Pennywise and Poundfoolish: Working at an oil refinery day 1: orientation

Robert F. Kennedy, 1968: We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear our highways from carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. The Gross National Product includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads ... It includes ... the broadcasting of television programs which glorify violence to sell goods to our children. And if the Gross National Product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry, or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials ... the Gross National Product measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America -- except whether we are proud to be Americans.

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April 28, 2008

Working at an oil refinery day 1: orientation

Today we had a safety orientation working at the Refinery. Man, are they ever picky about safety. They also seem to be picky about how they handle their waste. In their safety manual they list dozens of nasty chemicals that they deal with and their "waste streams" (read: how to "properly dispose" of these contaminates). Refinery work is without a doubt dangerous, lucrative, and severely oriented towards safety. I would like to hear some numbers from the Shell guys and from independent reviewers regarding their pollution controls, and areas that need to be further improved upon in the refinery process. If anyone has any numbers for me, please feel free to post those with links.

Again, sorry for the abbreviated posts, I'm dealing with a lot of irons in my fire. Any user-contributed information would be very useful to the discussion.