Pelosi, Offshore Drilling: Politics Trumps American Energy Needs

Nancy Pelosi is an unlikely choice for Speaker Of The House of the United States. She is stupid, greedy, ignorant, vengeful, and stubborn. All poor qualities for someone in leadership, particularly someone that is third in the line of succession to be President. While these apparent political attributes have served her well, they have made the country less secure.

Let us quickly examine Ms Pelosi's assertions that offshore drilling necessarily is detrimental to the environment. The last major off shore accident in America, and perhaps the world was in......1969. It was that very same Santa Barbara spill that so deeply disturbed the hippies of the day and admittedly caused the death of many birds, seals, etc.

There are 20 active wells in Santa Barbara. And there have been no further spills of measurable consequence caused by man.

None. But there is pollution. Lots. That is because the Santa Barbaba coast bleeds oil.

This was posted earlier in the week.

Digging for diamonds wont lower the price of diamonds so, despite the fact that you have diamonds on your property, you shouldnt dig them out. Instead, when diamonds are at an all time high, buy your diamonds from a foreign source. Export as much money as humanly possible so foreign entities can buy up US landmarks like the Chrysler Building (and the mortgage on your house by bailing out the banks). While you are busy exporting trillions to buy diamonds, work hard to make diamonds obsolete thru new technology. That way, all the potential trillions you have in diamonds of your own eventually becomes worthless as you let them rot in the ground.

Pelosi AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov
(its been swamped all week, so keep trying)

Oil Spills: Impact on the Ocean

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Oil wastes that enter the ocean come from many sources, some being accidental spills or leaks, and some being the results of chronic and careless habits in the use of oil and oil products. Most waste oil in the ocean consists of oily stormwater drainage from cities and farms, untreated waste disposal from factories and industrial facilities, and unregulated recreational boating.

It is estimated that approximately 706 million gallons of waste oil enter the ocean every year, with over half coming from land drainage and waste disposal; for example, from the improper disposal of used motor oil. Offshore drilling and production operations and spills or leaks from ships or tankers typically contribute less than 8 percent of the total. The remainder comes from routine maintenance of ships (nearly 20 percent), hydrocarbon particles from onshore air pollution (about 13 percent), and natural seepage from the seafloor (over 8 percent).

Prevalence during Drilling versus Transportation
Offshore oil spills or leaks may occur during various stages of well drilling or workover and repair operations. These stages can occur while oil is being produced from offshore wells, handled, and temporarily stored; or when oil is being transported offshore, either by flowline, underwater pipeline, or tanker. Of the approximately 706 million gallons of waste oil in the ocean each year, offshore drilling operations contribute about 2.1 percent, and transportation accidents (both ships and tankers) account for another 5.2 percent. The amount of oil spilled or leaked during offshore production operations is relatively insignificant.

Oil waste from offshore drilling operations may come from disposal of oil-based drilling fluid wastes, deck runoff water, flowline and pipeline leaks, or well failures or blowouts. Disposal of offshore production waste can also pollute the ocean, as can deck runoff water, leaking storage tanks, flowline and pipeline leaks, and the wells themselves. Oil spilled from ships and tankers includes the transportation fuel used by the vessels themselves or their cargos, such as crude oil, fuel oil, or heating oil.

When it comes to mixing oil and water, oceans suffer from far more than an occasional devastating spill. Disasters make headlines, but hundreds of millions of gallons of oil quietly end up in the seas every year, mostly from non-accidental sources §.
The graph below shows how many millions of gallons of oil each source puts into the oceans worldwide each year

Down the Drain: 363 Million Gallons
Used engine oil can end up in waterways. An average oil change uses five quarts; one change can contaminate a million gallons of fresh water. Much oil in runoff from land and municipal and industrial wastes ends up in the oceans. 363 million gallons §
Road runoff adds up
Every year oily road runoff from a city of 5 million could contain as much oil as one large tanker spill §.

Routine Maintenance: 137 Million Gallons
Every year, bilge cleaning and other ship operations release millions of gallons of oil into navigable waters, in thousands of discharges of just a few gallons each. 137 million gallons §
Up in Smoke: 92 Million Gallons
Air pollution, mainly from cars and industry, places hundreds of tons of hydrocarbons into the oceans each year. Particles settle, and rain washes hydrocarbons from the air into the oceans §.
Natural Seeps: 62 Million Gallons
Some ocean oil “pollution” is natural. Seepage from the ocean bottom and eroding sedimentary rocks releases oil.

Big Spills: 37 Million Gallons
Only about 5 percent of oil pollution in oceans is due to major tanker accidents, but one big spill can disrupt sea and shore life for miles §. 37 million gallons

we not only need term limits for all of our politicians but we should also be able to outright fire idiot politicians like nancy pelosi long before their term in office is up if the majority believe that they are not doing their jobs good enough.
she is playing political games to the detriment of the people in this country and she is also flat out refusing to do her job. she works for all of us and her job is to do what the people want her to do and tell her to do and the majority of the people in this country is telling her to get congress to order drilling to start anywhere for oil we can find it right now which would definitely bring the price of gas down immediately greatly helping us all but she doesn’t care, her gas is paid for by all of us through her expense account so why should she care how much it cost? if I am not mistaken her political mandate and job is to do everything she can within the powers granted to the speaker of the house to help the people of this country and to do her job the way the people of this country want her to do it but from what I can see she is just thumbing her nose at the majority of the people in this country telling us all that she not only doesn’t care what we think, she could care less about how we feel she is doing her job. no one out there can go to work with that attitude without getting fired by the boss therefore as her boss we should be able to fire that idiot immediately or any others like her.

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