Pickens: No need for drilling moratorium

How utterly crass and callous of Big Oil's T. Boone Pickens remarks comparing a jetliner crash to the economic disaster sweeping across several Gulf States at the same time!

I disagree on many fundamental points:

Republican lawmakers gutted the safety and regulations of Deep Sea Oil well drilling in several critical areas which MUST be addressed before proceeding.

1) No federal environmental impact study was performed on the blown deep sea Oil well. Those absolutely needed regulations had been previously gutted by the Bush-Cheney administration!

2) No federal emergency contingency plan was submitted. There was NO federal plan filed, no fleet of Oil skimmers waiting for such a eventual occurrence.

3) No national country's besides the USA allows the toxic dispersant Corexit to be used in its territorial waters to diffuse a Oil spill.

4) No existing technology can adequately deal with extremely high methane gas pressures sometimes found by deep sea Oil well drilling resulting in a blown-well.

5) ALL national country's EXCEPT the USA requires one or more relief wells to be dug at the same time as the exploratory well in deep waters in their territorial waters.

It is beyond foolish to simply continue to drill deep Ocean oil wells without fully addressing and correcting these problems. As noted in (4), extremely high pressure gas pockets will blow-out future exploratory wells. The only question is WHEN, not if.

1) Ban Corexit

2) Require two relief wells dug at the same time a exploratory Oil well is first drilled.

3) Require a complete Federal Environmental Impact Study which is submitted and accepted by Federal oversight management.

4) Require a complete Federal Emergency Contingency Plan for that specific Ocean well, not some generic rubber stamped plan.

5) Require ALL American based Big Oil business's to have a shared fleet of large Oil skimming vessels ready to go in a mouth balled harbor ready to go on a moments notice WHEN the next Oil gusher occurs anywhere on America's territorial waters.

I understand that oil from the Gulf is sent to a trading/brokerage pool and then purchased by the USA and that the oil is not earmarked for the USA nor sent directly to the USA cities.

Why does Pickens try to give the impression that the drilling is directly beneficial to the oil needs/usage of the USA? Jobs, now that is a different story, but we need to diversity into other forms of energy production. Botom line – why are they – the oil/energy industry – allowed to distort the facts and mislead the public?

Even judges who are investors in the industry, should not be allowed to make judgements related to the oil industry, they should recuse themsleves because of their personal interest/benefit.

American scientists who spent five years shooting nearly 1,000 sperm whales with tissue-sampling darts discovered stunningly high levels of toxic heavy metals in the animals, according to a report obtained Thursday. The extremely high levels of cadmium, aluminum, chromium, lead, silver, mercury and titanium together are the highest ever found in marine mammals, the scientists say, warning that the health of both ocean life and the people who consume seafood could be at dire risk.

That directly places 1 Billion people around the world directly at risk NOW because of Republican led American corporations that have dumped millions of tons of garbage and toxic waste into the Ocean not caring one iota about the consequences to the 'little people'.

Warm water is like CANDY for a hurricane. All of that crude Oil gushed and dumped into the Gulf of Mexico is going to feed Hurricanes and create serious additional problems if a Hurricane passes over that region.

Anyone that has worked with or spent any time walking on Asphalt pavement knows that it absorbs, collects and stores solar energy making the surrounding area and in this case the sea water much warmer than normal. As a Hurricane passes over that much warmer water heavily laden with BP's crude Oil, it is going to greatly accelerate and grow the resulting Hurricane's winds, size and impact.

Update today on BP's stock and market value. BP so far as a direct result of their blown-crude Oil well and ongoing Oil Gusher in the Gulf of Mexico has lost 100 Billion dollars in market value, dumping it's value to a 14 year low. Investors are really putting it to BP over this fiasco!