You would think, after the BP-Gulf spill and the Porter Ranch gas leaks, we'd have have made our ocean and surface drilling operations as safe as they can possibly be. Think again. We haven't even come close.  

Even without the Trump Administration's decided tilt against regulating anything having to do with business or safety, little has really been done since the 2010 BP Gulf oil spill to prevent the same or worse from happening again. Some blowout prevention design improvements and better crew training had been suggested and undertaken.  That, of course, will do little to protect us from the likes of another BP spill, or the current one on Alaska's North Slope (Alaska Oil Leak) . Given the Trump Administration's.  plans to rollback existing regulations throughout the EPA and Interior Dept, it is unlikely we will even keep minimum safety regulations intact.  

There is, however, one method that would guarantee a substantial reduction of potential spill risk, perhaps by 80% or more.  Indeed, Adm. Thad Allen (USGS Commandant, ret.) who directed the Gulf Cleanup, suggested that preemptive relief wells drilled before any main well was struck were the only way he knew to make ocean drilling safe. What that does is prevent spills from turning into catastrophes by connecting the relief well in a matter of days rather than months.  It is during the delay waiting for relief wells to be finished that the greatest amount of damage is done from well blowouts and oil or gas leaks.  (Porter Ranch leak)

Of course, ending fossil fuel extraction and replacing it with renewables is the only sure way to guarantee the safety of our environment. But that is going to take some time, and the industry will fight such changes as hard as they can. 

The last Administration wasn't willing to cut back and was handing out leases before the Gulf Spill was even cleaned up. Certainly, this Administration won't be cutting back on fossil fuel extraction any time soon, either.  Meanwhile, requiring preemptive relief wells on every existing and new well would be the best way to minimize the risk and save our oceans and other environments.

(more on relief well science)

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thank you, Red Slider, ed.
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Certainty

To stand on such uncertain ground
where one mistake could be our last
to measure man as measureless
on scales tipped with doubt,
and those quixotic sands slipped loose
our hourglass, this island earth, run out.

60 kilometers crust, another 2000 mantle fair,
plenty to spare, those specks of goo, the driller's nozzle
plenty to share - straws 51 cm wide by 10km deep,
guzzle up all until it's through, the seep
that bubbles to God knows where.

A pinprick in this spinning globe, whole-earth shell
(510 million km square, six-and-a-half sextillion tons)
what does it care about straws or wells-
a world so massive, beyond compare,
the deepest water, the furthest horizon.

Will we find the deed already done,
small tears in the fragile dream enough-
an aerosol can or a speck of soot
(three-hundred parts per million permitted)-
a few degrees hotter minus the sun,
this drift of blue-white mist turned steam?

Call it ice, call it fire. Who cares,
ambition and greed will do nicely.
In any case don't eat the fish,
oiled or scalded they'll not be spared,
all will be poisoned in the spoiling seasons,
a rot that surrounds our best intentions.

The rest of our schemes, our fake inventions,
a three-card monte, a quick cap & trade
on an island redoubt sinking into the goo
(the hubris of thinking in human dimensions.)
Such is certainty, given the time,
that we can recover after time has run out.

November 2010