Remember that pesky oil spill in the Gulf? Oh yeah, that one. BP is at it again, but this time off the north shore of Alaska – www.nytimes.com. The company got around the offshore oil drilling ban by building an island made of gravel and using a new drilling technique to reach a reservoir two miles below the surface and almost 8 miles off shore. Hmmm, that sounds even more risky than drilling directly above the reservoir like in the gulf and we all know how well that went. BP has no shame.
The project already has permits from state and federal governments but the Mineral Management Service (MMS) is in bed with the industry and Alaska is home to Sarah Palin the queen of drill baby drill. Not exactly tough regulation standards. The major problem with this project is that drilling horizontally is not a proven safe method of extraction. Gas kickbacks as they are called are more frequent and harder to detect. Such a kickback is what caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig which killed 11 people and is now wreaking havoc on the gulf coast. Maybe the costs of the cleanup and other liability issues will overcome BP’s financial capabilities, the company will go under and they won’t be able to complete the project. That would be satisfying, but some other DB will take over for BP, AKA there won’t be any LOL.