Originally Posted by
KarlMarx
It was set off by a bunch of right wing crazies who had something against Obamacare....
or wanted to kill gay whales
You left out bitterly clinging to guns and religion.
Seriously, I've heard no evidence that it was anything other than a natural accident: gas below ground, under high pressure, causing a blowout. A spark ignited it, and away we go.
I guess I'm curious why the platform had no warning equipment that such a thing was coming. No sensors on the wellhead (5,000 feet down at the bottom of the gulf there) wired to warning lights on the platform, and/or big valves that can shut off the flow AT THE PLATFORM before the blowout gets to the surface?
From what I've heard, such blowouts are not unknown, and are one of the major problems that such platforms are designed to deal with. Especially "exploratory" platforms like this one was, where you don't always know what you are about to hit with the drill. So why wasn't this one dealt with?
"The social contract exists so that everyone doesn’t have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them." - Instapundit.com