ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Premier Danny Williams says demanding a relief well for Canada’s deepest-ever oil well off Newfoundland would threaten exploration and potentially cost his province billions in lost revenues.
A simultaneous relief well would “dramatically” spike costs of the well Chevron is drilling 2,600 metres under the North Atlantic, Williams told the legislature on Monday.
“And we’ll probably end up terminating any further exploration in the Orphan Basin in deep water,” he said of the site about 400 kilometres northeast of St. John’s.
“I think the trade-off for that — if we take the billions of dollars that could be lost — would be the loss of social benefits and social programs for the province.”
Williams said he watched news coverage closely over the weekend of the ongoing battle to stop a geyser of oil pulsing from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.
[More]
Updates:
3:17 pm EDT, June 7th, 2010 — Why a Gulf-style oil spill would be even more devastating in Canada
We have Obama saying:
I’m shocked, shocked that risky oil drilling is going on in the Gulf.
Like Captain Renault in the movie Cassablanca about gambling going on at Rick’s Café Américain; I am “shocked, shocked” that a politician would say that.
Governments pretend to be helpless bystanders like the rest of us. Yet politicians like Obama don’t hesitate to tell us that they are particularly skilful and competent to regulate, monitor, and control mega conditions like Global Warming.
Actually all most of them are skilful at is controlling your wallet.
Having said that, what needs to happen is an open dialogue which at least Danny has tabled with the point that life is about risks and tradeoffs.
We need to think about and get engaged with Danny’s point “There’s also employment lost on the industry side as well as the essential revenues that do come to government in order to conduct and implement the many social programs that this government has been very proud of — poverty reduction, our health initiatives, our education initiatives.”
Of course Danny is worried. If oil money dries up, he cannot be King of the Rock. Alberta oil sands looking better every day. Cheers.