Damage to oil industry minimal

[icarus]

According to industry news The damage to the oil industry has been minimal.

wildernessguru points out that these oil companies maintain fleets of helicopters to check out their oil rigs, and to ship supplies and personnel. Why aren't they over-flying the region to survey the damage? That said, companies like Chevron have donated millions in disaster relief (finally).

Don't buy any argument that gas prices must rise because of the hurricane. The oil companies put the money in to make their cash flow capable of withstanding a hurricane of this magnitude.

Comments

[wikdsushi.livejournal.com]

Nah, most of LJ is as baffled as we are. However, they've been reporting that sort of shit as hearsay left and right. It ranges from, "Well, they were told to evacuate, and they didn't," to, "This is what they get for being crackheads and heathens." Pat Robertson's been on a tirade that this is God's judgment on New Orleans for being a corrupt, lawless city, too, though most people I've seen just think he's an idiot.

On the other hand, I've also heard reports of staunch Republicans saying that Bush needs to be removed from office if he can't do his job. Most people seem to think the whole evacuation was pretty much botched and seriously failed, and that if it had been called when Katrina first posed a threat, most of the city would have got out.

Fortunately, sanity seems to be in the majority.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, sanity seems to be in the majority.

Thank god. *wipes sweat off brow*

On the other hand, I've also heard reports of staunch Republicans saying that Bush needs to be removed from office if he can't do his job. Most people seem to think the whole evacuation was pretty much botched and seriously failed, and that if it had been called when Katrina first posed a threat, most of the city would have got out.

Hoorah! I couldn't agree with those staunch Republicans more.

wildernessguru says the Army National Guard alone has over a 1,000 Blackhawk UH-60 medium lift helicopters and several hundred Chinook heavy lift helicopters, not all of which are in Iraq. Even if a third of them were down for maintenance that still leaves several hundred.

Bush could have sent two battalions of 40 Blackhawks each. That could've airlifted out a few thousand people in a matter of days. He could have sent a squadron or more of Chinooks bringing supplies (they have a 20,000 lb. capacity apiece). Could've brought in drinking water, purification, support personnel, MREs....

WG says it makes him want to scream knowing the exact (he keeps up on the military stats daily) capacity of our military and what wasn't used. "It's utterly appalling. Utterly appalling. This is the main purpose of the National Guard." And he points out the oil companies have fleets of hundreds of helicopters too.

I have to calm him down now. He almost ripped the curtains off the wall closing them just now.

In the meantime, I'm directing my efforts towards nudging the oil companies into thinking about that magical question "who's gonna pay for the clean up? Us?" Because when Bush says 'private citizens' should take care of these things, well only 'private industry' has the money to do so. Do they want to pay for the repairs? If not then they need to push for Bush to do so.

Icarus