BP Oil Spill : The worst environmental disaster in US history?

Or was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico over-hyped at BP's expense?

Probe Blames BP, Halliburton for US Oil Spill

AlJazeeraEnglish--January 05, 2011-- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40941697/...
A White House commission investigating the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has said the companies involved were more interested in saving money than saving lives. It says the April explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was the result of failures by BP, Halliburton, Transocean and government offices dealing with the well. The commission also said similar accidents could happen again if the industry does not change the way it operates. Al Jazeera's John Terrett reports from Washington.

U.S. Sues BP Over Spill

The U.S. attorney general says it is suing BP and others over the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP Oil Spill Incident Commander Killed in Plane Crash

Jim Black, a BP incident commander for the company's Gulf of Mexico oil spill response team, died in a small plane crash near Destin, Fla., on Tuesday night, the company confirmed.

"Jim was a devoted member of our Gulf Coast spill response team and served many years with Amoco and BP. He will be missed by all who knew him and worked with him. Jim and his family are in our thoughts and prayers."

The Coast Guard said the small plane crashed Tuesday about 7:30 p.m. in Choctawhatchee Bay.

Black, whose job at the oil giant was director of operations for the Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, spent a lot of his time during the past several months in and around New Orleans. His work as incident commander for the oil spill response took him to the Joint Incident Command Center in Robert, to another operations center in Houma and often to New Orleans.

He lived in Katy, Texas, and was heading to Destin for the holidays with his sister, Charlene Miller, and the plane's pilot, Gregory Coleman of Cedar Park, Texas. Miller was Coleman's mother-in-law.

White House : Cost cutting didnt cause oil BP oil spill

White House : Cost cutting didn't cause oil BP oil spill
A White House panel chief investigating the oil spill in April says the BP did not compromise safety not to save money.
Al Jazeera's John Terrett reports.

BP Knew Gulf Rig Cement Mix Flawed

RussiaToday--October 29, 2010--An investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has revealed that BP and its contractor were aware of flaws in the cement mix used to build the rig. A US presidential commission says that could have caused the blowout. The report also claims four separate lab tests were carried out - but only one showed that the cement was suitable for deepwater drilling. The April rig explosion killed 11 workers and caused the worst environmental disaster in US history.

Six Months Later Oil Victims Feel Abandoned

AssociatedPress--October 20, 2010--They listed to the promises in the wake of the BP oil spill that the Gulf would be fully restored. Six months after the disaster, many complain the oil company, and the rest of the country, has moved on.

BP Spill Destroys a Way of Life

BP Spill Destroys a Way of Life
Jordan Flaherty: Local fishing villages face an uncertain future on Louisiana Coast

BP Workers Exposed to Health Risks

New reports show that the health of the clean-up workers in the Gulf might be at risk after all.

The REAL REASON Behind the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico - 2010

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).

Also, BP did not want to lose an oil well (by activating the BOP); this would have cost them future profit in addition to the costs for exploration and preparation of the well. This is most evident when you look at attempts in the first month and a half: all of the post-blowout efforts have been focused on SAVING the well; it was only after more than a month before BP attempted "TOPKILL", which would have sealed the well.

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.

Oil Picked Up Off Louisiana Beaches Dumped In Landfills

July 09, 2010 CNN

Turtle Being Pulled From Oil Spill

AU 60 Minutes BP Oil Spill Video, 13 June 2010, Removed by BP Demand

Australia 60 Minutes BP Oil Spill Video, 13 June 2010, Removed by BP Demand

BP Oil Spill - Slick Operators

Slick Operators aired on a show called Scottish Eye on Channel 4 in the UK on January 20, 1990. As far as I can tell there is not another copy on the internet anywhere, not really any info about it either. This was a VHS copy that was given to a friend at a conference in Alaska in 1990, so the quality is what it is.

It investigates BP's role in the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and shows the companies history of cutting corners on safety to make more money. Things that were said to be impossible in the cover up of the Exxon Valdez spill were routine at an oil terminal in Scotland.

Oil spill could destroy communities, generations

What can go wrong will go wrong. Such is the case for the Gulf Coast and the unending saga of the BP oil spill that's now in its eleventh week. What's wrong now is this: winds from Hurricane Alex are pushing tar balls as large as apples onto Gulf Coast beaches. This has stopped cleanup efforts momentarily and even undone some of the spill control. As one marine scientist put it: "We lost all the progress we made." But the winds picking up are a giant concern for something else.

BP Trying To Sink Oil With Dispersants?

Is BP Trying To Sink Oil With Dispersants?

CNN--Strong allegations from an executive who will testify before a Senate panel that BP is sinking oil by using dispersant.
BP dispersants sinking oil executive testifies Anderson Cooper skimmers spill gulf of mexico Senate panel

BP Oil Spill - 16 Burning Questions

BP Spill - 16 Burning Questions

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com

The following are 16 questions about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that we really need some answers to....

#1) Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of more than 17,000 National Guard members along the Gulf coast to be used "as
needed" by state governors. So what are all of these National Guard troops going to be doing exactly? Are the troops going to be used to
stop the oil or to control the public?

#2) Barack Obama has also announced the creation of a "Gulf recovery czar" who will be in charge of overseeing the restoration of the Gulf
of Mexico region following the oil spill. So is appointing a "czar" Obama's idea of taking charge of a situation?

#3) Because it is so incredibly toxic, the UK's Marine Management Organization has completely banned Corexit 9500, so if there was a major
oil spill in the UK's North Sea, BP would not be able to use it. So why is BP being allowed to use Corexit 9500 in the Gulf of Mexico?

#4) It is being reported that 2.61 parts per million of Corexit 9500 (mixed with oil at a ratio of 1:1o) is lethal to 50% of fish exposed to it
within 96 hours. That means that 1 gallon of Corexit 9500/oil mixture is capable of rendering 383,141 gallons of water highly toxic to fish. So
why was BP allowed to dump 1,021,000 gallons of Corexit 9500 and Corexit 9527 into the Gulf of Mexico, and why aren't they being stopped
from dumping another 805,000 gallons of these dispersants that they have on order into the Gulf?

#5) If these dispersants are so incredibly toxic to fish, what are they going to do to crops? What are they going to do to people?

#6) If the smell of the oil on some Gulf beaches is already so strong that it burns your nostrils, then what in the world is this oil doing to to
wildlife that encounter it?

#7) Is it a bad sign that birds from the Gulf region are flocking north by the thousands?

#8) Why is BP being allowed to use private security contractors to keep the American people away from the oil cleanup sites?

#9) Why is BP openly attempting to manipulate the search results on sites like Google and Yahoo?

#10) Why has the FAA shut down the airspace above the Gulf of Mexico oil spill? What don't they want the American people to see?

#11) Senator Bill Nelson of Florida says that there are reports that there are additional ruptures in the sea floor from which oil is leaking. If
there are quite a few of these additional ruptures, then how in the world does BP expect to completely stop this oil leak?

#12) Why are scientists finding concentrations of methane at up to 10,000 times normal background levels in Gulf waters?

#13) At some testing stations in the Gulf of Mexico, levels of benzene have been detected at over 3000 parts per billion, and levels
of hydrogen sulfide have been detected as high as 1192 parts per billion. Considering that these levels would be highly toxic to humans,
why hasn't the general public been warned?

#14) Why are so many Gulf oil spill disaster workers showing up at local hospitals complaining of a "mysterious illness"?

#15) If "70% or 80%" of the protective booms are doing absolutely nothing at all to stop the oil, then what is going to stop the millions of
gallons of oil in the Gulf from eventually reaching shore?

#16) It is being reported that the deepsea oil plumes are creating huge "dead zones" where all creatures are dying as they are deprived of
oxygen. If this oil spill continues to grow could the vast majority of the Gulf of Mexico become one gigantic "dead zone"?



Comment:

BP dumps 1,021,000 + 805,000 = 1,826,000 gallons of Corexit into the ocean

One gallon of Corexit poisons 383,141 gallons of water.

Therefore 1,826,000 gallons of Corexit poison 1,826,000 * 383,141 = 699'615'466'000 gallons of water

1 gallon U.S. equivalent to 3.79 liters.

699'615'466'000 gallons of water = 2'651'542'616'140 liters of water

therefore: BP poisons 2'651'542'616'140 liters of water

in that amount of water 50% of the fish exposed to it will die within 96 hours

Storm Brewing Near Gulf Oil Spill

AssociatedPress | June 25, 2010 Coast Guard officials are making preparations for what could turn into a hurricane. A tropical cyclone is forming south of the Gulf of Mexico and is headed toward the oil spill area. (June 25)

Black Beach: BP oil turns white sands ugly

A cap is back in place on BP's broken oil well after a deep-sea blunder forced crews to temporarily remove what has been the most effective method so far of containing some of the massive Mexican Gulf oil spill. Engineers used remote-controlled submarines to reposition the cap after it was off for much of the day. It had captured 700,000 gallons (2.7 million liters) of oil in 24 hours before one of the robots bumped into it.
Meanwhile white Florida beaches are now turning black. Video by Michael McLean.

Newt Gingrich On Obamas Handling Of Gulf Oil Crisis - 06/21/10

From FOX's Bill O'Reilly: Newt Gingrich On Obama's Handling Of Gulf Oil Crisis - 06/21/10