Slippery Slope of Oil
Mr. Cheney goes to Riyadh -- mysteriously
In a move that is sure to set conspiracy theorists aflutter, former Vice President Dick Cheney popped up yesterday in Saudi Arabia, where he met with King Abdullah. Accompanying him was former State Department diplomat and its top translator, Gamal Helal, who recently left the government to form a consulting firm, Helal Associates.
While the Arabic press has caught on to this story, I haven't seen it reported in the U.S. media as of yet. But still, it raises a few eyebrows: Cheney, a private citizen who has reportedly been working on his memoirs, doesn't have any obvious reasons to sit down with the Saudi monarch. The details behind the meeting could go a long way toward unraveling what the former vice president plans to do with his retirement. Here's hoping that the inevitable theorizing about his plans doesn't generate more heat than light.
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Nearly half of Gulf coast oil was exported in 2008
Even after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, many politicians continue to insist that the United States must expand offshore oil drilling despite the huge health, economic, and environmental damages in the event of a blowout. They assert that this oil is essential for U.S. economic health and national security. But where does that oil actually go? CAP's Daniel Weissand Jacob Abraham have uncovered some surprising statistics in this repost.
Two weeks after the BP disaster began, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) reiterated that the United States needs "more environmentally responsible development of America's energy resources." These are code words for more offshore oil drilling.
More offshore drilling in the Gulf Coast region, however, may not do much to increase our energy security. A CAP analysis (.xls) of Energy Information Administration data found that a large portion of the oil produced in the Gulf Coast region is actually exported to other nations, and this undoubtedly includes some of the offshore oil produced there (see chart at right).
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Fox and Friends pushes 'conspiracy theory' that massive oil spill was 'deliberate' 'sabotage'
As the scale of the disaster caused by the explosion at an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana became more apparent last week, right-wing radio talker Rush Limbaugh unleashed a conspiracy theory suggesting that someone intentionally blew up the rig in order to "head off more oil drilling":
LIMBAUGH: I want to get back to the timing of the blowing up, the explosion out there in the Gulf of Mexico of this oil rig....Now, lest we forget, ladies and gentlemen, the carbon tax bill, cap and trade that was scheduled to be announced on Earth Day. I remember that. And then it was postponed for a couple of days later after Earth Day, and then of course immigration has now moved in front of it. But this bill, the cap-and-trade bill, was strongly criticized by hardcore environmentalist wackos because it supposedly allowed more offshore drilling and nuclear plants, nuclear plant investment. So, since they're sending SWAT teams down there, folks, since they're sending SWAT teams to inspect the other rigs, what better way to head off more oil drilling, nuclear plants, than by blowing up a rig? I'm just noting the timing here.
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Citing Katrina Myth, Obama Claimed 'Oil Rigs Today Don't Generally Cause Spills'
The Obama administration has leapt into action to respond to the growing crisis of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, which killed 11 workers and left a West-Virginia-sized oil spill in the Gulf Coast. But in the weeks before the calamity, President Barack Obama promoted his initiative to expand offshore drilling as "not risky" and repeated the conservative myth that Hurricane Katrina did not cause any oil rig spills. At a town hall meeting in South Carolina on April 2, the president was challenged that his "decision to allow offshore drilling could have the effect of chilling investment into alternate sources of energy." While recognizing that "energy efficiency and renewable, clean energy" is his "biggest priority," Obama also defended offshore drilling:
Watch it:
This is incorrect.
I don't agree with the notion that we shouldn't do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don't cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn't come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.
Eighteen days later, the Deepwater Horizon rig operated by BP America 41 miles of the Louisiana coast exploded. The giant spill has not yet reached the beaches of the Gulf Coast, and there is a chance the damage can be limited by setting some of the oil ablaze.
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Big Oil is awash in big profits - while Gulf of Mexico is awash in spilled oil - Oil company profits underscore need for reform
BP just announced first quarter profits of $5.6 billion, a 135% increase over the first quarter of 2010. This profit was 50% higher than predicted by the Financial Times.
BP owns the oil rig that sunk in the Gulf of Mexico last week, with 11 employees still unaccounted for and presumed dead. It is also leaking 42,000 gallons of oil per day. This growing oil slick is expected to hit Louisiana's fragile coast on Saturday.
The big five oil companies-BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and Shell-are poised to report their first quarter profits this week. And it should surprise no one that rising oil and gasoline prices will lead to higher profits compared to 2009. A research note from Citigroup determined that, "The year-on-year increase largely reflects the strength of crude oil prices." The Telegraph made the same assessment, saying, "energy companies are benefiting from higher oil prices."
Gasoline prices increased by nearly 3 percent during the first quarter, while gasoline consumption was up 4 percent. American consumers spent $65 million more on gasoline during the last week of the quarter compared to the first week. This is a 6 percent increase in total spending between the first and last week. Rising prices and demand bring little surprise to the expected announcements that oil company profits are on the rise.
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Gulf Oil Spill Puts Spotlight on Regulator With Mixed Record
With news from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico oil rig getting worse [1]-a top Coast Guard official warned [2] it could end up being "one of the most significant oil spills in U.S. history"-questions are beginning to be asked about how it happened, and how it could have been prevented.
As The Wall Street Journal reported this morning, the oil rig lacked a device-known as an acoustic control-that would've served as a safeguard of last resort [3]. While the effectiveness of the $500,000 device is debated, the Journal points out that it is used by other oil-producing nations, including Brazil and Norway. Regulators in the U.S. were also considering requiring it a few years ago, but after industry objections decided that the devices were expensive and needed more study.
So which regulator oversees rigs and made that decision? It was the Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service, an agency that has had a spotty record over the past few years.
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Peat Moss Could Be New Tool for Oil-Spill Clean-Ups
ScienceDaily (Apr. 29, 2010) - Kallak Torvstrøfabrikk in Trøgstad in eastern Norway has developed a peat moss mixture with unusually good absorbent qualities. The material could be a useful tool for clearing up oil-spills after minor incidents or major catastrophes.
The three-man company has traditionally sold treated peat moss as a component of soil for flowering plants and as growth medium. But realising that the peat moss is a remarkably good absorbent, they began to find other potential uses for it.
SINTEF "Expertise broker" Leif Estensen connects researchers with companies that lack research and development experience. Three years ago, he brought Kallak and SINTEF together. An expertise broking project was set up with scientists from SINTEF's Marine Environmental Technology department, with the aim of testing different types of peat moss and documenting their properties.
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Versatile New System for Oil Spill Contingency
ScienceDaily (Apr. 28, 2010) - New oil recovery locations are spawning a need for new technology. To prepare the petroleum industry for oil spills, one small company in Northern Norway has made innovative strides in oil boom technology.
Funded partly by the PETROMAKS programmet at the Research Council of Norway the objective of NorLense AS has been to develop a versatile new system for oil spill contingency that can perform in coastal areas and farther out to sea -- as well as in rough weather and difficult currents.
Boom, separator and skimmer
NorLense's system consists of multiple components: a boom designed to function in concert with a separator and a skimmer for coping with oil partially submerged by breaking waves.
The concept's most important innovations are a separator integrated into the boom and the method by which discharged oil is collected and pumped, together with water, into tanks on board a collection vessel, which may well be an ordinary fishing vessel.
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Oil spills by the numbers - The devastating consequences of Exxon Valdez and BP gulf
The BP Gulf Coast rig explosion is a horrible human, economic, and environmental disaster. The death of 11 employees is tragic. The spill could devastate the Gulf Coast commercial and sport fishing industries for years to come. Louisiana's seafood industry alone is worth $2 billion annually.
This is the biggest U.S. economic and environmental disaster since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. The key lesson from the Exxon Valdez is that the oil spill continues to have an impact today-more than two decades after the event.
The length and breadth of BP's gulf oil spill are still unknown, but reviewing the harm and costs from the Exxon Valdez spill can give us a sense of the likely scale of the disaster. Whether the gulf spill surpasses this devastation will depend on whether and when BP can stop the flow of oil from deep on the ocean floor.
CAP's Daniel Weiss and Susan Lyon compare the stats of the BP gulf spill with the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 in this repost. I'll start with an informative video from ABC news:
An overview of the Exxon Valdez oil spill
According to the EPA report: "On March 24, 1989, shortly after midnight, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez struck Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spill was the largest in U.S…Many factors complicated the cleanup efforts following the spill. The size of the spill and its remote location, accessible only by helicopter and boat, made government and industry efforts difficult and tested existing plans for dealing with such an event."
The spill contaminated approximately 1,300 miles of shoreline. Two hundred miles were heavily or moderately oiled (meaning the harm was obvious), and another 1,100 miles were lightly or very lightly oiled (meaning light sheen or occasional tarballs).
The BP gulf spill is likely to be even worse. There are more than 9,000 miles of shoreline in the BP gulf spill region.
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Why Didn't They Just Burn The BP Oil Spill?
If we weren't already there before, BP's underwater gusher in the Gulf has our collective eco-anxiety approaching 11. Not only is the scale difficult to comprehend (3,850 square miles as of 4/30/2010) but, unlike the Exxon Valdez spill, this spill keeps on going at a rate of 1,000-5,000 barrels per day.
Burning such large quantities of oil would be a dirty proposition, blackening skies and severely impacting air quality in the Southern US, but wouldn't it be better than letting it coat hundreds of miles of beaches, endangered seabirds, oyster beds, and protective barrier wetlands?
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Burning oil sends heavy vapor toward Gulf residents
The EPA is warning that Gulf Coast residents are at risk of headaches, nausea, and other ill health effects; the culprit is air pollution from the oil burns that response teams are conducting to try to keep the big slick away from coastlines.
"The BP Oil Spill in the Gulf could cause an odor similar to that of a gas station for communities along the affected coast," warns the site the EPA set up on the disaster:
Is the odor bad for my health?
This odor may cause symptoms such as headaches or nausea. For your own comfort, limit your exposure to the odor by staying indoors. To the extent possible, close windows and doors, turn your air conditioner on and set to a recirculation mode. If you are experiencing severe incidents of nausea or other medical issues, please seek care as soon as possible.
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Chemicals Meant To Break Up BP Oil Spill Present New Environmental Concerns
The chemicals BP is now relying on to break up the steady flow of leaking oil from deep below the Gulf of Mexico could create a new set of environmental problems.
Even if the materials, called dispersants, are effective, BP has already bought up more than a third of the world's supply. If the leak from 5,000 feet beneath the surface continues for weeks, or months, that stockpile could run out.
On Thursday BP began using the chemical compounds to dissolve the crude oil, both on the surface and deep below, deploying an estimated 100,000 gallons. Dispersing the oil is considered one of the best ways to protect birds and keep the slick from making landfall. But the dispersants contain harmful toxins of their own and can concentrate leftover oil toxins in the water, where they can kill fish and migrate great distances.
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Safety Device Questioned in '04
Federal regulators learned in a 2004 study that a vital piece of oil-drilling safety equipment may not function in deep-water seas but did nothing to bolster industry requirements.
The equipment, called shear rams, is supposed to seal off out-of-control oil and gas wells by pinching the pipe closed and cutting it.
As oil companies drilled wells in deeper water, the shear rams had to become stronger and manufacturers responded. But the federally commissioned study questioned whether enough was known about the force required to shear off a pipe at these depths to set proper standards.
Experts theorize the rams may have failed to work as expected in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, contributing to accident that left 11 dead and an open pipe spewing crude into the Gulf of Mexico.
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No Principled Advocates of Small Government in An Oil Spill
Dana Milbank takes a look at what happens when a giant man-made disaster threatens a region of the country largely governed by advocates of small government who take a skeptical view of federal power:
About an hour later came word from the Pentagon that Alabama, Florida and Mississippi - all three governed by men who once considered themselves limited-government conservatives - want the federal government to mobilize (at taxpayer expense, of course) more National Guard troops to aid in the cleanup.
That followed an earlier request by the small-government governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal (R), who issued a statement saying he had called the Obama administration "to outline the state's needs" and to ask "for additional resources." Said Jindal: "These resources are critical."
About the time that Alabama, Florida and Mississippi were asking for more federal help, three small-government Republican senators, Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions of Alabama and George LeMieux of Florida, were flying over the gulf on a U.S. government aircraft with small-government Republican Rep. Jeff Miller (Fla.).
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BP Oil Slick The Result Of Republican DOJ And Regulatory Policy
The economic and environmental damage resulting from the exploding fireball compromise of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform may be unprecedented, with the potential to emit the equivalent of up to four Exxon Valdez breakups per week with no good plan to stop it. There will be plenty of finger pointing among BP, Transocean and Halliburton, while it appears the bought and paid for corporatist Congress put the screws to the individual citizens and small businesses by drastically limiting their potential for economic recovery; all in the course of insuring big oil producers like BP have effectively no damage liability for such losses.
How did this happen? There are, of course, a lot of pertinent factors but, by far, the one constant theme underlying all is the mendacious corporate servitude of the Republican party, their leaders and policies. The arrogance and recklessness of BP and its oily partners gestated wildly under the Bush/Cheney administration.
Until the turn of the decade, BP had a relatively decent safety and environmental record compared to others similarly situated. Then BP merged with American oil giant Amoco and started plying the soft regulated underbelly of Republican rule in the US under oil men George Bush and Dick Cheney. Here from the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is an excellent list of BP misconduct, almost all occurring and/or whitewashed under the Bush/Cheney Administration. If you open the door, foxes eat the chickens.
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Flashback to 2008 MMS sex-for-oil scandal
You're going to be hearing about the Minerals Management Service in the coming days, since their "mission is to manage the mineral resources of the Outer Continental Shelf in an environmentally sound and safe manner."
After eight years of Bush-Cheney, they became absurdly cozy with the industry, signed off on Big Oil's desire for voluntary, "trust me," self-regulation - and caved in to industry demands not to mandate the backup shut off switch for offshore rigs that Brazil and Norway require.
In fact, "cozy," turned out to be an extreme understatement for how close the MMS and Big Oil were as I discussed two years ago in a post on their sex-for-oil scandal subtitled, "Please no jokes about Drill, Baby, Drill or Bush Energy Policy!" and excerpted below.
Just when you think the two oil-men in the White House can't top themselves for corruption metaphors:
Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.
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Shocking allegations against BP
At least one worker who was on the oil rig at the time of the explosion on April 20, and who handled company records for BP, said the rig had been drilling deeper than 22,000 feet, even though the company's federal permit allowed it to go only 18,000 to 20,000 feet deep, the lawyers said.
That's from a front-page story in the NY Times Tuesday with the mild headline, "On Defensive, BP Readies Dome to Contain Spill."
The paper of record chose to publish this serious allegation of permit violation, but oddly didn't lead with them. And while reporting "BP strongly denied the claim that it was drilling deeper than was allowed," the paper then drops this bombshell:
Another worker familiar with the rig told the lawyers that the company had chosen not to install a deep-water valve that would have been placed about 200 feet under the sea floor. Much like blowout preventers, devices that are meant to seal leaks, this valve could have served as a cutoff of last resort in explosions, the lawyers said.
"The company took their chances in not having the valve so they could save money," said Mike Papantonio, one of the lawyers representing the shrimpers and fishermen.
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Oil may reach Loop Current within 24 hours - then on to the Florida Keys
Scientists say the Gulf oil spill could get into the what's called the Loop Current within a day, eventually carrying oil south along the Florida coast and into the Florida Keys.
Too much bad news to keep up with. This from the AP 3 hours ago:
Nick Shay, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said Monday once the oil enters the Loop Current, it likely will end up in the Keys and continue east into the Gulf Stream.
Shay says the oil could affect Florida's beaches, coral reefs, fisheries and ecosystem within a week.
He described the Loop Current as similar to a "conveyor belt," sweeping around the Gulf, through the Keys and right up the East Coast.
Shay says he cannot think of any scenario where the oil doesn't eventually reach the Florida Keys.
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Congressmen Raised Concerns About BP Safety Before Gulf Oil Spill
In the months before BP's Deepwater Horizon rig sank in a ball of fire in the Gulf of Mexico, the company had four close calls on pipelines and facilities it operates in Alaska, according to a letter from two congressmen obtained by ProPublica [2].
In that letter, dated Jan. 14, 2010, Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bart Stupak, D-Mich., noted that the company's efforts to cut costs could imperil safety at BP facilities.
Between September 2008 and November 2009, three BP gas and oil pipelines on Alaska's North Slope ruptured or clogged, leading to a risk of explosions, the letter said. A potentially cataclysmic explosion was also avoided at a BP gas compressor plant, where a key piece of equipment designed to prevent the buildup of gas failed to operate, and the backup equipment intended to warn workers was not properly installed.
The letter was addressed to BP's president of Alaskan operations, John Mingé. The congressmen have been investigating BP's safety and operations since 2006, when a 4,800-barrel oil spill temporarily shut down the Prudhoe Bay drilling field pipeline.
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Offshore Drilling Regulator Understated Risks of Oil Spills in Plans to Expand Drilling
Last week, we reported that in addition to the spotted history of the Minerals Management Service [1], the regulator responsible for overseeing offshore drilling, parts of the agency had withheld data on offshore drilling [2] from those on staff who were responsible for assessing environmental risk.
At the time, Mandy Smithberger of the Project on Government Oversight told us that "the priority for the agency was on production rather than on regulation." To that point, the evidence continues to mount.
Last year, according to information we learned through POGO [3] and which was also reported in The Huffington Post, [4]MMS submitted a five-year plan for expanding offshore drilling off the coast of Alaska. That plan drew fire from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the federal agency responsible for monitoring and gathering science on oceans. Last fall, NOAA told MMS that the plan understated both the frequency and the environmental and economic impacts of oil spills. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental watchdog group for whistleblowers [5], noted NOAA's concerns at the time.
From a memo containing NOAA's comments to MMS:
The DPP's [MMS's Draft Proposed Program] analysis of the risk and impacts of accidental spills and chronic impacts are understated and generally not supported or referenced, using vague terms and phrases such as "no substantive degradation is expected" and "some marine mammals could be harmed." This is particularly problematic for expanding oil and gas production.
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Oil Companies Pay a Pittance in Penalties to Offshore Drilling Regulator
Last week, as part of our coverage of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, we noted the troubled past of the Minerals Management Service, the agency that regulates offshore oil and gas drilling.
On its website, MMS says that it issues civil penalties for serious safety violations [1]. And there have been violations. A study conducted by the Minerals Management Service found that from 2001 to 2007, offshore drilling accidents resulted in 41 deaths and 302 injuries [2], according to The Huffington Post.
In an analysis of civil penalties levied by the regulator, we at ProPublica found that over the past 12 years the average penalty has been $45,000. Currently, MMS can fine oil and gas companies a maximum of $35,000 per violation per day [3] (PDF). The biggest fine an oil company has paid to the agency since 1998 was $810,000, paid in 2001 by Chevron. Overall, the Minerals Management Service has collected $20 million in penalties in those 12 years.
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Nonprofit Conservation Group Has Ties to Oil Interests, Gulf Oil Spill
With crude oil pouring into the Gulf of Mexico every day, the conventional wisdom about last month's explosion and spill has been that this is an environmental disaster of unpredictable scale. The New York Times, in a story published today on Page One [2], challenged this conventional wisdom by citing several experts. One of those was from a nonprofit group called the Gulf of Mexico Foundation:
"The sky is not falling," said Quenton R. Dokken [3], a marine biologist and the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, a conservation group in Corpus Christi, Tex. "We've certainly stepped in a hole and we're going to have to work ourselves out of it, but it isn't the end of the Gulf of Mexico."
But as it turns out, industry appears to be the most represented of those interests.
At least half of the 19 members of the group's board of directors [5] have direct ties to the offshore drilling industry. One of them is currently an executive at Transocean, the company that owns the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded last month, causing millions of gallons of oil to spill into the Gulf of Mexico.
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Trying to shirk responsibility for oil disaster, BP CEO predicts 'lots of illegitimate' lawsuits because 'this is America.'
BP is financially responsible for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so it is desperately trying the limit the financial and legal fall out. The company tried to buy off coastal residents and local fishermen hired to help clean up the mess with payments and jobs in exchange for signing a waiver promising not to sue.
Tony "What the hell did we do to deserve this?" Hayward, CEO of British Petroleum, the Goldman Sachs of Big Oil, is at it again, as TP reports in this repost.
Alabama's attorney general and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano both decried the waivers and asked BP to stop circulating them, prompting the company to admit it had made a "misstep." The company has vowed to pay all "legitimate" legal claims from residents or businesses who suffer from the disaster, but BP CEO Tony Hayward insultingly told the Times of London yesterday that because "this is America," many of the claims will be "illegitimate":
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