BP oil well "dead" 5 months after spill began

The blown-out well at the heart of the worst oil spill in U.S. history has been cemented shut and is "effectively dead," the federal government's point man for the disaster said Sunday. "Additional regulatory steps will be undertaken but we can now state, definitively, that the Macondo well poses no continuing threat to the Gulf of Mexico," former Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen announced.

Broader dangers of deep water drilling go unscrutinized

Even as regulators investigate the causes of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the broader dangers posed by the industry’s push into deeper waters have gone largely unscrutinized. “Our ability to manage risks hasn’t caught up with our ability to explore and produce in deep water,” said Edward C. Chow, a former industry executive who is now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The question now is, how are we going to protect against a blowout as well as all of the other associated risks offshore?”
http://www.nytimes.com, Aug 30, 2010

Obama in New Orleans: Man on a wire

"We are going to stand with you until the oil is cleaned up, the environment is restored, polluters are held accountable, communities are made whole and this region is back on its feet," Obama said.

Turtle Today

Behind the Spill, Acrimony and Stress

Interviews with BP engineers and technicians, contractors and Obama administration officials who, with the eyes of the world upon them, worked to stop the flow of oil, suggest that the process was also far more stressful, hair-raising and acrimonious than the public was aware of.
New York Times Aug 27, 2010

Tons of Gulf waste headed for landfills

NEW ORLEANS — The cleanup of history's worst peacetime oil spill is generating thousands of tons of oil-soaked debris that is ending up in local landfills, some of which were already dealing with environmental concerns. The soft, absorbent boom that has played the biggest role in containing the spill alone would measure more than twice the length of California's coastline, or about 2,000 miles. More than 50,000 tons of boom and oily debris have made their way to landfills or incinerators, federal officials told The Associated Press, representing about 7 percent of the daily volume going to nine area landfills.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press.
August 25, 2010

A Gulf Science Blackout

Opinion: Linda Hooper-Bui

THE Deepwater Horizon blowout may be capped and the surface oil slick dispersed, but the scientists’ job has just begun: hundreds of us are working in and around the gulf to determine the long-term environmental impact of the drilling disaster. Although we are all doing needed research, we’re not receiving equal money or access to the affected sites. Those working for BP or the federal government’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment program are being given the bulk of the resources, while independent researchers are shoved aside.

New York Times, Aug 25, 2010

Linda Hooper-Bui is a professor of entomology at Louisiana State University.

Media said to have over-reacted to spill

Paul Voosen and Allison Winter, give a clear-headed, unemotional assessment of the situation, with no alarmism. If the rest of the media had taken that tack from the beginning, this oil spill would not rank as the most disgraceful episode of the millennium in the mass media.
When it comes to the Gulf oil spill, the media have done the exact opposite. First the media exaggerated the possible effects of the spill beyond all proportion. Then when those alarmist scenarios failed to materialize and the oil disappeared in record time, no one in the media admitted getting it all wrong. Instead they convinced the boobs that the oil is still lurking out there creating all sorts of potential hazards.

Reflections on Gulf Oil Spill Disaster Seminar

The good news is, although the ecological destruction in the Gulf isn't good, it's not as terrible as was once thought -- and for a variety of reasons.

By John Mauldin Aug 16, 2010
http://www.minyanville.com

Officials testing seal at BP's busted Gulf well

NEW ORLEANS – In the strongest indication yet that BP's broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico may be plugged for good, officials on Thursday said they're conducting tests to determine if further work to seal the well is needed.

Oil spill: Not as bad as we first thought?

Signs of recovery from the Gulf oil spill are already appearing, but scientists caution that many unknowns exist – including the effect of millions of gallons of oil dispersants.

The federal government has opened roughly one-third of the federal waters in the Gulf it had closed to fishing. At week's end federal officials sounded a conditional all-clear for southern Florida, the Keys, and the state's east coast – a region long concerned that the Gulf's loop current would sweep surface oil into its flow and daub the state's coastal areas with crude. The condition? That the flow from the well remains stanched.

The Well from Hell?

“From Day 1, he deemed this hole a well from hell,” said Natalie Roshto, the widow of Shane Roshto, who was a laborer aboard the floating oil rig and among the 11 crew members killed when it exploded April 20. “He said the earth, he said Mother Nature just doesn’t want to be drilled here.”
http://www.latimes.com/

In Louisiana, Economy Trumps Environment

The federal moratorium on exploratory drilling for oil in deep-sea waters is tantamount to an attack on Louisiana’s way of life, politicians and business leaders said Wednesday at an oil industry-sponsored rally held in Lafayette. The political event at the nearly packed Cajundome stadium demonstrated the influence of the oil industry over Louisiana, and the belief that the drilling moratorium could be more hurtful to the state’s economy than the risk of a second catastrophic oil rig explosion. “I think the risk to the local economy is greater than the risk to the environment right now,” said machinist Andy Fuquay, 27, dressed in dark blue coveralls.
http://www.latimes.com/

BP to Keep Well Closed for Another Day

A seep — usually a flow of hydrocarbons from the seafloor — could be evidence that oil, gas or both are escaping from the well up to the seafloor, which could prompt the government to order BP to remove the cap and resume oil collection. But seeps also occur naturally.

Autopsies of gulf animals

“It is terribly important to know, in the big scheme of things, why something died,” said Moby Solangi, the director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., where the initial turtle necropsies and some dolphin necropsies were performed.

http://www.nytimes.com

A great awakening?

What if churches and sermons recognized the oil staining out Gulf as a call to repent? To clean up and conserve? Change our lives. Stop drilling holes in our world. What if, instead of being transfixed on the afterlife, we actually fought against losing our paradises -- like these soulful Gulf waters? The Garden of Eden is still here on earth, though struggling to survive our abandonment.
We are still in the thrall of this terrible gusher. Over 300 million gallons have sullied our Gulf and now there is fear that the spill might taint the Eastern seaboard and spread as far as Europe.The Internet is abuzz with claims that this is an "oil spill apocalypse" and perhaps a sign of Tribulations, or End Times. Here is my plea to all true believers: The tribulations are now. We're still here. Please lend a hand. Come home.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Not to worry. The whole thing's a media exaggeration

All of this supports my contention that it's not a good idea for Republicans exaggerate the effects of the oil spill just to score to try and score points against President Obama. This is far from "the greatest environmental disaster in American history," as some have contended. Republicans should take a realistic look at just how much damage will actually result from this spill. If it's anything like the prior big spill in the Bay of Campeche in 1979 as described in a recent article, it might not be all that bad.

Paul Mulshin, the Star Ledger

A look down below: BP's latest cap job

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Spill spreads anxiety among Vietnamese fishermen

"I feel like I am lost," says Chu, a wiry 52-year-old whose hair is specked with gray and voice clouded with dejection. "Sometimes I worry and I cannot sleep. I'm thinking about how am I going to make money to sponsor my wife, thinking about how am I going to pay my bills." The oil spill that has forced thousands of Gulf fisherman off their boats has been especially cruel to those in the tight-knit Vietnamese community here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com

BP's latest attempt to cap the spill

BP has now begun an operation which could allow the company to capture most, if not all of the oil currently leaking in the Gulf of Mexico. The operation involves removing the current cap which was installed June 4th and replacing it with a new, better-fitting cap called "Top Hat Number 10." When the old cap is removed oil will flow freely into the Gulf. The company will obviously then be in a hurry to install the new cap, which is not guaranteed to succeed.
http://www.examiner.com

Modern drilling is an exact science

The need for accurate location information — in a subterranean environment that Global Positioning System satellite signals cannot reach — is true now more than ever, as oil and gas wells go deeper and become more complex, veering off horizontally through narrow hydrocarbon reservoirs or parallel existing wells. But it is especially true right now in the Gulf of Mexico, where BP is drilling a relief well to intersect the runaway well that has been spewing oil since April. The relief well will be used to pump heavy drilling mud, followed by cement, into the damaged well to stop the gusher permanently. But first it, or a second relief well being drilled nearby as a backup, must hit the target — the existing well’s steel casing pipe, only seven inches in diameter, more than 3 miles below the surface of the gulf.

New York Times June 6, 2010

Spill about to score gulf record

NEW ORLEANS – BP's massive oil spill will become the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico by Thursday based on the highest of the federal government's estimates, an ominous record that underscores the oil giant's dire need to halt the gusher.

The oil that's spewed for two and a half months from a blown-out well a mile under the sea is expected to surpass the 140 million gallon mark, eclipsing the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico's coast from 1979 to 1980. Even by the lower end of the government's estimates, at least 71.2 million gallons are in the Gulf.

Associated Press

Yahoo and Yippee! Hurricane be good for oil cleanup. Make like washing machine.

A spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that hurricanes have a washing machine effect. The major spinning and disturbance of the waters help to break down the plumes of oil. The stirring up of the water by a hurricane break the oil up into smaller droplets that microbes can more easily consume. This constant pounding on the oil break it down faster and to a greater extent.

http://fastfreenews.com

From the "Who Cares" department: New Video Game Lets You Stop The Leak

Now you can try your hand at stopping the oil spill in the Gulf Coast. A new game inspired by the ongoing BP oil spill has hit the Xbox Live games marketplace. Called Crisis In The Gulf, the game challenges gamers to stop the oil spill from an exploded oil rig owned by "DP" using whatever means necessary--from cannons and torpedos to high-powered lasers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

Passing Alex shuts cleanup down

Oil-skimming ships in the Gulf of Mexico steamed to safe refuge because of the rough seas, which likely will last for days. Officials scrambled to reposition boom to protect the coast, and had to remove barges that had been blocking oil from reaching sensitive wetlands.Officials worried the weather could hamper efforts to keep the oil out of Lake Pontchartrain, which so far has not been affected. The brackish body of water, connected to the Gulf by narrow passes, is a recreational haven for metropolitan New Orleans.
The containment system now in place is capturing nearly 1 million gallons per day from the well, which is spewing as much as 2.5 million gallons a day, according to the government's worst-case estimate. So far, between 70.8 million and 137.6 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from the broken BP well, according to government and BP estimates. The higher estimate is enough oil to fill half of New York's Empire State Building with oil.

Alex may delay improved oil collection

Waves of 10 to 12 feet would prevent BP from connecting a third rig to an underwater containment system. That process needs three days of good weather, said Kent Wells, a BP senior vice president. The rig is expected to nearly double the amount of oil siphoned from the leak to between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels a day. The storm's winds are expected to stay far enough west of the spill to avoid any interruption to the drilling of two relief wells, which BP officials hope will completely cut off the flow of oil into the Gulf in August.

Wall St. Journal June 29, 2010

New Streamers about to hit Grand Isle

Poor BP. A hundred million bucks a day. The dead pelicans can really use that.

Over the weekend, as spending hit $100 million a day, the number of vessels helping with the clean-up had grown to 5,000 and a flotilla of expensive drill ships gathered on the surface far above the well head, as BP implemented plans to capture 90% of the leaking oil and continued drilling two relief wells.
Wall St. Journal Blogs

Oil companies are major shareholders in the American political and media machines

Open Secrets, whose mission is to track money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy, details the amount of money received by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who is currently investigating BP, from oil and gas companies. In 2010, members of the committee received a combined $1,227,455. The ranking Elephant on the committee, Joe Barton, who stuck his oily foot in his foul mouth by apologizing to BP, received over $100,000 last year, the second only to an Elephant from Missouri, Roy Blunt.
bigthink.com

Palin packs Oil Palace, disses Obama

TYLER, Texas — Sarah Palin fired up an enthusiastic Texas crowd late Saturday by criticizing President Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, saying he's falling short on leadership. "You asked for the job, Mr. President, so buck up," Palin said to voracious applause inside the nearly packed Oil Palace. Organizers said the event drew about 5,000 people. "I chant, 'drill baby drill,' because it will help make the country energy independent," she said.
http://www.chron.com/

Black Lexus joins protest

"In Mobile, about 40 people participated in the 15-minute peaceful protest. Sherri Wilson of Daphne said that the oil spill is a "tragedy of epic proportions" that the Gulf may never recover from. "It's important to let people know that we care about the environment, and offshore drilling is not something that I, now or ever, supported," she said. After 15 minutes in the sweltering heat, the attendees headed back to their cars, shouting, "Air conditioning," and "Ooh, that was warm." Two of the protesters climbed into a black Lexus sport utility vehicle -- left on and idling all 15 minutes -- and drove away."

www.alabama.com

And here's a thank you note from Steve...

stevenleonard wrote on 06/27/2010 07:15:03 AM:

I would like to thank the Judge on behalf of the nation for his quick action and wise decision. However we need to plug the hole the oil is leaking from. The russians had the same problem some years ago and used a small nuclear device to blow up the ocean floor to close it off. Can we do the same? Lets work on finding a resolution to the leak. The reason that BP doesn't close it off is because if the oil stops flowing from the hole, then their contract stops. The politics in that is why we continue to have an oil leak. We need to take actions on that as our nation is suffering!

Stockholding judge a bit of a folk hero

"HOUMA, La. -- Along the troubled waters of the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman has become a bit of a folk hero. He's the Ronald Reagan appointee who overturned the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil exploration, siding with oil service companies and the state of Louisiana, which argued that the moratorium -- coming on the heels of the gusher in the Gulf -- would seriously weaken the state's economy. Feldman owned stock in Exxon Mobil -- an oil company affected by the ban -- even as he considered the case, The Washington Post reported."

The Miami Herald June 27, 2010

Here's a doomsday scenario for you. Enjoy.

"Let's say the oil blowout continues, and the Gulf of Mexico is carrying millions of gallons of crude oil as a massive hurricane approaches. It's a hot July day in the Gulf of Mexico, with temperatures soaring towards 110 degrees, accelerating the evaporation of volatile oils which get mixed in with hurricane-force winds. The hurricane makes landfall in New Orleans, let's say, dumping potentially hundreds of thousands of gallons of what is essentially "volatile fuel" on the city of New Orleans. Now, at first it's just a wet, slippery toxic mess that kills trees and grass. But what happens after the storm when the sun dries out the city?"
Natural News

Spill spurs activists

The April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil-rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 workers and triggered the nation's worst environmental disaster, created a powerful surge in environmental awareness. In Florida and elsewhere, activists hope it has staying power beyond the current catastrophe. Eric Draper, Florida Audubon's executive director, said that 16,000 people have signed up to volunteer with Audubon nationally ``as a response to the oil spill'' -- perhaps 1,000 from Florida. Most, he said, aren't Audubon members, but have ``seen the images of the wildlife or imagined the oil's effect on the beaches. They're people who love the beaches and want to do something.''
The Miami Herald June 26, 2010

Tropical storms heads for oil spill area

Coast Guard officials are making preparations for what could turn into a hurricane. A tropical cyclone is forming south of the Gulf of Mexico and is headed toward the oil spill area. Gale force winds could force at-sea workers to abandon their oil collection efforts in the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks, the head of the national response effort said Friday. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen described the cut-and-run plan in a conference call to reporters Friday as, “Realistically, out of an abundance of caution,” but the Deepwater Horizon well would remain uncapped for “14 days” if that happened.

Scott Brown: on the big oil dole?

Gulf Boat Captain Describes Turtle Rescue

Wildlife incinerated

Boat captain Mike Ellis described what he had seen at sea in a YouTube report. "They drag a boom between two shrimp boats and whatever gets caught between the two boats, they circle it up and catch it on fire. Once the turtles are in there, they can’t get out," Mr. Ellis said.
The Christian Science Monitor June 25, 2010

Raining oil in Louisiana?

This You Tube video claims it was raining oil on Thursday near Saint Louis Bay, La.

Oil: who needs it anyway?

Americans consume petroleum products at a rate of three-and-a-half gallons of oil and more than 250 cubic feet of natural gas per day each!

The largest "spills" in history

U.S. energy security could suffer if BP fails

With public anger off the charts over BP's role in the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, there's not much sympathy about the financial burden the British oil company faces from future legal claims and cleanup costs. BP says it's considering asset sales to help cover the cost of a $20 billion escrow fund that the White House demanded it set up to handle U.S. claims. The company's survival may also be in doubt if the financial hit from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion approaches $100 billion, as some analysts suggest is possible.
http://www.businessweek.com

Oil spill college course open for buisness

Oil and water don’t mix. That is, unless they are coming together in a class dubbed “Oil and Water: The Gulf Oil Spill of 2010,” a joint venture of the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences and College of Liberal Arts.

Robert Gilmer, a University graduate student and the course’s instructor, hopes to help students sort through the contradictions and find connections within the Gulf crisis in his class this fall.

“What fascinates me the most about it is looking at all the paradoxes involved,” Gilmer said.

He points out that while oil and water do not usually mix, it is easy to forget that something as basic as the success or failure of commercial fishing in Louisiana is closely tied to oil.

“The oil rigs themselves form artificial reefs off the coast,” Gilmer said. “A lot of these fishermen … go out to the oil rig because that’s where the best fishing spots are.”

http://www.mndaily.com/

"It's enough to knock you down."

PENSACOLA BEACH, Fla. A Florida beach was closed to visitors for the first time because of the Gulf oil spill Thursday as workers tried to remove pools of black sludge from Pensacola Beach's once-white sands. Lifeguard Collin Cobia wore a red handkerchief over his nose and mouth to block the oil smell. "It's just awful, he said." It just breaks your heart. I can't get my feet in the water."

Who's in charge here?

 

A case of chronic oil pollution

During World War II, 452 oil tankers were sunk in the North Atlantic, as were an unknown number of the 1080 wrecks lying on the bottom of the Pacific. Little is known about the total amount of oil that spilled directly in to the ocean, but it's likely much went to the bottom in ships that remained virtually intact. It is known that two oil tankers sunk in 1942 lie only a few hundred miles from Australia's Great Barrier Reef and are estimated to contain as much oil as the Exxon Valdez. It's only a matter of time before rotting hulks pose enormous potential to foul fragile environments.

washingtonpost.com

Oil spill cap replaced

VENICE, La., June 24 (UPI) -- The containment cap on BP's broken Gulf of Mexico oil well has been replaced following a bump by a robotic vehicle, the company said. More crude flowed into the sea while the cap was off but U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the step had to be taken "out of an abundance of caution."

UPI

Rolling Stone: BP's Next Disaster

The oil giant plans to start drilling in the Arctic this fall — and the Obama administration is doing nothing to stop it.

Obama's tough-guy act offers no guarantee that oil giants like BP won't be permitted to repeat the same mistakes that led to the nightmare in the Gulf. Indeed, top environmentalists warn, the suspension of drilling appears to be little more than a stalling tactic designed to let public anger over BP's spill subside before giving Big Oil the go-ahead to drill in an area that has long been off-limits: the Arctic Ocean.
Rolling Stone Magazine

Federal Judge Overturns Drilling Moratorium

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A federal judge struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico as rash and heavy-handed Tuesday, saying the government simply assumed that because one rig exploded, the others pose an immediate danger, too. The White House promised an immediate appeal. The decision was handed down by U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan and has owned stock in a number of petroleum-related companies.
Huff Post June 23, 2010

More than you reall ywant to know: check out this graphic.

The Daily Green

15 Myths abou the oil deluge

A good article that corrects most of the wrong ideas people have about the spill. Here's number 15:

15. It Will All Be Over in August

Through each of BP's failed attempts to cap its well – from the top hat to the top kill – it has maintained that the worst thing that could happen was that the well would continue to gush into August, when the company would complete its relief well. But there's no guarantee that the relief well will be fully effective. In a June 15 testimony, BP's Lamar McKay said that "the design of the relief well is very, very similar to the original well." In addition, there's speculation that the oil well leak may have caused the sea floor itself to rupture, meaning the shutting off the well may not stop oil from seeping into the gulf.

The Daily Green June 23, 2010

Containment cap fails; oil gushing again

BP suffered a setback in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, when a discharge of liquid and gases forced the company to remove the containment cap that for three weeks had been able to capture a large portion of the oil gushing from the damaged well. Adm. Thad Allen of the Coast Guard announced this development in a mid-day briefing from Washington, explaining that a remote controlled submersible operating a mile beneath the surface likely bumped a vent and compromised the system. Live video from the seafloor showed the oil and gas storming out of the well unrestricted.

Does Oil Spill Mean A Broken Economy?

As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis enters a third month, the economic impact of this environmental nightmare is starting to become clearer. The truth is that the "oil volcano" spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf has absolutely decimated the seafood, tourism and real estate industries along the Gulf coast. Not only that, but energy industry insiders are now warning that the chilling effect that this crisis will have on offshore drilling could precipitate a new 1970s-style energy crisis. Considering the fact that the U.S. economy was already on incredibly shaky ground even before the oil leak, the last thing we needed was a disaster of this magnitude. But it has happened, and the reality is that the long-term effects of this crisis are potentially going to reverberate for decades.

Just a Daily Grind on OCS-G 32306

In one of the first visits by journalists to the scene of the disaster, a small group of reporters watched Saturday as, a few feet away, a team of roughnecks and others prepared a tool that would be used to lower several thousand feet of steel casing to the bottom of the hole, where it would form part of the well’s permanent lining.
New York Times June 21, 2010

Which is Worse?

Turning the Corner?

The administration is clearly expecting -- maybe hoping -- that the intense public attention on the spill fades a bit, starting with this week, giving them a chance to turn to other subjects.
The Washington Post 6/21/10

Manatees too

Until recently, biologists believed that manatees rarely ventured west of peninsular Florida, where, so far, no oil has appeared. But in 2007, Ruth Carmichael, who leads the Dauphin Island team, began documenting a relatively large summer migration of manatees to Mobile Bay, Ala. — leading them directly into and through the path of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon leak.

Opinion: Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock

What’s also being tarred daily by the gushing oil is the very notion that government can accomplish anything.
New York Times June 21, 2010

Do corporations gets away with murder?

What's most striking about the present BP oil catastrophe is not that it is an aberration but rather part of a dangerous pattern of mankind's propensity to destroy nature. Whether it's Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Food or Big Agriculture, every large and powerful corporation gets away with murder because laws are never properly applied to them. BP is destroying an entire ocean -- and the livelihoods of millions of people -- and will probably get off with a large fine and a slap on the wrist. In two years, it will all be back to business as usual, polluting the oceans, destroying life and ignoring safety rules and regulations once again while the American people suffer.
Natural News.com June 18, 2010

'Tis a pity

Politics Daily

BP: Relief well is ahead of schedule

BP's ongoing effort to tap into the busted well head with a shaft and plug it with mud and cement is moving forward, Allen said. The interception shaft was about 1,000 feet away from the well on Thursday. BP has said that the relief will be complete in August.
LA Times June 17, 2010

USA Today: How bad could it get?

So how bad could it get? The numbers point to an unprecedented ecological disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico and possibly along the Eastern Seaboard. An in-depth analysis of the long-term effects of the spill.
USA Today

Joe Barton recants

"I apologize for using the term 'shakedown' with regard to yesterday's actions at the White House in my opening statement this morning, and I retract my apology to BP. As I told my colleagues yesterday and said again this morning, BP should bear the full financial responsibility for the accident on their lease in the Gulf of Mexico. BP should fully compensate those families and businesses that have been hurt by this accident. BP and the federal government need to stop the leak, clean up the damage, and take whatever steps necessary to prevent a similar accident in the future. "I regret the impact that my statement this morning implied that BP should not pay for the consequences of their decisions and actions in this incident."
Huff Post 6/18/2010

We're talkin nukes again, folks

A reader sent me this NYT interview with Christopher J. Brownfield, whose credentials in the field of underwater demolition I am unable to establish:
You’re a veteran of the Iraq war and a former Navy submarine officer who’s now a scholar of nuclear policy at Columbia University. You’re also among the newly emergent big-bang crowd that wants to blow up the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico.
I advocate the demolition of the well. It’s feasible to use nuclear explosives. The Russians did it four times with a 100-percent success rate. But I fear the mere mention of the nuclear option has only given opponents and unnamed oil engineers a straw man to attack.
New York Times June 7, 2010

Getting Oiled: Cuba's next

Cuba is steadying itself for an ecological and tourism crisis as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill appears to be heading towards its pristine northern coast. Authorities are preparing coastal communities to respond to the first sign of black slicks and have brought in Venezuelan experts to advise on damage limitation. Patches of oil were reportedly spotted 100 miles north-west of the island, prompting concern that gulf currents will add Cuba to the list of casualties from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.
guardian.co.uk

Rep. Barton accuses Obama of "shaking down" BP: I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday."

For your viewing pleasure

Watch live streaming video from wkrg_oil_spill at livestream.com

Oil's landfall as of today

Big spills no news to Nigeria

BODO, Nigeria - Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless. Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.
New York Times June 17 2010

Sea creatures flee spill, gather near shore

GULF SHORES, Ala. — Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water off Florida beaches, like forest animals fleeing a fire. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again. Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena. Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Burn Boxes Bake Unwary Sea Lfe

So-called burn boxes are torching oil from the water's surface at the sacrifice of turtles, crabs, sea slugs and other sea life. Wildlife researchers operating here, in the regions closest to the spill, are witnesses to a disquieting choice: Protecting shorebirds, delicate marshes and prime tourist beaches along the coast by stopping the oil before it moves ashore has meant the largely unseen sacrifice of some wildlife out at sea, poisoned with chemical dispersants and sometimes boiled by the burning of spilled oil on the water's surface. When the weather is calm and the sea is placid, ships trailing fireproof booms corral the black oil, the coated seaweed and whatever may be caught in it, and torch it into hundred-foot flames, sending plumes of smoke skyward in ebony mushrooms. This patch of unmarked ocean gets designated over the radio as "the burn box."
LA Times June 17 2010

Charlie Checks the Oil

LA Times June 16, 2010

5000 BBl per day may now be 60,000!

As many as 60,000 barrels of oil per day may be flowing from the blown-out wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the newest government estimates. Basing their calculations partly on pressure readings from the wellhead and acoustic soundings, a team of federal and independent scientists said Tuesday the current daily well flow ranges from 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day.
LA Times Blogs June 15, 2010

No shit: Obama declares BP "reckless"

Fifty-seven days into the crisis, oil continues to gush from the broken wellhead, millions of gallons a day, and Obama has been powerless to stem the leak. The sad episode has raised doubts about his leadership and his administration's response to what Obama has called the nation's worst environmental disaster.
NOLA.com June 16, 2010

Prez sez: just the fax, pleeze

"I know this creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs, but for the sake of their safety, and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deep water drilling to continue," Obama said. "And while I urge the commission to complete its work as quickly as possible, I expect them to do that work thoroughly and impartially." But the president, who called the spill "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced," said his administration has responded with the "largest environmental clean-up effort in our nation's history" - removing millions of gallons of oil "through burning, skimming and other collection methods.

Cleanup is in Chaos

From the beginning, the effort has been bedeviled by a lack of preparation, organization, urgency and clear lines of authority among federal, state and local officials, as well as BP. As a result, officials and experts say, the damage to the coastline and wildlife has been worse than it might have been if the response had been faster and orchestrated more effectively.
New York Times June 15, 2010

Supply shortages slow spill cleanup

MOBILE, Ala. — As countless tar balls washed ashore on a beach along Alabama's Gulf Coast, cleanup workers sat and watched because they didn't have the proper plastic covers to protect their shoes. Elsewhere, a crew using shovels and garden rakes worked for hours on a long stretch of sand that a machine could have cleaned in minutes. Almost two months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, shortages of government-required protective gear and cleaning equipment are slowing work to remove the sticky mess and keep beaches and marshes along the Gulf Coast safe and oil-free.
Associated Press June 14, 2010

BP's Big Spill

Hold your nose and buy BP

By Adam Sharp
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

British Petroleum (NYSE:BP) shares are off nearly 20% since their Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 21st. That's around $30b in market cap wiped out in 2 weeks.

From a cold-blooded investing perspective, this looks like a buying opportunity to me. I've seen clean-up cost estimates from $170m to $3.5b. It could go even higher as the class-actions roll in.

Straight talk about the spill's effects

Coast Guard to BP: Speed it up, stop the spill

By RAY HENRY

The Associated Press

ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — The Coast Guard has demanded that BP step up its efforts to contain the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico by the end of the weekend, telling the British oil giant that its slow pace in stopping the spill is becoming increasingly alarming as the disaster fouled the coastline in ugly new ways Saturday. The dispute escalated on the same day that ominous new signs of the tragedy emerged on the beaches of Alabama. Waves of unsightly brown surf hit the shores in Orange Beach, leaving stinking, dark piles of oil that dried in the hot sun and extended up to 12 feet from the water's edge for as far as the eye could see.

Worldwide BP Protest Day vilifies BP for spill

Boycotts and protests against BP gas stations could hurt the wrong people. But public anger over the Gulf oil spill can no longer be contained, worsening the oil giant’s prospects for survival. Fifty-four days into the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the court of public opinion continues to turn against BP and its role in the worst ecological mess in US history: The April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent spill is emptying up to 40,000 barrels a day into the ecologically sensitive Gulf of Mexico.

The Christian Science Monitor
June 12, 2010

Time To Buy BP?

By Christopher Helman
Forbes.com
Daniel Pickering, head of research at Houston energy investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., has taken a thorough look at BP's financial reports, and in his daily research note this morning, he put forth a thoroughly convincing argument for why BP is far from a bankruptcy risk, and why it is very important for President Obama to appreciate that BP is a far more valuable cash cow alive than dead.

Mississippi governor says press coverage is more damaging than slick

"The truth is we have had virtually no oil," Mr Barbour said on Fox News Sunday. "We've had a few tar balls but we have a few every year" because of natural seepage in the Gulf of Mexico. "The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage," he added, saying that reports and footage gave the misleading impression that the entire coast from "Texas to Florida" was "knee deep in oil".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/f

Spill may have leaked 42M-100M gallons into Gulf

New poll shows support for use of renewable energy

By Charles Q. Choi

June 10, 2010

As the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to wreak havoc, renewable energy may never have looked better. A new poll out of Stanford University, surveying 1,000 Americans between June 1 and June 7, found that while about three-fourths oppose new taxes on gas or electricity to force conservation, 84 percent favor the federal government offering tax breaks to encourage more wind, solar and water power.

Live Science

Cleaning Animals Largely Futile, Scientist Says

AP | JOHN FLESHER and NOAKI SCHWARTZ | June 10, 2010 at 05:02 PM

FORT JACKSON, La. — Rescuers gently washing the goo from pelicans make for some of the few hopeful images from the disaster on the Gulf of Mexico, yet some scientists contend those efforts are good for little more than warming hearts.

Critics call bird-washing a wasteful exercise in feel-good futility that simply buys doomed creatures a bit more time. They say the money and man-hours would be better spent restoring wildlife habitat or saving endangered species.

Opinion: Leaders Play Games While Oil Pours Into the Gulf

As a country, we seem to have lost the plot, with grandstanding, strategizing and even lying taking center stage while real problems threaten many of the core elements of our day-to-day lives. We don't realistically address the issues, but use them as opportunities to score political points. The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is far from the only example, but it is the latest one.
From a jobs crisis to Afghanistan to Iran to oil taking over the Gulf of Mexico (and more), we have real problems in the United States that have to be addressed. But how can we solve anything when too many political leaders are more interested in seizing on these issues to score political points? As we fight these petty battles, the problems march on, unaddressed. Nero might have fiddled, but I doubt he denied the existence of the fire.
Huffington Post June 10, 2010

The Situation: June 7, 2010

New Estimates Double Rate of Oil Flow

The new calculation suggests that an amount of oil equivalent to the Exxon Valdez disaster could have been flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every 8 to 10 days.
New York Times June 10, 2010

If you're not depressed enough, listen to this... Plight For Pelicans: Oil Puts Nesting Season At Risk

It's the economy stupid: Global fallout from the big spill

Push for BP to Halt Dividends Hits Resistance in Britain

BP’s shares, which are widely held by pension funds here, dropped 7 percent in London on Thursday because of concerns about the costs for the oil cleanup. The shares have fallen more than 40 percent since the fatal explosion at the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in April, wiping more than £50 billion, or $73 billion, from the company’s market value.

New York Times 6/10/10

The real issue: How out of balance with the natural world are we?

There's nothing pat about what's going on in the Gulf. It's the most vivid sign we've yet had that we are running into the kind of limits that people started talking about way back at that first Earth Day. But its meaning risks disappearing beneath the endless stories about Top Hat and Junk Shot. BP's great victory will come if it need merely confess to technical overreach and pay a few billion in fines -- if that happens, it can get back to making serious money, and the planet can get back to burning.
Bill McKibben
Huffington Post

Media Blocked from Covering Spill News

Journalists struggling to document the impact of the oil rig explosion have repeatedly found themselves turned away from public areas affected by the spill, and not only by BP and its contractors, but by local law enforcement, the Coast Guard and government officials.

http://global.nytimes.com/

Our Dilemma--in Spades