How will the Gulf Oil Spill affect our Energy Future?

The oil spill showed that the oil interests and the Republican party advocates for the oil interests can not be trusted. They have been pushing the argument that with advanced oil drilling technologies, it is very safe and clean to drill for oil even in difficult places. The Gulf oil spill showed that the advance technologies are not as advanced as advertised, and the spill showed that oil companies may not be using all of these advanced technologies, as these companies tried to save money and to cut corners. The Gulf spill showed that there are no advance technologies to stop the leak once it happened. BP tried a large cap that did not work, it tried and abandoned a smaller cap. It tried inserting a smaller tube and that did not work well. It tried a mud plug, and that did not work. It is obvious that advanced technologies for stopping a deep water leak rapidly are totally lacking. The oil interest’s claims of advanced technologies have been proven to be bogus by the Gulf spill. The oil interest’s claims to be able to drill safely and cleanly have also been proven by the Gulf spill to be bogus. BP did not install a backup secondary Acoustic Remote Controlled Blowout Preventer, that is required in Europe as well as in many other none US places. According to many newspaper and magazine web articles, BP personnel did not use the most safe design to save money. From not on, people will not trust what the oil people say. The oil people have lost the trust of the people. The energy people too have lost some of the trust from this spill. This spill showed that oil and energy people will cut corners in order to save money. This spill may also hint that people in the oil and energy industry may not be the brightest people, as they fumbled to stop the leak. Obviously, oil is mostly used for powering cars. Very little oil is used for electric generation. Some oil is used in legacy oil heating, but old oil home heating units can be easily converted to natural gas, specially if there are government assistance to convert oil heating to natural gas heating. Electricity generation using coal is separated from the oil spill, other than the oil spill implies that the coal people too probably are ignoring safety and ignoring advanced technologies in the interest of making money just like the oil people. Whether the Gulf spill will help the Democrats to implement their environmental energy program remains to be seen. While the Gulf spill does heighten interests in safe energy, it also heighten the desperation of the oil and energy people to spend more money in election campaigns to win back their seats in the government.