The Alternative

BP's Oil Rig after striking a high pressure pocket of Oil

Last month an offshore oil-rig operated by British Petroleum dug a hole 5,000 feet under water, and then chewed through 18,000 plus feet of crust to get to a large pocket of crude. It was a disaster. The oil was contained under an enormous amount of pressure, which got released the second that rig drilled into it. As one source put it…

“I’m engineer with 25 years of experience. I’ve worked on some big projects with big machines. Maybe that’s why this mess is so clear to me.

First, the BP platform was drilling for what they call deep oil. They go out where the ocean is about 5,000 feet deep and drill another 30,000 feet into the crust of the earth. This it right on the edge of what human technology can do. Well, this time they hit a pocket of oil at such high pressure that it burst all of their safety valves all the way up to the drilling rig and then caused the rig to explode and sink. Take a moment to grasp the import of that. The pressure behind this oil is so high that it destroyed the maximum effort of human science to contain it.

When the rig sank it flipped over and landed on top of the drill hole some 5,000 feet under the ocean.

Now they’ve got a hole in the ocean floor, 5,000 feet down with a wrecked oil drilling rig sitting on top of is spewing 200,000 [gallons] of oil a day into the ocean. Take a moment and consider that…”

Oil Rigs are gigantic. This isn’t some little buoy bobbing up and down with the tide. This was the Horizon, a 3 acre monster, crewed by 120+ people living in a 4 story Hilton on the rig.

Apparently, they had just finished boring a hole and cementing a steel casting in place at a depth somewhere north of 18,000 ft. When all hell broke loose, literally. All of the pressure sensors sit on the seadbed at the uppermost part of the drill site. This is because the rig itself is moving with the waves. The pressure equipment, or “BOP’s” (blowout preventers) are supposed to automatically trigger in the event of an emergency, like a massive blowout. Obviously, they did not engage. Meaning either the pressure was so great that the oil blasted straight up the shaft so fast the BOP had no time to react, or the BOP did react, and the pressure from the deposit destroyed it. Either way, it culminated in the rig sinking to the ocean floor. But not before it claimed 11 souls, and shot flames 200-300 feet in the air.

The Nautilus, sister vessel To the Hroizon, shown for size

When the rig went down, it brought the riser with it, breaking it in at least 3 places. Which is were the oil leak is coming from. The leak is significant, roughly 5,000 barrels, or, 210,000 gallons of oil blasting out a 5 ft. hole, with 70,000 pounds per square inch behind it, a day. Quite a massive amount by any standard. So far, attempts to shut off the flow have failed. But BP is expecting to install a valve on the riser tonight sealing off one leak, leaving two others to be controlled by the placement of a “Collection Dome”. The dome will be deployed on the morning of May 4th, and will hopefully be in place within a week. It will take somewhere between 60-90 days before the two proposed “relief wells” are finished. Hopefully by then, this crisis will be over with.

The environmental impact is yet to be felt. Not to mention what this has the potential to do to the fishing industry. There has not been an official estimate on the size of the oil field. But a BP official speaking on a condition of anonymity confirmed that it was tens of millions of barrels. In short, if the relief efforts fail, this could go on for a quite a while.

Because of this you will hear calls for more regulation in the oil industry. Already our politicians are scheming up ways to get more involved with the oil industry than they already are. There will be investigations, there will be debates, all the things politicians love about a crisis. But mostly, it’s a chance for them to grab more power, and get in the spotlight for thier chance to win more votes. They all, however, are missing the central issue completely. It is simple……..

Oil has no competitor. Period. It literally is the world we live in. Even if you are the stinkiest hippie from the darkest corner of the forest, you use something that has oil in it. I don’t care how often you ride mass transit, take your bike, or buy organic, oil is so interwoven into our society that you use it without knowing it. One 42 gallon barrel of oil  yields roughly 19 gallons of gasoline, the remaining oil is used to make things you use every single day. You can view a partial list here.

Whats my point?

We need an alternative. A realistic one. We need something that can compete with Oil. Something we don’t need to drill for, something that will not put the surrounding environment at risk, something that can create jobs, spawn new industry, and do all of things that oil can do.

Luckily for us, that alternative does exist. Cannabis Sativa L. Now before you start shouting this idea down, think about it for a minute. I’m talking about allowing farmers to grow a crop that would be profitable, that would require year round workers to cultivate, and can easily be converted into fuel. We aren’t just talking about hippie necklaces and ugly sweaters here. Hemp can produce 10 times the amount of ethanol corn can, it burns clean, and can produce ten tons per acre in just 4 months. All of this without wiping out the food supply. Henry Ford realized the benefits of ethanol and was qouted by the New York Times saying..

“There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years.”

Ford later built a vehicle out of resin stiffened hemp fiber and even ran the car from ethanol made from hemp.

Unfortunately, Federal Law prohibits the use of Industrial Hemp under the Controlled Substances act.  Most States,  do not challenge this. Which is a shame, considering the need for new jobs in the current economic environment. Industrial Hemp is a safe, non-toxic alternative fuel that can be grown in abundance all over the United States. It will not destroy any environment it is planted in, and it can be made into bio-degradable plastics.

Given the opportunity, I believe that Hemp could become a stable competitor to oil. In time the cost of producing ethanol from hemp would drop as more efficient methods are discovered. It would not happen overnight, but it would happen. With such a plant growing in abundance the supply of fuel would be immense, driving prices at the pump down.But we will never know unless our government gets out of the way and lets the market work.

All that needs to happen to make this a reality, is for the United States Government to remove Industrial Hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. H.R. 1866 will do just that. It’s piece of legislation written by Congressman Ron Paul of Texas. It allows the States to determine whether or not industrial hemp should be a controlled substance.

Want to watch the Free Market make the Oil Companies collectively crap their pants?

De-regulate Hemp, and let the games begin.

Call your Congressman and tell them to support H.R. 1866, because it’s none of their damn business what you plant in your garden anyway.

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