Admiral Mullen: Oil Industry Better Equipped to Counter Spill

[ProSense]

Source: Voice of America

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff says the oil industry is better-equipped than the U.S. military to deal with the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

In a televised interview on ABC's Good Morning America Monday, Admiral Mike Mullen responded to suggestions that the military should take the lead in the oil spill containment and clean-up.

Mullen said military officials have looked at the equipment the military has available, but that the best technology exists in the oil industry.

The spill, which began in late April after an oil rig exploded and sank off the coast of the southern state of Louisiana, is the worst in American history. The U.S. government estimates between 70 million and 150 million liters of oil have already been leaked into the Gulf waters.


Read more: http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Admiral-Mullen-Oil-Industry-Better-Equipped-to-Counter-Spill-95255049.html

[Downwinder]

1. So much for national security.

[hack89]

2. Oil drilling = national security? nt

[liberation]

6. false analogy = reasonable argument? nt

[hack89]

8. Mullen is right

do you dispute it? And why would you think the government should have oil drilling expertise?

[Downwinder]

10. Spillage with oil is a given. Just like your hard disk is going to crash.

If spillage is a given, and ass long as humans are dependent on food to survive, the food chain is a national security issue.

[hack89]

11. So how much more money would you give the Pentagon

so they can hire all the experts and stockpile all the equipment to protect every aspect of the food chain? I am assuming you have a long list of other things to protect against beside oil spills - what other things should now become a military function?

[Downwinder]

12. I think they can better use their resources protecting the food chain

than following PETA or anarchists around.

Who has submersibles capable of tracking oil plumes? Rather than posting them in the Caribbean watching for attacks from Venezuela they would be better used tracking oil.

[hack89]

13. Why the military though?

and why do you think the military has a lot of submersibles? And if they did, why would they be optimized to track oil plumes?

The oil industry has many more submersibles than the US navy.

[Downwinder]

14. Are you telling me that I could not go to the War College and

find a paper on the response to terrorists with primer cord cutting the heads off oil wells in the Gulf?

I get the impression that it does not matter, that the Gulf has been written off. Perhaps the Gulf Coast will all be under water in five years anyway so why bother. The military is predicting famines and migrations so this is just to be expected.

[O is 44]

3. I guess he could act like the former occupant,

and expand his Presidential powers all in the name of national security....not sure how that would stop the gusher but I guess it will make some feel better.

[liberation]

4. Well, I dunno about that... but we can conclude that you find plenty of solace in strawmen...

[O is 44]

7. Please tell me how I've misrepresented

those clamoring for the President to take over, because no one has made a plausible argument as to how having the President take over will stop the gusher.

[TomCADem]

5. If Republicans Are Going To Excuse BP and Say The Feds Are At Fault, Then Nationalize!

If the keep-the-government-out Republicans are going to try to say that the federal government should do more (and tax payers should bear the cost), then shouldn't we just go ahead and nationalize the oil production?

You can't have it both ways. Insist on private profit, but then socialize the losses.

[DallasNE]

9. Oil Industry Is Better Equiped

To handle the oil spill disaster but that doesn't mean that the federal government shouldn't be directing which activities those oil workers perform. It may take some kind of law or declaration by Congress but I remember when I first started working at Union Pacific that the old timers there liked to talk about how a military officer set in the President's chair during WW II. This assured that military shipments got priority. The same concept could be applied here. Not only has plugging the leak taken longer than it should but the clean-up operations have not been at a proper level. One could assume that these errors were influenced by the low-ball estimate of 5,000 barrels a day put out by BP (another reason BP should not have been allowed to manage things). It sure shouldn't have taken 40 days to determine the quantity of the leak.

Lastly, they are now estimating that when they sever the crimped pipe for the next attempt to stop the gusher it could cause a 20% increase in the flow rate. When I have had a water hose crimp the flow is probably cut by 75%. I haven't seen the crimp so it may be considerable less than my experience with crimped water hoses but I could believe an increase approaching 400%.

[mikita]

15. code word for "we are so fucked" n/t

[librechik]

16. Urban District Attorney: Gangs better equipped to deal with gang crime than police

just an analogy. Nobody actually said that. But rilly.....however true (I doubt it) this US policy seems ill-advised, like so much coming from our legal divisions.

[truthisfreedom]

17. Maybe if everyone chipped in. I'm just sayin'.

Seems like, in this case, more help is better.