Bizarre, Environment, Politics, Society

Palin: Oil Spill is the Fault of Environmentalists

On the heels of Rush Limbaugh suggesting actual sabotage by environmentalists, Sarah Palin is joining the cause in blaming environmentalists for the oil spill by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico.

Palin blamed “misguided radicalism” of environmentalists (as opposed presumably to “guided radicalism” of conservatives) for the disaster. She suggested that, if only these poor struggling oil companies were allowed to drill in wildlife reserves and close to our shores, they would not have to seek oil in the deep ocean.

She added “[t]his is a message to extreme ‘environmentalists’ who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing ‘clean and green’ about your efforts. With your non-sensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet . . . Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.”

In the meantime, members of Congress and oil lobbyists are demanding that the moratorium on drilling be lifted immediately.

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126 thoughts on “Palin: Oil Spill is the Fault of Environmentalists”

  1. Byron,

    The $75 million liability cap was (as I understand it) inserted in post-Exxon Valdez legislation at the behest of the oil industry. And yes, it would be subsidizing pollution in a different way. I don’t know the specifics, but I would imagine that BP saying things like there was no chance of a massive spill will leave them open to lawsuits (which will probably be drawn out for decades).

    On another note, I thought I would mention that I think it is important that BP not pay $10 billion in dividends this month – although it is regrettable that many English pensioners will face hardships because of this, it is much more important that investors face the consequences of investing in reckless companies – the more stockholders pay attention to how companies are managed and the more influence they exert, the better.

  2. Slarti:

    Did the government limit BP’s liability for drilling out there? I have heard they limited it to 75 million.

    BP is not a great steward, they had problems in Alaska as well. Had I been on the committee to allow this I would have taken a look at their past actions. However if the government did indeed limit BP’s liability the fault is with government. I would take all kinds of risk if someone else was going to pay the bill.

    This goes to your subsidising pollution point but not in quite the same way.

  3. Byron,

    I’ve repeatedly seen this allegation that environmentalists have been forcing drilling in ever deeper water, but I haven’t seen any evidence that it is true (certainly there is plenty of drilling within sight of shore in Louisiana). It seems to me that they are drilling where the oil is. Additionally, no one forced BP to say that there was a 0% chance of a catastrophic spill or that they could deal with a spill of 10 times this magnitude. They seem to have continually lowballed estimates and been slow with responses (in my opinion) and generally operated in bad faith.

  4. I have heard that BP has another leaking well in the Gulf.

    Rumor: Is There a Second Leaking Well in the Gulf? (DO, BP, RIG, NE, ATW, BHI)

    Satellite imagery has revealed what appears to be a second leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles offshore of Louisiana. The semi-submersible Ocean Saratoga, owned by Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (NYSE: DO) and operated on behalf of privately held Taylor Energy. The discharge was noted in satellite photos of the area, as seen in this photo from the European Envisat satellite.

    http://247wallst.com/2010/06/08/rumor-is-there-a-second-leaking-well-in-the-gulf-do-bp-rig-ne-atw-bhi/

    If this is true, BP will most likely be put into Government Receivership and as it is known here will never exist. I would think that the aristocracy would be criminally charged if true.

  5. From an article in Real Clear Markets by Wendy Milling:

    “Observe that the government, beholden to an insane environmentalist ideology that views nature as an intrinsic value and superior to human beings, forbade oil companies to drill nearer to the coast line where there were shallow waters. In the shallow areas, an oil leak could be directly accessed. Instead, companies were only allowed to drill in areas too deep for current technology to address.

    The liability risk in deep waters was too great for the oil companies to accept. This is an example of the inherent safety features in a free market. However, because we need the oil for our economy, politicians had to entice companies to drill there by capping liability limits on accidents, legally shielding them from the consequences of failure they would bear under a capitalist system. It is government that removes the safety controls and engenders unacceptably risky situations.

    There is no regulation that can override the reality of a fundamentally flawed set-up like this, which is why the statists do not offer to explain why such regulations were not already in place in one of the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy.”

    Excellent point that had government not restricted liability BP would probably not have taken the risk to drill in 5,000 feet of water. Nothing like distorting market forces, hmmmm haven’t we seen this before? Oh yes unnaturally low interest rates pushed by the FED, that worked out very well indeed. Let markets be free to work.

    full article-

    http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/06/09/no_thomas_frank_capitalism_is_perfect_98505.html

  6. Gyges,

    Thanks for the article and video. And I agree that XKCD is top-notch geek humor (or maybe nerd humor). An XKCD comic about what we might be in for.. (be sure to read the mouse-over text)

    http://xkcd.com/748/

  7. Some of you might remember Chu from this great exchange:

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgKepHebKRc&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

  9. Environmentalists cause oil spills just like canaries cause mine explosions.

  12. BP seems to be doing everything it can to keep the oil flowing, instead of doing something to stop the flow.

    From where I see it, the problem is that BP isn’t willing to be satisfied with just stopping the flow of oil. They keep trying methods that will permit them to use this as a productive well in the future.

    While the pressures are high, the differential pressure (sea pressure vs. oil discharge pressure) is not. Why not insert an expansion plug into the hole; anchor it; and pressurize a ring to form a seal?

  13. In that statement she’s also saying that Corporations can’t be trusted not to take shortcuts when solving a problem or addressing a risk that is “too” expensive.

  15. Buddha,

    I was just saying that the idea in Bdaman raised shouldn’t be discarded out of hand. As I pointed out, it cannot be implemented quickly and as we both pointed out, the nature of the strata must be considered (which, given what you said, probably makes it far too risky to try), but it is a method which has been used to successfully solve a similar (if far less difficult) problem in the past. The suggestion Bdaman made wasn’t unreasonable, just impractical and most likely too dangerous to be tried even if it could be done quickly. The real problem is that all of these ideas should have been considered by the oil companies long ago and they should have determined which ones were best, which order to try them in and developed any necessary infrastructure to implement them in a timely fashion. Their ‘seat of the pants’ method of trying to figure something out on the fly has greatly increased the odds of making mistakes, in my opinion.

  16. Slarti,

    Conventional or nuclear, you’d still run the risk of exactly what Kaku was talking about vis a vis further ruptures. If you read my earlier posted link about natural seepage and orders of magnitude, any kind of explosive solution runs the risk of exacerbating the problem because of the nature of the strata in the Gulf.

  17. Blouise, Awwww, Thank you, I miss being away, the Professor and all of the posters here.

  18. lottakatz

    BIL and Former Federal LEO, I’m glad Michio Kaku is getting invited to television programs beyond The Discovery Channel and The History Channel. He’s a favorite of mine also and speaks with such clear prose that he can make even the most complicated subjects clear to we non-scientists. Between KO and MK no viewer that sees that segment will ever forget the take-away guidance is “The Three Stooges with nukes”.

    ==================================================================

    I agree with all of you about Prof Kaka … and lottakatz,

    I love to read your words … phrases like: ” … and speaks with such clear prose …” just makes my heart go pitter-patter … which is why I miss you so much when you are not posting.

  19. In defense of Bdaman, the video he posted was not regarding the same suggestion that was characterized as ‘the Three Stooges with nukes’ on Countdown. The Soviets used an underground nuke to collapse the borehole rather than a surface nuke. Assuming that differences in the undersea strata wouldn’t change the effects, the idea itself is not unreasonable (unlike a detonation on the ocean floor). What makes the idea unworkable is the fact that this problem is a mile deep in the ocean and it would take substantial time to overcome the technical issues and construct the equipment necessary execute this solution (and drill the hole). If the oil industry had spent as much time on safety research as it did on deep water drilling then this might have been a viable last resort solution – say if the nearby borehole for the explosive was pre-drilled and an explosive device capable of functioning in a high-pressure environment (nuclear or conventional) had been designed and built. Imagine if such an option could have been executed mere days after the Deepwater Horizon sank…

    FFLEO,

    I respect your opinions and reasoning too.

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