http://paulrademacher.com...City%2C+MT

You can enter pretty much any zip or city name and have it overlay a recent oil spill image map layer. Really gives some perspective.

It really shows how bad the oil spill is. It's so disturbing to me. So much of life is being destroyed, whether sea life, plants or animals. I can't begin to fathom the lasting repercussions on everyone.

The herring fishery was destroyed in Alaska by the Valdez spill. I suspect some fisheries will be destroyed in the gulf. But those are minor industries affecting only a tiny fraction of people and a tiny amount of money so they won't linger in our memories until the next disaster.

The [red]herring[/red] fishery was destroyed in Alaska

There has to be a Sarah Palin joke in there somewhere?

We will all be affected at the gas pump... if not now soon. The oil industry will pass the cost onto us and any additional cleanup cost will be picked up by the government (us) in the form of increased fuel taxes. Already being discussed.

Time to nationalize the oil industry?

Looks like the spill is about the size of Custer and Power River counties put together. When they talk about it being as big as some states back east, I sometimes forget how little those states are. As for gas consumers paying for it, who else should pay for it? Walk or ride your bike, and your share in the cost goes down. Drive an SUV and your share goes up. Sounds right to me.

I watched a recent documentary on the gulf oil spill. It stated the amount of oil leaking from the pipe is equivalent to 70 barrels of oil per day and the entire spill to date is the equivalent to four Exxon Valdez spills PER week. Should we be concerned?

Bill, the point I was making is that we all will be affected by this mess; either through increased taxes at the pump or increased cost for all products shipped. So it will not be just motorists shouldering the cost but also the grocery shopper,etc.

Our market system works very well to pass the costs down to the end consumer. While allowing for a reasonable profit for all along the way...

So far, government reaction has been somewhat slow on this. I would think a few screws should be turned on BP here...they need to be responsible for this mess, ecologically and financially.

Latest estimate 785 million gallons and counting. Even if it stopped today the effect will catastrophic.

Latest estimate 785 million gallons and counting. Even if it stopped today the effect will catastrophic.

785,000,000 gals / 42 gal/bbl =18,690,476 bbl. This is a bad situation. BP absolutely should be held responsible to clean up the mess. IMO this isn't the governments responsibility other than making sure the mess is satisfactorily cleaned up. The Fed's need to get out of the way an let BP clean it up.

Yet, as bad as this is, why have we not heard about the catastrophic consequences of for example, the Ixtoc spill (below) for which lasted for 11 months? Granted it was not as big of a spill, but what were the consequence of this spill, if any? Did nature over time clean up this mess?

http://blueridgedata.blog...tform.html
Largest International Oil Well Blowouts (Ordered by Volume)

Date - Well Location, Bbl Spilled
June 1979 - April 1980 Ixtoc I Bahia del Campeche, Mexico 3,300,000
October 1986 Abkatun 91 Bahia del Campeche, Mexico 247,000
April 1977 Ekofisk Bravo North Sea, Norway 202,381
January 1980 Funiwa 5 Forcados, Nigeria 200,000
October 1980 Hasbah 6 Gulf, Saudi Arabia 105,000
December 1971 Iran Marine International Gulf, Iran 100,000
January 1969 Alpha Well 21 Platform A Pacific, CA, USA 100,000
March 1970 Main Pass Block 41 Platform C Gulf of Mexico 65,000
October 1987 Yum II/Zapoteca Bahia del Campeche, Mexico 58,643
December 1970 South Timbalier B-26 Gulf of Mexico, USA 53,095

There is no question about nature's ability to heal itself. Is that the question you'd like to ask, or rather, what' put us in this situation in the first place?

How much time, what type of investments will it take, what other options can we explore to avoid this type of ****up?

Have we reached a point where we can all agree to change course?

What other energy resources seem a little less . . . risky?

Sure is windy this evening.

Bet the moon will rise this evening, somewhere.

What's up with all this geothermal activity anyway?

I bet the tides still roll even covered in oil.

Drill baby drill.

Is that the question you'd like to ask, or rather, what' put us in this situation in the first place?

Undoubtedly, federal government drilling moratoriums on land and in shallower depths of the ocean have pushed us into this situation where we are drilling in much riskier conditions.

As bad as this oil spill is, I am not convinced it will necessarily become a long-term catastrophic event. I am curious about the long term impacts of other well blowouts.

I cannot recall a time where I have been curious about the long term effects of an oil spill.

Furious, possibly. Curious, no.

You're backsliding Richard...

The government needs to hold BP's feet to the fire not get out of the way

Bruce, we agree. We will all be paying for this because we all benefit from the oil, whether we pump it into our cars or buy strawberries shipped to our stores. We get the benefits, we pay the costs, as it should be. People who eat more locally produced foods will be paying less of that cost. People who eat strawberries from Argentina will be paying more.

As for nationalization of the oil industry, I prefer regulation. The trick is keeping the regulators honest.

Richard,

'Undoubtedly, federal government drilling moratoriums on land and in shallower depths of the ocean have pushed us into this situation where we are drilling in much riskier conditions.'

I'm in agreement with you. Had this blowout occurred on land or in shallower water, it would still have been a disaster, but probably contained long ago. If we are going to keep drilling at these depths, technology to handle this type of diaster has to be developed and in place.

And BP needs to be held responsible.

[This message has been edited by Tracy Walters (5/28/2010)]

Deep water drilling seems to be 'not in my backyard' thinking for sure!

As for nationalization of the oil industry, I prefer regulation. The trick is keeping the regulators honest.

President Obama has done the right thing here in separating the safety regulators away from those in charge of leasing the minerals. While I believe there are existing safety agencies (OSHA, etc) that could have handled this rather than creating more bureaucracy, the effort will go quite a ways toward keeping the regulators honest.

It appears now that the GOP is attempting to draw up a bill to bail out BP. The same company that gets the bulk of there oil from Iran and the same company that has systematically ignored the Iranian embargo for years.

I love it when the people who complain about too much government regulation take a different stance when something like this happens. Then it's much wailing and gnashing of teeth over why the government's not doing anything. Where's all the free market talk now, huh? Aren't free market forces supposed to handle everything flawlessly?