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ANOTHER Oil Rig Explosion?! REALLY?!

2010-09-04 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · news analysis

Hank argues that the world will never run out of oil, only of easy oil, so companies take ever bigger risks to get the hard oil; because those risks fall on shared things like the Gulf of Mexico, government regulation is needed rather than industry self-regulation.

What is said

00:00:00 — Why Hank, an environmental activist, did not talk about the Deepwater Horizon disaster: anger, inevitability, not wanting to blame

  • ★★ Hank says he is something of an environmental activist, so many people were surprised he did not talk about the Deepwater Horizon disaster. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Hank explains his silence: he knew the disaster was inevitable, was very angry, and did not want to focus on blaming people, which gets political and divisive fast. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Oil: we depend on it completely; we will never run out, only of easy oil; getting hard oil takes technology, money or risk

  • ★ Hank says it is still not entirely clear what happened on the Deepwater Horizon rig or how its failsafe systems failed. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank says that if there were suddenly no oil anywhere, we would all die: no economy, power, water, transportation or food. — 00:00:29
  • ★★★ Hank claims we will never run out of oil: oil is not equally accessible, and while the easy oil has been burned, the hard oil only gets harder to reach. — 00:00:58 > «I'm going to make the somewhat preposterous statement that we are never going to run out of oil.»
  • ★★★ To get at the hard oil, Hank says, you need new technologies, more money, or more risk-taking. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank lists the risks: drilling in environmentally fragile areas that can never be replaced, drilling too deep to repair, overworking crews, cutting corners, and pressuring managers to finish wells. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Hank says an oil well can be drilled three miles below the ocean surface, so deep that no submarine on the planet could reach it to fix a problem. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Corporate risk (Microsoft's phone vs BP's Gulf of Mexico), why shared risk needs regulation, a party that wants industry self-regulation; more catastrophes ahead

  • ★★ Hank says corporations are used to risk: Microsoft's new phone flopped and probably lost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, a normal part of business. (playful) (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Hank argues BP may treat a lost rig as an acceptable risk, but it is risking the whole Gulf of Mexico ecosystem, which is not theirs and has intrinsic and economic value. — 00:02:35
  • ★★★ Because oil companies risk something everyone shares, Hank says government regulation is needed, e.g. banning 16-hour shifts and limiting drilling depth. — 00:02:35
  • ★★ Hank criticizes a newly emerged political party that says the US energy industry should regulate itself and decide what is safe, sarcastically calling it a great plan. — 00:03:04
  • ★ Hank notes he is now getting angry and blaming people, which is what he did not want to do. — 00:03:04
  • ★★★ Hank predicts catastrophes like this will happen more and more as oil gets more expensive, because companies will take those risks unless someone stops them. — 00:03:04

00:03:33 — Vlogbrothers t-shirt pre-order for two weeks; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank announces that he and John are finally selling a t-shirt that says vlogbrothers, on pre-order for two weeks only and never available again. — 00:03:33

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