5 Comments

• 
  southerly 5/28/2010 9:46:23 AM

  A boycott?
  Really?
  Jesus just how childish can you get?
  Grow up!
  Energy production is a hugely expensive and complex endeavor.
  The more difficult the process, the higher the risk of accidents.
  The government has acted over the recent decades on behalf of moneyed
  activities with an anti-commerce agenda.
  If we permit the extraction of petroleum on dry land or even in shallow water,
  we would not have these events. If they Do occur, a clean is more practical
  and achievable rather than in a mile of sea water as we see now.
• 
  ZeeBruce 5/27/2010 4:28:06 PM

  BP and Halliburton executives (like Dick Cheney and his thugs) have repeatedly demonstrated that they do not really care about public opinion as it can easily be shaped and formed by their supporters at Fox (Murdoch). When Americans put their head in the sand and ignore the repercussions of their profligate use of oil and wasteful practices it displays incredible levels of hypocrisy to now castigate the energy companies. You cannot cheer on a McCain or a Palin or a Liberman or a Bush and then jeer a BP. Nor can you drive your SUV or pickup truck at 80mph down the highway or heat your 4,000 square foot house to 72 degrees and think you are not a big part of the problem. Waste not want not seems to be a philosophy that needs to actively practiced.
• 
  Chet 5/27/2010 1:24:01 PM

  You can boycott BP but they are the only ones who have come up with any proposed solutions other than the governor of LA. who wants to create more barrier islands to stop the oil from going ashore. He can't even do that since the Feds. won't give him a permit. The Feds have proposed nothing useful in solving the problem. Their contribution is to threaten, whine, and try to gain political capital by attacking an easy target. They were also giving BP a safety award when the accident happened. BP is ultimately responsible for the accident and cleanup and will pay billions by the time this is all done but we still need oil. Someone has to drill for it and it won't be our politicians. Boycott them in the next election.
• 
  lyngengr 5/27/2010 12:01:23 PM

  I completely agree with DRL and this misguided boycott. While BP certainly must shoulder the majority of blame for this incident, since they were in charge, it is also a lack of adequate oversight and regulations from our government. For instance, the BP engineers did not have accurate drawings and schematics of the blowout preventer (BOP). Similarly, the BOP did not have the correct rams actually installed, but test units that were incapable of performing properly. Heck, for all we know the BOP may have been completely incapable of stopping anything given the poor maintenance (dead batteries, leaking hydraulics, etc.), but the glaring fact is that none of the technical inspectors from MMS were doing their job properly. Let's face it - drilling at 5,000 ft below sea level, where the static pressure is 150 atmospheres (2,200 psi) is dangerous and requires significant precautions.
  If you really want to understand what is going on with this mess, I would recommend you watch the videos from the BP press conferences, and especially the briefing by Kent Wells on BOP technology. Listen to some of the questions both him and the BP CEO are asked. The news media are only giving us a fraction of the important technical details, probably because they don't understand any of it and just want to paint BP as an evil corporate giant.
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  DRL 5/27/2010 11:11:54 AM

  Let's boycott breathing air - that's about as intelligent as boycotting BP. The Fed approves all actions taken by oil companies when it comes to drilling. Let's do some real good and boycott sending inept politicains to Washington. CNN, send the children home and hire some adults to report the news.