Ways Deepwater Horizon is not like Exxon Valdez:
- Water Temperature is very warm (80+ compared to 35 in PWS in March), causing oil to disperse and evaporate faster
- Gulf of Mexico is huge body of water compared to Prince William Sound
- Gulf crude is a light crude – not the heavier crude from Alaska
- Oil is coming from the floor of the ocean, not the top
- It’s not 1989 – technology has improved in 20 years – like genetically engineered bacteria that consume oil for food
- This is a raw leak, not oil that was processed for shipment
- Dispersants have been applied constantly
- Booms and skimmers were available and in use from the first day
- Oil is largely being burned off at the surface
- Houston and the Oil Biz infrastructure is right there – not a 10 hour plane flight away
Got any others to add?
The decision to go full speed ahead on ethanol – and the resulting increase in the size of the “dead” zone” is causing much more environmental damage than this spill
Map of dead zone
For ROV junkies, BP is now streaming video from all of them (no idea how you do that 50 miles from land)
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9033572&contentId=7062605
I think I’ve read there is a network of Wimax transmitters forming a “mesh” among the various platforms out the gulf, but not sure… some of it must be over fiber on the ocean floor
Ocean Intervention III, ROV2 is the hot ticket :) Now that the main cut was made, it is using the radial saw to trim away the rough edges