{"id":1847,"date":"2010-05-06T07:18:13","date_gmt":"2010-05-06T11:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicholsclan.com\/tinblog\/?p=1847"},"modified":"2010-05-05T19:49:17","modified_gmt":"2010-05-05T23:49:17","slug":"drill-maybe-drill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2010\/05\/drill-maybe-drill.html","title":{"rendered":"Drill Maybe Drill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"oil<\/a>The recent BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is now almost certainly going to be an environmental disaster.\u00a0 The resulting loss of fishing grounds and other seashore and ocean jobs will also be economically devastating to a region of the country that can ill afford it.\u00a0 And both sides are screaming.<\/p>\n

The tree huggers are using this as an example of why we need to move quickly to clean renewable energy sources.\u00a0 They would advocate to shut down offshore drilling… and onshore drilling, and digging, and chicken farming while we’re at it.<\/p>\n

The drill-baby-drill crowd is chanting ever louder to drill here, drill now.\u00a0 This disaster is evidence of how much oil is under there, and that once we get it safely ashore we’ll all be better off.\u00a0 Stuff happens.\u00a0 We’ll clean it up and we’ll be fine.\u00a0 It’s Obama’s fault anyway, or maybe some loony eco-terrorist.<\/p>\n

As in many such situations, both sides are a little right and a little wrong… and in this case, a lot of nuts.\u00a0 We do need to move to green energy and cut our dependence on oil.\u00a0 But that’s a long road and will require a lot of government incentives to get it moving.\u00a0 As much as running my life on sun and wind sounds appealing, I’m not about to put a mast and a sail in the bed of my truck.\u00a0 So in the mean time, we do need to exploit our domestic oil and coal reserves.\u00a0 And that means taking on some environmental risk.<\/p>\n

But what no one seems to be talking about here is the role of greed in the recent disaster.\u00a0 This oil spill should not have occurred.\u00a0 Modern undersea drilling specifies using redundant blowout valves.\u00a0 This means that when the primary valve fails, as happened in the gulf, the secondary valve can still stop the oil flow.\u00a0 Most countries require the use of such devices for wells drilled off their shore.\u00a0 However, in this country we have no such regulation.\u00a0 We assume that because it’s the right thing to do, companies will put them in anyway.\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 That’s more expensive.\u00a0 So in an easily predictable outcome, BP opted not to install them.\u00a0\u00a0 For BP, it was a balance sheet risk.\u00a0 The cost of cleanup versus the cost of the valve mitigated by the small risk of a failure.\u00a0 They gambled.\u00a0 They lost.\u00a0 None of which helps the shrimp farmers and seaside resorts.\u00a0 None of which save the Everglades or the Delta.<\/p>\n

Over and over companies demonstrate that left to their own devices they behave selfishly.\u00a0 And realistically, that’s not unreasonable behavior.\u00a0 But it is yet again more evidence that the government plays a role in regulating and controlling some of the parameters of business to insure the safety and well being of the people.\u00a0 Capitalism by itself doesn’t get you there.<\/p>\n

That <\/em><\/strong>is the real lesson in all this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is now almost certainly going to be an environmental<\/p>\n

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