The number of spills from offshore oil rigs and pipelines in U.S. waters more than quadrupled this decade, a trend that could have served as a warning for the massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico, according to government data and safety experts.
The spills — and the amount of oil that leaked — grew markedly worse even when taking increases in production into account, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data shows. The leaks came as the oil industry repeatedly claimed that offshore drilling was never safer.
The same Louisiana officials who now whine about government response to the BP oil spill being inadequate – led the march of political lemmings backing the Gulf drilling industry. They all got their slice of the contribution pie.
From the early 1970s through the ’90s, offshore rigs and pipelines averaged about four spills per year of at least 50 barrels, according to the Minerals Management Service (MMS)…The average annual total surged to more than 17 from 2000 through 2009. From 2005 through 2009, spills averaged 22 a year.
The company with the most spills from 2000 through 2009 is BP, which leased the well spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf since April 20, according to the data. The oil giant and its affiliated companies reported 23 spills of 50 barrels or more, not including the latest blowout. Oil firm Shell was next with 21, according to MMS spill reports…
Richard Charter, a marine expert with the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife, said the smaller spills should have foreshadowed bigger mistakes were on the way.
“Carelessness is usually a sign of impending disaster,” he said.
“Carelessness” is a sign of chickens getting ready to come home to roost.
Going all the way back to the Bush years eh? Why not draw contrasts over how long it took members of the mainstream media to bash the Bush and Obama Administrations over an environmental crisis?
I think they gave Bush something like 2 to 3 days before accusations of racism and other such things were thrown out there.
How long has it taken for the current administration? Why the leniency? Why the double standard?
Three ways to fix the current problem which seem to have fallen on deaf ears of the current administration: http://tinyurl.com/2bw49qg
Obama trying to do damage control over his inability to handle this situation after 49+ days of this crisis: http://tinyurl.com/24ebwar
Southern Louisiana is facing a double disaster. The first is the oil spill which is bad for fisheries and tourism. They are getting compensation for that. Hopefully most will make it.
The second even bigger disaster is the blanket command to stop drilling. That is going to put a huge number of people out of work and keep them out of work. I guess they go on the doll or leave.
Basically that is the Feds both times. First they were a little clareless about safety and next they just reacted with fear and shut everything down. So was the failure to make sure the dikes at New Orleans were as strong as they should be or nobody lived behind them but not to worry the Feds are putting the dikes back to where the were before they failed.
They are also telling everybody how much they care about the spill and what a wonderful job they are doing dealing with the problem.
Of course you can count on the government to take care of you, right.
Pretty quick on the keyboard there Guyver. Is playing partisan defense your profession, or just a really important hobby?
Hmm, curious, since the oil barons were (s)elected. Quite interesting. I wonder if it has anything to do with them.
3, Li,
I don’t care what the “standard” for bashing is so long as it’s consistent and applied the same way regardless of who the politician is.
The thread cites only going back to 2000 (which is probably not an accident) Given how much the current administration prefers to blame the past 8 years while taking no responsibility their own actions seems to fit why this thread only went back to 2000.
Either people needed to be all over Obama’s case 2 or 3 days after the oil crisis, or people should have given Bush a lot more than 2 or 3 days before playing the race card.
I’m just pointing out a double standard. If you call that “partisan defense” then that’s your prerogative.
Statement: “The thread cites only going back to 2000 (which is probably not an accident)”
What the thread actually says: “From the early 1970s through the ’90s, offshore rigs and pipelines averaged about four spills per year … …The average annual total surged to more than 17 from 2000 through 2009. From 2005 through 2009, spills averaged 22 a year.
I suppose we can wonder why the truth is being massaged here, but not the fact that it is being massaged.
You can’t compare the criticism of the Bush administration over Katrina to the Obama administration over the oil spill.
Katrina was:
An act of nature with no responsible party.
Forecast in advance.
Immediately followed by thousands of human lives at stake.
Could have benefited greatly by a quick, coordinated government response.
And all the original damage was done in one night.
The Gulf Spill:
Manmade
Developed over the course of weeks.
Had a presumably responsible private firm making their presumed best ongoing efforts at repairs.
Did not directly and immediately threaten the lives of thousands of people.
Unlikely to be remedied by government actions.
Apples and oranges, even if they are both served up Creole style.
The best experts in the world are doing what they can to address this environmental crisis with equipment and talent.
The Obama attack are coming from the former Busheeple’s and teabaggers trying to link lack of progress with lack of leadership. This is no floating bodies in New Orleans kind of disaster that came with weather forewarning.
What is clear is that dig dig dig crowd are hiding as you would expect and the Republicans bitches of the oil companies are creating spin that “nature will clean it up”.
Hopefully the general sheeple population will get weened off the oil tit although I know they will forget this 6 mo’ later.
Where are the Republican fat asses on the beaches soaking up oil using their XXXXXXL tee shirts? Why leave that to conservationists? WHy not plug the oil leak opening with Rush Limbaugh’s fat ass?
8, Bobbo,
Ooops. My apologies. I focused more on the headline of the thread and the embedded article’s title while placing it into context of how the current Administration tends to blame the previous administration for their lack of leadership / responses to a given situation. That’s what I get for multi-tasking.
9, Spsffan,
You can compare how each administration responded to these crisis regardless of their root cause. They’re both environmental crisis. From there you can also see how partisans from the left and the mainstream media play a double standard.
The fact that one environmental crisis is man-made while the other was natural is irrelevant.
Heck if you really want to be THAT anal over apples to apples, why no more daily reports of the death toll of American troops in Iraq or Afghanistan since Obama became president. We’re still fighting those wars, no? Why the loss in interest? It was pretty important to report under the previous administration. Regardless of how you feel about the two wars, the way they are getting reported are entirely different due to partisan politics within the mainstream media.
Guyver–I hate it when that happens. Good man!
#13 Thanks. I know you appreciate the insight and that’s all you have to offer.
BTW, did the oil spill reach your village yet? What has the village elder have to say about this?
– An act of God?
– WTF is that?
– Oil! We’re rich!!
– When did the witch die?
WTF do you people expect from the President? Do you all think he has a freakin’ magic wand or something, and can just go, “Poof, all gone!”
Give me a freakin’ break already. This thing has been stewing for years!
Where did Bushco, Inc. make its ancestral money? What kind of company was Darth Cheney the CEO of?
Who had secret meetings with OIL COMPANIES, when they were first selected to occupy the White House?
OF COURSE IT GOES BACK TO 2000. IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! I blame Bushco, Inc. more for this than the current administration, because Bushco, Inc. is steeped in oil, and wanted to give those corporations the best breaks they could.
Dallas, you can’t plug the hole with Rush’s fat ass, because he’s on his honeymoon.
And as ugly as his new bitch is, maybe when they come back, she can scare the thing shut!
#12
LMAO, you really don’t.
#11
Actually, it’s very relevant. How much do you think we know about deep water? You actually think we have the sufficient expertise to fix this problem quickly? Seriously? Wow.
Add the above to cleaning up not just on shores/above water but the damages down there and it’s very very different.
Honestly, the lack of understanding on this very subject is astounding. I don’t know enough, but I know that we don’t know enough because not much has been done in deep water to properly address anything, let alone this disaster.
#14
Put a smile on my face, thanks 🙂
For those that dont know a few points of interest.
1. BP has bought out/leased others wells.
2. WELLS are created by 1 group, then SOLD tot he highest bidder.
3. BP is only an OIL SELLER, they didnt build most of the oil rigs.
NOW who is responsible? the builders of the rigs, or the LEASE HOLDER?
Tiny url should not be used to trojan horse a Hannity clip.
No use trying to blame Bush–the laws of this country shield the mentally incompetent from responsibility for their own actions.
spsffan #1, “Katrina was: An act of nature with no responsible party.”
There has been some discussion of Katrina causing the damage. Especially with the Army Corp of Engineers and the NOLA Levee Board “inspecting” levees in restaurants for years.
Sound familiar?
“What the thread actually says: “From the early 1970s through the ’90s, offshore rigs and pipelines averaged about four spills per year … …The average annual total surged to more than 17 from 2000 through 2009. From 2005 through 2009, spills averaged 22 a year.”
Meaningless statistics unless the total number of operational rigs per year is factored…
Imagine citing average auto accidents per year without considering the number of cars on the road per year…
#17–theNaySayerOne==So, you think I don’t hate it when I read too fast and get my facts wrong? Ok. I agree. Hate is too strong a word. I avoid it when possible and don’t like it when I make that error. Is that what you wanted Bunky?
actually, it was just a compliment to Guyver. Too few here are honest enough to admit to simple error and making non-quibbling apologies/explanations when revealed. I admire that.
I hardly EVER make such apologies. But then that is because I hardly ever need to. Ain’t being open to recognizing honest error a great thing?
#24 Ah but you appreciate what I write is fact and logical insight. I just deliver it in a bitter wrapper to poke a stick in the eye of you hypocrites.
You never argue the facts because facts are facts. You just squeal at the poke in the eye which basically validates my point!
If this increase keeps up, pretty soon they will catch up to Mother Nature in oil spills.
Hmm… Look who’s been paying for Rahm’s D.C. apartment. ROFLMAO at O-bots.
Maybe it’s just a symptom of better reporting. Analogy: no-fault air incident reports.
I sure wouldn’t want President Clingstone or Presidents Butch to be unjustly maligned.
Will we be seeing a mid-term cabinet purge?
17, Theone,
The point was HOW the mainstream media and liberals apply a different standard. While the oil spill was going on, the President found the time to enjoy his Memorial Day weekend in Illinois. His administration has also not allowed others with compelling ideas to make an attempt to fix the problems. The president didn’t even want to talk to the CEO of BP because he felt the CEO would just give him lip service by telling Obama what he’d want to hear. Strangely this never crossed Obama’s mind when he talked with Ahmadinejad.
But I suppose you do have a point. After 49+ days of essentially doing little else other than trying to maintain his image of “kicking ass”, I’m sure the problem is much more complex than it could have been had they tried to nip things in the bud.
If you’re consistent and intellectually honest, you would also say trying to conclude global warming is man-made (especially in the absence of empirical evidence) would be equally “astounding”.
I fear that the current administration is taking a Machiavellian approach by allowing for more environmental damage there than needs to be. Doing so would be an opportunity for this administration to kickstart legislating more radical environmentalism down the throats of the American people. That seems a lot more plausible than trying to explain away his lack of effort is due to a complex system.
19, TCC3,
Perhaps, but that’s what the administrators of this site want. The potential solutions are not without merit regardless of whose show it was on. To disqualify the ideas because of your partisan preference shows your lack of interest in actually trying to fix the problem.
21, Mextli,
A lot of the liberals here don’t care about that detail. Regardless of the steps that got us to the point of failure, the liberals only cared to say it happened under Bush’s watch.
Now that the tables are turned, it seems the liberals are flip flopping. It’s a double standard.
22, Anon,
Yes and no. I agree the statistic does not put overall impact into consideration, but the focus of the statistic is to gauge the norms of the accidents themselves.
The danger is the statistic can be misused to distort perception amongst people to believe the statistic implies overall impact when it really doesn’t…. which is what I think your point was about.