I was speaking with a geologist the other day and he had a rather simple solution to the problem regarding the eco-disaster unfolding in the Gulf of New Mexico. He stated simply that if you know how to drill an oil well, you know how to destroy it—that is if you want to destroy it. To seal the current well, you destroy it from the bottom up, an implosion, with several explosives lowered into the pipe, timed to explode at different levels, thereby effectively destroying the current pipe providing passage for the oil to the surface of the sea bottom.
If this is that simple, why hasn’t it been done? The answer quite simply is money. Only 1 in 3 wells is successful in hitting the liquid black gold. The cost just to drill an offshore well conservatively is $70 million. Tapping into one this productive has created an unholy contract between the government and BP to save the site no matter what the costs. Downplaying the magnitude of the spill at first and then creating a number of untested methods/plans to cap the site is part of a continued effort to save the well, and the Obama Administration may points its’ finger at British Petroleum, but their hands are not clean either; in fact, they have as much oil on them or more as the oil company. BP’s reaction is based on greed; the government’s reaction is confusing at best since they are the caretakers of our land, our water, our wildlife, and our safety. By not responding immediately and decisively, Obama has placed all of that in jeopardy in a monumental way perhaps for decades to come. This one will be hard for his administration to place blame on his predecessor—but we expect, even on this, he will try to do so.
6/10/2010 Update From The Web: Marine Corps Scientist: BIG Bomb Could Seal Gulf Oil Leak-Washington Wire
