Guard watches coast for oil slick's first wave

So much for that top kill eh?

:doh:

I officially despise BP at this point.

What if there's no God? Then we're just F'd I guess.

Not to open a huge can of worms or anything. :)

THAT'S humor!

I just wonder why for the first time they are going to try and put a cap/valve on the pipe. It seems like that would have been one of the first things they would have tried after the fire was put out. I guess maybe Obama thought of that after he went down there and played in the sand for a few minutes.

I'm sure you are just picking at Obama cuz it's fun to do, but they are trying these things based on 2 basic criteria: 1) resource availability and 2) probability of success.

They have started the process of the relief wells, the only thing that has a 100% probability of success. I find myself in amazing agreement with JTF on this part, any drills in environmentally challenging or protected areas ought to be required to have a relief drill built at the same time as the original well. That would be the right regulation to come out of this disaster.

The Top Kill only had a 60% chance, so they held off.

The new cutting operation has a better percent chance, i believe, but they had to wait for specialty tools to be available.

This situation is tragic, but it's not like people aren't trying to get it stopped.

I'm sure you are just picking at Obama cuz it's fun to do, but they are trying these things based on 2 basic criteria: 1) resource availability and 2) probability of success.

They have started the process of the relief wells, the only thing that has a 100% probability of success. I find myself in amazing agreement with JTF on this part, any drills in environmentally challenging or protected areas ought to be required to have a relief drill built at the same time as the original well. That would be the right regulation to come out of this disaster.

The Top Kill only had a 60% chance, so they held off.

The new cutting operation has a better percent chance, i believe, but they had to wait for specialty tools to be available.

This situation is tragic, but it's not like people aren't trying to get it stopped.

We had to wait on the tool to become available? Is there another event bigger then this that needed the saw even more? Maybe they had to wait for the person to return it to Lowes so we could rent the tool.

I also agree with JTF about the second well. If you would have told me that a well could fail and it would take us months to cap that well I would have laughed at you.

We had to wait on the toll to become available? Is there another event bigger then this that needed the saw even more? Maybe they had to wait for the person to return in to Lowes so we could rent the tool.

I also agree with JTF about the second well. If you would have told me that a well could fail and it would take us months to cap that well I would have laughed at you.

I think Lowes was out of stock so they backordered it from the one in China. But Seriously, I believe I read that it had to be made, it's not an off the shelf tool obviously.

I think Lowes was out of stock so they backordered it from the one in China. But Seriously, I believe I read that it had to be made, it's not an off the shelf tool obviously.

Now if it had to made then OK I can see why we had to wait.

I agree with the other posters who said BP waited too long. IMO, after they figured out that the ROV's couldn't close the valves on the blowout preventer, they should have tried this.

I dont know why they waited 5 weeks and now all of a sudden there is a sense of urgency.

My plan of action would have been this.

1.) Attempt to close valves using undersea robots.
2.) If valves don't close, attempt containment Dome.
3.) If containment dome fails, attempt Top Kill.
4.) If Top Kill fails, install new blow out preventer on top of faulty one.

Seriously, why haven't they tried installing a new BOP??

Again, I believe, and I surely could be wrong, that they looked at computer model success percentages and part/tool availability. In actuality, they probably know, nearly everything is unlikely to work, but if they just gave a press report saying "We can do nothing until the relief well is done" it would not go over with the public or media.

Again, the government needs to now modify the regs and require a relief well solution for every new and existing underwater well. If the corporations balk, you simply say, we gave you your chance to show us you had a solution, you didn't so now this is it.

I agree with the other posters who said BP waited too long. IMO, after they figured out that the ROV's couldn't close the valves on the blowout preventer, they should have tried this.

I dont know why they waited 5 weeks and now all of a sudden there is a sense of urgency.

My plan of action would have been this.

1.) Attempt to close valves using undersea robots.
2.) If valves don't close, attempt containment Dome.
3.) If containment dome fails, attempt Top Kill.
4.) If Top Kill fails, install new blow out preventer on top of faulty one.

Seriously, why haven't they tried installing a new BOP??
How is that really different from what BP did? This is real world work, you don't just snap your fingers and the next step occurs, each one requires coordination and parts and manpower. I believe Obama and BP both have said they were working on all these options simultaneously.