Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion

[babylonsister]

Marcus Baram
Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion
First Posted: 04-26-10 05:00 PM | Updated: 04-26-10 11:50 PM


As families mourn the 11 workers thrown overboard in the worst oil rig disaster in decades and as the resulting spill continues to spread through the Gulf of Mexico, new questions are being raised about the training of the drill operators and about the oil company's commitment to safety.

Deepwater Horizon, the giant technically-advanced rig which exploded on April 20 and sank two days later, is leaking an estimated 42,000 gallons per day through a pipe about 5,000 feet below the surface. The spill has spread across 1,800 square miles -- an area larger than Rhode Island -- according to satellite images, oozing its way toward the Louisiana coast and posing a threat to wildlife, including a sperm whale spotted in the oil sheen.

The massive $600 million rig, which holds the record for boring the deepest oil and gas well in the world -- at 35,050 feet - had passed three recent federal inspections, the most recent on April 1, since it moved to its current location in January. The cause of the explosion has not been determined.

Yet relatives of workers who are presumed dead claim that the oil behemoth BP and rig owner TransOcean violated "numerous statutes and regulations" issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard, according to a lawsuit filed by Natalie Roshto, whose husband Shane, a deck floor hand, was thrown overboard by the force of the explosion and whose body has not yet been located.

Both companies failed to provide a competent crew, failed to properly supervise its employees and failed to provide Rushto with a safe place to work, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The lawsuit also names oil-services giant Halliburton as a defendant, claiming that the company "prior to the explosion, was engaged in cementing operations of the well and well cap and, upon information and belief, improperly and negligently performed these duties, which was a cause of the explosion."

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/26/big-oil-fought-off-new-sa_n_552575.html

[safeinOhio]

1. All of the money BP spends on ads

you'd think they were saints when it comes to the environment.

[havocmom]

2. 'People are replaceable, fines are cheap, accident costs v regulations are worth the risk'

The credo of today's Capitalists. They aren't businessmen/women, they are compulsive gamblers and they use other people's lives & environment as chips in their games.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. About like the way Big Coal fought the safety rules before they killed

off thirty coal miners here in the past month.

[flyarm]

4. this disaster could effect Florida all the way to the keys and possible east coast of Fla..in our

paper today..look at the loop ..

we are expectinng some storms tonight possibly..with the tail of the storm coming close to the area of the spill..which could carry oil towards The Florida panhandle..and if the oil gets in the "LOOP" ..Florida beaches are screwed!

But not to worry..Obama says it won't effect putting a shit load of these rigs in our Gulf and in the Atlantic Ocean surrounding 2/3rds of Florida..and we should shut up and be happy aboutthe fact that Obama has done what no dem in decades has allowed Republicans to do!

Oh and the air yesterday where I am on the Beach in Fla near Tampa..smelled like rotten onions all day yesterday..or rotten B.O...the smell gagged me..it was so horrible..and our local Tampa news said it was smoke and air from the spill..and the smell was from Tampa down to Ft Meyers ( for those that don't know the area..Tpa to Ft Meyeres is approx a 3 hour drive down the west coast of Fla) By last night the smell turned to a smokey smell..

WE got no warnings about the air quality..or the health risks for seniors or those infirmed..we only got info during the weather reports about the stinking air smells ..

Please look at the front page of the ST Pete Times..at this link..other links don't show the loop currents of the Gulf of Mexico..and how this could go all the way down to the Keys wrappng around to the Atlantic


http://www.tampabay.com/specials/publication/Times_1A/20100427.pdf

see the pictures there of the Gulf Loop currents..

St Pete Times:

Gulf oil spill could
threaten Florida


Officials predict winds will push the oil spill closer to Florida by today.
Oceanographers fear that if the spill gets caught in the gulf's powerful
loop current, the oil could wind up on the beaches of the Keys and then
be swept north along the state's Atlantic coast.


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Oh yeah...I keep getting emails for the past two days from fellow Florida dems and enviorn groups..saying..."drill Obama drill"... or "drill liar drill"