Katrina took out 36 oil rigs
Thu Sep 22, 2005 19:11
152.163.100.200
Katrina Took Out 36 Oil Rigs
This story, of critical significance to US national security, has been downplayed by both the media and the Bush administration. It seems that Katrina devastated the Gulf oil and gas infrastructure far more catastrophically than the public appears to realize. Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior reported to Congress that 36 oil rigs had been capsized in the storm and that the damage to the infrastructure would take "weeks or even months before we are back up to 100%."
Now Rita, which some meteorologists say may be even more powerful than Katrina during her Gulf sojourn before making landfall, will probably take another powerful toll on the oil/gas industry. The real story here is that dependence on fossil fuel coupled with the consequences of a major natural disaster has undermined US security far more seriously than anything Al Qaeda has done so far. No terrorist group could have taken out 36 scattered oil rigs in one fell swoop, nor could they take out two major US cities (Rita, alas, is now threatening Houston).
Why isn't Bush telling the American people the truth - that gas and oil prices are going to get worse in the months to come and there is no way to even mitigate the crisis unless he releases far more fuel from the 700-million-gallon Strategic Petroleum Reserve than he is currently planning to do. Alas, because the oil industry has been allowed to actually shrink instead of expand their refining capacity in the past decade, access to crude will have little impact on gasoline prices because the US pool of refined petroleum is at an abysmal low.
Bottom line, the oil and gas industries have been allowed to call the shots for decades. The one president we had who saw the writing on the wall re: fossil fuel dependence was Jimmy Carter. Thanks to aggressive anti-Carter propaganda funded in large part by the NeoCons/fossil fuel barons, Carter's efforts to take the US into a new era of non-dependence were cut off at the knees (I will always believe that the whole hostage crisis debacle was also engineered by NeoCons)
Remember how Americans laughed at his push for conservation, for development of more fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy sources?
Who's laughing now?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050909/bs_usatoday/asignificantlyslowerrecovery
This story, of critical significance to US national security, has been downplayed by both the media and the Bush administration. It seems that Katrina devastated the Gulf oil and gas infrastructure far more catastrophically than the public appears to realize. Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior reported to Congress that 36 oil rigs had been capsized in the storm and that the damage to the infrastructure would take "weeks or even months before we are back up to 100%."
Now Rita, which some meteorologists say may be even more powerful than Katrina during her Gulf sojourn before making landfall, will probably take another powerful toll on the oil/gas industry. The real story here is that dependence on fossil fuel coupled with the consequences of a major natural disaster has undermined US security far more seriously than anything Al Qaeda has done so far. No terrorist group could have taken out 36 scattered oil rigs in one fell swoop, nor could they take out two major US cities (Rita, alas, is now threatening Houston).
Why isn't Bush telling the American people the truth - that gas and oil prices are going to get worse in the months to come and there is no way to even mitigate the crisis unless he releases far more fuel from the 700-million-gallon Strategic Petroleum Reserve than he is currently planning to do. Alas, because the oil industry has been allowed to actually shrink instead of expand their refining capacity in the past decade, access to crude will have little impact on gasoline prices because the US pool of refined petroleum is at an abysmal low.
Bottom line, the oil and gas industries have been allowed to call the shots for decades. The one president we had who saw the writing on the wall re: fossil fuel dependence was Jimmy Carter. Thanks to aggressive anti-Carter propaganda funded in large part by the NeoCons/fossil fuel barons, Carter's efforts to take the US into a new era of non-dependence were cut off at the knees (I will always believe that the whole hostage crisis debacle was also engineered by NeoCons)
Remember how Americans laughed at his push for conservation, for development of more fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy sources?
Who's laughing now?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20050909/bs_usatoday/asignificantlyslowerrecovery
Message Board by American Patriot Friends Network [APFN]
