Posts tagged "environmental"

Why Solar Energy? (HD)

Free Energy From the Sun: THE clean, never ending resource! Onbeautiful Seabrook Island, nestled on the coast just south of Charleston, South Carolina, lies Camp St. Christopher It offers over 300 acres of beach, marsh and maritime forest and multiple facilities including meeting and conference centers, lodging, and worship centers. We’re excited about keeping you up-to-date on our progress and informing you about how this project was made possible. The process began last August when the State Energy Office put out information that there were going to be .9 million available in grants for alternative energy projects for non-profits. As soon as we found out, we immediately started getting in touch with local Charleston non-profit organizations to inform them about the opportunity. When St. Christopher responded about being interested, we setup a meeting for late September 2009 and went out to view the grounds and start planning. The RFP from the State was issued in early September. The government was looking at multiple factors before approving a non-profit like St. Christopher for the grant. These included visibility of project, potential job creation, overall benefit in terms of investment and payback of the project (they needed a minimum return of .50 dollars to spent). The grant writing process was long and hard, but St. Christopher didn’t have to worry about that. SES took care of making sure the grant was completed correctly and on time. Anything we were able …

Solar Roadways: The Prototype

The Solar Roadways project is working to pave roads with solar panels that you can drive on. Co-founder Scott Brusaw has made some major steps forward since our first visit back in 2007, so we visited him again earlier this year for an exclusive update on the project, including the first ever video recorded of the Solar Roadways prototype! For more information visit www.solarroadways.com . This Solar Roadway project will be featured in the upcoming feature film by YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip. To learn more about YERT, visit http . And you can become a fan of YERT on Facebook here: www.facebook.com

Good Energy – Solar Power at Home

In the Herefordshire countryside a couple use solar panels at home to heat water and generate electricity and help them to lead the good life.

John Schaeffer on Solar Energy

John Schaeffer discusses solar energy improvements over the last 30 years, as long as Real Goods has been in business. Visit: www.realgoods.com or http for more info.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Tragedy In The Gulf Of Mexico

Like many individuals who are employed on offshore drilling rigs, the devastating explosion and inferno that occurred on the Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible drilling rig is a blunt reminder of the threats encountered in deepwater offshore drilling for oil and gas. Few will forget the striking media images and the serious lean the stricken rig took as the fire continued, before sliding beneath the sea surface a few days afterwards on April 22 at 5:30 pm.

Our thoughts are with the families of the 11 rig workers who were lost along with another 17 crew who were injured, three of them gravely. Having personally experienced a life-threatening offshore rig explosion, it brought back a lot of memories.  Like many in the drilling industry who have worked for Transocean we are totally dismayed and saddened by this Oil Rig Disaster.

The deepwater DP semisubmersible drilling rig is owned and operated by Transocean and was drilling under contract to the BP oil company. Transocean are the world’s largest offshore drilling contractor and possess 140 offshore drilling units. The Minerals Management Service declared that there are 90 drilling rigs working within U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico with oil output presently at 1.7 million barrels per day along with 6.6 billion cubic feet of gas output each day.

The Deepwater Horizon drill rig was drilling the Macondo Prospect for BP about 52 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.  BP are partners in this along with MOEX Offshore which has 10% and Anadarko who hold 25% of the working interest in this operation.

They drill rig had reportedly just set and cemented 7 inch steel casing in the oil well before it exploded and caught fire at 10:00 pm on the night of April 20, 2010. The drilling rig was drilling in a water depth of 6940 feet and had drilled to a total depth of 18,360 feet. 

Following the explosion, the U.S. Coast Guard launched a significant search attempt for the 11 unaccounted rig crew and up to six firefighting ships stood by the burning rig to attempt and contain the massive fire. The US Coast Guard sent helicopters from New Orleans and Mobile to evacuate rig people and also to assist in the hunt for the missing crew. Four USCG cutters were also mobilized to the scene.

While many misinformed people with limited offshore drilling experience or understanding hypothesize about the reason of the disaster and question the rig safety record, others try and apportion fault to BP. It must be declared that BP did not own and operate the drilling rig and the Deepwater Horizon was a well proven and up-to-date rig. It was reported that the drilling rig had at least three safety inspections in 2010 and just prior to the blast there was no sign of any challenges on board.

People should realize that major fires and explosions on oil drilling rigs are reasonably uncommon as they are designed with fire prevention and safety as a priority at the construction stage. Fire is the worst enemy offshore and at sea on vessels and safety is the principal facet of all operational tasks and activities, as evacuation isn’t easy to carry out,. This is the main reason why drilling contractors search for and hire experienced people. The Minerals Management Service stated that there were 39 fires or explosions offshore in the Gulf of Mexico within the initial five months of 2009, and all these were categorised as slight or incidental.

Follow the subsequent articles on this tragic incident as the oil contamination crisis grows and the political and industry fallout continues, where drilling procedures will be explained including with other helpful information. The writer John Payne has over 35 years in the nautical and  offshore oil industries and currently works for an offshore drilling company. He is also the author of the new book Piracy Today.