More Oil Slick Articles
Is The Press Undercovering The Oil Spill? A Historical Look (Surprising)
Reading through The New York Times every day, it can seem like the press has been covering the Gulf disaster obsessively. Indeed, some fishermen in Louisiana are now worried that the media is too focused on the oil spill—to the point where it could harm business even in unaffected areas. But how does all this coverage compare historically? I asked Drexel sociologist Robert Brulle for his thoughts, and he put together some fascinating data. These two charts shows the number of minutes and number of stories that the big three networks have devoted to the BP spill, compared with past disasters
Now, the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 obviously got an enormous amount of coverage, but it's striking that even incidents like the 1978 Amoco Cadiz accident off the coast of France got far more media attention than the current BP spill. (Brulle focused on nightly network coverage because, he points out, that's still the biggest driver of public opinion in the country—after all, only a very small subset of people read the Times.)
So what accounts for the difference? Imagery, for one. After the Exxon Valdez disaster, you had scores of images of ducks and otters slathered in crude. There were pictures of dead whales washed up against gleaming black rocky beaches. It was lurid—and impossible to ignore. By contrast, Brulle points out, not nearly as much oil from the BP accident has reached the shores of the Gulf Coast yet. Even groups like Greenpeace have only been able to rustle up a few pictures of a handful of ducks covered with oil. That's not the sort of thing that drives TV coverage. And it may mean that the current spill makes far less of a dent in public opinion than past disasters have.
Read More...
BP's Slick Greenwashing
For the last decade, BP has been busily engaged in a multi-million-dollar greenwashing campaign. Changing its name from British Petroleum to BP, the company adopted a new slogan, "Beyond Petroleum," and began a "rebranding" effort to depict itself as a public-spirited, environmentally sensitive, green energy enterprise, the very model of 21st century corporate responsibility.
It's going to take more than a name change and a clever ad campaign to erase the image of oil spreading across the Gulf Coast from BP's offshore rig, and dead wildlife washing up onto beaches. Even as the company magnanimously agreed to cover the costs of cleaning up the mammoth spill, BP on Monday was still insisting that it wasn't at fault for the accident that caused it—instead blaming the offshore drilling contractor that operated the rig. So much for corporate accountability.
Read More...
Greenland Oil Rush Looms as Exxon Eyes Cairn's Bet
Cairn Energy Plc is betting $400 million this year on striking oil off Greenland, a campaign that will be closely watched by producers such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. that hold rights off the island.
The potential rewards may justify the cost of Arctic drilling: Greenland's waters could hold 50 billion barrels of crude and gas, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates, enough to meet Europe's energy demand for almost two years. More companies are on the way. Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Statoil ASA were among bidders in this week's auction of offshore drilling rights.
After six failed attempts by explorers in Greenland over the past 30 years the rush is on as global warming eases Arctic exploration and because of dwindling resources in areas such as the North Sea. For Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants, largely dependent on shrimp exports, petroleum may also bring wealth and allow more independence from Denmark, which has held sway over the world's largest island since 1721.
Read More...
OFFSHORE WIND NOT OFFSHORE OIL.
The Atlantic hurricane season begins in a month. Given current accounts of the disastrous accident in the Gulf of Mexico, it may take a month or more just to stop the river of oil flowing from the wrecked riser pipe once connected to the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon, now on the bottom a mile below the waves.
And waves they may come. Hurricanes don't watch the calendar and early season storms are rare, but what if? It could be a busy season for tropical cyclones. The Colorado State University Hurricane Forecast Team, which has been predicting hurricanes for 27 years, says 15 named storms could form in the Atlantic basin between June 1 and November 30, with eight expected to be hurricanes and four developing into major hurricanes.
Even a mild cyclone could push oil anywhere in the Gulf. Barriers won't be able to contain drifting oil in heavy seas.
Already a thin sheen of oil is reaching the Gulf coast as this story is written. The disaster, if it continues for three months, could eclipse the 11 million gallon Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 in Alaska, which coated at least 1300 square miles of ocean.
Read More...
Heck of a snow-job, Brownie:
Gibbs chastizes Fox News for giving a platform to Michael Brown's crazy oil spill conspiracy theory
The pro-pollution extremists have been pushing any number of conspiracy theories as their "drill baby drill" dream starts to crumble under the reality of the BP oil disaster (see Fox pushes 'conspiracy theory' that massive oil spill was 'deliberate' 'sabotage').
The latest crazy theory comes from the most unreliable source on disaster response in the world — disgraced FEMA director Michael Brown, who oversaw the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. "Brownie," as he was affectionately known to President Bush, became famous for padding his resume to hide his almost nonexistent disaster management experience. But that didn't stop Fox News from giving him a platform to push his new snowjob. TP has the story in this repost.
Yesterday, Fox News brought on disgraced FEMA director Michael Brown, who oversaw the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina. "Brownie," as he was affectionately known to President Bush, became famous for padding his resume to hide his almost nonexistent disaster management experience. Brown told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that the Obama administration wanted the devastating oil spill as an excuse to backtrack on its offshore drilling plan:
Read More...
Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA) travels to BP-funded conference to push for more oil drilling
As crews take action to stop the massive volcano of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, "Virginia leaders are reconsidering their support for drilling off the state's coast." Well, all but one — the Governor — as TP explains in this repost.
Both of Virginia's senators, who support drilling, said they agree with President Obama's decision to halt all new offshore drilling until a full investigation is completed about the BP disaster. Rep. James Moran (D-VA) wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, "urging him to reconsider allowing offshore drilling." The mayor of Virginia Beach, the state's largest city, who has also supported drilling, said the BP spill "gives me great concern." Meanwhile, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) "continues to lobby aggressively to drill for oil and natural gas without delay":
McDonnell (R), who has made drilling off Virginia's coast one of his administration's top priorities, flew to Houston on Monday to tout the benefits of offshore drilling at an industry-sponsored conference. He told reporters before he left that he does not want to postpone drilling but to learn from the accident off Louisiana's coast.
Read More...
Speaking at trade association supported by BP, Gov. Perry claims rig disaster is an 'act of God'
Monday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is funded by dues-paying corporations like BP and Halliburton, hosted a "Free Enterprise" conference to push deregulation and anti-tax policies. TP's Lee Fang has the story of the Texas governors inane remarks in this repost.
During a press availability after the morning session, a reporter raised the point that the oil rig disaster, the Massey mine disaster, and the overall financial crisis seemed to have all occurred as a result of too much free enterprise and not enough regulations. Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), one of several governors in attendance, lashed out at the reporter and said regulations would not have prevented the economic collapse.
Later in his response, Perry said he feared a "knee-jerk reaction" to the oil spill, and said the oil spill could be just another "act of God that cannot be prevented":
Read More...
Amount of Spill Could Escalate, Company Admits
WASHINGTON — In a closed-door briefing for members of Congress, a senior BP executive conceded Tuesday that the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico could conceivably spill as much as 60,000 barrels a day of oil, more than 10 times the estimate of the current flow.
The scope of the problem has grown drastically since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the gulf. Now, the discussion with BP on Capitol Hill is certain to intensify pressure on the company, which is facing a crisis similar to what the Toyota Motor Company had with uncontrolled acceleration — despite its efforts to control the damage to its reputation as a corporate citizen, the problem may be worsening.
Amid growing uncertainty about the extent of the leak, and when it might be stanched, pressure on BP intensified on multiple fronts Tuesday, from increasingly frustrated residents of the Gulf Coast to federal, state and local officials demanding more from the company.
The company considered a broad advertising campaign, but top BP executives rejected the idea before planning even started. "In our view, the big glossy expressions of regret don't have a lot of credibility," said Andrew Gowers, a BP spokesman.
Read More...
Mary 'not a handmaiden to oil' Landrieu still says we have to drill, baby, drill
Like a problem gambler, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is doubling down her support for the oil industry as her state is threatened by what could become the worst oil disaster in history. Wonk Room's Brad Johnson has the story.
Landrieu is placing a career-threatening bet that the damage from the undersea oil gusher to Louisiana will be limited, accusing people concerned by the threat of this ever-growing spill of "hysteria." Questioned this morning about her campaign contributions from BP and other oil companies, Landrieu said, "I am not a handmaiden to the oil industry," but then said the United States has to increase its dependence on drilling for oil:
I am not a handmaiden to the oil industry but I will tell you this: This country uses 20 million barrels of oil a day. We produce here in the United States less than half. So our choice is either to increase, you know, our reliance on "friends," you know, and I say that in quotes, like Venezuela, Cuba and other places to get our oil or learn how to drill it safely here. Again, you've got to the put this accident in perspective. The last thing we need to do is shut this oil and gas industry down.
Read More...
Exclusive: The human dimensions of oil spills
The Deepwater Hazard oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico threatens incredibly rich and complicated ecological communities. It also threatens human communities that are dependent upon the Gulf ecosystem for their ways of life. In the past two years, we have studied how oil spills have impacted every aspect of human society—from individuals' psychological and physical health to the practices and beliefs of cultures and everything in between. And, while it is true that the number of spills and the volume of oil spilled have decreased over the past decades, the potential for harm—catastrophic or incidental—has not.
Oil spill contingency plans do an excellent job of preparing to protect threatened ecosystems and the marine transportation system (ferries, ports, shipping channels, etc.). Protecting these systems is fundamentally important. However, most plans are not as strong in the areas of human dimensions of spills or spill response. Many state and federal responders are skilled at foreseeing and reacting to human impacts, but their knowledge and experience is not formalized in the response plans.
Read More...
Out of Sight: BP's dispersants are toxic — but not as toxic as dispersed oil
Plus the threat the disaster poses to America's primary coral reef
There has been a lot of confusion about the environmental impact of chemically dispersing oil. I interviewed one of the country's foremost authorities on the subject for a piece in Salon, which they headlined "Is BP's remedy for the spill only making it worse?"
I have had a great interest in what we are doing to our oceans since I spent more than two years researching my Ph.D. thesis at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. So I'm always delighted to talk to true experts on the subject like Carys Mitchelmore, a professor at the University of Maryland's Chesapeake Biological Laboratory. And yes, she brought up global warming without even realizing that is my main focus.
Last Thursday, BP began putting more than 100,000 gallons of chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico to disperse some of the hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of gallons of petroleum its undersea volcano of oil has gushed so far.
Chemically dispersing oil spills "solves the political problem of visible oil but not the environmental problem," Robert Brulle, a 20-year Coast Guard veteran and an affiliate professor of public health at Drexel University, told me. These dispersants "do not actually reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment," as a 2005 National Academy of Sciences report on the subject put it.
In short: out of sight, out of mind. But not out of the body of marine life.
Dispersants decrease the amount of oil that directly reaches the shores or the creatures that live on the shores or sea surface. But they increase the exposure to oil by creatures that live in the water or on the sea floor — like, say, shrimp or oysters.
Read More...
Exclusive: BP worked with FreedomWorks, Chamber to build phony 'grassroots' support for more drilling
BP has long touted itself as a "green" company interested not only in oil and other fossil fuels, but in renewable energy like wind and solar. But as Rebecca Lefton reported on ThinkProgress last week, BP barely invests anything in clean energy — most of its green campaign is actually just a massive advertising gimmick to conceal the truth about the company.
While BP has spent hundreds of millions building its brand, it has offshored the dirty work of promoting expanded drilling to right-wing front groups and trade associations. In a 2007 PowerPoint presentation obtained by ThinkProgress, BP appears to have been interested in fighting to open up protected waters to new offshore drilling. The presentation, organized by the BP-funded front group "Consumer Energy Alliance," was delivered at the American Gas Association's marketing meeting in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The presentation calls for a five-year plan to build grassroots support to open wide swaths of both the East and West coasts to new drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf:
- Slide 5 depicts a map of "undiscovered technically recoverable resources on Federal OCS" along the East coast, from Maine to Florida, and on the West coast, from Washington to California.
Read More...
The BP disaster and Hobson's choice of oil production
The Gulf oil spill has the potential to be horrifically destructive. In the coming weeks, literally hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of gallons of crude may wash ashore, coating shorelines, marshes, estuaries, and shallow bays. It may foul an extremely fragile biome that is home to innumerable fish species and endangered marsh plants and an important flyway for migrating birds. This is a natural treasure, not only for the wildlife it supports but for its social and economic importance to the region: fishing, tourism, and oil. The spewing oil has thrown these into stark relief. Yet we confront a "Hobson's choice." We are free to choose one option: in the rhetoric of the last election and as evidenced in the recent energy agenda of the Obama administration, it's "drill, baby, drill." Yet even if oil production is currently our only choice—something I do not believe it need be—it must be done differently, and indeed must be done better.
Read More...
In wake of BP oil disaster, support for offshore drilling has "fallen dramatically."
In the wake of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a poll by Rasmussen has found that support for offshore drilling has "fallen dramatically."
I wouldn't put too much faith in the absolute levels of support in the polls, since Rasmussen tends to "produce conservative leaning results (see: here, here and here)," as Enviroknow notes.
I would also add that we're only at the very beginning stages of a disaster that is likely to play out over many weeks if not months, so I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers kept going in the same direction.
At the end of March, after the Obama administration announced that it would "approve new oil and gas drilling off U.S. coasts for the first time in decade," a poll by Rasmussen Reports found that 72 percent of U.S. voters believed that offshore oil drilling should be allowed — the highest level of support for drilling that Rasmussen had found in nearly three years of surveying. But now, in the wake of the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Rasmussen has found that support for offshore drilling has "fallen dramatically":
Read More...
Gore on BP disaster: "This is a consciousness-shifting event."
"It is one of those clarifying moments that brings a rare opportunity to take the longer view.
Unless we change our present course soon, the future of human civilization will be in dire jeopardy."
The Nobel-Prize-winning former VP has an article in The New Republic, "The Crisis Comes Ashore: Why the oil spill could change everything." Here are some excerpts:
The continuing undersea gusher of oil 50 miles off the shores of Louisiana is not the only source of dangerous uncontrolled pollution spewing into the environment. Worldwide, the amount of man-made CO2 being spilled every three seconds into the thin shell of atmosphere surrounding the planet equals the highest current estimate of the amount of oil spilling from the Macondo well every day. Indeed, the average American coal-fired power generating plant gushes more than three times as much global-warming pollution into the atmosphere each day—and there are over 1,400 of them.
Just as the oil companies told us that deep-water drilling was safe, they tell us that it's perfectly all right to dump 90 million tons of CO2 into the air of the world every 24 hours....
Read More...
Fox news host smacks down Rove's false claims about Obama's response to BP oil diaster
In a Fox News interview with Karl Rove Thursday, host Jane Skinner noted that many in the media (and on the right) claim that the oil rig explosion in the Gulf is President Obama's "Katrina." Rove said he "wouldn't compare this to Katrina," but he then ran through a timeline of the events as if to accuse the White House of having a delayed response to the disaster. However, Skinner didn't buy it, noting that the White House was involved from the beginning:
SKINNER: Before we get too far in this time line, I just want to read because the press secretary Robert Gibbs has been asked so many questions about this and this was his response, "The morning after the Secretary — the Interior Secretary deployed his deputy to the region to coordinate it all and on the 22nd when it sank, the national response team was activated and later that day the President convened a meeting in the Oval Office with all those involved."
I mean at some point in the beginning they were relying also on the oil company BP, this was a disaster that people didn't have a lot of information about, it's all happening a mile under water.
Read More...
St. Petersburg Times slams BP and Big Oil: "It's becoming increasingly evident that self-regulation has not worked."
After oil disasters, there is outrage, then delay
After the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in 1989, when oil gushed from a ship ripped open on an Alaskan reef, Congress demanded that all oil tankers have double hulls.
You would think the change would have been almost automatic after such a disaster. But the oil industry was so powerful that Congress gave it until 2015 — 25 years — to comply. Even now, single-hulled oil tankers like the Exxon Valdez, which now operates as an ore carrier in Asia, can ply U.S. waters.
That was just one example of how the industry's influence has slowed or stopped regulations that might have cut into profits.
The St. Petersburg Times is publishing a damning piece Sunday on Big Oil's success in lobbying for voluntary, "trust us," self-regulation. It's the same point John Podesta and I made earlier this week in our Politico op-ed (see "Limited government can, and often does, lead to unlimited pollution and unlimited disasters") — but they have a lot more detail.
The whole piece, "After oil disasters, there is outrage, then delay," deserves to be widely read:
Read More...
Gingrich's "drill here, drill now" campaign continues as BP oil disaster grows
The Earth Day oil rig disaster that began with an explosion that claimed 11 lives is becoming an ecological catastrophe. But that hasn't slowed Newt Gingrich in his quest to "petition the U.S. Congress to act immediately to lower gasoline prices (and diesel and other fuel prices) by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves."
Of course, EIA has already shown that opening the entire outer Continental shelf to offshore drilling would have no impact on gasoline prices in 2020 and lower gas prices in 2030 a few pennies a gallon. But the facts won't stop Gingrich's "drill here, drill now" campaign as Brad Johnson reports:
Although this deadly catastrophe calls into question the pro-drilling campaigns by the oil industry and its conservative allies, the propaganda continues. In 2008, Newt Gingrich began American Solutions for Winning the Future (ASWF), the casino-funded 527 that used the slogan "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" to promote the false idea that new offshore drilling could lower gas prices. On its website, Gingrich's ASWF is continuing its petition while reporting on the inevitable consequences of dependence on dirty oil:
Read More...
The BP oil disaster's grim toll on Gulf wildlife
Some of the photos below might upset small children and pro-pollution ideologues.
Environmentalists are increasingly worried about the toll the spill will take on more than 400 species in this rich nursery area. As Nancy Rabalais, a scientist who heads the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, said, "The magnitude and the potential for ecological damage is probably more great than anything we've ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico." TP has the story in this repost.
Orange-colored oil from the April 22 BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached Louisiana's fragile Chandeleur Islands, which are part of the Breton National Wildlife Refuge, an area that officials have now closed so that nesting sea birds will be undisturbed and to "allow cleanup operations continue uninhibited."
Read More...
The three causes of BP's Titanic oil disaster: Recklessness, Arrogance, and Hubris
Salazar says drilling companies made "some very major mistakes"; Expert reviewer finds well's cement seal "was probably faulty" and inadequately tested (to save money); Explosion occured while BP executives were on board "celebrating the rig's safety record"!
We now know with pretty high confidence the three main, interrelated, underlying causes of the BP's oil disaster: Hubris, recklessness, and arrogance. So the metaphor is as much Goldman Sachs as that other great maritime disaster — the Titanic.
And if BP turns out to be guilty of malfeasance, too — violating its federal permit — as the NYT suggested — then you'd have the Four Horseman of Oilpocalypse.
Reporting over the weekend has also given us a pretty good idea of the proximate cause, which, as we'll see, appears intimately tied to the underlying causes.
Read More...
Rig Owner Had Rising Tally of Accidents
The sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which triggered the spill spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, caught the energy world by surprise. The operator, Transocean Ltd., is a giant in the brave new world of drilling for oil in deep waters far offshore. It had been honored by regulators for its safety record. The very day of the blast on the rig, executives were aboard celebrating its seven straight years free of serious accidents.
But a Wall Street Journal examination of Transocean's record paints a more equivocal picture.
Nearly three of every four incidents that triggered federal investigations into safety and other problems on deepwater drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico since 2008 have been on rigs operated by Transocean, according to an analysis of federal data. Transocean defended its safety record but didn't dispute the Journal's analysis.
In addition, an industry survey of oil companies that hired Transocean perceived a drop in its quality and performance, including safety by some measures, compared with its peers, though it still scored tops in one safety category.
Read More...
BP Oil Disaster Threatens Survival of the "Gulf's Sea Turtle"
They rebounded from near extinction, but now the Kemp's ridley sea turtle faces new hazards
The Kemp's ridley sea turtle, one of the great success stories in marine conservation, is among the creatures most threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil platform spill on the Gulf Coast.
Biologists sometimes call Kemp's ridley "the Gulf's sea turtle" because it typically spends its entire life in the Gulf of Mexico. All other species tend to roam in and out of the Caribbean. Just a century ago, this smallest of all sea turtle species was relatively common. In 1947, as many as 40,000 females came ashore on a single day to the turtle's major nesting beach in northeastern Mexico.
Their eggs were considered an aphrodisiac and were gobbled up by the tens of thousands in Mexico. Adult ridleys were accidentally caught by U.S. and Mexican shrimp trawlers and drowned. By 1985, biologists counted a total of just 702 ridley nests left on the coast. The marine reptile was going extinct.
Read More...