Dr. Erica Miller, with Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research, giving a dose of Pepto Bismal to a Northern Gannet bird at a facility in Fort Jackson, La. on Friday, Apr 30, 2010. Normally white when full grown, this one is covered in oil from the massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico that washed ashore in Louisiana late Thursday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Yes, that's correct...a device that costs one half million dollars may have prevented what is on track to become the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
The device is called an acoustic trigger (aka. acoustic switch, actuator). It is a remote-controlled device deployed off oil rigs that sends acoustic impulses through the water, triggering an underwater valve or explosives to shut down the well even if the rig is catastrophically damaged or abandoned.
All offshore rigs have one main switch to shut off the flow of oil by closing a valve located on the ocean floor. There is also supposed to be a backup called a “dead man,” that will shut down the well in the event of a catastrophe on the rig.
Apparently neither of these devices worked on the Deepwater Horizon rig operated by British Petroleum (BP). The crew members who would have been closest to the shutoff switch are among those missing and presumed dead. If the rig was equipped with an acoustic trigger, it would have been a last resort option and could have been activated from a remote location.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Norway and Brazil require these devices in all offshore drilling operations. While they are not required with rigs offshore the U.K., BP elects to deploy them there. BP chose not to equip oil rigs off the coast of the U.S. with acoustic triggers because U.S. regulations enacted in 2003 do not require companies to do so.
CBS reported that Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) sent President Obama a letter Thursday reminding him that in 2000 the Interior Department insisted "oil companies have 'reliable backup systems' in the event of a rig blowout." By 2003, the plan was scrapped after a closed-door meeting with energy company executives conducted by then-Vice President Dick Cheney. "This could be one of the world's greatest nightmare scenarios of an oil gusher," Nelson said.
A Pensacola attorney, Mike Papantonio, whose firm filed a class-action lawsuit three days ago against BP on behalf of Gulf fishermen had this to say on MSNBC's The Ed show:
BP didn't want to spend the money for a system - a fail safe system, used all over the world...[that could have prevented this]. We're talking about a company that makes forty billion a year that wouldn't invest five hundred thousand dollars...It is the most unreported part of this story...
View the full interview here: (Papantonio appears about 3 minutes into the video clip).
While the environmental, economic, social and political consequences of this catastrophe are certainly significant, and certain to impact the state of Florida, the story here is the story behind the story. One can get the news about the extent of the spill, cleanup efforts, the impact on wildlife, industries, etc. from any news outlet.
What you won't hear, the story behind the story, is the fact that deregulation of the oil industry in 2003 enabled BP, which posts about $40 billion a year in profits, to cut costs and maximize profit by failing to utilize a $500,000 device that may have prevented this disaster. The argument that markets and corporations will regulate themselves seems very flimsy in light of this.
Now that you've lost a $560,000 oil rig, are spending $6 million a day in cleanup efforts, have lost billions in the drop of your stock on the NYSE, have infuriated the citizens of four gulf coast states...how's that business model working out for you, BP?
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Comments
Time for the "drill, baby drill" people to head to the gulf coast to help with cleanup. Bring your own materials...can't have any more big "socialized" spending.
"Now that you've lost a $560,000 oil rig" not quite. More like a $350 million oil rig.
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