Both houses of the New Jersey legislature overwhelmingly passed the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act on June 28, 2010. The act creates financial incentives for offshore wind development and sets a target of 1,100 megawatts of wind generation off of New Jersey’s coast. New Jersey is among a handful of states in the running to incentivize and complete the nation’s first offshore wind development.
The act authorizes a 100 percent tax credit for capital investments of $50 million or more in new offshore wind facilities. Total tax credits for all projects are initially capped at $100 million, but the state’s Economic Development Authority may increase that amount as long as the total among specified programs authorized by the legislature does not exceed $1.5 billion.
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So, unless you've been living in a hole or disconnected from civilization in general I'm sure you've heard about the oil spill in the gulf. However, the oil might not even be the worst part. In fact it is vary well possible that the worst is yet to come.
--- A group of BP executives were on board the Deepwater Horizon rig celebrating the project's safety record, according to the transcripts. Meanwhile, far below, the rig was being converted from an exploration well to a production well.
Based on the interviews, Bea believes that the workers set and then tested a cement seal at the bottom of the well. Then they reduced the pressure in the drill column and attempted to set a second seal below the sea floor. A chemical reaction caused by the setting cement created heat and a gas bubble which destroyed the seal.
Up on the rig, the first thing workers noticed was the sea water in the drill column suddenly shooting back at them, rocketing 240 feet in the air, he said. Then, gas surfaced. Then oil.Deep beneath the seafloor, methane is in a slushy, crystalline form. Deep sea oil drillers often encounter pockets of methane crystals as they dig into the earth.
As the bubble rose up the drill column from the high-pressure environs of the deep to the less pressurized shallows, it intensified and grew, breaking through various safety barriers, Bea said.
"A small bubble becomes a really big bubble," Bea said. "So the expanding bubble becomes like a cannon shooting the gas into your face."
"What we had learned when I worked as a drill rig laborer was swoosh, boom, run," Bea said. "The swoosh is the gas, boom is the explosion and run is what you better be doing."---
According to Helium.com (Scientific News site site)
---Geologists have warned oil companies working in the area that massive pockets of natural gas, containing high concentrations of methane gas, exist deep beneath the sea floor. Discoveries of natural gas is of course an important part of exploration. But the pressures of these pockets, or "bubbles", was predicted to be far higher than current technology can deal with. Typical well head pressures are in the 1,500 pounds per square inch range. Geologists warned that gas pressures could range between 30,000 and 70,000 psi. Some reports indicate the actual pressure at the well head is 100,000 psi.
The threat of a methane gas explosion in the Gulf has been attributed to fear mongering. Is there any evidence to these claims? Robotic submarines are returning some very frightening video footage of methane gas hazards. Cracks and fissures are opening up on the sea floor over an area of several miles. A number of "pock marks" have appeared on the sea floor as far as 20 miles away from the original blow out. Oil and methane gas is escaping from areas that have never even been drilled.
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This appeared in another article on the same site
By some geologists' estimates the methane could be a massive 15 to 20 mile explosive bubble trapped for eons under the Gulf sea floor. In their opinion, the explosive destruction of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead was an accident just waiting to happen.
According to worried geologists, the first signs that the methane may burst its way through the bottom of the ocean would be fissures or cracks appearing on the ocean floor near the damaged well head.
Evidence of fissures opening up on the seabed have been captured by the robotic submersibles working to repair and contain the ruptured well. Smaller, independent plumes have also appeared outside the nearby radius of the bore hole itself. ---
If the methane bubble does break the surface every ship in its immediate vicinity would sink due to the rising methane decreasing the density of the water. As the bubble rises, it pushes water out of the way. The displaced water has to go somewhere, ergo...tsunami. The wave would race out in all directions and in little time wipe out the gulf coast.
Then there is the fact that methane is flammable...but hey Lebron left Cleveland for Miami and that's what's important.
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