Hey, Slick!

Last night on the PBS News Hour, BP spokeswoman Ayana Mcintosh-Lee said in response to a question about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, "Well, we have some of the best minds working on this. And they are working around the clock in areas in Houston, in London, as well as here in Houma..."

OK, these are the same best minds that created an ultra-deepwater dynamic positioned semi-submersible oil rig with a blow-out valve that was supposed to prevent spills? Actually, not! The drilling rig was built by a Korean Company, Hyundai Heavy Industries. I guess work isn't going on in Korea.

The political impact of the spill is already starting (here and here), especially since the Obama administration wants more drilling off the US East coast. Before the spin and back pedaling starts, we should understand this event as part of the diminishing returns associated with the approach of Peak Oil. Ultra-deep wells are necessary because the easy-to-reach deposits have already been tapped. Evidently, the engineering on ultra-deep water wells is not quite up to the task and the externality in this case could become a major environmental nightmare.

The case for "drill, baby, drill!" or in this case "spill, baby, spill!" has never made much sense. More drilling means both more carbon in the atmosphere and more environmental degradation. Federal R&D for carbon-neutral technology deserves a strong influx of funds (probably on the order of what will be spent cleaning up the BP Spill), but isn't getting it. Oh, wait a minute, the Oil & Gas Industry make huge campaign contributions. Solar cell, wind-turbine, geo-thermal and other renewable energy industries aren't even on the list.