Spill baby spill, slippery politics

So the next plan (Plan G?) is to try to saw through the damaged pipe and then try to slip on a cap. I tried to replace a faucet one time without turning the water off. Tough to do. 4 days of prep work needed.

A basic principle of engineering is that the requirement for reliability and redundancy for any design is related to the consequences of failure. High consequence failures require high margins of safety (and certainty) in design and redundant backup options to prevent the consequences in question. In this extermely deep water well, that principle does not appear to have been applied in the BP approach.

while work to stop the oilflow will not seize , it seems that it may well be august before the next " real" capping event will take place .
i lot will seem to depend on ' good luck ' - at least from what is known to the public .

a good article in the

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0530/Now-that-top-kill-has-failed-what-s-next-in-Gulf-oil-spill



i doubt that anyone has a sure-shot answer to the problem right now - time will tell .

Is it beginning to look like BP is doing nothing but theatre?

BP stock is dropping ...
not sure that it will have any influence over the " rescue operations " but will make a lot of shareholders unhappy ( which likely include some pension funds and their members ) . so in the end the " ordinary " people will foot the bill ( nothing really new , right ? ) .

It is entirely appropriate that BP stock takes a beating - their prospect for making profits has been vastly reduced by both the failure of this costly enterprise and the liabilities they will deservedly face for the cleanup. The stockholders will be hurt badly and they will cause the management to be thrown out (sometime within the next six months or so), and replaced with others who will promise to deliver better and more reliable control of their drilling operations.

It is ironic that, after investing so much in a "green" advertising campaign to make BP ("beyond petroleum" ) to appear to be something it never was, it now turns out that they aren't even very good at drilling for oil.

It is also ironic to observe a government Administration, that promises so much benefit for us in ever more intrusive government regulation of our economy and our lives, attempt to weasel out of its own obvious regulatory responsibilities in the matter. Evidently sixteen months in office isn't sufficient time for them to be held accountable for the actions of the government agencies they have controlled since February of 2009. How much time do they need to be accountable for what they do?

another kick to the crotch, from their fake PR division

BPGlobalPR Best part of the BP Memorial Day Picnic? The custom made oily dunk tank! So far we've dunked 4 ducks, a dolphin, 2 otters and @bpTerry!

(@bpTerry is a fake spokesman for he fake BPGlobalPR)

Someone suggested Kaopectate for a bottom-off solution to the problem.

Twenty years ago, BP had a bad image . . . was it because BP seized land? I'm trying to remember the details.

That was a good laugh George. I can see why you couldn't read Sterne's supreme masterpiece.

Please explain.

Chapter XXI in Volume IV.

"There's no end, Sire, replied the minister, in giving money to these people----they would swallow up the treasury of France".

Swap oil for money and see what the real cause of the disaster is which is an insatiable demand driving oil companies and governments to push the risk envelope. You can be popular by diverting the blame but it won't wash with those who know better.

That has been officially recognised by the suspension of risky drilling. Okay?

I am sure the fellow is sincere with his suggestion, edgar, but wasn't that already tried? The "big box" iced up.

The big box had ONE outlet, his has four (or more). You've got by most estimates 8,000 psi of gas and oil coming out of the 20" pipe.
Separating it into four or more outlets might have a better chance of working than the one outlet they tried. (Remember, it filled up with frozen methane in the first few minutes.) At 5,000 ft of depth it's possible that all four valves could freeze up, but I think it would be worth a chance.

A welded steel and concrete box could be made in about ten days and shipped to the site in about four more.

Joe(used to work for a company who did such things)Nation

I'd certainly consider the nuke option.

Do you shop for cancer-free plastics? Or do you continue to buy these deadly items?

Okay, Joe. What do I know. Real(I failed high school physics)JohnBoy.

I think this spill will lead to the end of off-shore drilling, for better or for worse. After this, I don't think any insurance company could offer coverage, and offshore drilling will become cost prohibitive.

I wonder if they will list all the congress people who took gifts from the oil lobbiests. That should be fun. Kind of like they are giving themselves their own rectal exam.