Criminals

Guess who's in the news again in a bad bad bad light? HALLIBURTON! Those criminals who profited nicely off the war in Iraq (everything from oil rig equipment to washing soldiers uniforms) have done it again!

Remember that BIG OIL SPILL we had earlier this year? Guess who supplied the concrete to sell the well? HALLIBURTON!

Guess who's concrete mix didn't meet the specifications but they used it anyway! HALLIBURTON and BP because BP had recieved notification that the stuff wasn't good enough and used it anyway.

For all you people out there who don't understand why so many of us hate the energy sector it is because there are too many involved in it who are greedy, dishonest, and downright criminal. Sure, there's plenty in other areas too, but oil spills, rig explosions, refinery explosions, leaking pipelines, etc. etc. are a special sort of horrible.

Misplaced Anger

There has been fury unleashed at BP lately due to the oil spill in the Gulf. Much of it is warranted. They screwed up, cut corners, lied, lied again, lied a few more times, finally admitted they were completely wrong, and now are trying to clean up and keep the company solvent. (Is solvent like the disperents they sprayed all over which just cause the oil to sink to the bottom of the ocean?)

Anyway, some people have called for boycotts of BP, and that's fine I suppose. Just remember, while this happened to BP, it could have been ANY of the oil companies and the response would have been the same.

The problem isn't BP. The problem is are the oil giants and their cozy relationship with those in power. AND America's refusal to change their lifestyles and stop relying on oil.

So, what am I saying? First, something like this was going to happen. It really was. It might have happened to Shell, or Conoco-Phillips, but it was going to happen. And no company would have known what to do, and all of them would have lied just like BP. This is not exonerating BP, merely stating the entire industry is corrupt and used to doing whatever they like.

America, we need to get over our love for oil. Is cheap gas, oversized cars, inefficient roadways, and personal selfishness more important than polluting the oceans and coastlines and putting thousands of jobs at risk? The economic fallout from this is going to be felt for some time.

So America, be mad at BP, but be mad at all oil companies, your government who for too long has turned a blind eye, AND yourselves for continuing to live in ways that encourage this kind of risky behavior.

Drill Baby drill...oh shoot...

I'd love to think that if any good came out of the oil spill in the Gulf it might be someone will finally tell Sarah Palin to shut up and go home.

Drilling for more oil is not the short or long term solution to America's energy problems.

The technological marvel that is deepwater drilling is showing the dangerous side. If things go catastrophically wrong, there is pretty much nothing we can do about it quickly enough to stop massive environmental disasters.

President Obama correctly put other deepwater well's on hold until more is found out about what happened to cause this disaster and what can be done to prevent future ones.

Even if there is only a 1/10000th chance of this sort of thing happening again, can we risk it for the miniscule gain?

Don't kid yourselves, we cannot raise domestic production to levels that will make a difference. We can't drill fast enough to have any real effect on gas prices. The kicker is too, we have limited (and aging) refinery space to handle any new oil coming in. (This is a bottleneck that frequently drives up the price of oil.)

Oil is necessary, we aren't getting away from it anytime soon. But, if we keep feeding our addiction for little gain (except the pockets of large corporations) no real change is going to happen.

We MUST invest heavily in alternative fuel sources while creating incentives for people to carpool, use mass transit, or buy highly efficient small commuter vehicles.

Change is hard. But it must happen.