Gulf oil spill could have impact on Arctic regulations

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A major U.S. oil spill could change the shape of energy regulations in Canada’s Arctic.

The explosion of an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico comes as energy companies are pressing to eliminate a key drilling safety requirement from Canadian rules.

Current federal rules in Canada require energy companies to complete a “relief well,” a drilling technique that helps to stop oil leaks, in the same season as an original well is drilled. Many Arctic nations, including the U.S., Norway and Greenland, have created such requirements as a means of ensuring that oil blowouts can be controlled before winter ice halts an emergency response.

Starting last fall, a group of companies operating in Canada began an effort to persuade the National Energy Board that technology has advanced so far that relief wells are no longer needed in the Arctic. New deep offshore wells in the Beaufort Sea will take two or three years to drill, making it impossible to drill a relief well in the same season, they say.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/gulf-oil-spill-could-have-impact-on-arctic-regulations/article1547474/

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1. SW Fla we are getting a god awful smell all day and our local news said it was from the spill!

( I am repeating what i just posted on another thread)


I thought today the air smelled like rotten B.O...or nasty onions ..now tonight it is more like smoke.

This afternoon I thought someone was cooking with really nasty onions..somewhere..It was disgusting..and making me gag..I opened my door and had to spray air freshener all over inside my home.

But local news said they got many many calls today about the smell..I live directly on the beach so it was strong here..all day..now it smells more like smoke.

News said it is effecting Tampa/Clearwater Beach area all the way down to Ft Meyers.

But no one is telling us if it is dangerous to breath..or dangerous for older people.