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One reason Chilean officials may have thought the drilling could take far longer was that they were not familiar with the type of drill that carved the rescue hole. ... “To tell you the truth, I don’t think anyone had a whole lot of faith in us,” said Brandon Fisher, president of Center Rock, a company in Berlin, Pa., that supplied the Plan B drills. “They didn’t understand the technology.” Mr. Fisher and others lobbied the Chilean government to let them use the drills, known as downhole hammers, which have air-powered bits that pound the rock as the drill rotates....

Speaking at the San Jose mine at the end of an emotional day, Laurence Golborne, Chile’s mining minister, said that engineers had decided the first 315 feet (96 metres) of the shaft would need to be cased with steel lining as a protection against falling rocks.

Link only: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-25/oil-drillers-may-face-months-of-delay-even-after-ban.html

One of the biggest of the big oil companies may be responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, but Washington's response to the BP PLC spill would give an advantage to such major oil companies while threatening to put their small competitors out of business. Energy legislation that Senate leaders said they may take up this week would sharply raise or eliminate a $75 million cap on oil company liability for economic damage from spills — a change that poses no great threat to giants like BP, which is setting aside $10 billion out of its huge profits...

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The batting coach for the Tulsa Drillers was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday evening after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach's box during a Texas League game with the Arkansas Travelers, police said. The game was suspended in the ninth inning after Mike Coolbaugh was hit by a hard-hit foul ball off the bat of Tino Sanchez and taken to Baptist Medical Center-North Little Rock. Phil Elson, spokesman for the Travelers, said Coolbaugh was struck by the ball on the right side of his...