Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, before a Senate panel this week.
As the oil spill reaches land, we would like your updates and photographs of what you’re seeing. Photos are optional but recommended.
The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the scope of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean. They are especially concerned about getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface.
The scientists point out that in the month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean. And the scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate analysis of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well.
“It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled,” Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “It seems baffling that we don’t know where the oil is in the water column.”' More>>>>
"May 16, 2010 — Associated Press — Scientists have found huge plumes of oil lurking under the surface of the water in the Gulf of Mexico, as BP hit a snag in its latest effort to slow down the oil blasting out of a broken undersea pipe." Video ink>>>>
{Oil covered water off the coast of Louisiana on May 9. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)}
Orlando Independent ExaminerGregory PatinThe discovery of huge underwater plumes of oil by University of Georgia researchers suggests that scientists may be correct and that BP and the U.S. government have grossly underestimated the amount of oil gushing into the waters of the Gulf.
The New York Times reported yesterday that "scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick. The discovery is fresh evidence that the leak from the broken undersea well could be substantially worse than estimates that the government and BP have given."
According to the Times' report, the undersea plumes may go a long way toward explaining the discrepancy between the flow estimates, suggesting that much of the oil emerging from the well could be lingering far below the sea surface. ...
... All reports indicate that the situation in the Gulf is going from bad to worse, and that the severity of it has been either grossly underestimated, or hidden from the public by BP and the U.S. government. Unfortunately, the truth will inevitably hit the beaches and the economy of the Gulf states." More>>>>
Brief commnet: OK. Enough already. Since industry is not being forthright and assuming accountability, President Obama needs to stop making speeches about the situation and take executive actions to remedy this unmitigated disaster, immediately.
Published: May 13, 2010
"A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected an effort by environmental and Native American groups to stop exploratory oil drilling off the coast of Alaska that could begin this summer.
The decision, by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, rejected several claims by the groups, including that the United States Minerals Management Service did not adequately consider the possibility that the project could cause a large oil spill in the remote Arctic.
The project is led by Shell Oil, which paid $2.1 billion in 2008 for rights to drill in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, off Alaska’s north coast." More>>>>
He also ordered a broad examination of the environmental laws and analyses that govern oil and gas exploration, in response to reports that government regulators ignored warnings from federal ocean analysts about offshore drilling plans.
“It is pretty clear the system failed, and it failed badly,” Obama said. “For that, there is enough responsibility to go around.”
Obama delivered his stinging rebuke of industry and regulators in remarks at the White House Rose Garden, flanked by Cabinet secretaries involved in the massive response and cleanup effort. They were his sharpest remarks since the April 20 oil well disaster that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 people and triggered the spill gushing from crumpled pipe at a BP well about 40 miles south of Louisiana.
Obama castigated company executives for “a ridiculous spectacle” during two days of congressional hearings on the oil spill this week, as the business leaders — all targets of negligence lawsuits — traded blame over what went wrong.
“You had executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton falling all over each other trying to point the finger of blame at someone else,” Obama said.
“This is a responsibility that all of us share,” he said.
Obama also zeroed in on the Minerals Management Service, the beleaguered Interior Department agency tasked with regulating drilling safety as well as issuing federal drilling leases and collecting revenues from oil and gas production on federal lands and waters.
“For too long ... there has been a cozy relationship between the industry and the (regulators) that permit them to drill,” Obama said." More>>>>
Business Insider
Joe Weisenthal | May. 12, 2010, 5:17 PM
"This is really, really ugly. It's video of the Deepwater Horizon gusher that's spilling tens of thousands of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. (Below or at link>>>>)
And don't miss: stunning pictures of the spill from outer space >"
"Oil and gas drilling just doesn’t occur in rural areas; it happens in cities, too.
As such, the City Council is considering passing a moratorium on such activity in the city limits. The county already did so a few months ago, so it could have time to draft a more detailed ordinance dealing with energy development.
Some New Mexico towns, including Carlsbad, Hobbs and Artesia, have oil and gas wells inside city limits. Seven years ago, a rig in Carlsbad had a blowout, causing the evacuation of part of that town.
Last week, the Las Vegas City Council held the first of two public hearings on whether to enact a moratorium.
Ten residents spoke for the proposed moratorium; no one spoke against it." More>>>>
"Dodge a trois
A three-way blame game at oil-spill hearing
Here's your 30-second wrap of the first congressional hearing on the BP Gulf oil disaster:
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hauled in executives from BP America, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig; Transocean, which owned the rig; and America's favorite, Halliburton, which laid cement for the rig.
Executives from the three companies -- shockingly -- blamed each other for the ongoing disaster. BP America's Lamar McKay focused on Transocean's failed blowout preventer. Transocean's Steven Newman talked about the failed Halliburton cement. Halliburton's Tim Probert said a drilling contractor misused a cement plug (it's unclear if he was blaming BP or Transocean, but it definitely wasn't Halliburton's fault!)." More>>>>
And from AP:
"WASHINGTON — The blame game is in full throttle as Congress begins hearings on the massive oil spill threatening sensitive marshes and marine life along the Gulf Coast.
Executives of the three companies involved in the drilling activities that unleashed the environmental crisis are trying to shift responsibility to each other in testimony to be given at separate hearings Tuesday before two Senate committees, even as the cause of the rig explosion and spill has yet to be determined.
Lawmakers are expected to ask oil industry giant BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 40 miles off the Louisiana coast, why its drilling plans discounted the risk that such a catastrophic pipeline rupture would ever happen, and why it assumed that if a leak did occur, the oil would not pose a major threat." More>>>>
"Attorney General Eric Holder on Sunday said he had dispatched Justice Department officials to the Gulf Coast to determine whether there had been any "misfeasance" or "malfeasance" related to the leaking oil rig off the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr. Holder, speaking on ABC's "This Week," said he sent the officials to the area to advise him on "what our options are." He said the government's primary focus was on preventing the leaking oil from devastating the coast when it reaches land.
A spokesman for BP PLC, which leased the rig that suffered an explosion last month that caused the leak, declined to comment, citing a company policy not to comment on causes of the leak while investigations are ongoing." More>>>>
Shelley Kofler, KERA News (2010-05-09)
The next year, when a badly maintained oil pipeline ruptured and spilled 200,000 gallons of crude oil over Alaska’s North Slope, the oil giant once again promised to clean up its act.
In 2007, when Tony Hayward took over as chief executive, BP settled a series of criminal charges, including some related to Texas City, and agreed to pay $370 million in fines. “Our operations failed to meet our own standards and the requirements of the law,” the company said then, pledging to improve its “risk management.”' More>>>>
"MIAMI — Three workers forced to escape on lifeboats after an explosion aboard an offshore drilling platform claimed in a lawsuit Tuesday that they were kept floating at sea for more than 10 hours while the rig burned uncontrollably.
"After these guys were pulled off the rig, they were kept in lifeboats for over 10 hours and saw the whole thing burn. They knew their friends were still on that rig burning," said Kurt Arnold, the Houston-based attorney who filed the lawsuit on the men's behalf. "They couldn't call anyone at home and say they were OK." More>>>>
Los Angeles Times
By Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau, and Julie Cart, Los Angeles Times
May 8, 2010 | 6:15 p.m.
"When the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, neither the oil companies nor their watchdogs in the Interior Department were ready." More>>>>
Here are some basic links that are easily found:
FAQ's about Bakken Formation (USGS)>>>>
Wikepedia:
Bakken Formation>>>>
Unconventional Oil>>>>
Shale Oil Extraction>>>>>
Now for the email alert example:
| "OIL,
eastern Montana ...... check THIS out:
the 'Bakken.' It stretches from Northern Montana, through |
Why not pass this on?"
~~~~~
Do you really want an answer?
Seattle Times staff reporter
Originally published April 19, 2005
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