

My two cents on Obama & his Oval office talk:

 

It seemed that he was trying to channel other Presidents Oval Office Crisis speeches. I still remember LBJ's Gulf of Tonkin, "Ma fellow Amurrikens,...." You have to BE an American, to project American values. This is not Obama derangement syndrome.....it's common sense. What kind of American life did Obama have? He was raised to despise our values. For all his "pep squads" assurances that he's a brilliant orator.....he's not. You also have to have a heart, to convey emotion, or empathy....he may have had one when he was younger, but he does not have one now. He is leaden, and hesitant and monotone; because emotion is foreign to him....well, he has two: happy & angry. He's as good as what is written for him, and since he's an egotist, it would never occur to him to edit, refine or practice a speech, so that he's comfortable and might, through some quality of acting craft, make people believe that he has empathy and genuine concern for his fellow Americans. His black voters & audience are just as duped as the rest of us, because for all of his "blackness," it's only a tool to be used in furthering his ends. As race bait, in division of America, so that his liberal policy may prevail. He's a great candidate, because, as an egotist, he can supremely sell himself.....but govern? This speech was symbolic of his talent as an organizer. Protest, strike, threaten, bully until the "man" knuckles....and then split up the pie! While faithfully advancing the cause that brought him here, be it Muslims, blacks, progressives, Maoists....anything but traditional American logic & values.

 

From factsnotfantasy.blogspot/Alan Caruba, a quote from Martin Luther King [American Patriot]:

 

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

 

The very embodiment of Barack Obama.

 

For your perusal-some may have seen it, all should see it at least once:

 

Obama = American?

[SrWoodchuck]

Thanks, SrWoodChuck.

 

Is he saying that the busted well is so far below the oil level of the underground reservoir that oil is forced up through the opening due to that oil plus liquid natural gas?

 

At some point, the leak would have to end, right? Because that oil, like a submersed pump on a water well, would have to drop at some point below the intake wouldn't it?

 

If I posted that question on The Oil Drum I'd be banned for life.

 

Too bad the well is so deep. Or else you could build a berm all around it, pump sea water out and let it become an oil bath. Drive up and fill up.

 

This will be worse than Katrina, Ivan, Rita, Hugo, Andrew, and Ike put together.

Pepper!

 

He said that the drill shaft had most probably fractured below the surface of the sea bed. We don't have the technology for repairing a break below the sea bed. Oil & gas are products of the decomposition of ancient vegetable matter. In the oil pocket, gas oil & water are all together, and are normally layered by weight- water floats on oil because it has less weight, natural gas may be in the air of an oil pocket on land, but some natural gas is mixed with oil and that material would be on top of heavier oil. When drillers hit an oil pocket on land, usually water blows first, pushed by gas & heavier oils. The BP well is at such water pressure, just at the wellhead itself, that it complicates how materials perform. The original "Top Kill" failed because a chemical reaction between the Cap/Collar & the cold + pressure, caused methane from the oil/natural gas mix, to form as crystals [it's liquid in that environment] preventing the cap from sitting securely. I have also read that the Cap/Collar that they have now, with the louvres, is extremely heavy and even though they got a good placement after cutting the wellhead, it is listing. If they try closing the louvres, they can cause leaks elsewhere....or....cause the whole Cap/Collar to be more unstable, and if it fell, it could rupture new holes in the pipe.

 

Even with all the leaking that been done, it doesn't come close to the Saudi spill/leak....and they had great success with essentially vacuuming oil & seawater & purging water. Oil is valuable stuff, why not try reclaiming it? Especially if we don't know when the spigot will ever be shut off.

[Valin]

There's a pipe spewing a gazillion gobs of oil into the gulf,

And a BS artist in the WH spewing hot air.