Today marks nine months since the BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded, killing 11 workers and sending millions of gallons of crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.
Though the gushing well was capped last July, oil continues to wash ashore along the Gulf Coast. BP's oil is also washing up in people's bodies, raising concerns about long-term health effects.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster was the result of mistakes that call into question the entire oil industry's safety culture and demand better regulation.
So concludes the final report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill released yesterday. The nonpartisan commission found that the initial explosion on the rig -- which killed 11 workers and resulted in the uncontrolled release of millions of gallons of toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico -- could have been prevented.
Independent testing has turned up oil contamination in Gulf seafood, raising concerns that federal officials prematurely pronounced it OK to eat.
The Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper (LMRK) has released results from seafood sampling trips conducted along a broad area of the Louisiana coast since August. The results show significant levels of petroleum in a number of species -- though the contamination was not apparent by sight or smell.
For examples, levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons in flounder and speckled trout caught in St. Bernard Parish on Aug. 12 were 21,575 milligrams per kilogram, while oysters caught in Plaquemines Parish on Aug. 3 showed levels at 12,500 mg/kg. Petroleum levels found in fiddler crabs and periwinkles harvested from Terrebonne Parish on Aug. 19 were 6,916 mg/kg.
Yesterday the Interior Department announced an updated strategy for offshore oil and gas leasing that bans drilling in federal waters off the Atlantic Coast and the Eastern Gulf of Mexico for the next seven years.
"As a result of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill we learned a number of lessons, most importantly that we need to proceed with caution and focus on creating a more stringent regulatory regime," said Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "As that regime continues to be developed and implemented, we have revised our initial March leasing strategy to focus and expend our critical resources on areas with leases that are currently active."
Noting that oil reserves off the coast of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida amount to just three months of supply at current U.S. consumption rates, the Southern Environmental Law Center praised the decision.
A new document uncovered last week might help to clear up some confusion over comments made by the President's Oil Spill Commission earlier this month when its chief counsel, Fred Bartlit Jr., said, "To date we have not seen a single instance where a human being made a conscious decision to favor dollars over safety."
Cross-posted from a story by Sue Sturgis on Facing South.
The oil industry is pushing back against the Obama administration's recently-announced plans to conduct an environmental study of new drilling in the Gulf of Mexico in the wake of BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster.
On Nov. 4, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE, formerly known as the Minerals Management Service), announced that it would begin work on a supplemental environmental impact statement for the remaining Gulf oil and gas lease sales scheduled in the latest five-year plan for drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf. The study is one of the steps BOEMRE is taking to gather public input on the environmental impact of the BP spill.
Yesterday the government's oil spill panel released a letter alleging that Halliburton knew of potential flaws in its cement prior to the Deepwater Horizon blowout. That same spill commission, in a little-noticed report by the New Orleans Times-Picayune, had earlier this week criticized government inspectors for their lack of knowledge about how to safely cement an offshore well.
"When we asked about cementing and centralizers, they said very freely, 'We don't know about that stuff; we have to trust the companies,'" the commission's co-chairman, William Reilly, told the Times-Picayune. "All they get is on-the-job training. It really is fairly startling, considering how sophisticated the industry has become."
We've noted such problems within the Minerals Management Service -- the regulatory agency responsible for inspecting offshore drilling rigs -- including its shortage of inspectors, reliance on industry to self-police, and history of ethical violations, some of which occurred as recently as 2008.
Cross posted from an article by Sasha Chavkin of ProPublica on Facing South.
Five weeks after taking over the oil spill damage claims from BP, and after widespread criticism of delays in processing applications, claims czar Kenneth Feinberg said his operation had eliminated the backlog of older claims that had been sitting in the system unpaid.
Cross-posted from an article by Chris Kromm on Facing South
As we approach the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, today the Institute for Southern Studies is releasing a new report which looks at what has changed -- and what hasn't changed -- since the deadly storm took over 1,800 lives and devastated the Gulf Coast.
We're now into day way too many of the BP oil spill, and the President has just yesterday been down on the Louisiana coast-again.
There have been suggestions that the Administration should take action to essentially push BP out of the way and take over the work itself, particularly as it relates to the cleanup.
It may have even occurred to you that an official declaration of some sort might be needed, in order to bring the full power of the Feds into play.
That's some good thinking, but before we go jumping right into declaring things we better understand the law, because if we don't, we could actually make things worse.
In honor of the late Ashley Morris, I am using his FYYFF rant to nail Beyond Petroleum British Petroleum and their sweetheart David Vitter. Yeah, dat's right, Louisiana, BP does not stand for Beyond Petroleum, it stands for BRITISH Petroleum. And yet some of our nation's illustrious conservatives seem to think it's "un-American" to criticize BP for its efforts in responding to the disaster in the Gulf that they wrought because they didn't want to follow proper safety procedures prior to drilling some 18,000 feet under the sea, all in the name of saving a few bucks.
Don't believe me? Then watch this video, and you'll be outraged at British Petroleum:
So ... British Petroleum, FYYFF.
But far worse than calling folks un-American for criticizing British Petroleum is carrying their water up in on Capitol Hill. And guess who is doing dat?
Yeah, dat's right, the Sinning Senator himself.
The bill he asked the Senate to give unanimous consent to - the BP Bailout Bill - caps the economic liability of British Petroleum to $150 million OR it's last 4 quarters of profits, whichever is higher. To be fair, BP's last four quarter's of profits were $20 billion. But the bill doesn't designate any company as the "responsible" party, it simply relates back to the Oil Pollution Action of 1990, which makes the companies holding the lease responsible for any environmental disaster.
Why is this relevant? Because BP doesn't own the entirety of the lease, it only owns 65% of it. Another company, Anadarko, owns 25% of the lease. In the last 4 quarters, Anadarko has lost $135 million, so they would face no more than $150 million in liability, despite the fact that they hold an estimated $50 billion in assets. And take a wild guess at how much money Anadarko has given the Sinning Senator since his campaign for the Senate in 2004?
At least $14,000. That's just the PAC that Anadarko has. It doesn't include their employees' individual giving, but my money is on a lot more cash being given to the Sinning Senator from Anadarko, as he is the #2 recipient of oil & gas campaign cash in the United States Senate for the last five years, to the tune of $389,000.
Thankfully, y'all have the opportunity to kick the Sinning Senator to the curb by voting him out of office this fall. Don't squander the opportunity to do so, Louisiana.
At an afternoon panel upstairs at the Big Tent (yes, this "tent" has multiple stories), Lamar noticed a young woman wearing a FYYFF t-shirt. I introduced myself, and much to my pleasure, it was Athenae of First-Draft. First-Draft has uniquely continued to follow the issues surrounding Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the ongoing struggle to rebuild the Gulf Coast.
Athenae mentioned that she has a post up about a morning panel on post-Katrina recovery. The post focuses on Scott Myers-Lipton, who discussed a proposal to create a Gulf Coast Civic Works Project overseen by a Gulf Coast Authority, modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Apparently this legislation needs a good deal more sponsors in the House. Perhaps in the next Congress.
(While I do not recall fondly the high gas prices I paid working for the Lamont for Senate campaign in '06 in CT, I am unsure if drilling is the only answer. I realize it may be part of the answer, but we also need to do more than just drill ... such mandating higher gas mileage (40 mpg minimum by 2010) from Detroit automakers, investing in alternative energy sources (such as solar, wind, and biofuels), among others. I do not believe that nuclear power is the answer, as we will have to deal with radioactive waste, and where to store it. That's a headache I'd rather not argue over. - promoted by ryan)
Has America become so homogenized that we are thinking more alike regardless of what part of the country we come from? We all get the same evening news, the same TV shows, and the same radio talking heads telling us what, in their opinion, our opinion should be. Are Louisiana's interests and priorities along the same track as those expressed by locals along the east coast? I decided to take a look ...
I make it a habit of taking a road trip somewhere around the country every few months, to get a sense of outside perspectives on Louisiana, and what we do or do not have in common with other parts of the country. In New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts this week, I found the same issues on the front burner that concern many Louisianians, but often different opinions.
Katrina and Rita were catastrophes that have faded from memory, and are stories for the history books for most of these easterners. They had "moved on" from any major concern a long time ago. This might well be as much a reflection on Louisiana leaders who failed to develop a major public relations effort to keep the hurricane protection problem on the front burner.
