Plant & Facilities Engineering

It will have to affect policies, X % of the reserve is gone.

The extent is debatable.

It already is;and does. Policy will mostly deal with other than BP in the long run...as it seems probable that BP will not survive as an independent going concern (apart from government support and or merger). E

Right now shrimp prices seem favorable largely because of the quick harvesting (quick surpluses) going on. When that is exhausted, expect "shrimp" prices to soar as the US supply shrinks dramatically; and suppliers foreign and domestic begin gouging in earnest. Just as in the crackdown of the '70s, government will also intervene, albeit belatedly, to try to curtail shrimp fraud....primarily the sale of prawns as shrimp as was once so commonplace in the US (because the gulf provided(s) virtually all shrimp and pacific west coast has only prawns. There is one hitch, in policy terms, however. If (when) the shrimp harvest collapses, where will be the gulf fishermen to complain about competition from misrepresented and overvalued prawns competing with (no-longer-existent) shrimp. Perhaps the government's problem will then be how to prevent the very fishers (and packers) forced out of shrimp from, themselves, attempting to perpertate shrimp fraud using prawns.

Now that leads to another problem which might bring government policy to bear. Obviously a massive program will be needed to retrain shrimpers and fishers whose livelihoods are lost. (Perhaps many younger ones might enter petroleum industry?) Those who can't retrain might be inclined to move to other waters...drawing hostility from indigenous fishers. (Does anyone remember the "gulf wars" when Vietnamese war refugees moved in on the established gulf fishing "cartel"?)

In a knee jerk bass ackward manner as usual considering the current level of temerity within the executive and congressional branches.

The fact that the spill is in mile deep water is due to energy policy (offshore drilling) meant to appease the enviros.

My belief is that the drift currents will not effect the Atlantic ocean beyond Florida,

however I believe that due to therms and drift currents will carry it further out to sea

effecting the carribean sea with moderate to major severity based on the duration

of the well leak which probably will last 12 to 14 months to give BP executives time

to claim a pseudo(false) loss of profit, because they will continue to capture enough

oil from leak to hide their profits. They are not going to rush to stop the leak no time soon.

Best case it will cause drilling for oil in deep water to be done in ways that cannot replicate this blowout disaster.

From my follow and study it really isn't so much the oil that is the greater part of the disaster. The oil may well be compared to a bunch of logs floating around.

From my follow it is the gas that helps to further oxygen dead zones.

Oil executives know this, and rely on ignorance in their payoffs. BP will be bought, and parceled out. Food prices will rise.

There simply is no way to pay for all the damage allowed to be done by BP to the Gulf waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

From the first my take was that BP was not serious about stopping the blowout. By now I know of explosives what would work to collapse the well. Even my own stupid blunt approach of just dropping Steel balls, concrete balls, bowling balls is known as workable.

Pressure out the well head has been long pointed to as a reason nothing but the relief well is to look forward to. Only change I can imagine for regulations concerning deepwater oil drilling to prevent this situation when Blow Out Preventers fail, is to drill with bigger pipes so pressure isn't so difficult to deal with.

BP does not care about you. BP doesn't care about anything but dollars, or pounds. BP does not care about food or anything but themselves.

Everyday that gas and oil comes out that hole in the seafloor BP is responsible for, I am for taking them apart.

People who nearly killed me due to stupid instructions on the job are still in business under another name. Sometimes I think of killing them.

Lawyers will dismantle BP in ways that profit the owners and shareholders. The Gulf of Mexico will never be as productive as it was far as fish and shrimp, and overall food prices, and oil prices will go up.

Some of the increases will be attributed to the need for increased awareness of a need to protect the wells from sub attacks, and some will come from awareness that deepwater drilling requires bigger pipes. Overall you are going to be paying more for food and fuel.