Oil spill in the Gulf

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[nomedia=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofuuzyNMVzQ]YouTube- Defenders Challenges Minerals Management Service's complicity in Gulf oil disaster[/nomedia]

www.youtube.com

Defenders of Wildlife Staff Attorney Sierra Weaver discusses the lawsuit brought by Defenders and the Southern Environmental Law Center. The suit alleges continued lax oversight of oil drilling operations, ...

[nomedia=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaNgHE3HgVw]YouTube- Menendez: Oil Companies Big & Small Should Face a Liability Cap[/nomedia]

www.youtube.com

Despite hearing Sen. Inhofe object to passing the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act, Sen. Menendez wouldn't give up fighting for passage of this important bill. "If you're involved in a dangerous ...

May 17: Rachel Maddow shares reports that BP's pressure on Transocean to skip steps in the drilling process to expedite oil extraction from the well led to the explosion that killed 11 workers and created an ecological catastrophe.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/37201434#37201434]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]

[Ladywriter 7,783]

May 18: Admiral Thad Allen, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, talks with Rachel Maddow about the timing, logistics and challenges of containing the spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico as signs of it appear in Louisiana marshlands.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/37223103#37223103]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]

August... are you fucking kidding me....*dies*

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Scientists accuse Obama of failures in investigating oil spill

NYT: Prominent oceonographers claim the government has failed to conduct a proper scientific analysis of damage and allowed BP to obscure the leak's true scope. Full story

New video shows deadly blast behind oil spill

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37242125#37242125]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Defenders Chief Scientist: Loop Current will magnify damage from Gulf spill

www.defendersblog.org

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Gulf Disaster: One Month Since BP Explosion -- Massive Suit Filed to Stop Illegal Drilling Exemptions

Today marks the one-month anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico BP oil-spill catastrophe -- and the oil is still gushing, with no end in sight as each fix, untested in deep water, continues to fail. Attempting to break up the oil, BP has released about 655,000 gallons of toxic chemical dispersants, some banned in the UK, into the Gulf. In response to the big unknown about how these will affect marine life, our scientists just posted a new Web page.

Experts now estimate that the spill has already disgorged about 30 million gallons of oil into the Gulf -- nearly three times the amount spilled during the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident in Alaska, though BP continues to refuse to help scientists determine exactly how much oil is really spilling each day. It's predicted that oil caught up in the Gulf's powerful Loop Current will reach Key West by the weekend and could reach Miami next week.

Twelve dead bottlenose dolphins, 24 dead oiled birds, and 156 dead Kemp's ridley sea turtles -- more than three times the usual number of sea turtles found dead during spring nesting season -- have washed up on the coastline. Twelve oiled birds have been rescued and are still alive.

Yet as the Gulf disaster grows, the Interior Department has blithely continued to approve more Gulf drilling without environmental review. The Center filed a landmark suit this week against Interior Secretary Ken Salazar over the use of illegal "categorical exclusions" that exempted Big Oil from conducting necessary review of environmental impacts to endangered species and their habitats -- first exposed in The Washington Post covering the Center's Gulf research.

"Ken Salazar has learned absolutely nothing from this national catastrophe," said Kieran Suckling, Center executive director. "This lawsuit seeks to turn Salazar's fictitious 'moratorium' on oil-drilling approvals into a real one. It is outrageous and unacceptable that Salazar is still illegally exempting dangerous offshore drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico from all environmental review as tens of millions of gallons of oil gush into the ocean."

Read more in The Washington Post and click here for our press release on the new suit. Also, check out the Center's new dispersants Web page and get details and daily updates on our Gulf Disaster Web site:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/center/articles/2010/washington-post-05-05-2010.html

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/offshore-oil-05-18-2010.html

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/oil_and_gas/gulf_oil_spill/dispersants.html

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/public_lands/energy/dirty_energy_development/oil_and_gas/gulf_oil_spill/index.html

[Ladywriter 7,783]

so... we brought the boomstick down on BP over their chemical dispersant and they have to use something less toxic...

This is ridiculous, beyond a nightmare. That shit has been blowing out like that every second of every day for a month already. Shit looks like diarrhea when it comes ashore. its going to fuck the gulf like ya wouldn't believe cuz we're gonna get the extra special time released effect as the shit the pressure is keeping down and all the dispersant shit creep and spread and kill the shit in its way for a long time. Valdez was a surface spill compared to this mile fuckin down retarded bullshit. Its been 20 mutherfuckin years and you can still find oil under beach rocks in Prince William Sound.

this didn't have to happen. BP screwed the pooch, they were negligent and there should be NO CAP on wtf they can be sued for. people are dead and multiple states are going to be fucked by this spill. Nice of them to put Halliburton back in the headlines though.

this didn't have to motherfucking happen. we can drill everything we fucking have and still not be off foreign oil. Our production doesn't amount to shit. its certainly not worth this fucking bullshit. We shouldn't be drilling anything we should be finding a REAL solution to our fucking energy problems. Barak OBush aint listenin to the drill baby drill fucks now is he? More drilling ain't the change I voted for.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37311955#37311955]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Oil dispersants an environmental ‘crapshoot’

Chemicals used on Gulf spill carry unknown risks, scientists say

The timing could not be worse for the bluefin tuna. The majestic, deepwater giant — threatened by overfishing — had just lost a bid for protection as an endangered species when oil started gushing into its spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico. Now, a part of the emergency response to the oil — the large-scale use of dispersants — could further imperil the species bysinking the oil beneath the Gulf’s surface and into the zone where its eggs and larvae are floating, marine biologists say.

The chemical dispersants — a standard tool in the oil cleanup business — are being used by the Deepwater Horizon response team to break up the oil offshore in hopes of preventing thick crude from wrecking delicate marshlands, mangroves and pristine beaches.

But the chemicals, which are being used in unprecedented volumes and in previously untested ways, may come with a big tradeoff, scientists say. That’s because no one can accurately predict how large the impact will be on the mammals, fish and turtles that inhabit the open ocean. “It’s a whole new ball game,” said Ted Van Vleet, a professor of chemical oceanography in the college of Marine Science at the University of South Florida. “People are totally unsure as to how it is going to affect the ecosystems."

Dispersants themselves are toxic. But a bigger concern in the scientific community is what happens in dispersing the oil, which is far more hazardous to living creatures.

Typically, dispersant is sprayed on the surface of the water, where the oil naturally comes to rest, and works a bit like a dishwashing detergent on grease. It breaks down the slick into millions of tiny oil droplets that then become suspended below the surface, normally in the top 30 to 50 feet of the ocean. There, over the course of weeks and months, oil-eating bacteria, sunlight and wave action help break the oil downinto its chemical components, which are then diluted throughout the water.

Unprecedented, untested

In the Deepwater Horizon accident, the response team has used more than 670,000 gallons of chemical dispersants as of Friday — far surpassing any previous use in the United States. Most of it has been sprayed from airplanes, but the Deepwater Horizon response team also has applied at least 55,000 gallons in a completely untested way — injecting it at the well’s leaking riser, some 5,000 feet below the surface.

While the dispersant may result in fewer oily egrets in the marsh, the bluefin is one of the creatures that may suffer greatly instead. The oil spill area overlaps with only known spawning area for one of two remaining bluefin populations. This bluefin population spends about 10 months of the year in the cold waters of the north Atlantic and then swims thousands of miles to reach an area near the Deepwater Horizon well to disseminate sperm and eggs in the warm Gulf waters between April and June. The larvae float about 10 to 15 feet below the surface in early stages of growth. No one is certain whether the oil will destroy the eggs or kill the larvae, but scientists fear that could happen.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

BP exec: 'Top kill' plan could be delayed

Government piles pressure on BP; rig victims to be honored at memorial

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/37324576#37324576]msnbc.com Video Player[/ame]

Lets ask NASA to think of something since we can't get Harry....

I mean, you're NASA for crying out loud, you put a man on the moon, you're geniuses! You're the guys that 're thinking shit up! I'm sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up!

Seriously, why hasn't NASA jumped in all hardcore? They brought dudes back from space in a busted ass ship using just what they had on board... Get those brains working on this spill.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

BP continues to stonewall the American people about the growing Deep

Horizon disaster in the Gulf, even while the company reaps millions of

dollars in profits each day from its other federal leases.

The White House, the Department of Interior, and Congress are all crying

foul, but they are not taking action to hold BP accountable. If the Obama

administration is serious about making BP pay, there is a very simple and

powerful tool at its disposal: the EPA can take away BP's billions in

federal contracts.

Ask EPA Administration Lisa Jackson to impose "discretionary debarment"

and strip BP of all federal contracts. Click here to automatically sign

our petition.

http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5586&id=9308-1999172-pmSTkLx&t=24

The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to bar BP from

receiving U.S. government contracts. Suspension of BP contracts would mean

the loss of billions of dollars and effectively stop the company from

drilling in federally controlled oil fields both on and offshore.

This is the strongest possible action that could be taken against BP.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Did the 'top kill' work?

May 27: Rachel Maddow is joined by Congressman Charlie Melancon to discuss the damage done to the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coat by the BP oil disaster.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/37390084#37390084]Rachel Maddow Show[/ame]

Jezus Fuckin Christ

[Ladywriter 7,783]

U.S. official: Flow of oil from spill has stopped

But BP says it will be 48 hours before success of 'top kill' will be known

NBC, msnbc.com and news services

updated 1 hour, 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The flow of oil from the broken well in the Gulf of Mexico has stopped, the U.S. incident commander Admiral Thad Allen claimed Friday, but BP warned it would be a further 48 hours before it was known whether the "top kill" procedure had been successful.

The next 12 to 18 hours would be "very critical" in the effort to stop the gusher which has caused the worst oil spill in U.S. history, Allen said on ABC's Good Morning America show.

BP's CEO Tony Hayward told NBC's TODAY show that the top kill attempt, which involves shooting heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater, was "proceeding pretty well according to plan."

But the exec maintained that the procedure, which has never been attempted before so deep underwater, still had only a 60-70 percent chance of success, although some of the risks had been reduced.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

After failed fix, a somber summer of oil, anger

BOOTHVILLE, La. - There is still a hole in the Earth, crude oil is still spewing from it and there is still, excruciatingly, no end in sight. After trying and trying again, one of the world's largest corporations, backed and pushed by the world's most powerful government, can't stop the runaway gusher.As desperation grows and ecological misery spreads, the operative word on the ground now is, incredibly, August — the earliest moment that a real resolution could be at hand. And even then, there's no guarantee of success. For the United States and the people of its beleaguered Gulf Coast, a dispiriting summer of oil and anger lies dead ahead.

Oh ... and the Atlantic hurricane season begins Tuesday.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

A hurricane sucking all that up and spewing it onto the Gulf Coast region is going to be a mess...

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127036434&ft=1&f=1007

If a hurricane encounters the oil slick now covering parts of the Gulf of Mexico, the result could be devastating, scientists say. Not only could any hurricane increase the damage that oil does to coastal wetlands, but the presence of oil could lead to a more powerful hurricane, they say.

Nobody knows for sure, though, because there's no record of a hurricane ever crossing paths with a large oil spill.

Trouble Brewing

The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1, and forecasters expect it to be busier than usual. Meanwhile, oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico from the site where the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20 and sank two days later in 5,000 feet of water.

Since then, oil has been accumulating at the surface. And that could be raising the temperature of the surrounding water, says Kerry Emanuel, a hurricane expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"You have this black surface, and it's doing two things," Emanuel says. "First of all it's absorbing sunlight. And secondly, it is curtailing evaporation from the Gulf."

Evaporation normally helps cool the Gulf waters, Emanuel says.

"So theoretically, the Gulf underneath this oil slick should be getting hotter than it normally would be." And hotter water helps create more powerful hurricanes.

It's hard to know if the water is actually getting hotter, though, because oil prevents satellites from taking accurate temperature readings.

Impact On The Environment

Environmental scientists are already predicting that oil from the spill will damage the vegetation in coastal marshes. And the damage could be worse if a hurricane pushed oil deep into a wetland, or into currents that would carry it down Florida's west coast.

"That's a big concern," Emanuel says. "Hurricanes would be pretty effective at dispersing [the oil] and pushing it around."

Other scientists say the amount of damage may depend on timing.

A hurricane might even be beneficial if it arrives before oil has a chance to damage coastal marshes, says Irving Mendelssohn, who studies coastal plant ecology at Louisiana State University.

"It's very possible that the hurricane will tend to both dissipate and break up the oil faster," he says. That could dilute the toxic substances and result in minimal damage to plants, he says.

But Mendelssohn says there could be more damage if the hurricane arrived after oil had reached the coast.

"Then the hurricane results in greater erosion of the wetland," he says, "because the wetland has already lost its vegetation and is already in a degraded state."

Marsh plants are hardy, and usually recover from a single encounter with oil, especially the less toxic type involved in this spill, Mendelssohn says. His great fear is that some combination of hurricanes, ocean currents and the ongoing spill will cover the same marsh plants with oil repeatedly.

"That type of re-oiling will completely kill the plant," he says, destroying the wetland, and leaving the coast without a key defense against hurricanes.

The oil could power up the hurricanes and cause even more massive damage. x_x

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

[Sledgstone 8,672]

omg that is horrible.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

this dicking around makin shit worse until August is mutherfucking bullshit

and this fucking disaster is another reason why I did not want a jr senator as the dem nomination. This is that 3am call Hillary warned us about. She woulda had the fed up BP's ass with a microscope and NASA plugging the well.

Seriously WHERE are PBO's brains??????

[Ladywriter 7,783]

dude.....

IfItWasMyHome.com - Visualizing the BP Oil Disaster

[Ladywriter 7,783]

U.S. Opens Criminal Inquiry Into Gulf Oil Spill

"We will closely examine the actions of those involved in the spill,” Mr. Holder said after a meeting with state attorneys general in New Orleans. “If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be extremely forceful in our response."

Mr. Holder would not say which parties specifically are under investigation.

Earlier Tuesday, President Obama vowed to pursue criminal inquiries into the cause of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as the crisis he called “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history” threatened to engulf his second year in office.

“We have an obligation to determine what went wrong,” Mr. Obama said, appearing in the Rose Garden after meeting with the two men he has appointed to lead an inquiry into the cause of the spill, former Senator Bob Graham of Florida and William K. Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

“If laws were broken, leading to death and destruction,” Mr. Obama said, “my solemn pledge is, we will bring those responsible to justice.”

Mr. Obama’s heightened rhetoric reflected deepening frustration within the administration at the inability of BP to stop the spill, along with wide concern that the government and Mr. Obama are appearing increasingly impotent as oil laps at the Louisiana shoreline with no end in near sight.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Obama: Stop tax breaks for oil companies

updated 9 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama says it's time to roll back "billions of dollars in tax breaks" for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development.

well jezus tap dancin christ its only been time for a change since the gas crisis in the fucking 1970's!!!!!!!!!!!

BP's bid to stem spill stalls with stuck saw

Meantime, oil drifts to within 7 miles of Pensacol beaches

PORT FOURCHON, La. - As the crude crept closer to Florida, the risky effort to contain the nation's worst oil spill hit a snag Wednesday when a diamond-edged saw became stuck in a thick pipe on a blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said the goal was to free the saw and finish the cut later in the day. This is the latest attempt to contain — not plug — the gusher. The best chance at stopping the leak is a relief well, which is at least two months from completion.

"I don't think the issue is whether or not we can make the second cut. It's about how fine we can make it, how smooth we can make it," Allen said.

Everything that could go wrong HAS

Can we get NASA to work on this now please? They can do more then provide satellite images.

I don't care if I sound like a socialist, fassict, nazi, martian WHATEVER. A mega company has fucked the whole country in the ass. Our country. This isn't just going to effect fuel prices, this shit has bitch slapped our food supply. The seafood industry is fucked and how many of us wanna eat oranges and peaches contaminated by toxic rainfall? Thanks for the scurvy BP. We should own them after all of this bullshit. PBO needs to get bitchy and seize control of this mutherfucking national emergency. I dun wanna here 'Obama is doing everything he can' because he's not. There is drilling in deep water going on this very second. The gulf is in slow death throws and the shit just keeps on coming.

Its NASA's fuckin job to make machines that work in extreme pressure/temp. They brought dudes home from space in a busted ship using only what they had up there with them; one of the most amazing triumphs of ingenuity in recorded human history. We need minds like that working on this problem.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

More federal waters declared off-limits

June 2: Vikki Spruill, president and CEO of Ocean Conservancy, talks about the distress local fisherman are facing in the Gulf as a result of the oil spill.

[ame=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3096434/vp/37471930#37471930]msnbc tv- msnbc.com[/ame]

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

I was looking at pictures on National Geographic... the coverage was sponsored by Shell Gasoline. Irony at its finest.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

they're all sleeping with the same whore there's no difference in any of them

[slippers 3,168]

Rotfl

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Heres a link to all the live feeds.

http://climate.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/live-video-feeds-of-gulf-oil-disaster.html

[Ladywriter 7,783]

[nomedia=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNmF1YlqX20]YouTube- MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, furious during her Gulf Oil Disaster visit, throws down[/nomedia]