Did you just see Rachael's story on Shell Oil rig in Alaska that has run aground?

[Auntie Bush]

Really scary! I can't believe the Obama administration allows this type of catastrophe in the making. I don't see how cleanup could ever be accomplished. Glad it's there instead of Polar Bear habitat.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. That barge has been in service since 1983 and is specifically designed for Arctic service

It was actually being towed to Seattle when this happened.

It has (relatively) little fuel oils on board.

Yes, scary.

I'm not sure how Obama caused this.

Yes, I am unhappy with his offshore drilling permissiveness.

[JaneyVee]

5. Actually the rig is loaded with diesel fuel but no reports of leaks yet.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. It has about 140,000 gallons of various oil products aboard

That's not small, but as oil spills go, it isn't big. Most are in the multiple millions of gallons.

The BP thing was 11 million gallons a *day* . . . . . this would be less than 15 minutes of what that one was.

No, it isn't a good thing, but there has been plenty that are worse.

[Bandit]

12. That 11 million a day was crude oil also, this is just light weight diesel.

Being pounded by fifty foot waves but not leaking anything as yet...

[highplainsdem]

2. Yes, it's really scary. Arctic oil exploration could lead to an uncontrollable disaster. See these

links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4985785

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/oil-exploration-under-arctic-ice-could-cause-uncontrollable-natural-disaster-2349788.html

The first is my Sept. 2011 LBN topic about that Guardian story. I've posted a lot of LBN topics, but this story was frightening enough that I haven't forgotten it.

I'll just copy my LBN OP below:

___________

Tue Sep-06-11 12:46 AM

Oil exploration under Arctic ice could cause 'uncontrollable' natural disaster

Source: The Independent

Oil from an undersea leak will not only be very hard to deal with in Arctic conditions, it will interact with the surface sea ice and become absorbed in it, and will be transported by it for as much as 1,000 miles across the ocean, according to Peter Wadhams, Professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge.

The interaction, discovered in large-scale experiments 30 years ago, means that the Arctic oil rush, which was given a huge boost last week with a $3.2 billion (£1.9bn) investment from Exxon Mobil, is likely to be the riskiest form of oil exploration ever undertaken, said Professor Wadhams, who is a former director of Cambridge's Scott Polar Research Institute.

-snip-

"The oil is caught underneath the ice, so you can't get at immediately to clean it up or burn it off. You don't know exactly where it is, and then it gets encapsulated in the new ice which grows underneath, so you then have a kind of oil sandwich inside the pack ice.

"And that's being transported around the Arctic and isn't released until spring, when it may be several hundred or even a thousand miles from the source of the spill, so you can have a huge area of the Arctic becoming polluted by oil without initially it being clear where that oil is."

-snip-

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/oil-exploration-under-arctic-ice-could-cause-uncontrollable-natural-disaster-2349788.html

The article mentions the other risks of going after the oil in the Arctic -- "ice encroachment, the remoteness of the Arctic, darkness, extreme weather, deep water, high seas, freezing conditions and icebergs" -- but the most worrisome information here is about how the oil will interact with ice, and this information is based on a study done off the coast of Canada in the 1970s.

Not only would spilled oil be trapped in the ice and transported vast distances by it, but when it thaws it will be still be fresh oil because the ice will have kept it from weathering. And Professor Wadhams points out it will be released on the edges of pack ice, where migratory birds feed.

[fadedrose]

3. How does Rachel get these newsworthy catastrophes?

Nobody else has mentioned that rig.

And she didn't fail to mention the huge gift of money the govt gives to oil...shocking.

Hope the other networks get the story...

[Last Stand]

4. Somehow escaped the national media.

The thing looked like a city washed up on a beautiful beach. 150,000 gallons of fuel poised to kill anything it touches.

NOthing to see here...

[MindPilot]

9. CBS ran a story about it on the evening news yesterday

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50138065n

[Separation]

7. Buddy told me about this over the weekend.

They pulled 22 people of the rig. I miss kodiak, best SAR in the world.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. I've been posting about this for several days

but didn't get much response. I'm glad Rachel has picked up the story. This is big news up here, especially since Shell has had so many missteps during this process.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022109123

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014353015


Here's the latest from the Anchorage Daily News, which is on top of this story.
http://www.adn.com/2013/01/01/2739838/kulluk-final.html

[Auntie Bush]

10. Thanks for all that information Blue.

I wish everyone would read the links...it's truly an important an scary story. Can you just imagine the horror of ever fighting an oil well leak in the Arctic? Impossible...It would possibly leak till the well emptied out and the pressure gone. The thoughts of so much death and destruction is sickening!

We need to call our representatives right now and get this madness stopped!

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Here is more, Auntie

Critics say grounding shows Arctic drilling danger

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/01/2739720/no-fuel-sheen-no-sign-that-hull.html#storylink=relast

[Stinky The Clown]

13. ^^^^THIS is the money line^^^^^

I don't think this grounding, in and of itself, is going to be that big a deal.

As a small model for what is possible, it is valuable. This is a "What Could Have Been" teachable moment.

[Blue_In_AK]

15. I don't know how familiar you are with the history of Shell's attempts to set up

This year, but it's been one mishap after another, almost a comedy of errors, and they haven't even begun drilling yet. This grounding is just the latest fuck-up.

[Blue_In_AK]

16. Self delete

[Auntie Bush]

14. That's scary

With 50 foot waves and near hurricane force winds beating that barge on the rocks...I can very well see a hole punched in it's hull and no roads or rescue equipment in sight.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Here are some more updates

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/03/2741541/shell-describes-damage-to-grounded.html

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/03/2741202/groups-seek-halt-to-arctic-offshore.html#storylink=relast

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/03/2741562/shells-foundering-ship-has-some.html

[Blue_In_AK]

18. Update

http://www.adn.com/2013/01/03/2741791/in-village-of-old-harbor-residents.html