There was no remote-control backup switch on the oil rig that exploded and sank, according to the WSJ.  Why not?  Probably to save money.

Graphic from the Wall Street Journal

“The oil well spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico didn’t have a remote-control shut-off switch used in two other major oil-producing nations as last-resort protection against underwater spills.  The lack of the device, called an acoustic switch, could amplify concerns over the environmental impact of offshore drilling after the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig, hired by oil giant BP PLC, last week.

The accident has led to one of the largest ever oil spills in U.S. water and the loss of 11 lives. On Wednesday federal investigators said the disaster is now releasing 5,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf, up from original estimates of 1,000 barrels a day.

The scale and complexity of the operation highlights the titanic struggles faced by the modern oil industry. Locked out of easier-to-exploit oil reservoirs by governments in developing countries, international oil companies such as BP invest billions of dollars every year in scouring the depths of the sea for oil and gas. But when problems arise, they are equally difficult to conquer.

On Tuesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D., Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) sent letters to BP and Transocean asking the companies to explain what they knew about the risks of drilling at the site.”

Source: Wall Street Journal

“Easier to exploit” is perfect wording for this WSJ article. Exploitation is what fossil fuel companies are best at.

In an astonishing comment today, facing this devastating environmental disaster, some of the more ignorant Republicans in the U.S. said this should not deter anyone from offshore oil drilling.

“At almost the exact moment that Reuters broke the news (on Twitter) that a second oil drilling rig had overturned off the coast of Louisiana, Sarah Palin posted her latest Facebook “note.” The headline: “Domestic Drilling: Why We Can Still Believe.”

Apparently no non-natural disaster caused by drilling or sucking up fossil fuels in any manner will ever stop the profit-based, anti-science approach to energy and the unlimited greed of Republicans like Sarah Palin, Dick Cheney, Michele Bachmann, and their fossil fuel energy friends.  No disaster is too great to try another more progressive way forward, to stop using these destructive, polluting forms of energy.  What will ever deter these people? We don’t need to use fossil fuels.

“No human endeavor is ever without risk,” Palin’s ghostwriter adds later, comparing dangerous and pointless off-shore domestic drilling to the moon landing.”

Even the news that another oil rig has overturned has had no impact on the worst of them.   We know from hurricanes of the past how oil rigs do overturn during storms and apparently, even without storms.  They also explode, [...]