The whiteboard of my life.

fringeelements:

“Here’s my question: Why were we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place?

Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. 

(President Obama’s tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land, we’ve had a 30-year ban on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”

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Highsee said:

“Here’s a wacky idea… Instead of pouring more money into drilling and all the expenses that come with it, why not take that money and invest in alternative energy/devices that are able to run on those sources? Don’t blame the people trying to help”

lolwut? They didn’t help. What are you guys talking about? The actions of environmentalists caused shallow-water drilling to be banned. Thus the oil companies went out further. By going out further, their lines snapped.

They didn’t invest in non-oil energy because people still want the cheaper oil-based energy, and they need gas for their cars. If you want companies to stop producing oil, stop buying gasoline and plastic, and since power companies are practically just government programs, lobby your local power plant to change. Companies just produce things that people buy.

When people are still buying oil, and the environmentalists make it illegal to drill in shallow waters… the companies drill in deep waters. Or to put it another way: there is no reason to force oil companies to drill in deep water. 

All this stuff about alternative energy is only secondarily related. The main reason this spill was so bad was because environmentalists banned shallow-water drilling.