Regulators Failed to Address Risks in Oil Rig Fail-Safe Device
READ THIS: Dick Cheney's deregulation agenda is the real (underlying) reason / cause behind the US oil spill by British Petroleum (BP) in 2010 off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Deregulation coupled with lax government oversight (lackies appointed by Dick Cheney at the helm) lead to the omission of key safety features and protocols, a free pass for drilling licenses, emphasis on profit over safety, and absolutely NO PLAN for containment of blowouts. In addition, the courts in the Gulf States, are completely stacked with Republican appointees (like Feldman) with major investments in or connections with BIG OIL (see last paragraph).Must read: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/us/21blowout.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all
For example, George W Bush and Dick Cheney helped block a 2002/03 Bill that would have required the use of acoustic switches as a means to activate the blowout preventer (BOP).
Lastly, US District Judge Martin Feldman, who overturned the temporary drilling ban on June 22, owns investments in Ocean Energy (Houston-based), Quicksilver Resources, Prospect Energy, Peabody Energy, Halliburton, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Atlas Energy Resources, Parker Drilling and others. Feldman is also a REAGAN appointee, in 1983. Conflict of interest or institutional corporate control over public policy?
High waves and brewing storms are hampering efforts to contain a massive and growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico just as traces seep into the coastal wetlands of Louisiana.
State of emergency
The oil is gushing from a sub-sea well about 80 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana and 1,500 metres below the water's surface. The leak occurred after a drilling rig exploded on April 20 and then sank.
As of Thursday, an estimated 800,000 litres (5,000 barrels) of sweet crude oil were leaking daily. BP officials say it could take as long as 90 days to stop the leak, meaning as many as 71.5 million litres could ultimately get into the water.
The country's worst oil spill occurred in 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, a massive tanker, smashed into a reef off Alaska's coast and spilled 41.6 million litres in Prince William Sound. In that case, however, there was a finite amount of oil to spill.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency Thursday night, mobilizing the Louisiana National Guard.
The area is teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life, helping to make Louisiana's $1.8-billion annual seafood industry the largest in the lower 48 states. More than 1.8 million migratory waterfowl use the Louisiana coastal wetlands.
Officials 'frightened'
U.S. Coast Guard crews were patrolling the coastal marshes early Friday morning looking for areas where the oil has flowed in.
"I am frightened," said David Kennedy, acting assistant administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Ocean Service.
"This is a very, very big thing," Kennedy said. "And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."
Oil clumps seabirds' feathers, leaving them without insulation, and when they preen, they swallow it.
Prolonged contact with the skin can cause burns, said Nils Warnock, a spill recovery supervisor with the California Oiled Wildlife Care Network at the University of California.
Oil swallowed by animals can cause anemia, hemorrhaging and other problems, said Jay Holcomb, executive director of the International Bird Rescue Research Center in California.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was focusing on national wildlife refuges on a chain of barrier islands.
About 34,000 birds have been counted in the national refuges most at risk, said Tom McKenzie, the regional spokesman. Gulls, pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, shore birds, terns and blue herons are in the path of the spill.
Mink and river otter also live in the delta and might eat oiled carcasses.
