Town Hall Meeting

First thanks to Congressman Markey for getting the video feed up (on May 12, 3 weeks after the leak started!) so we can all see with our own eyes the horrible leak.

Second, this leak is believed to have started April 22, 2010, which is Earth Day, and two days after the oil rig exploded killing 11 workers.

Third, BP claimed it has been leaking 1,000 barrels per day (then upped to 5,000), while independent scientists are saying its between 70,000 and 90,000 barrels per day. The US govt has now upped their estimate to the most conservative of the independent scientists: 12,000 to 19,000 barrels per day. Note that 1 barrel = 42 gallons. So if we take the conservative estimate of 19,000 bpd, that means 29.52 million gallons of oil have leaked into the ocean, so far, minimum!

Lots of pictures and info can be found at Markey’s site.

When will Americans stop using money as the only way to value things? There are costs to what people do, that aren’t ever (let alone immediately) costly. One easy example to explain is when you buy a TV. You pay for the materials and labor for that item, but what about disposal of this toxic junk 10 years later when it breaks or becomes obsolete? In California, there is now a $16 recycling fee charged to the consumer for this problem of hidden costs of TV’s. Good job California, but this is not applied in numerous other cases. For example, freakin oil! Oil is barely taxed, and in fact is subsidized greatly by giving oil companies huge tax breaks and for building up the worlds largest military force to make sure oil flows cheaply and quickly to America and their allies. Consumers are not charged for oil spills, for climate change due to burning oil, for the wars and military buildup, or for blowback for such wars, such as 9/11 or the USS Cole bombing. I started with a question, so I’ll end with one…If you were offered $1 million dollars, but your child would have to live with crippling Asthma, what would you do?

As for the Bush-Katrina, Oil Spill-Obama comparison. I have no special allegiance to Obama, and this site should prove that. But this comparison is utter madness. Katrina was a NATURAL DISASTER, which the government does and should evacuate and do emergency management. This oil spill is a CORPORATE DISASTER, perpetrated by a company in their greedy pursuit of ever more profit. This is their problem and their horrific mistake. If you want to complain about govt for this one, it’s terribly weak regulations, allowing deep water oil drilling in the first place, corruption, etc. Now the damage is done, and BP is screwing up the cleanup royally, so I can see why the entire US should help fix this, but a hurricane and this couldn’t be more different.

The only minor justice to come of this is if BP is forced into bankruptcy and all their assets liquidated to pay for the cleanup and job losses due to this disaster.

Rant out.

And this is one view of a hidden cost of oil…don’t forget about the illnesses suffered by the people trying to clean up this mess, similar to the World Trade Center workers and volunteers after 9/11. That dispersant stuff is horribly toxic.