Why is BP now allowed to burn off oil and pollute the air?
It should be bringing the collected oil to land and process it.


http://tinyurl.com/23sgtoe

I can't watch the tv when the news starts talking about it because they end up showing the birds and other critters. Makes my heart sink.

If the only two options were to pollute the air with the amount of pollution from burning the oil or allow the pollution of the wetlands, it would be better to pollute the air. It's faster to burn it than collect it using the equipment that we have and following the union labor rules, but I don't know what kind of residue is left after it is burned. Vacuuming it up and processing it would be the best option though - and especially better than using all those dispersants that they used. The dispersants, at best, only redirect where the oil goes - and then how do you clean it up from where it went after it has sunken from the dispersants?

article about how the US has refused international aid from countries with better oil cleanup equipment: http://watchdogonwallstreet.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/repeal-the-jones-act/

article indicating that workers are only able to work 20 minutes out of every hour: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/10/eveningnews/main6569880.shtml

article on dispersants: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/04/100430-energy-gulf-oil-spill-chemical-dispersants/

Did you know that there are 27,000 abandoned and unchecked wells in the gulf? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/07/gulf-awash-abandoned-oil-gas-wells/

Incredible! This kind of neglect reminds me of the space junk problem. Apparently there may be as many as 300,000 total man made objects bigger than a half-inch (1 cm) out there in space orbiting the earth.

http://www.space.com/news/090429-space-debris-safety.html

And now, two years later, people think it's all better because BP says it is.

Sad. But these huge corporations will do whatever they want to and get away with it. Because they can.

Unless we stop buying their products!

I'm from Alaska. BP donates lots and lots of money to worthy causes here, money that is sorely needed. The jobs are needed as well. I'm not pro-drilling, don't get me wrong, and I know from personal experience how the oil companies screw us. But it isn't as simple as boycotting one company. How do you do such a thing? Where does the oil come from that goes to the refinery, that goes to the gas station YOU frequent?

We have to get off oil, that's clear to me and many other people. But it's built into our lifestyles to an incredible amount. Plastics are made from petroleum and plastic is EVERYWHERE. Heck, our cars now take less gas to run because they are made lighter and make use of plastics. That's just one example. The plastics for medical use are vital and save lives.

People can get wind turbines and go off the grid, and even sell power back to the power companies. I know people in Alaska who do this. Or they just go off the grid and wear headlamps in the house when it's dark.

There are also many ways to make more energy-efficient vehicles, buildings etc. All help us use less oil.

What gets me is that if usage goes down because of conservation, the oil companies say that since demand is down they have to raise the price. If there is a surge in usage of oil they say that the price has to go up because of demand. Meanwhile they have years of oil in storage.

Here in Alaska, where we have 25% of the nation's oil, the oil companies have been playing games, asking for handouts (to pay no taxes) and there is a good old boy system here that wants to let them get away with making tons of money at the expense of all Alaskans. The governor is part of this. Luckily, people aren't buying it. The governor had to give up trying to give them huge tax breaks.

Even the Man on The Street here in Alaska knows you can't trust those guys and almost no one thought the governor was right. It was the oil companies threatening to leave unless we gave them more money. But it was a bluff. If they leave they don't get the oil.

And you should have seen the misleading ads they ran!

Sorry to go on like this, but it's a hot issue up here.