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No, The Gulf Oil Spill Is NOT Old News
While the Japanese nuclear crisis might upstage the Gulf crisis, it hasn't gone away.
As the Wall Street Journal notes today:
Vladimir
Uiba, head of Russia’s Federal Medical-Biological Agency… compared
the contamination of seawater by the Fukushima complex with an oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico by BP PLC last year, and said, “The BP oil
spill has caused far more serious impact on the environment than the
Fukushima accident" ....
Whether or not the oil spill is worse than Fukushima or not, it was - and still is - a major disaster.
Gulf residents are still getting sick, the number of dolphins and whales killed by the spill appears to be many times higher than officials previously believed. Dead turtles are washing up in Mississippi. And see these photos from my favorite photographer, Julie Dermansky:
And just-released confidential BP and government emails confirm my previous posts showing:
- The government is keeping scientists away from "ground zero" of the oil spill and - for that reason - scientists cannot accurately measure the size of the oil spill
- When university scientists found underwater oil plumes, the government said shut up, don't tell anyone ... and then tried to discredit them
- BP and government representatives are still keeping scientists and reporters away from areas impacted by oil
- BP and the government famously declared that most of the oil had disappeared, when it hadn't
- The government did everything in its power to help cover up the severity of the spill
As the Guardian reports today:
BP
officials tried to take control of a $500m fund pledged by the oil
company for independent research into the consequences of the Gulf of
Mexico oil disaster, it has emerged.
Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show BP officials openly discussing how to influence the work of scientists supported by the fund, which was created by the oil company in May last year.
Russell Putt, a BP environmental expert, wrote in an email to colleagues on 24 June 2010: "Can
we 'direct' GRI [Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative] funding to a
specific study (as we now see the governor's offices trying to do)?
What influence do we have over the vessels/equipment driving the
studies vs the questions?".
The email was obtained by Greenpeace and shared with the Guardian.
The
documents are expected to reinforce fears voiced by scientists that
BP has too much leverage over studies into the impact of last year's
oil disaster.
Those concerns go far beyond academic interest
into the impact of the spill. BP faces billions in fines and
penalties, and possible criminal charges arising from the disaster.
Its total liability will depend in part on a final account produced by
scientists on how much oil entered the gulf from its blown-out well,
and the damage done to marine life and coastal areas in Louisiana,
Mississippi and Alabama. The oil company disputes the government
estimate that 4.1m barrels of oil entered the gulf.
***
Kert
Davies, Greenpeace US research director, said the oil company had
crossed a line. "It's outrageous to see these BP executives discussing
how they might manipulate the science programme," Davies said. "Their
motivation last summer is abundantly clear. They wanted control of
the science."
The $500m fund, which is to be awarded over the
next decade, is by far the biggest potential source of support to
scientists hoping to establish what happened to the oil.
A
number of scientists had earlier expressed concerns that BP would
attempt to point scientists to convenient areas of study – or try to
suppress research that did not suit its business.
***
Another
email, written by Karen Ragoonanan-Jalim, a BP environmental officer
based in Trinidad [says] "Discussions around GRI and whether or not
BP can influence this long-term research programme ($500m) to
undertake the studies we believe will be useful in terms of
understanding the fate and effects of the oil on the environment, eg can we steer the research in support of restoration ecology?"
And as the Guardian notes, it wasn't just BP which was doing the spinning:
Other
documents obtained by Greenpeace suggest that the politics of oil
spill science was not confined to BP. The White House clashed with
officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last summer when
drafting the administration's account of what has happened to the
spilled oil.
On 4 August, Jane Lubchenco, the NOAA
administrator, demanded that the White House issue a correction after
it claimed that the "vast majority" of BP oil was gone from the Gulf.
A
few days earlier, Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, and her deputy,
Bob Perciasepe, had also objected to the White House estimates of the
amount of oil dispersed in the gulf. "These calculations are
extremely rough estimates yet when they are put into the press, which
we want to happen, they will take on a life of their own," Perciasepe
wrote.
And because nothing has really changed, it is likely to happen again.
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PS: last year we were terrified of an "oilicane". Had a powerful storm gone over that spill, it would have rained oil inland for 500 miles. Or more. Thanks TransOcean/BP/Halliburton. I will remember the players in this.
Comment on original: I live on the Gulf Coast about 2 miles inland. During the height of the spill I could not go outside because the air smelt of benzine when the wind was from the south.
There are a great many people I know who have developed mysterious "asthma like" problems. There are also many people I know who have developed mysterious skin rashes.
Most of my fruit trees died last year. I have no way of measuring it, but the rain that fell sure smelled funky.
I am not a "tin foil hat" guy. I have first responder training, as we live in a high risk hurricane area.
We keep hearing about the dead baby dolphins, but not in any MSM.
I have not had any seafood in the last year, and won't eat any.
In Sept 2010 I got to fly to Houma on business in a private plane. Flew over the Gulf. I was astonished. The beaches were "cleaned" but just off-shore was black. Boats were out, but they were churning up Corexit foam. In NOLA, there was a chum line of Corexit foam on Lake Pontchatrain. NOT GOOD.
Thank you GW for keeping this in the light.
Gas is $4. While the spill is tragic, $4 gas is even more so. I'm all for alternate sources of energy that the greens keep bleating about but where is it? My car doesn't go on green yet.
It costs more to buy silver. And it costs more to buy gas. So what are you bitching about. Sell some of the silver if you want some gas. It can't be that tragic. Or walk if you can't bear to part with the silver.
I have given up sea food originating from most locations--Gulf, Japan, Thailand...etc.
It's getting harde rto find an uncontaminated area. Odd that pork, beef and chicken may be safer now then sea food.
Its all contaminated. Consider that all sea food contains high levels of mercury because of all of the coal fired plants. Two or Three Years ago EPA recommend consumption of one sea-food meal per month to avoid risks with Mercury. Don't eat any sea food. Also because of over fishing and pollution, sea-food production is going to collapse soon (probably in the next ten years).
Just be sure to cook land based meat very well to avoid staph infections and other diseases attributed to factory farming.
Hey Zero - watch that blood pressure buddy. My guess is 200/120 and heavy medications, plus a LOT of alcohol. Well-armed too I'll bet, just in case anything resembling a leftie comes wandering past your No Trespassing sign written in BIG RED LETTERS, no doubt looking for a handout. Thankfully, I can see natural selection hard at work in your case.
And when they say 'nothing to see' in Japan or the Gulf they of course mean 'and GTFO, like, NOW'...
http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2011/04/85930.html
Japan nuclear commission fails to send experts to FukushimaTOKYO, April 16, Kyodo
The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan has failed to send designated experts to Fukushima Prefecture to look into the crisis at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant even though a national disaster-preparedness plan requires it to do so, many of the experts said Saturday.
A commission spokesperson said problems following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami such as blackouts had discouraged it from sending any experts to Fukushima Prefecture, but many of the specialists and government officials questioned the claim.
The commission designates 40 nuclear accident experts including university professors and senior officials of relevant institutions as well as five others as members of its panel on emergency technical advice.
The disaster plan requires the commission to dispatch members of the panel to a location near an accident site.
The commission has dispatched members of its secretariat to the prefecture since the crisis began the nuclear complex but a government official said, ''It seems a problem that none of the designated experts has gone to Fukushima. The matter should be examined in the course of post-accident fact-finding.''
==Kyodo
BP should have been the FIRST to pay the outrageous cost of peak oil for their arogence
.
not the last... F U B P
I think they'll be dredging oil off the bottom of the gulf for years to come.
yes dipshit because oil is a natural product of the Earth and naturally seeps from the sea bed in the Gulf of Mexico, as it does from most sea beds around the planet. Oil is a natural product like water, oxygen, granite and limestone
suck it up Son, it's good stuff
Put some "natural" motor oil in your fish tank and tell me how that works for your fish. Don't worry, you can eat them later...
How high.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9TUTLjfDdY&feature=related
The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. Sun Tzui'll ask again ...does GW or any loonie leftie here know how that turtle got red paint on it?
is the red paint (painted) on the turtle Dulux Gloss for interior walls or is it Chanel lipstick, a shade my girlfriend has just said she liked while we laughed over such a fake photograph
the green shills pump out their junk propaganda, it's even more horrific than mans occasional accidents ...only this leftie hsyteria is no accident, it's part of the biggest fuking scam from the biggest human scum in society and in history ...socialists
so GW where is the photo from and who painted the poor little turtle in nasty red paint, we need the name of this environmental graffitti (piss) artist???
try chugging down a gallon of oil, and the hazmat team will give you a nice red paint job too!
shit happens ...sorry you're Mr So Fuking Perfect, never stepped on a fly in your miserable vedgy life... just murdered a few thousand lentils and chick peas, how do you live with yourself you plant killing machine???
I laughed over the fake anarchist until I turned blue. Almost busted a gut actually.
your spotty achnied face turned blue because like all lefties in history your brain is starved of oxygen which is why it don't work ...and you've busted a gut because overloading it on rabbit food gives you 'Wind Turbine Tummy' a well known flatulence effecting greenies who fart out their arses and mouths nothing but hot smelly air from cradle to grave ...Born stupid, died even dumber... the history of socialism in a nutshell
"your spotty achnied face turned blue"
I'm not Scottish! And if I was that's Ms. Achnied to you pal.
It's painted so it won't be counted twice. Now go away.
they splattered a poor little dead turtle in toxic chemical paint just so they didn't count it twice?? ...have these fuking enviromentalists no respect for dead animals! Was this paint washed off the turtle before burial or was it still splattered in environmental graffitti?? Did these toxic cunts clean the beach after? What are these goon greens thinking of pissing chemicals on beaches because they're too stupid to count? How many animals have been treated in such a disrespectful manner we need to be told?
We now have brutal evidence of greens debauching beaches and poor little turtles with toxic chemical agents. That beach and that lovely little turtle was clean before the enviro loons arrived... Greenpeace toxic terrorists
Avast me hearties a BP-Whore sighting. What's the 'A' in your avatar for dick-head? You're the anarchist that loves BP? leftie/rightie/ignoramous. What a joke, but thanks for outing yourself.
bought lots of BP petrol in my life because i love the natural renewable high energy stuff for getting around... now you look around fuk face, everything in your tree house is made of plastic, your miserable exsitence would fall apart without it, so now go slit your wrists in disgust with yourself for being a ecological oil whore
everything in your tree house is made of plastic... No, not exactly.
your miserable exsitence would fall apart without it ... Nope, sorry it would not.
disgust with yourself for being a ecological oil whore ... I'm sure you consume more than I do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IEveM72TyU&feature=s2l
Paddle your own canoe. See what they are willing to trade for a free market. Context is a bitch. Never forget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODmgAuoSiYY&feature=related
Fight for the truth. Post it. Defend it.
In any age such vigilance might announce the character of the new reign; but the strictest vigilance, and the most numerous forces, was insufficient to protect the long-extended coast.
"This is what a dumbed-down, morally bankrupt, completely broken society looks like, and this is how it behaves. No outrage over the bankers raping them, no outrage over their gutted industry, no outrage over their plundered dollar. Just blind, wanton stupidity. Just bread and circuses."
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/madness-lost-society
The War is between the Ears.
And the third part of the sea became blood. Again there is fire and blood indicating carnage and destruction. In the first judgment the third part of the earth suffers (Re 8:7); but now a third part of the sea.
I think this bears repeating here:
I like this plan:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2011/04/catching-wave.html
A motor with 60% efficiency. Funded by DARPA. Work at MSU.
Write your Cong. Critter and tell him to up the funding.
Wait for the first big major storm to take out all that expensive equipment in an instant. Its flawed because it doesn't consider the effects of severe weather. While severe weather may occur rarely in some areas, once in 10 years is enough to make the system useless since it would wipe out EROEI.
MSimon - I appreciate your attempt, but undestand that the oil economy is a political, not a technical issue. You have all the technological solutions all mapped out, but the technology still missing is how to get the fat-cats to let go of the juglar. The congress critter is impotent against this state of affairs.
I have a 4-door diesel truck. It hauls large loads, handles well in mountains, overtakes anything on the road here that I have the guts or inclination to try and it gets 13.4 miles / liter of diesel. Why doesn't every vehicle on the road in the Homeland do at least as well?
We could be doing solar.
We could be doing bio-diesel.
We could cut back on the useless proliferation of light polution [Ginza.]
We could use remaining fossil fuel advantages wisely [eg. to build/improve/run railroads.]
These are all politial issues.
so GW is on a retainer from the Democrat Party to keep this dead-issue alive with faked 'bleeding heart' photos and trigger troll bloggers with more bleating for State funding of bankrupt projects
do you know the record of State funding/subsidies/tax breaks and all State meddling in markets? If i said it was 'Absolute Crap' and a perversion of the free market would it make much difference leftie?
There can be not perversion of the free market because the free market does not exist.
The saddest part of the Gulf Oil disaster is that there still is no oil spill response system in place to contain and remove the oil from the water before it reaches land.
If there were another oil disaster tomorrow, they would start spraying dispersant again. Wait, what makes us believe that BP has ever quit spraying dispersant at the disaster site or that the leaks were ever contained! No one knows because of the open secrecy and cover-up.
Why is that? Is everyone distracted by the $500 million to study the effects of the oil disaster? (We really can’t call it “oil spill” because no one knows if the oil is not continuing to gush out. – It’s a Big Secret)
There is oil disaster response and recovery equipment in the North Sea to contain an oil spill and to reclaim the oil by separating the oil from the sea water BEFORE it reaches land. Why isn’t the Gulf of Mexico as well protected and equipped? Why? Because the Banksters and Big Oil are too cheap and they own Congress, branches of government and the President! The clueless Elmer Fudd Tea baggers whine “We wont Big Gobiment off our backs” not knowing that the government is controlled by the Banksters and Big Oil and it is they, by proxy, that is on their stupid backs.
The USA has become a Third World Banana Republic of brainwashed goons who accept their doomed destiny without a fight; Americans make such perfect dupes and victims. It’s easy, secrecy and lies and a controlled mass media agenda of spin and diversion from the truth.
America is a Banana Republic, it happened long before the oil spill... take a look at the US Govts banning of onshore and shallow water oil drilling to stop competition in the oil market the greatest protection racket for the fat cat US oil companies ...why do you think Americas oil imports have gone from 30% to 70% in 3 decades? ...because the US Banana Congress has banned US exploration and drilling. Why do you think oil is being spilled in higher risk deep water wells? ...because the US Banana State has banned shallow and onshore. Who is sending thousands of jobs abroad in the oil industry because of drilling bans and oil refinary planning rejections? ...yes your Banana Republic, the land of the free, the honking despot wankers of Washington
Yes the US could drill in a few more places and yes there is shale oil, but so what? The shale oil has a terrible EROI and destroys water and the environment. Drilling in the few remaining places like the N. California coast is making the "Last Redwood" argument. We were going to see the end of supply with or without cutting the last of the old growth redwoods. Why not get going dealng with the end of supply?
the solution to any oil spill is easy
www.oti.ag
the problem: the solution is too cheap and owned by a foreign company
Two good sites to keep up to date--
http://www.floridaoilspilllaw.com/
http://thedeadpelican.com/
Can someone explain how a turtle with red paint (is it Dulux gloss emulsion?) on it has anything to do with an oil spill?
just to let you tree hugging arsewipes know Earths natural oil seepage from the Mexico sea floor every year is about what BP let off in their accident (anyone made one of those in their fuking perfect eco-shit lives?)
every sea animal is used to dealing with this natural product of Earth seeping from the sea beds and short of some brief carnage has got over it ...the sea life is used to oil, life moves on (if only bleeting human whingers could do so!)
the worst thing about the BP oil spill was the flyers the hysterical greens put out and giving these wasters another chance to flog themselves in public and damn mans progress from a damp hole under a rock to jetting around the globe in luxury doubling our life spans in the process
Now junk me you green whinging brain dead MF's. I wouldn't feel right if i hadn't wound every one of you retarded twats up
You didn't mention which department of BP your with,
just an oversight I'm sure........
asshat!
take another hit on your dopium bong wanker
yes, we really know an ocean full of oil distalates is great for the planet; the sea animals are loving it
go huff some benzine you freak
i do huff benzine and i fuking love it... i love what it does for me, gets me A to B, be that to the shops, across Europe for a blast in the car or across the planet... what's NOT to like about oil arsewipe?
and hey here's the hed-fuk for you twatface, oil is an ALL NATURAL PRODUCT of the Earth. It's as natural as oxygen you breath and CO2 that gorgeous airborne plant fertilizer that every organism on the planet also loves (and only the loony hysterically ignorant left hates)
and oil seeps from the Earth on land and also from the sea beds. Every sea animal is used to oils natural seepage which every year is greater than any accident man has on occasion made. You see nature is used to dealing with this natural product of the Earth leeking into the sea, happens every day from pretty much every sea bed on the planet
so suck on that you loonie leftie ...you arsewipes need something to suck on afterall, coz you're always running on empty you ignorant wasters
bi-winning tonight?
such wisdom; your bong must be imported from fukyoushima
Arsenic is an ALL NATURAL PRODUCT/poison
Uranium is an ALL NATURAL PRODUCT/poison
If you distribute large quantities of poison, ALL NATURAL PRODUCT or not, all over the eco-system there will be negative consequences to humans and the environment.
Maybe ZG knows more than he's saying about where some of that GRI money is going??
you may have missed my point, socialists do have the memory spans of Goldfish, that oil is a natural product and naturally seeps from the Earths crust, both on land and from the sea bed. In fact more oil seeps from the Earths crust in a year than man has spilled in 100 years of using this beautiful natural renewable energy source
there are up to 4,000 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and most have been working for decades. Far as I know there's only been a few spills, the BP being worst. Do the maths of say 3 accidents over 4,000 rigs over say 30 years... the accident rate is microscopically miniscule
now you try to make coffee 40 times day and just for fun, try floating on the surface with your coffee cup 1,000 meters below the water. See how YOUR accident rate is
But you're Mr So Fuking Perfect right, you've never had an accident 1 mile underwater?
Oil is renewable????? What geology school did you attend, ZG? Mother Russia's school of lies and disinformation? Because that's exactly where the renewable oil meme came from - Russia. Oil takes tens of millions of years to form. When you consume a resource at a rate faster than it forms, the resource is no longer renewable. Or are you innumerate too?
Second, any natural product, in sufficiently high volumes, can be toxic. How about you let me lock you in a chamber filled 100% with O2, ok? Let's say about 24 hours exposure at 17 pounds per square inch, just above sea level pressures. But then I suppose you have no idea what oxygen toxicity is, do you, idiot?
You don't have a clue about basic chemistry nor about basic math. Yet you come on here and spout endless BS. Pathetic.
Methinks there is a flaw in your thinking process.
Just because a resource is being consumed at a rate faster than it is being produced does NOT mean that the resource is not renewable. It only means that the existing quantity is decreasing. The carbon cycle is inherently a renewable one that depends on solar energy and photosynthesis. You may google "photosynthesis" to get confirmation if you please. I realize there are groups that would appear to want to subvert the carbon cycle or at least tax it into submission. They are destined for failure.
The Titan probe proved beyond a reasonable doubt that at least some "organics", e.g. methane, have an inorganic origin (read abiotic). It has long been believed that petroleum is a result of geologic processes that transform methane into longer chain hydrocarbons.
I'll take that correction on renewable. I should have said sustainable, because it's not sustainable in the least.
However, there is strong chemical evidence that oil is organic in origin. Look, I work in Houston, for an oil company. I've never seen any evidence of abiotic origins for oil. Natural gas is a different debate but natural gas is also a far, far simpler hydrocarbon. I've actually seen lively debates in the company cafeteria about natural gas and abiotic versus biotic origins. But oil? Every single geologist here would laugh you out of the building.
My advice to you and every abiotic proponent is, if you are correct, use abiotic theory to go find the oil that companies like the one where I work must be missing. Make yourself rich! Yet none of the abiotic proponents ever wants to risk his own capital on the theory. No skin in the game. That's pretty telling to me about how realistic they think their theory actually is. Surely there must be a sufficient number of abiotic supporters to fund an IPO for a company dedicated to finding oil via abiotic means, right? Proving the theory would seem to be a simple matter! Yet it never gets proven. I wonder why?
I made no claim that an abiotic process is either quick or inexpensive or the only process that creates hydrocarbons. Your claim that there would be an IPO to produce abiotic oil if it were physically possible is straw man nonsense. There are industrial processes that use methane to create longer chain hydrocarbons. Surely you must have heard of this. The proof that abiotic hydrocarbons exist is on Titan on a vast oceanic scale. Renewable carbon cycle organic processes produce methane too, in their decay. It is generally believed that that is part of the process whereby oil, gas and coal are created here.
The evidence appears to suggest that the control of the major sources of energy, i.e. oil, gal, coal and nuclear, is the method whereby the Power Elites maintain control of the proletariat.
No, you are dodging. If oil on planet earth, in the ground, results from abiotic processes, then abiotic theory ought to be able to make predictions about where such oil can be found. Remember, a scientific theory is only a real theory if it can pass a falsifiable test. So get an IPO together to form an oil company to go drill for abiotic oil. I am not saying use abiotic processes to produce oil chemically. I am saying use abiotic theory to find and drill for oil that otherwise would not be located by conventional biotic theory.
Surely after 5 billion years there must be some out there, right? And if it's abiotic, then all the geologic evidence that points to particular deposits, which current oil companies do follow must logically mean that other oil deposits must be going by overlooked, since they fail to meet the tests of the biotic theory.
Therefore abiotic theory ought to be able to accurately predict where abiotic oil would occur but biotic oil would not occur. Since modern oil companies only look in locations that have biotic signatures, the abiotic locations should yield a windfall, and at roughly $110 per barrel, you'd be pretty damned rich fast.
So go drill, baby, drill! You'll be rich, if you're right. Now do you have the guts to put your money where your mouth is?
Well said Greyzone. Kind of a useless idea if you can't do anything with it.
I don't do IPOs, period. It doesn't matter if it's a sure thing or not. You're using straw men again. I won't be one. I'm already rich enough, thank you.
Deep drilling that is currently done (deepwater GoM comes to mind) could very well be into abiotic resources. BP's experience in the GoM suggests that abiotic oil may exist there in substantial quantities.
It is not in Big Oil's interest to produce so much oil that the price drops much. If oil becomes too cheap it may be too difficult to control the proletariat.
It's interesting that so much effort is being put forward to move public opinion away from the possibility of abiotic hydrocarbons. It has become almost a religious belief. Why is this? Does Big Oil know that it exists? Raymond, when he was at Exxon, stated that there was much more oil available than was generally believed. Was that because Exxon came to the conclusion that there was a lot of very deep oil? Could that be abiotic? Titan has proven beyond any doubt that abiotic hydrocarbons exist in the solar system. To claim they don't exist on Earth without any evidence suggests religious belief in a dogma.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much.