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Bob McDonnell: Oil Spill Disaster? Who Cares? Drill Baby Drill!

by: lowkell

Thu Apr 29, 2010 at 13:29:07 PM EDT


This sums up pretty much everything that's wrong with Bob McDonnell.
Gov. Bob McDonnell said this morning that the fatal oil well accident off Louisiana's coast was a "catastrophic event," but it will not deter him from trying to make Virginia the first state on the East Coast to begin drilling for oil and natural gas.

"This is certainly a setback, but I certainly continue to be dedicated to making us first to drill, 2012 at the latest, and over the next couple years these safety and environmental issues will be addressed,'' McDonnell said on his monthly radio show on WRVA.

Tone deaf. Clueless. Completely uncaring about protecting Virginia's environment, beaches, tourism, fishing, etc. Wildly irresponsible. Ideologically driven. Arrogant. Ignorant. And those are some of Bob McDonnell's better qualities!  Hey, who cares about that 200,000 gallons per day of oil leaking in the Gulf of Mexico (and threatening to decimate wildlife refuges, fishing, tourism, etc.)?  Who cares that the same thing could easily happen right off the coast of Virginia Beach?  Bob McDonnell certainly doesn't give a rat's hindquarters. Instead, McDonnell says, "meh, it's a minor setback; drill baby drill!"  

Bob McDonnell: giving new meaning to the phrase "natural disaster."

UPDATE: Florida Governor Crist (R) has this to say about the oil spill. "It's clearly not clean enough after we saw what we saw today -- that's horrific -- and it certainly isn't safe enough. It's the opposite of safe." Why does Charlie Crist understand this but Bob McDonnell seems incapable of doing so?
lowkell :: Bob McDonnell: Oil Spill Disaster? Who Cares? Drill Baby Drill!
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Bob McDonnell: Oil Spill Disaster? Who Cares? Drill Baby Drill! | 37 comments
From Twitter's @E2Wire ... (0.00 / 0)
Oil spill prompts delay in offshore safety awards ceremony http://bit.ly/9jADdG

Read more at TheGreenMiles.com and follow me on Twitter
Unintended (0.00 / 0)
consequences provoke unintended humor. I'm laughing, I'm laughing. Really
[ Parent ]
Was BP the "safest" winner?! (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
mcdonnall is a republican (0.00 / 0)
The modus operenmdi, is get someone else to pay to build it, reap all the money, and flee  the county when it blows up
Risk (0.00 / 0)
What is the risk (that is to say probability of peril) of this were we to explore and produce off our shores?  And further what is even the chance that a ultra-deep water spill 80+ miles off our coast is going to wash up on VA shores or enter the Chesapeake?  

MMS continually keeps track of spill information.  This is there summary response to spills in the 5 year plan:

Is offshore energy exploration a major source of ocean pollution?
No. The record of the last 50 years, but particularly in the last 20, shows the offshore industry is one of the safest industrial activities in the United States. A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences reports that in the last 15 years there were zero platform spills greater than 1,000 barrels. Compared to worldwide tanker spill rates, outer continental shelf operations are more than five times safer. Imports present an environmental risk of spills about 13 times greater than domestic production. In fact, annual natural seeps account for 150-175 times more oil in the ocean than OCS oil and gas operations.

I agree wholeheartedly with a speech that Senator Mary Landrieu (D) gave today on the senate floor.  The full speech is here.  But the crux of the message is:

We must react to this disaster in a measured, but right way. We must apply the lessons of past tragedies to this one, so we can make the best and wisest decisions that will instruct us about how to move forward. I don't believe we can react in fear. I don't believe that we should retreat.

The risk isn't worth it. (0.00 / 0)
We need to get off of oil, not endanger more of our precious environment because of human arrogance and greed.

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
Worth what? (0.00 / 0)
What is the risk in relation to the economic benefit achieved?  Before you can just dismiss this wholesale, I would think you would need to establish what the cost-benefit is we are talking about.  MMS data certainly doesn't point to great risk.

I agree we need to be transitioning away.  But that is going to take a lot of time.  And in the mean time, we are still going to need a lot of oil.  And if we are going to use natural gas as a transition fuel, we are going to need more supply of that as well.  Offshore gas production accounts for a good deal of what we produce.

You have pointed out early on that most of what is off our shore is likely natural gas.  You don't have the same risk with natural gas production.  We still don't know for sure of course until we explore.

What I see here is a reaction to a peril with no accounting for the likelihood.  But that is counter to what everyone does in their daily lives (well most people anyway).  When Continental's flight crashed last year, did you stop flying?  When you see an accident on the side of the road, is your reaction to never drive again?

[ Parent ]
Trashing the Mississippi delta (0.00 / 0)
is not worth it no matter what the economic "benefit." End of story.

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[ Parent ]
So you want to stop all offshore oil production (0.00 / 0)
effective immediately, because of one spill, where we don't know the cause, and whether this was preventable.  
[ Parent ]
We need to figure out (0.00 / 0)
exactly what went wrong here and make sure it isn't a systemic problem. Until then, it seems to me that prudence alone would dictate that we halt production at platforms similar to this one.  If we find that this is a wild fluke that will almost certainly never happen again, that's one thing.  If we find that this type of thing is likely to happen every few years, that's completely unacceptable, as I'm sure almost everyone would agree.  In that case, we need to figure out a solution, but until then, I think it's crazy to just keep doing the same thing and expect different results.  Finally, I think it's really, really stupid - in just about every way - to be opening up new areas for offshore oil drilling.  Other than greed and arrogance, why the hell would we even CONSIDER doing that and risk disasters like this one?  Are we as stupid and crazy as Sarah Palin or what?

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
This was the different result (0.00 / 0)
This was not some new type of rig, was it?
[ Parent ]
Need (0.00 / 0)
This particular rig has been around since 2001.  And there are a lot of semi-submersible rigs out there.  They don't go blowing up every year obviously.  Nor did this one until just recently.  Refer back to my MMS quote or to Senator Landrieu's speech on spill data.

You know how much oil we use today.  We will continue to use that and more for the near term.  Where do you suggest we supply ourselves with oil from?  And on top of that, you have also suggested that natural gas could be bridge fuel for our transition to a less carbon intense economy.  Where do you propose getting that natural gas supply from?

I think you realize that it is ridiculous to think that because we need to transition ourselves away from something it ceases the need for new supply.  Unless your goal is massive economic upheaval to effect the transition.  And you also know that hydrocarbon exploration is just that.  If we want to go looking for new natural gas supplies, we might end up with oil too or instead.

[ Parent ]
We need a major push... (0.00 / 0)
...to kick our "oil addiction," ASAP.  This stuff is called the "devil's excrement" for good reason.

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
Lowell: (0.00 / 1)
Would you really expect a successful, highly paid
prostitute to have any qualms about the morality of her occupation?
[ Parent ]
I'm still trying to determine... (0.00 / 1)
...tx2vadem's line of work.  Notice that he goes verrrry quiet when anyone asks?  Fascinating.

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
What I find highly revealing (1.00 / 1)
...about your comments on this oil spill so far is that you have yet to express any shock, horror, angst, anger, upset, or emotion of any kind. Just "business as usual," apparently.

In contrast, this is how the rest of us feel today. Our patience for oil industry apologists is about zero today.

"Every asshole who ever chanted 'Drill Baby Drill' should have to report to the Gulf Coast today for cleanup duty."



Follow me on Twitter.

[ Parent ]
We cannot base decisions on emotions (1.00 / 1)
We cannot base our economy on "shock, horror, angst, anger, upset, or emotion of any kind."
[ Parent ]
We've been saying this for years... (0.00 / 0)
Anyway, what's wrong with emotion, combined with intelligence and wisdom of course (of which the "drill baby drill" crowd has none of the above)?  It's often a spur to mankind taking action, whether it's the race to the moon, the civil rights movement, or any other great cause we've engaged in. Righteous anger can be a great thing, and in this case it's 100% warranted. In fact, I'd say that if you're not upset and angry right now, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
And we've been told for years... (0.00 / 0)
...by the "drill baby drill" crowd, "don't worry, the oil industry knows what it's doing, spills never happen anymore, and if they do they're minor blips."  Whoops!!!

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
It's the intelligence and wisdom... (0.00 / 1)
...that are often lacking, and policy gets made on raw emotion.  Just look at the global warming debate itself.  Only 10% of the CO2 emissions are man-made, but a carbon tax is supposed to fix the problem?  Water vapor is the most prevalent greenhouse gas, but hydrogen cells are the way to go?  If we loft a small percentage of our current SO2 emission higher in the atmosphere, we can get the cooling effect of large volcanos (without the ash), but NO, that would be a dangerous experiment!  By kicking up ocean water, we can inexpensively get more salt into the clouds, making them more reflective, but NO, that is just a Rube Goldberg fantasy!
[ Parent ]
Unworthy of a response (0.00 / 0)
n/t

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
This is also particularly rich (0.00 / 0)
...coming from a member of the party of anger, fear and loathing (aka, the "reptilian brain" party).

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
I think you have it backward (0.00 / 1)
The left seem to be the angry ones.  Angry when facts are presented which debunk their pet theories.  Angry when inexpensive solutions are proposed which do not put more power in the hands of the government.  Angry when someone works hard to make a good income and wants to give it to his children when he dies.  It is the left that runs on fear -- fear of oil spills, fear of "offending" someone (except Christians, of course), fear of having to pay one's own way in the world, fear of competition from other countries, fear of global warming, fear of global cooling, and fear of law-abiding citizens with guns.  It is the left that loathes others -- anyone who is successful, anyone who doesn't want the government in charge of their lives, anyone who thinks the federal government should stay within the boundaries set by the Constitution, anyone who professes Christianity, and anyone who doesn't hold the same views.

And as for the "reptilian brain" party, it is notable that, prior to full development of the prefrontal cortex (where logic and reason occur), people are more likely to be leftists.  When that part of the brain is mature, people are more likely to be conservative.  Then, as the prefrontal cortex deteriorates in old age, people are again more likely to be liberals.

[ Parent ]
You win (0.00 / 0)

a troll rating!

[ Parent ]
Thank you. Thank you very much. (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
When or when can we expect to get some honest and competent trolls on this blog? (0.00 / 0)

[ Parent ]
When can I find a liberal... (0.00 / 2)
...who can answer facts and logic with the same?
[ Parent ]
Sorry Jack, but (0.00 / 0)
neither facts nor logic are among your strengths!
[ Parent ]
Perhaps not... (0.00 / 0)
...but when I do present them to you, you are stymied, and cannot formulate a cogent response.
[ Parent ]
Lowell: (0.00 / 0)
You seem to have forgotten that the brain of a reptile is not highly developed!
[ Parent ]
Did you protest any legislation based on... (0.00 / 0)
9/11?
[ Parent ]
But don't you see? (0.00 / 0)
That was GOOD emotion - fear, anger, hatred, rage, bomb the @#$@#$ out of them!!!!  This is BAD emotion. Or something. Or other. Or whatever. Duhhhhhh.

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
Yes, I did. (0.00 / 0)
Perhaps not legislation, per se, but Bush's suspension of habeas corpus and his holding citizens as "enemy combatants" without their having recourse to the law.  There were US citizens disappearing, and being given no access to legal representation.  (As I read the Constitution, only Congress can suspend habeas corpus.)

I also opposed Congress' voting to send our troops into Iraq without even reviewing the documents that the Bush administration made available to them.  While I think the decision was correct, to make the decision without reviewing the intelligence data, and THEN trying to claim they were duped is disgusting.

[ Parent ]
Good to hear. (0.00 / 0)
n/t

Follow me on Twitter.
[ Parent ]
This kind of thing (1.00 / 1)
is intentionally insulting.  The world does not constantly breakdown as a dichotomy where you are the white knight and I am the heartless, oil apologist.  But I understand it is easy to view the world in these terms.  

The reason I have not brought any of that up is because I am not making an appeal to Pathos.  You are though.  So, I can understand why you are bringing it up.  

[ Parent ]
For several years now... (1.00 / 1)
...we've been reading your comments on the Virginia blogs. To date, they have overwhelmingly been pro-oil industry. Strongly so, in fact. To my knowledge, you've never explained where you're coming from, although your screen name indicates that you're from a leading oil producing state.  It would be fascinating to know what, if any, your connection is to the oil industry. Heck, revealing your real name would be even more helpful, but so much more fun to comment - not to mention take potshots at people, like your pal Green Miles - behind the protection of pseudonymity.

Anyway, I'm still waiting to hear some sort of emotional response from you to this disaster, which is right now wiping out the livelihoods of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast, which already has taken several peoples' lives, and which is about to devastate ecosystems for years to come. Yes, please put that all in calm, cool, rational, intellectual perspective for us, how it's all just the price we pay (or whatever) for that wondrous substance also known as "the devil's excrement," how you're the only one who knows what he's talking about, etc., etc.  I can't wait.

Follow me on Twitter.

[ Parent ]
Lowell: (0.00 / 1)
Would you really expect a successful, highly paid
prostitute to have any qualms about the morality of her occupation?
[ Parent ]
Bob McDonnell: Oil Spill Disaster? Who Cares? Drill Baby Drill! | 37 comments
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