This is one of those many times when I like to pat myself on the back, at least until someone bursts my bubble. So McCain had a great idea that I thought would have been perfect. While Obama was giving his speech with thousands of screaming Germans, McCain was going to visit an Oil Rig in the Gulf Coast to show that he was somehow “in touch” with our oil issues. Before I get into the irony of this story let me present you with a reminder of what McCain said about oil spills during hurricanes, and Im sure after this video you will know where Im going with this story.
So, like I said you probably already know where Im going with this. The reason why the oil rig closed was because of an OIL SPILL during a HURRICANE, yep theres the irony heres a bit of the FOXNews report,
Nobody was injured, but more than 419,000 gallons of heavy, almost tar-like fuel oil spilled from the barge, forming a slick 12 miles long, said Lt. Cdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau, a Coast Guard spokeswoman.
The barge “was T-boned and split in half,” she said.
The double-hulled tanker Tintomara was loaded with about 4.2 million gallons of biodiesel and nearly 1.3 million gallons of styrene, but was not leaking, said Michael Wilson, president of ship management company Laurin Maritime (America) Inc. in Houston.
The collision occurred about 1:30 a.m. CDT just upriver from the Crescent City Connection, a pair of bridges between New Orleans’ east and west banks. A smell which many people thought was diesel was noticeable in the French Quarter and parts of New Orleans’ central business district.
The river was closed about 3:30 a.m., about 45 minutes after someone reported a strong odor of diesel coming from the river, Young said. Tug boats were holding the halves of the barge in place, she said.
I love it when someones proved wrong, and know I leave you with a grim video, don’t need video we have actual pictures of what else could happen if McCain gets his way on drilling off our coasts. Heres some pictures from the scene. Maybe McCain should go there and get a photo-op.
I would also like to add that this is most likely going to cost thousands or more in repair and that if we drill off the coast then we most definitely will be spending money in repairs due to disasters like these.
sensico
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18 Comments
And yet the oceans naturally exude millions of gallons of oil from its bed every year and the oceans seem to get along just fine. Hmmmm….
Actually no Valerie, I can not let your charge about oceans seeming to get along just fine go unanswered, mainly because marine biology is one of my interest I would feel weird if I did.
Species populations are decreasing fast. We have only explored 5% of our worlds oceans. The 95% could contain cures for illnesses and disease. We know what could happen to the ocean when these big oil rigs are in place. That 5% of our explored ocean provides protein to most people in the world. Drilling everywhere theres oil in the ocean we could deplite our food supply and we already know food is scarce because food prices. Only 30% of our Oceans coral reefs are healthy and are being destroyed 1% a year. Coral reefs provide us with those beautiful aquarium fish, they provide homes for many of the fish we eat and home for those cute sea turtles and sharks. Coral reefs are the life of the Ocean and are always being destroyed by human actions.
If you drill off the coast then you won’t get oil for 10 years, by then we shouldn’t need that oil, we should be energy independent or at least working on it. We need someone who is going to think long term beyond the presidential campaign not a gimmick that isn’t going to provide immediate or psychological relief as mccain said.
I am currently living in New Orleans and if you had actually paid attention to the news, You would realize that the hurricane or even a storm came near where the spill occurred. I work offshore on a drilling rig and if the past 5 years, we have only had 4 spills amounting to a total of 3 oz. The large energy companies are extremely dedicated to preventing spills as much as possible. This also wasnt even an oil company’s fault. A transportation company was in charge of transporting the oil to memphis. this spill could just have happened if the oil being transported was from a land field. you might be against offshore drilling, but this is not in any way an excuse to not drill offshore.
Maybe a class in effect of a hurricane is in order. Anyways,
A spill is a spill and this spill was way more then 3 oz. I actually don’t mind drilling its just excessive amounts of drilling that gets out of control. Obviously if we were to stop drilling all together we wouldn’t have a once oil and jobs would be lost. But I believe we need to find new sources of energy besides oil because we can’t drill everywhere, and thats a fact. But, Sorry if you don’t like the fact that this situation contradicts what McCain said, even though based on history his argument was contradicted the moment he made that statement.
And why do you guys feel the need to put where your from? Are you trying to prove that people who live near coast support drilling offshore? Im just curious.
Well I do think that this contradicts mccains argument. This was always complete pander by mccain because he said it would be an imediate relief yet most low information americans dont pay attention to the facts, that it wont fix their gas prices until 2018.
And yes they are putting their location in there to prove something, but they are only a few because most people except for in texas who live off the coasts actually agree with off shore drilling.
I don’t know what evan is talking about. if he knew anything about hurricanes its that the hurricanes have weather effects that effects more then just the area that its in.
I went back an looked at it and the hurricane was near the oil spill.
We should not be drilling off the coast, there is many places on land to drill, why aren’t we drilling there?
I have to agree with sensico on this one. I think the point of this article was to point out that McCain is a total loser and he lied, flat out lied. And this is irony, what the hell else would it be.
Valerie your a loser obviously you don’t need sensico to tell you that the worlds oceans aren’t fine, and evan your stupid maybe a lesson in weather patterns are in order for you, and I’ll pay for the classes.
Lets end our dependence on oil and move to other sources of energy so we wont have to think about oil spills whether they come for a overturned boat or a oil rig.
Guy with a tan, you’re dumb cause i am currently living just on the other side of new orleans from where the spill occurred and the storm did not come near here. if you read articles regarding the spill, it was a result of an unlicensed pilot of the tugboat pulling the barge. Offshore drilling also isnt mccain’s primary energy policy. His main focus in nuclear energy. Jackson from the coast. there are fewer ECONOMIC reserves to drill on land. most fields in west texas or bakersfield, ca have different types of oil that must be pulled out of the ground because they are a heavier oil and the reserves have been produced from since the 70’s. gulf coast oil is deeper, and has alot higher flow rate. example: a field in midland, tx of almost 300 wells pumping whenever they could produces about 6000 barrels of oil a day. a single deepwater platform can produce well over 100000 barrels of oil a day.
the point is a spill is a spill. mccain said spills dont happen off during a hurricane, mccain was wrong. and you don’t need to be near a hurricane to know that it affects the weather miles from where the hurricane is.
You’re missing the fine point of irony. This would have been irony if McCain was going to give a speech about how safe oil rigs are for people. Having canceled the trip, you would have a perfectly legitimate argument for irony since it was canceled due to safety. I’m sure you know what the word ‘irony’ means but you jumped at a false opportunity to make a point.
“…it was a result of an unlicensed pilot of the tugboat pulling the barge…”
A moot point since facts are of no concern to the irrational. I offer the following quote as an example:
“…the point is a spill is a spill…”
No, asshat, the point is that while yes, spills are bad, the initial premise that an oil rig in a hurricane led to this oil spill and therefore has caused the apparent irony in McCain’s cancellation is completely and utterly VOID. You lose.
I think its irony. Jim you are indeed the asshat for trying prove a point that you have proved incorrectly.
due to the WEATHER cause by the HURRICANE, caused conditions to be UNCONTROLLABLE thus causing the rig to SPILL. MCCAIN said that OIL SPILLS DONT happen during HURRICANES. MCCAIN was going to SPEAK at the OIL RIG that SPILLED.
SOUNDS LIKE IRONY TO ME
Mccain was not going to speak at the oil rig that spilled. it was a barge that spilled. and i am currently on the platform that he was going to visit. the company that owned the oil on the barge was an independent compant named Stone Energy. the platform he was going to visit was a Chevron platform and like jim said, the spill was due to an unlicensed pilot. not “uncontrollable weather”
I think we are all better off begging forign governments to pump more of their oil so that they can fund radicals or so hugo chavez can buy some planes and subs from russia. Be carefull what you wish for as the change you are all so enamored with you may need to ride the bus to the welfare office
well D4OIL if your so concerned about america funding radicals for oil, then why don’t you go after bush. Im a republican, one of those evangelicals that people assume will vote republican. We know that this administration has done the most spending and this administration is the cause of us oweing more money to russia and chavez then any other administration. Where the hell did welfare come from, you are so stupid. If we drill now then we wont get oil until 15 years from now, which means you will already be on welfare. Instead we should be using that money for renewable resources so we won’t have to panic when oil prices rise.
And it is because of the hurricane that the oil spill happened. Duh weather patterns aren’t hard to understand.
The ten years it will take to get the oil is a bunch of bull plop! According to the oil companies it would only take two years for the outer continental shelf and five years for deep sea drilling. The democrats in congress are saying seven years, so you intuitively can take the mean and estimate the actual time to be around four to five years to get more oil if we were to start drilling today. Also about our depleting coral reefs, studies have shown that coral grows on these oilrigs and fish thrive in those areas.
nathan you are obviously wrong. I can’t believe your taking advise from oil companies which donate their millions to mccain and of course they are going to say it will take 2 years because they are going to make money off of this.
Every expert thats unbias will tell you that its going to7-10 years. It takes time to survey the area, then go through legal issues, then you have go through the governement red tape, you have to make sure it will be safe for our environment and workers, then you have to find the materials, you have to first build a structure to hold the people building the oil rig, then it takes two or more years after drilling to actually get oil.
This may sound fast to you but, trust me as a civil engineer it isn’t.
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[...] planned campaign appearance on an offshore oil rig may have been cancelled, but our next president, John Sidney McCain III, is still stealing [...]