Obama: “Oil Rigs Today Generally Don’t Cause Spills”

[t0dd]

What a difference 18 days makes. Here was Barack Obama, on April 2, before the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that oil rigs are safe to justify his position on offshore drilling:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.

Not only does this quote look ridiculous in hindsight, it wasn’t true at the time, as Brad Johnson points out:

Obama’s claim that oil rigs did not cause any spills during Hurricane Katrina is simply false, as the Wonk Room reported in June, 2008, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other conservatives made the same false claim:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.”

Now, I’m a forgiving man. If the President wants to peddle right-wing myths to prop up an untenable decision, he’s perfectly within his rights to do so. I just want to see him respond to clear evidence, especially in the wake of this disaster, and factor in the costs of eventual environmental disasters when weighing the costs and benefits of offshore drilling. You have oil about to touch shore by as early as tomorrow. You have an ecological nightmare playing havoc with the food chain. The fact that the Administration is backing off their initial position does show a willingness to include new facts in their analysis:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/obama-oil-rigs-today-generally-don%E2%80%99t-cause-spills/#comments

[Avalux]

1. Everyone makes mistakes. Truth is - we haven't had a spill for a very long time.

In the face of that, there is a consensus complacency. People forget the danger and the damage that can be done by that nasty black stuff. I can forgive Obama for being part of the complacency, especially if he now changes his tune.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jgraz]

9. Lynch? Seriously?

Why play the race card when you can throw the whole deck? :eyes:

[gratuitous]

6. That will be what we need to see

Eight years of stubbornly wrong succeeded in bankrupting the country, pissing off the rest of the world, and bogging us down in two unwinnable occupations. I know Obama is a lot smarter than Bush, and he's also a lot more sure of himself. Bush couldn't think of even one mistake he's ever made, because his self image is built on his own chimera of his infallibility. Obama could reel off a ton of mistakes he's made in his lifetime, and he'd still work like hell to make the country a better place. I am confident he'll be able to admit that oil rigs may not be as safe as they could be, and he'll work to make them safer. In the meantime, he'll mobilize all the resources at his disposal to ameliorate the effects of this one. Compare and contrast with Bush's efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina after it had the nerve to show him up by flooding New Orleans.

[Feron]

7. I guess 2005 was a very long time ago..

In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) issued a report stating that as a result of both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the number of pipelines damaged was 457, and the number of offshore platforms destroyed was 113, with a total of 146 oil spills recorded.

.............

As a result of both storms, a total volume of 17,652 barrels (or roughly three-quarters of a million gallons) of total petroleum products, of which 13,137 barrels were crude oil and condensate, was spilled from platforms, rigs and pipelines. 4,514 barrels were refined products from platforms and rigs.

There were 542 reports related to offshore pipelines that were damaged or displaced, of which 72 resulted in spills that had a volume of one barrel or more of crude oil or condensate. These pipelines were reported to be dented, kinked, pulled up, twisted or bent, pinhole or valve leaks or other damages.

The 72 pipeline spills were accountable for about 7,300 barrels of crude oil and condensate spilled into the Gulf.

The report noted that response and recovery efforts kept the environmental impacts to a minimum, with no onshore impacts from these specific spill events.

However, MMS also noted that an estimated 8 million gallons (or 191,000 barrels) of oil was spilled from nine onshore facilities in the Louisiana Delta, where large holding tanks were breached by Katrina.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/19/opinion/main4275167.shtml

Murphy Oil Spill (Chalmette, Louisiana)

A 250,000-barrel (40,000 m3) above ground storage tank was dislodged, lifted and damaged in flooding associated. The tank contained 65,000 barrels (10,300 m3) of mixed crude oil, and released approximately 25,110 barrels (1,050,000 gallons).
.............
As the oil released it flowed along with the flood waters from east to west. The released oil impacted approximately 1700 homes in an adjacent residential neighborhoods of Chalmette; an area of about one square mile. Several canals have also been impacted: the 20 Arpent Canal; the 40 Arpent Canal; the Meraux Canal; the Corinne Canal; the DeLaRonde Canal; and, various unnamed interceptor canals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy_Oil_Spill_(Chalmette,_Louisiana)

Oil spills caused by Hurricane Gustav "plague" Louisiana

But getting far less ink is the fact that Gustav destroyed rigs (see photo) and spilled oil, too. In fact, more than 30 oil spills "ranging from simple sheens to 8,000 gallons plagued Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today.

The size of the spill doesn't necessarily determine the amount of damage done to the environment. One spill, which occurred about 25 miles northwest of Breton National Wildlife Refuge, dumped "only 20 barrels -- small in relation to most spills -- yet it oiled about 20 brown pelicans, 10 severely," FWS officials said.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/energy/2008/09/oil-spills-caus.html

[ShamelessHussy]

13. that was my first thought, too... but these things are hushed up by the M$M it is easy to BS

when you have a misinformed populace, it is easy to lead them around by the nose, with bullshit, since there isn't anyone out there to call'm on it.

[blindpig]

28. Does that apply to the Administration too?

Of course not, they are no misinformed, their priorities are otherwise.

[azul]

2. "generally" is not near good enough. nt

[Canuckistanian]

3. That's like saying "airplanes don't generally crash"

But darn the luck, they do.

[Chulanowa]

5. And do we ban airplanes?

No, we do what we can to lower the number of crashes.

[jgraz]

10. We do if Obama says so.

After all, anything he decides to do is obviously perfect and above criticism. Right?

[Chulanowa]

15. Absolutely!

Ve all vorship Der Fürher vit all ov our heartz! Yoo infidels vill be ze virst into ze Hopey Changey Ovens!



Mein heart is varming joost vrom ze zight ov his MAGNIVICENSE! *swoon*

:sarcasm:

[jgraz]

29. Sadly, you're only half-kidding.

[SidDithers]

20. You're absolutely right...

criticism of Obama is neither present nor allowed at DU.

Sid

[ShamelessHussy]

14. well if they had a millions of barrels of crude in their tanks we may put some restrictions on them

[Kablooie]

8. Obama stepped in it. Sure it was factual but it still turned into a foot in his mouth.

The statement has almost turned into a Bushism.

But it is not his normal pattern and doesn't detract from the respect he deserves one bit.

It's just human error.

If Bush had only made one or two of these it wouldn't have detracted from him either.

[northernlights]

27. no. it wasn't even factual.

look at some of the other posts on this thread.

[truedelphi]

30. The real tragedy here is not just over whether or not the drilling rigs

Fall apart - the really sad thing is that when they do, we still do not have adequate clean up equipment nor an adequate response.

I remember from the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska that the Rolling Stone reporter that covered that disaster, he went on and on about what a mess it was. But he added to his report a discussion of the fabulous response in terms of equipment and speediness that officials in Scotland managed to pull off to handle a similar spill.

Now it is decades later and still we don't have that equipment or that speediness of response.

Because of corruption, and of greed. And that is the American way.

[depakid]

11. Must have missed the news from WA this year

Specifically- the Montara rig:

http://www.amsa.gov.au/Marine_Environment_Protection/Major_Oil_Spills_in_Australia/Montara_Wellhead/index.asp

[suffragette]

16. And Halliburton may form a connection between these two spills

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8241751

[DFW]

12. Atomic bombs "generally" don't cause a hundred thousand deaths either

But if one should be detonated, just one, it doesn't really matter what "generally" happens, does it?

[The Stranger]

17. Unrecommended. Go fuck with the logs in the "Drill, Baby, Drill" assholes' eyes, instead of picking

at the splinter in Obama's.

I mean, seriously?

[boston bean]

18. Obama decided the drill baby drill assholes had the correct policy.

and he is the POTUS, btw..

[The Stranger]

22. No he didn't.

He was inundated with their extraordinarily effective mass media-echo chamber blitz, and threw them a bone. He never decided they had the "correct policy."

If we had jack fucking shit when it comes to media (other than Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow), then he wouldn't have had to do even that.

[boston bean]

23. that is really lame, I don't think the sarah made him do it excuse is helpful to Obama,

[boston bean]

24. dupe

[boston bean]

25. dupe

[boston bean]

26. dupe

[freddie mertz]

19. I wish he hadn't said that. More cover for the Palinites, more damage to his own reputation.

What happened to the man's obvious intelligence, not to mention basic common sense and moral compass?

I am baffled by it all.

[CLANG]

21. And nuclear weapons generally don't explode.

But when they do, look out!