(FT) -- Opec, the oil producers' cartel, will reap $1,000bn in export revenues this year for the first time if crude prices remain above $100 a barrel, according to the International Energy Agency.
The cartel has been one of the main beneficiaries of high oil prices, which have soared in recent weeks amid the civil uprisings in the Middle East and north Africa.
Brent crude was trading at $115 a barrel on Tuesday.
Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, said a new assessment by the rich nations' oil watchdog showed that the total number of barrels exported by Opec in 2011 would be slightly lower than in 2008, when cartel oil revenues reached $990bn. But if average prices remain around $100 a barrel, Opec's oil revenues will still reach a record of $1,000bn this year.
"It would be the first time in the history of Opec that oil revenues have reached a trillion dollars. It's mainly because of higher prices and higher production," Mr Birol said in a Financial Times interview. "However, Saudi Arabia has made substantial efforts to calm down the oil markets by increasing production and hinder prices from going higher."
The estimate, based on total Opec production including natural gas liquids, does not take inflation into account. "Depending on your choice of specific inflation adjustment, the 2008 number may be slightly higher [in real terms]," Mr Birol said.
Many of Opec's biggest producers are using the price gains to increase public spending, partly to guard against popular unrest. Saudi Arabia announced a multiyear spending package of $129bn and is expected to spend about $35bn in 2011.
This largesse means the country now needs an oil price of $83 per barrel in order to balance its national budget this year. "The more they earn, the more they tend to spend. So the oil price they need is ratcheted up," said Leonidas Drollas, chief economist at the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London.
Brad Bourland, chief economist at Jadwa, an investment house in Riyadh, predicted in a note to clients that "unless the [Saudi] government takes measures to reduce spending . . . we assume this breakeven price will rise in subsequent years".
Another beneficiary from high oil prices is Russia. Mr Birol noted that if oil prices remain at an average of $100 a barrel, Moscow's oil and gas revenues could increase by about $100bn to $350bn -- equivalent to 21 per cent of Russia's GDP.
High oil prices have "started to hurt the global economy", Mr Birol said, adding that he is "very worried for OECD countries, especially Europe".
The IEA is also concerned about the impact the current unrest is having on oil-sector investment in the Middle East and north Africa, which it expects to contribute about 90 per cent of production growth over the next 10 years.
"For this to happen, we need to invest now but I see the current geopolitical situation as a major handicap for making the right amount of investments," Mr Birol said.
Showing posts with label oil spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil spill. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Obama Imposes 7-Year Eastern Gulf Of Mexico Oil Drilling Ban
Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will not be allowing new drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for at least seven years, according to a senior administration official.
The ban is being imposed as a result of the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf, which killed 11 people and triggered one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
An estimated 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil gushed into the Gulf before the broken well, 5,000 feet below the surface, was capped.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to hold a briefing on the decision at 1:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The administration lifted a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling in October.
"There will always be risks associated with deep-water drilling," Salazar said at the time. But "we have reached a point where we have significantly reduced those risks."
Salazar argued that the moratorium provided time to make sure similar accidents involving a failed piece of equipment called a blowout preventer wouldn't occur and that rig operators were prepared to deal with worst-case scenarios if they did happen.
Critics of the ban, including Republican leaders, Gulf state officials and Gulf Coast residents, said it would only hurt oil and gas workers in hard-hit coastal communities, where hundreds of jobs were lost because of the disaster.
Environmental groups and other supporters of the moratorium argued that it was necessary due to a lack of effective regulation of deep-water drilling that allowed the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent spill to occur.
The ban is being imposed as a result of the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf, which killed 11 people and triggered one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
An estimated 4.9 million barrels (206 million gallons) of oil gushed into the Gulf before the broken well, 5,000 feet below the surface, was capped.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is scheduled to hold a briefing on the decision at 1:30 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The administration lifted a six-month moratorium on deep-water oil drilling in October.
"There will always be risks associated with deep-water drilling," Salazar said at the time. But "we have reached a point where we have significantly reduced those risks."
Salazar argued that the moratorium provided time to make sure similar accidents involving a failed piece of equipment called a blowout preventer wouldn't occur and that rig operators were prepared to deal with worst-case scenarios if they did happen.
Critics of the ban, including Republican leaders, Gulf state officials and Gulf Coast residents, said it would only hurt oil and gas workers in hard-hit coastal communities, where hundreds of jobs were lost because of the disaster.
Environmental groups and other supporters of the moratorium argued that it was necessary due to a lack of effective regulation of deep-water drilling that allowed the Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent spill to occur.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Former Contracter: BP Is Not Interested In Cleaning Up The Oil Spill
Former Contractor: BP Not Interested In Cleaning Up Oil Spill 120710top
Former high-level BP contractor and Army Special Operations soldier Adam Dillon told a New Orleans television station that British Petroleum is not interested in cleaning up the oil spill because the company is run by “cutthroat individuals” who only care about money.
Dillon was fired by BP “after taking photos that he believes were related to the use of dispersants and to the cleanup of the oil.” Before his dismissal, Dillon was “confined and interrogated for almost an hour,” by BP officials.
“There are some very great, hardworking individuals in there. But the bottom line is just about money. There are some very cutthroat individuals. They’re not worried about cleaning up that spill as it is,” said Dillon, adding that he has “lost faith” in BP’s response.
Dillon was one of BP’s hired goons used to keep reporters from asking questions of cleanup workers on beaches in Houma, but turned whistleblower after he was fired for taking photos of the consequences of chemicals used by BP to clean up the spill.
“I saw something when I was out there,” he said. “I took pictures of something and I brought it to the attention of the command structure and whatever I took pictures of, 12 hours later I was gone.”
Dillon decided to speak out publicly because he placed his oath to his country over and above any loyalty to BP.
“I will never have loyalty to this company,” he said. “I will always have loyalty to my country. And my country comes first.
“What this company is doing to this country right now is just wrong.”
As we have highlighted, as one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby, BP stands to reap a financial bounty if the Obama administration succeeds in exploiting the worsening oil spill crisis to push through a carbon tax.
The worse the situation gets, the more political capital Obama builds in his effort to impose a consumption tax on American citizens in the name of reducing dependence on foreign oil. Viewed from this perspective, BP has no real motivation in cleaning up the oil spill.
BP’s market value plunged by more than a third in the months following the oil spill debacle, but this has recovered somewhat in recent days and once the spill is finally cleared up, expect to see the price return to pre-spill levels.
If the government manages to justify a carbon tax in the eyes of lawmakers by pointing to an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, BP can look forward to massive long-term profits from both a sustained rise in the price of oil allied to a carbon tax that will be passed on to consumers.
BP’s botched efforts to cap the leaking oil well have done nothing to alleviate the problem, while the company’s use of the chemical Corexit is worsening the damage caused by the oil spill while causing sickness amongst large numbers of cleanup workers. The Obama administration has similarly dragged its feet in responding to the oil spill, waiting for months before it accepted help offered by thirteen different countries whose sophisticated technology could have fixed the leak within weeks.
BP’s reaction to the oil spill has proved that the company is more concerned about blocking media access to information about the situation than actually cleaning up the consequences of the spill.
Former high-level BP contractor and Army Special Operations soldier Adam Dillon told a New Orleans television station that British Petroleum is not interested in cleaning up the oil spill because the company is run by “cutthroat individuals” who only care about money.
Dillon was fired by BP “after taking photos that he believes were related to the use of dispersants and to the cleanup of the oil.” Before his dismissal, Dillon was “confined and interrogated for almost an hour,” by BP officials.
“There are some very great, hardworking individuals in there. But the bottom line is just about money. There are some very cutthroat individuals. They’re not worried about cleaning up that spill as it is,” said Dillon, adding that he has “lost faith” in BP’s response.
Dillon was one of BP’s hired goons used to keep reporters from asking questions of cleanup workers on beaches in Houma, but turned whistleblower after he was fired for taking photos of the consequences of chemicals used by BP to clean up the spill.
“I saw something when I was out there,” he said. “I took pictures of something and I brought it to the attention of the command structure and whatever I took pictures of, 12 hours later I was gone.”
Dillon decided to speak out publicly because he placed his oath to his country over and above any loyalty to BP.
“I will never have loyalty to this company,” he said. “I will always have loyalty to my country. And my country comes first.
“What this company is doing to this country right now is just wrong.”
As we have highlighted, as one of the founding members of the cap and trade lobby, BP stands to reap a financial bounty if the Obama administration succeeds in exploiting the worsening oil spill crisis to push through a carbon tax.
The worse the situation gets, the more political capital Obama builds in his effort to impose a consumption tax on American citizens in the name of reducing dependence on foreign oil. Viewed from this perspective, BP has no real motivation in cleaning up the oil spill.
BP’s market value plunged by more than a third in the months following the oil spill debacle, but this has recovered somewhat in recent days and once the spill is finally cleared up, expect to see the price return to pre-spill levels.
If the government manages to justify a carbon tax in the eyes of lawmakers by pointing to an environmental catastrophe in the Gulf, BP can look forward to massive long-term profits from both a sustained rise in the price of oil allied to a carbon tax that will be passed on to consumers.
BP’s botched efforts to cap the leaking oil well have done nothing to alleviate the problem, while the company’s use of the chemical Corexit is worsening the damage caused by the oil spill while causing sickness amongst large numbers of cleanup workers. The Obama administration has similarly dragged its feet in responding to the oil spill, waiting for months before it accepted help offered by thirteen different countries whose sophisticated technology could have fixed the leak within weeks.
BP’s reaction to the oil spill has proved that the company is more concerned about blocking media access to information about the situation than actually cleaning up the consequences of the spill.
Monday, July 5, 2010
BP, Homeland Security and Police Work Together To Deny First Admendment Rights
Kurt Nimmo - The father of fascism, Benito Mussolini, defined fascism as corporatism. “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power,” said Mussolini.
ProPublica and PBS learned this lesson recently in Texas City. “A photographer taking pictures for ProPublica was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas,” reports Raw Story. “The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.”
Rosenfield’s information was also turned over to BP. It was described as standard procedure.
Michael Marr, a BP spokesman, released a statement explaining the company’s actions. “BP Security followed the industry practice that is required by federal law. The photographer was released with his photographs after those photos were viewed by a representative of the Joint Terrorism Task Force who determined that the photographer’s actions did not pose a threat to public safety.”
BP, Homeland Security, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and local cops will now decide if it is acceptable for journalists to take photographs.
“We certainly appreciate the need to secure the nation’s refineries,” said ProPublica after the incident. “But we’re deeply troubled by BP’s conduct here, especially when they knew we were working on deadline on critical stories about this very facility. And we see no reason why, if law enforcement needed to review the unpublished photographs, that should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company.”
It looks like BP and its goon force (including federal agencies) knew ProPublica and PBS were working on a story. The incident had nothing to do with the security of refineries or public safety. It was about blocking a story a transnational corporation did not want published. This sort of thing happens in a corporatist-fascist state. It is not supposed to happen in a constitutional republic where the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights are respected.
First it was bloggers and citizen journalists who were harassed by the state and denied their First Amendment right. Now the foundation and non-profit media are falling victim to the heavy hand of the corporate-fascist state.
Late last week “National Incident” commander Thad Allen announced all media — print, television, radio and internet bloggers — will be subject to arrest and federal class D felony charges if they cover operation and clean up sites. In short, the government and BP have effectively shut down the First Amendment.Join Treasure Trooper and make some easy money doing surveys and cash offers. Sign-Up right now at Treasure Trooper
ProPublica and PBS learned this lesson recently in Texas City. “A photographer taking pictures for ProPublica was detained Friday while shooting pictures in Texas City, Texas,” reports Raw Story. “The photographer, Lance Rosenfield, said that shortly after arriving in town, he was confronted by a BP security officer, local police and a man who identified himself as an agent of the Department of Homeland Security. He was released after the police reviewed the pictures he had taken on Friday and recorded his date of birth, Social Security number and other personal information.”
Rosenfield’s information was also turned over to BP. It was described as standard procedure.
Michael Marr, a BP spokesman, released a statement explaining the company’s actions. “BP Security followed the industry practice that is required by federal law. The photographer was released with his photographs after those photos were viewed by a representative of the Joint Terrorism Task Force who determined that the photographer’s actions did not pose a threat to public safety.”
BP, Homeland Security, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and local cops will now decide if it is acceptable for journalists to take photographs.
“We certainly appreciate the need to secure the nation’s refineries,” said ProPublica after the incident. “But we’re deeply troubled by BP’s conduct here, especially when they knew we were working on deadline on critical stories about this very facility. And we see no reason why, if law enforcement needed to review the unpublished photographs, that should have included sharing them with a representative of a private company.”
It looks like BP and its goon force (including federal agencies) knew ProPublica and PBS were working on a story. The incident had nothing to do with the security of refineries or public safety. It was about blocking a story a transnational corporation did not want published. This sort of thing happens in a corporatist-fascist state. It is not supposed to happen in a constitutional republic where the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights are respected.
First it was bloggers and citizen journalists who were harassed by the state and denied their First Amendment right. Now the foundation and non-profit media are falling victim to the heavy hand of the corporate-fascist state.
Late last week “National Incident” commander Thad Allen announced all media — print, television, radio and internet bloggers — will be subject to arrest and federal class D felony charges if they cover operation and clean up sites. In short, the government and BP have effectively shut down the First Amendment.Join Treasure Trooper and make some easy money doing surveys and cash offers. Sign-Up right now at Treasure Trooper
Sunday, June 27, 2010
BP Oil Spill: A Louisiana Woman Tells It Like It Is
Kurt Nimmo - BP is engaged in criminal negligence. It only pretends to clean-up its mess when government officials arrive for photo-ops. BP and its employees have given more than $3.5 million to federal candidates over the past 20 years, with the largest chunk of their money going to Obama.
BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters earlier this month: “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.”
Small people. Expendable people. The woman in this video tells us what is really happening in Louisiana. BP, Obama, and Congress — all beholden to large corporations and bankers — are sacrificing thousands of people and keeping it hidden.
The corporate media talks about Florida’s beaches and lost tourism money. They talk about the marine animals covered in oil but not the children who are coming down with respiratory problems from toxic gases blowing in from the Gulf.
Idiots on Fox and CNN trade barbs back and forth about Obama’s lack of leadership. It’s the Democrats say the Republicans. It’s the Republicans say the Democrats. Fingers get pointed while oil washes up in the salt marshes and deadly chemicals rain down on crops in Mississippi. People are beginning to talk about a new disease… Gulf of Mexico Syndrome.
“The petro-chemical-military-industrial complex is gassing Gulf Coast residents with poisonous Benzene and Corexit dispersant at dangerously high levels in the largest U.S. domestic military operation to date,” writes Deborah Dupré. “Human suffering in the Gulf is increasing from the world’s latest and largest toxic oil kill as BP lies and government remains silent about human health risks and associated military interventions. Most immediately damaging of the operation’s withheld information pertains to toxins breathed since the explosion.”
Near the end of the above video Kindra Arnesen talks about what toxins are doing to her children. Her story is likely not an isolated incident. Lots of children and old people with respiratory ailments are having problems with the air in Louisiana (and soon other Gulf states and Florida). The media is just not telling us about it. The media is owned by large corporations. The corporate media’s job is to distract with mindless fluff and cover up the crimes of the corporatists.
If this continues much longer the military will be called in — not to evacuate people but to contain angry people who will ultimately organize and take things into their own hands. Violence and revenge cannot be ruled out.
Can you blame them? Wouldn’t you do the same thing if BP destroyed your livelihood and poisoned your children?
BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg told reporters earlier this month: “I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care, but that is not the case with BP. We care about the small people.”
Small people. Expendable people. The woman in this video tells us what is really happening in Louisiana. BP, Obama, and Congress — all beholden to large corporations and bankers — are sacrificing thousands of people and keeping it hidden.
The corporate media talks about Florida’s beaches and lost tourism money. They talk about the marine animals covered in oil but not the children who are coming down with respiratory problems from toxic gases blowing in from the Gulf.
Idiots on Fox and CNN trade barbs back and forth about Obama’s lack of leadership. It’s the Democrats say the Republicans. It’s the Republicans say the Democrats. Fingers get pointed while oil washes up in the salt marshes and deadly chemicals rain down on crops in Mississippi. People are beginning to talk about a new disease… Gulf of Mexico Syndrome.
“The petro-chemical-military-industrial complex is gassing Gulf Coast residents with poisonous Benzene and Corexit dispersant at dangerously high levels in the largest U.S. domestic military operation to date,” writes Deborah Dupré. “Human suffering in the Gulf is increasing from the world’s latest and largest toxic oil kill as BP lies and government remains silent about human health risks and associated military interventions. Most immediately damaging of the operation’s withheld information pertains to toxins breathed since the explosion.”
Near the end of the above video Kindra Arnesen talks about what toxins are doing to her children. Her story is likely not an isolated incident. Lots of children and old people with respiratory ailments are having problems with the air in Louisiana (and soon other Gulf states and Florida). The media is just not telling us about it. The media is owned by large corporations. The corporate media’s job is to distract with mindless fluff and cover up the crimes of the corporatists.
If this continues much longer the military will be called in — not to evacuate people but to contain angry people who will ultimately organize and take things into their own hands. Violence and revenge cannot be ruled out.
Can you blame them? Wouldn’t you do the same thing if BP destroyed your livelihood and poisoned your children?
Friday, June 18, 2010
BP AWARE OF CRACKS IN OIL WELL TWO MONTHS BEFORE EXPLOSION
Paul Joseph Watson - BP was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.
The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.
The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.
“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.
As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”
The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster.
As we highlighted last week, on page 37 of British Petroleum’s own investigative report into the oil spill, it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP’s knowledge sometime before the explosion.
Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge.
Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 – shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value, equating to $96 million. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland, who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum.
Furthermore, as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th, Tony Hayward, the current BP CEO sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill.
On April 12th, just over one week before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation, surprised some by acquiring Boots & Coots, a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company.
Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.
Halliburton was forced to admit in testimony at a congressional hearing last month that it carried out a cementing operation 20 hours before the Gulf of Mexico rig went up in flames. The lawsuits claim that four Halliburton workers stationed on the rig improperly capped the well. Visit http://computers.become.com for the best computer products for the lowest prices on the web. Computers Become has the most affordable prices and best quality. Find any computer on the market and compare prices. Visit http://computers.become.com. Also, check out Computer Become Online Specials. This is a offer you just can't refuse.http://computers.become.com.
The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.
The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.
“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.
As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”
The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster.
As we highlighted last week, on page 37 of British Petroleum’s own investigative report into the oil spill, it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP’s knowledge sometime before the explosion.
Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge.
Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 – shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value, equating to $96 million. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland, who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum.
Furthermore, as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th, Tony Hayward, the current BP CEO sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill.
On April 12th, just over one week before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation, surprised some by acquiring Boots & Coots, a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company.
Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.
Halliburton was forced to admit in testimony at a congressional hearing last month that it carried out a cementing operation 20 hours before the Gulf of Mexico rig went up in flames. The lawsuits claim that four Halliburton workers stationed on the rig improperly capped the well. Visit http://computers.become.com for the best computer products for the lowest prices on the web. Computers Become has the most affordable prices and best quality. Find any computer on the market and compare prices. Visit http://computers.become.com. Also, check out Computer Become Online Specials. This is a offer you just can't refuse.http://computers.become.com.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Louisianans Think Bush Did A Better Job On Katrina Than Obama On the Gulf Oil Spill
Hot Air - Our new Louisiana poll has a lot of data points to show how unhappy voters in the state are with Barack Obama’s handling of the oil spill but one perhaps sums it up better than anything else- a majority of voters there think George W. Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama’s done dealing with the spill.
50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama.
Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved.
The big winner? Bobby Jindal, whose 63 percent approval (65 percent on handling the spill) is the highest for any senator or governor in PPP’s polling this year. He lost some of his righty rock-star luster after that SOTU disaster, but I think it’s safe to say that he’s gotten it all back: The latest is that he’s lost patience with BP’s containment efforts and given the order to the National Guard to start building a barrier wall off the coast to try to protect the shoreline. 70 percent, here he comes!
As for The One, aside from delivering a big speech tonight in the Oval Office, he’s busy … delivering other speeches, like this one today in Pensacola. Note the quasi-martial rhetoric in the clip about “fighting back” against an “assault on our shores” while a crowd of troops stands assembled behind him. Looks like he’s taking Eugene Robinson’s advice and essentially declaring war on the spill, which won’t change a thing on the ground but might brighten up his approval numbers by projecting some C-in-C authori-tah. Exit question: Did you catch the magic word in the clip? He said it twice!
50% of voters in the state, even including 31% of Democrats, give Bush higher marks on that question compared to 35% who pick Obama.
Overall only 32% of Louisianans approve of how Obama has handled the spill to 62% who disapprove. 34% of those polled say they approved of how Bush dealt with Katrina to 58% who disapproved.
The big winner? Bobby Jindal, whose 63 percent approval (65 percent on handling the spill) is the highest for any senator or governor in PPP’s polling this year. He lost some of his righty rock-star luster after that SOTU disaster, but I think it’s safe to say that he’s gotten it all back: The latest is that he’s lost patience with BP’s containment efforts and given the order to the National Guard to start building a barrier wall off the coast to try to protect the shoreline. 70 percent, here he comes!
As for The One, aside from delivering a big speech tonight in the Oval Office, he’s busy … delivering other speeches, like this one today in Pensacola. Note the quasi-martial rhetoric in the clip about “fighting back” against an “assault on our shores” while a crowd of troops stands assembled behind him. Looks like he’s taking Eugene Robinson’s advice and essentially declaring war on the spill, which won’t change a thing on the ground but might brighten up his approval numbers by projecting some C-in-C authori-tah. Exit question: Did you catch the magic word in the clip? He said it twice!
Gulf Oil Disaster Will Be End Of Life As We Know It
John Doty Jr. - This is it. It’s over. Get ready for the most insane year of your life. 5 years. 10 years. One day you will look back at your life right now and think about how easy it was, how innocent. We are on the cusp of total collapse, right at the precipice.
If you’re like most people you probably have already decided that I am exaggerating without knowing why I am saying this. Well let me make it clear that I also wish I was exaggerating. I don’t sell survival equipment or gold. My job is not recession proof. I have a family. I didn’t wake up today and randomly decide to declare that this is the end of life as we know it. But I do research. I make calls and tune into radio, scouring the internet for news clips and analysis. I make a concerted effort to only quote trustworthy sources. The information that has emerged over the past few days confirms fears that this is actually an “Armageddon” event. I am being completely serious.
Check it: The oil, spewing out at 20,000 to 70,000 psi, and the sediment within it has eroded the very walls of the well itself in several areas. This means that this is now an uncontainable gusher that is literally spewing oil up from dozens of sites across the gulf floor. The massive oil pocket tapped under immense pressure is now spewing out into the seabed. Capping the well does nothing. The oil pocket is tapped, the pipe is eroded and the oil is now spewing up to the ocean floor with intense pressure. Plumes are being generated everywhere. They cannot stop this. Human technology cannot contain a liquid at that pressure, especially at that depth under the ocean. We simply do not have the technology or know-how to fix this. We don’t. The relief wells are essentially useless now because the original well cannot be plugged so oil will always flow out of it regardless of how many other wells they dig. They needed to get into the pipe, fill the old pipe with mud and cement and then divert the oil into the new well. But because the tapped oil pocket is sand blasting itself routes to the surface that grow each day in diameter due to the eroding walls and passageways, there is no “well” to fill. That is because whats left of the well is already dissolving. And each day that passes until they drill their so-called “relief wells” will only see the oil finding new routes through the escapes it has carved through erosion of the pipes and rock. Thad Allen, the head of the US Coast Guard, has said that the oil isn’t all flowing up the pipe anymore but is now “in communication” with the seabed and the surrounding soft rock formation. It is now blasting its own wells.
Ya, that’s bad, but that isn’t even the scary part. Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases are also spewing out along with the oil. In concentrations hundreds and thousands of times greater than what is considered safe for humans. Lethal levels. When the hurricanes come they will absorb this toxic seawater and drop it as rain. Literally toxic rain. Let me guess, toxic rain doesn’t scare you. The biggest threat is already actualized with the chemicals entering the atmosphere and being carried around by the wind.
“The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher,” the Institute for Southern Studies blog reported on May 10.
Any one of these chemicals in these concentrations would be lethal. Mixed together it’s truly unthinkable.
The fragile US economy, in the midst of a feeble attempt at a jobless recovery, overstretched by war and out of control spending is not equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude. No country in the world could. Remember how well they handled the Katrina thing? This makes Katrina look like a grade school fire drill. Well I wonder how well they will do this time as they prepare to evacuate entire cities and states. See this and this. Once the evacuations begin the markets will tank. Once people are forced to grasp what is happening around them the global economy will come to a screeching halt as it’s engine, the USA, sinks into the throes of the worst environmental disaster in the history of the world. This will cause a dollar confidence crisis. Enraged citizens will riot and loot with no hope of a decent life ahead of them. Martial law will be declared.
They have no way to stop this, only a theory that maybe a nuke would implode the oil pocket. Ya, we’re talking about nuking the earths crust under the ocean. Eventually the oil will make it’s way around the world as the entire oil deposit is unleashed into the ocean.
Are you buying the crap coming from BP? The bogus press releases and the downplayed assessments? They’ve been lying through their teeth, censoring the media and destroying evidence. If you trust them, you have some problems.
If you’re like most people you probably have already decided that I am exaggerating without knowing why I am saying this. Well let me make it clear that I also wish I was exaggerating. I don’t sell survival equipment or gold. My job is not recession proof. I have a family. I didn’t wake up today and randomly decide to declare that this is the end of life as we know it. But I do research. I make calls and tune into radio, scouring the internet for news clips and analysis. I make a concerted effort to only quote trustworthy sources. The information that has emerged over the past few days confirms fears that this is actually an “Armageddon” event. I am being completely serious.
Check it: The oil, spewing out at 20,000 to 70,000 psi, and the sediment within it has eroded the very walls of the well itself in several areas. This means that this is now an uncontainable gusher that is literally spewing oil up from dozens of sites across the gulf floor. The massive oil pocket tapped under immense pressure is now spewing out into the seabed. Capping the well does nothing. The oil pocket is tapped, the pipe is eroded and the oil is now spewing up to the ocean floor with intense pressure. Plumes are being generated everywhere. They cannot stop this. Human technology cannot contain a liquid at that pressure, especially at that depth under the ocean. We simply do not have the technology or know-how to fix this. We don’t. The relief wells are essentially useless now because the original well cannot be plugged so oil will always flow out of it regardless of how many other wells they dig. They needed to get into the pipe, fill the old pipe with mud and cement and then divert the oil into the new well. But because the tapped oil pocket is sand blasting itself routes to the surface that grow each day in diameter due to the eroding walls and passageways, there is no “well” to fill. That is because whats left of the well is already dissolving. And each day that passes until they drill their so-called “relief wells” will only see the oil finding new routes through the escapes it has carved through erosion of the pipes and rock. Thad Allen, the head of the US Coast Guard, has said that the oil isn’t all flowing up the pipe anymore but is now “in communication” with the seabed and the surrounding soft rock formation. It is now blasting its own wells.
Ya, that’s bad, but that isn’t even the scary part. Hydrogen Sulfide, Benzene, Methylene Chloride, and other toxic gases are also spewing out along with the oil. In concentrations hundreds and thousands of times greater than what is considered safe for humans. Lethal levels. When the hurricanes come they will absorb this toxic seawater and drop it as rain. Literally toxic rain. Let me guess, toxic rain doesn’t scare you. The biggest threat is already actualized with the chemicals entering the atmosphere and being carried around by the wind.
“The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher,” the Institute for Southern Studies blog reported on May 10.
Any one of these chemicals in these concentrations would be lethal. Mixed together it’s truly unthinkable.
The fragile US economy, in the midst of a feeble attempt at a jobless recovery, overstretched by war and out of control spending is not equipped to handle a disaster of this magnitude. No country in the world could. Remember how well they handled the Katrina thing? This makes Katrina look like a grade school fire drill. Well I wonder how well they will do this time as they prepare to evacuate entire cities and states. See this and this. Once the evacuations begin the markets will tank. Once people are forced to grasp what is happening around them the global economy will come to a screeching halt as it’s engine, the USA, sinks into the throes of the worst environmental disaster in the history of the world. This will cause a dollar confidence crisis. Enraged citizens will riot and loot with no hope of a decent life ahead of them. Martial law will be declared.
They have no way to stop this, only a theory that maybe a nuke would implode the oil pocket. Ya, we’re talking about nuking the earths crust under the ocean. Eventually the oil will make it’s way around the world as the entire oil deposit is unleashed into the ocean.
Are you buying the crap coming from BP? The bogus press releases and the downplayed assessments? They’ve been lying through their teeth, censoring the media and destroying evidence. If you trust them, you have some problems.
Monday, June 14, 2010
It's 3 a.m., The Phone Is Ringing And Obama Is Asleep
Larry Johnson - Hillary was right. Obama was not and is not ready to answer the 3am call. The evidence, especially with respect to his failure to properly manage the response to the blow out of B.P.’s Deep Horizon well, is damning. Tim Dickinson’s lays out the evidence methodically and in depth in his recent piece in Rolling Stone, The Spill, The Scandal and the President.
Dickinson makes it clear that Obama failed in every regard to even answer the damn phone. He let it ring while the oil flooded the Gulf.
Let’s review the key points:
On March 31st President Obama trotted out his plan to support drilling in the Gulf. He said, “it turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills . . . they are technologically very advanced.” Unfortunately, Obama failed to ensure that the Department of Interior had the proper safeguards and procedures in place and that the existing regulations on the books were being enforced. He trusted the oil companies.
Before he took office Obama vowed to clean up the cronyism and corruption rampant in the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior. Obama did not create the mess. The Bush Administration’s hands are filthy on this count. George W. and his band left Obama with a steaming turd. And what did Obama do when he assumed office? As Dickinson notes, “Obama left in place many of the top officials who oversaw the agency’s culture of corruption. He permitted it to rubber-stamp dangerous drilling operations by BP . . . with virtually no environmental safeguards.” He did nothing and, on the day that the head of the MMS resigned (or was fired) Obama did not have a clue what was going on. He said as much at a press conference.
Obama and his team continued the negligence of the Bush Administration. Wilkinson reports that, “MMS continued to issue categorical exclusions to companies like BP, even when they lacked the necessary permits to protect endangered species.” Moreover, Obama’s Department of Interior did not even ensure “that the MMS had a written manual–required under Interior’s own rules–for complying with environmental laws.”
Obama and his team knew from day one that the blown rig, under a worst case scenario, was spewing as much as 110,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. And what did the intrepid Captain Kick Ass Obama do? Did he mobilize a fleet of ships to start capturing the oil? Did he get on the phone to BP and demand they move immediately to prepare for a worst case scenario? Did he act as if this could be worse than the Exxon Valdez? Nope, he and the wife took off for a weekend excursion in Asheville, North Carolina to play golf and eat barbecue. And when he got back from vacation did he demand that BP give him a current status report? Nope. Instead he hosted the New York Yankees at the White House. In the ensuing weeks he glad handed with the men and women champions from the NCAA basketball tournament instead of accepting offers from other countries to provide oil skimmers. Oh, did I mention the parties and concerts? He had Sir Paul in to sing “Hey Jude.” Captain Kick Ass was just a party animal who couldn’t be bothered with the particulars of harnessing all public and private resources to fight the oil spill.
More than a week passed before Obama’s team declared the BP disaster an “Oil Spill of National Significance.” As Dickinson notes, this was “required to draw on regional resources and to appoint an incident commander to coordinate a federal response.
Who was in charge, on May 3rd of cleaning up the oil spilling into the Gulf? According to Robert Gibbs said, “the responsible party is BP.” Swell. One little problem. According to the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan an “oil company like BP cannot be left in charge” and the “government must direct all federal, state or private actions to clean up a spill where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States.” Captain Kick Ass and his crew of buffoons dropped this ball and the oil continued to flow.
On May 21st the President’s vapid mouthpiece, Robert Gibbs, said that Obama lacked the authority to play anything more than a supervisory role. Obama and his team, four weeks into the disaster, were still sitting on the sidelines.
Less than a week later Obama summoned the press and announced, “I take responsibility.” He stated further, “I was wrong in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.” That, boys and girls, is known in intelligence circles as “NO SHIT ANALYSIS.”
Dickinson also reports that the Obama Administration waited six weeks before deploying its own research vessel to investigate whether or not BP’s estimates of the escaping oil were valid. SIX WEEKS!!
This is not about partisanship. This is about competence and Obama does not possess it. Please be sure to read the DIckinson piece in its entirety. He has done America a service and exposed Obama for the vacuous fraud he is.
Dickinson makes it clear that Obama failed in every regard to even answer the damn phone. He let it ring while the oil flooded the Gulf.
Let’s review the key points:
On March 31st President Obama trotted out his plan to support drilling in the Gulf. He said, “it turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills . . . they are technologically very advanced.” Unfortunately, Obama failed to ensure that the Department of Interior had the proper safeguards and procedures in place and that the existing regulations on the books were being enforced. He trusted the oil companies.
Before he took office Obama vowed to clean up the cronyism and corruption rampant in the Minerals Management Service of the Department of the Interior. Obama did not create the mess. The Bush Administration’s hands are filthy on this count. George W. and his band left Obama with a steaming turd. And what did Obama do when he assumed office? As Dickinson notes, “Obama left in place many of the top officials who oversaw the agency’s culture of corruption. He permitted it to rubber-stamp dangerous drilling operations by BP . . . with virtually no environmental safeguards.” He did nothing and, on the day that the head of the MMS resigned (or was fired) Obama did not have a clue what was going on. He said as much at a press conference.
Obama and his team continued the negligence of the Bush Administration. Wilkinson reports that, “MMS continued to issue categorical exclusions to companies like BP, even when they lacked the necessary permits to protect endangered species.” Moreover, Obama’s Department of Interior did not even ensure “that the MMS had a written manual–required under Interior’s own rules–for complying with environmental laws.”
Obama and his team knew from day one that the blown rig, under a worst case scenario, was spewing as much as 110,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. And what did the intrepid Captain Kick Ass Obama do? Did he mobilize a fleet of ships to start capturing the oil? Did he get on the phone to BP and demand they move immediately to prepare for a worst case scenario? Did he act as if this could be worse than the Exxon Valdez? Nope, he and the wife took off for a weekend excursion in Asheville, North Carolina to play golf and eat barbecue. And when he got back from vacation did he demand that BP give him a current status report? Nope. Instead he hosted the New York Yankees at the White House. In the ensuing weeks he glad handed with the men and women champions from the NCAA basketball tournament instead of accepting offers from other countries to provide oil skimmers. Oh, did I mention the parties and concerts? He had Sir Paul in to sing “Hey Jude.” Captain Kick Ass was just a party animal who couldn’t be bothered with the particulars of harnessing all public and private resources to fight the oil spill.
More than a week passed before Obama’s team declared the BP disaster an “Oil Spill of National Significance.” As Dickinson notes, this was “required to draw on regional resources and to appoint an incident commander to coordinate a federal response.
Who was in charge, on May 3rd of cleaning up the oil spilling into the Gulf? According to Robert Gibbs said, “the responsible party is BP.” Swell. One little problem. According to the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan an “oil company like BP cannot be left in charge” and the “government must direct all federal, state or private actions to clean up a spill where a discharge or threat of discharge poses a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States.” Captain Kick Ass and his crew of buffoons dropped this ball and the oil continued to flow.
On May 21st the President’s vapid mouthpiece, Robert Gibbs, said that Obama lacked the authority to play anything more than a supervisory role. Obama and his team, four weeks into the disaster, were still sitting on the sidelines.
Less than a week later Obama summoned the press and announced, “I take responsibility.” He stated further, “I was wrong in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios.” That, boys and girls, is known in intelligence circles as “NO SHIT ANALYSIS.”
Dickinson also reports that the Obama Administration waited six weeks before deploying its own research vessel to investigate whether or not BP’s estimates of the escaping oil were valid. SIX WEEKS!!
This is not about partisanship. This is about competence and Obama does not possess it. Please be sure to read the DIckinson piece in its entirety. He has done America a service and exposed Obama for the vacuous fraud he is.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
"Gulf Oil Spill 'Could Go On For Years' If Not Dealt With
F. William Engdahl - The Obama Administration and senior BP officials are frantically working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe. Senior researchers tell us that the BP drilling hit one of the oil migration channels and that the leakage could continue for years unless decisive steps are undertaken, something that seems far from the present strategy.
In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.” 1
According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, “What BP drilled into was what we call a ‘migration channel,’ a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.”3 Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight. According to the abiotic science, Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
As I wrote at the time of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster,3 Haiti had been identified as having potentially huge hydrocasrbon reserves, as has neighboring Cuba. Kutcherov estimates that the entire Gulf of Mexico is one of the planet’s most abundant accessible locations to extract oil and gas, at least before the Deepwater Horizon event this April.
“In my view the heads of BP reacted with panic at the scale of the oil spewing out of the well,” Kutcherov adds. “What is inexplicable at this point is why they are trying one thing, failing, then trying a second, failing, then a third. Given the scale of the disaster they should try every conceivable option, even if it is ten, all at once in hope one works. Otherwise, this oil source could spew oil for years given the volumes coming to the surface already.” 4
He stresses, “It is difficult to estimate how big this leakage is. There is no objective information available.” But taking into consideration information about the last BP ‘giant’ discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tiber field, some six miles deep, Kutcherov agrees with Ira Leifer a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara who says the oil may be gushing out at a rate of more than 100,000 barrels a day.5
What the enormoity of the oil spill does is to also further discredit clearly the oil companies’ myth of “peak oil” which claims that the world is at or near the “peak” of economical oil extraction. That myth, which has been propagated in recent years by circles close to former oilman and Bush Vice President, Dick Cheney, has been effectively used by the giant oil majors to justify far higher oil prices than would be politically possible otherwise, by claiming a non-existent petroleum scarcity crisis.
Obama & BP Try to Hide
According to a report from Washington investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, “the Obama White House and British Petroleum are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a ‘mega-disaster.’” 6 Madsen cites sources within the US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection for his assertion.
Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Salazar, are working with BP’s chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. According to informed estimates cited by Madsen, however, the disaster has a real potential cost of at least $1,000 billion ($1 trillion). That estimate would support the pessimistic assessment of Kutcherov that the spill, if not rapidly controlled, “will destroy the entire coastline of the United States.”
According to the Washington report of Madsen, BP statements that one of the leaks has been contained, are “pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration., according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources.” 7
The White House has been resisting releasing any “damaging information” about the oil disaster. Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers experts estimate that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. 8
Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a “national security issue.” Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano’s actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.
The Obama administration also conspired with BP to hide the extent of the oil leak, according to the cited federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day were gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day. However, submersibles monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what they describe as a “volcanic-like” eruption of oil.
When the Army Corps of Engineers first attempted to obtain NASA imagery of the Gulf oil slick, which is larger than is being reported by the media, it was reportedly denied the access. By chance, National Geographic managed to obtain satellite imagery shots of the extent of the disaster and posted them on their web site. Other satellite imagery reportedly being withheld by the Obama administration, shows that what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to Madsen’s sources.
The Corps of Engineers and FEMA are reported to be highly critical of the lack of support for quick action after the oil disaster by the Obama White House and the US Coast Guard. Only now has the Coast Guard understood the magnitude of the disaster, dispatching nearly 70 vessels to the affected area. Under the loose regulatory measures implemented by the Bush-Cheney Administration, the US Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service became a simple “rubber stamp,” approving whatever the oil companies wanted in terms of safety precautions that could have averted such a disaster. Madsen describes a state of “criminal collusion” between Cheney’s former firm, Halliburton, and the Interior Department’s MMS, and that the potential for similar disasters exists with the other 30,000 off-shore rigs that use the same shut-off valves. 9
Silence from Eco groups?... Follow the money
Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.
A cursory look at a map of the Gulf Stream shows that the oil is not just going to cover the beaches in the Gulf, it will spread to the Atlantic coasts up through North Carolina then on to the North Sea and Iceland. And beyond the damage to the beaches, sea life and water supplies, the Gulf stream has a very distinct chemistry, composition (marine organisms), density, temperature. What happens if the oil and the dispersants and all the toxic compounds they create actually change the nature of the Gulf Stream? No one can rule out potential changes including changes in the path of the Gulf Stream, and even small changes could have huge impacts. Europe, including England, is not an icy wasteland due to the warming from the Gulf Stream.
Yet there is a deafening silence from the very environmental organizations which ought to be at the barricades demanding that BP, the US Government and others act decisively.
That deafening silence of leading green or ecology organizations such as Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and others may well be tied to a money trail that leads right back to the oil industry, notably to BP. Leading environmental organizations have gotten significant financial payoffs in recent years from BP in order that the oil company could remake itself with an “environment-friendly face,” as in “beyond petroleum” the company’s new branding.
The Nature Conservancy, described as “the world’s most powerful environmental group,”10 has awarded BP a seat on its International Leadership Council after the oil company gave the organization more than $10 million in recent years. 11
Until recently, the Conservancy and other environmental groups worked with BP in a coalition that lobbied Congress on climate-change issues. An employee of BP Exploration serves as an unpaid Conservancy trustee in Alaska. In addition, according to a recent report published by the Washington Post, Conservation International, another environmental group, has accepted $2 million in donations from BP and worked with the company on a number of projects, including one examining oil-extraction methods. From 2000 to 2006, John Browne, then BP's chief executive, sat on the CI board.
Further, The Environmental Defense Fund, another influential ecologist organization, joined with BP, Shell and other major corporations to form a Partnership for Climate Action, to promote ‘market-based mechanisms’ (sic) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Environmental non-profit groups that have accepted donations from or joined in projects with BP include Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Audubon. That could explain why the political outcry to date for decisive action in the Gulf has been so muted. 12
Of course those organizations are not going to be the ones to solve this catastrophe. The central point at this point is who is prepared to put the urgently demanded federal and international scientific resources into solving this crisis. Further actions of the likes of that from the Obama White House to date or from BP can only lead to the conclusion that some very powerful people want this debacle to continue. The next weeks will be critical to that assessment.
In a recent discussion, Vladimir Kutcherov, Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Russian State University of Oil and Gas, predicted that the present oil spill flooding the Gulf Coast shores of the United States “could go on for years and years … many years.” 1
According to Kutcherov, a leading specialist in the theory of abiogenic deep origin of petroleum, “What BP drilled into was what we call a ‘migration channel,’ a deep fault on which hydrocarbons generated in the depth of our planet migrate to the crust and are accumulated in rocks, something like Ghawar in Saudi Arabia.”3 Ghawar, the world’s most prolific oilfield has been producing millions of barrels daily for almost 70 years with no end in sight. According to the abiotic science, Ghawar like all elephant and giant oil and gas deposits all over the world, is located on a migration channel similar to that in the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
As I wrote at the time of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster,3 Haiti had been identified as having potentially huge hydrocasrbon reserves, as has neighboring Cuba. Kutcherov estimates that the entire Gulf of Mexico is one of the planet’s most abundant accessible locations to extract oil and gas, at least before the Deepwater Horizon event this April.
“In my view the heads of BP reacted with panic at the scale of the oil spewing out of the well,” Kutcherov adds. “What is inexplicable at this point is why they are trying one thing, failing, then trying a second, failing, then a third. Given the scale of the disaster they should try every conceivable option, even if it is ten, all at once in hope one works. Otherwise, this oil source could spew oil for years given the volumes coming to the surface already.” 4
He stresses, “It is difficult to estimate how big this leakage is. There is no objective information available.” But taking into consideration information about the last BP ‘giant’ discovery in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tiber field, some six miles deep, Kutcherov agrees with Ira Leifer a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara who says the oil may be gushing out at a rate of more than 100,000 barrels a day.5
What the enormoity of the oil spill does is to also further discredit clearly the oil companies’ myth of “peak oil” which claims that the world is at or near the “peak” of economical oil extraction. That myth, which has been propagated in recent years by circles close to former oilman and Bush Vice President, Dick Cheney, has been effectively used by the giant oil majors to justify far higher oil prices than would be politically possible otherwise, by claiming a non-existent petroleum scarcity crisis.
Obama & BP Try to Hide
According to a report from Washington investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, “the Obama White House and British Petroleum are covering up the magnitude of the volcanic-level oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and working together to limit BP’s liability for damage caused by what can be called a ‘mega-disaster.’” 6 Madsen cites sources within the US Army Corps of Engineers, FEMA, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection for his assertion.
Obama and his senior White House staff, as well as Interior Secretary Salazar, are working with BP’s chief executive officer Tony Hayward on legislation that would raise the cap on liability for damage claims from those affected by the oil disaster from $75 million to $10 billion. According to informed estimates cited by Madsen, however, the disaster has a real potential cost of at least $1,000 billion ($1 trillion). That estimate would support the pessimistic assessment of Kutcherov that the spill, if not rapidly controlled, “will destroy the entire coastline of the United States.”
According to the Washington report of Madsen, BP statements that one of the leaks has been contained, are “pure public relations disinformation designed to avoid panic and demands for greater action by the Obama administration., according to FEMA and Corps of Engineers sources.” 7
The White House has been resisting releasing any “damaging information” about the oil disaster. Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers experts estimate that if the ocean oil geyser is not stopped within 90 days, there will be irreversible damage to the marine eco-systems of the Gulf of Mexico, north Atlantic Ocean, and beyond. At best, some Corps of Engineers experts say it could take two years to cement the chasm on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. 8
Only after the magnitude of the disaster became evident did Obama order Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano to declare the oil disaster a “national security issue.” Although the Coast Guard and FEMA are part of her department, Napolitano’s actual reasoning for invoking national security, according to Madsen, was merely to block media coverage of the immensity of the disaster that is unfolding for the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean and their coastlines.
The Obama administration also conspired with BP to hide the extent of the oil leak, according to the cited federal and state sources. After the oil rig exploded and sank, the government stated that 42,000 gallons per day were gushing from the seabed chasm. Five days later, the federal government upped the leakage to 210,000 gallons a day. However, submersibles monitoring the escaping oil from the Gulf seabed are viewing television pictures of what they describe as a “volcanic-like” eruption of oil.
When the Army Corps of Engineers first attempted to obtain NASA imagery of the Gulf oil slick, which is larger than is being reported by the media, it was reportedly denied the access. By chance, National Geographic managed to obtain satellite imagery shots of the extent of the disaster and posted them on their web site. Other satellite imagery reportedly being withheld by the Obama administration, shows that what lies under the gaping chasm spewing oil at an ever-alarming rate is a cavern estimated to be the size of Mount Everest. This information has been given an almost national security-level classification to keep it from the public, according to Madsen’s sources.
The Corps of Engineers and FEMA are reported to be highly critical of the lack of support for quick action after the oil disaster by the Obama White House and the US Coast Guard. Only now has the Coast Guard understood the magnitude of the disaster, dispatching nearly 70 vessels to the affected area. Under the loose regulatory measures implemented by the Bush-Cheney Administration, the US Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service became a simple “rubber stamp,” approving whatever the oil companies wanted in terms of safety precautions that could have averted such a disaster. Madsen describes a state of “criminal collusion” between Cheney’s former firm, Halliburton, and the Interior Department’s MMS, and that the potential for similar disasters exists with the other 30,000 off-shore rigs that use the same shut-off valves. 9
Silence from Eco groups?... Follow the money
Without doubt at this point we are in the midst of what could be the greatest ecological catastrophe in history. The oil platform explosion took place almost within the current loop where the Gulf Stream originates. This has huge ecological and climatological consequences.
A cursory look at a map of the Gulf Stream shows that the oil is not just going to cover the beaches in the Gulf, it will spread to the Atlantic coasts up through North Carolina then on to the North Sea and Iceland. And beyond the damage to the beaches, sea life and water supplies, the Gulf stream has a very distinct chemistry, composition (marine organisms), density, temperature. What happens if the oil and the dispersants and all the toxic compounds they create actually change the nature of the Gulf Stream? No one can rule out potential changes including changes in the path of the Gulf Stream, and even small changes could have huge impacts. Europe, including England, is not an icy wasteland due to the warming from the Gulf Stream.
Yet there is a deafening silence from the very environmental organizations which ought to be at the barricades demanding that BP, the US Government and others act decisively.
That deafening silence of leading green or ecology organizations such as Greenpeace, Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and others may well be tied to a money trail that leads right back to the oil industry, notably to BP. Leading environmental organizations have gotten significant financial payoffs in recent years from BP in order that the oil company could remake itself with an “environment-friendly face,” as in “beyond petroleum” the company’s new branding.
The Nature Conservancy, described as “the world’s most powerful environmental group,”10 has awarded BP a seat on its International Leadership Council after the oil company gave the organization more than $10 million in recent years. 11
Until recently, the Conservancy and other environmental groups worked with BP in a coalition that lobbied Congress on climate-change issues. An employee of BP Exploration serves as an unpaid Conservancy trustee in Alaska. In addition, according to a recent report published by the Washington Post, Conservation International, another environmental group, has accepted $2 million in donations from BP and worked with the company on a number of projects, including one examining oil-extraction methods. From 2000 to 2006, John Browne, then BP's chief executive, sat on the CI board.
Further, The Environmental Defense Fund, another influential ecologist organization, joined with BP, Shell and other major corporations to form a Partnership for Climate Action, to promote ‘market-based mechanisms’ (sic) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Environmental non-profit groups that have accepted donations from or joined in projects with BP include Nature Conservancy, Conservation International, Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Audubon. That could explain why the political outcry to date for decisive action in the Gulf has been so muted. 12
Of course those organizations are not going to be the ones to solve this catastrophe. The central point at this point is who is prepared to put the urgently demanded federal and international scientific resources into solving this crisis. Further actions of the likes of that from the Obama White House to date or from BP can only lead to the conclusion that some very powerful people want this debacle to continue. The next weeks will be critical to that assessment.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Is Obama BP's Puppy
Shamus Cooke - After BP successfully placed a cap to divert some of the spewing oil into tankers, tens of thousands of gallons continue to flow daily into the gulf. August is slated as the earliest date that any permanent solution may emerge. BP remains totally in charge of potentially the largest environmental disaster in the earth’s recorded history, a fact that proves — in “check mate” fashion — that corporations dominate the inner workings of the U.S. government, a truth previously revealed by the bank bailouts.
More than one gigantic eco-system may be destroyed by BP, and the President of the U.S. is sadly reduced to lecturing in “serious tones,” with daily adjustments of tone based on the results of polling agencies.
When the polls reported that Obama wasn’t taking the oil spill seriously enough, his next TV appearance depicted him as “outraged.” Yet his continuing lack of action doesn’t match his new, stronger emotions; nor does his inaction match the dire seriousness of the situation.
Indeed, Obama continues to allow BP to lie about the seriousness of the spill, even when numerous independent scientists disputed BP’s estimates of the spillage. Of course Obama knew that BP had a profit incentive to lie, while Obama has his own incentive to allow the lie — and continued lies — of BP.
One reason Obama doesn’t challenge BP is because he’s on their payroll. The news agency Reuters explains: “During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.” (May 5, 2010).
In July, BP is set to give its shareholders multi-billion dollar dividends — prompting more toothless anger from Obama — while BP continues to maintain a healthy distance from taking complete accountability for the oil spill.
The results are sadly predictable: many of the effects of the spill will be permanent, while the cleanup and recovery will go on for years and decades, possibly costing the extinction of some species and the United States billions and maybe trillions of dollars in the long term.
BP will throw itself at the mercy of the courts, an elite entity much friendlier to the mega-corporations than to the millions of U.S. workers demanding justice. Add to the equation BP’s elite attorneys and you have an eventual settlement — after years — that will equal the tiniest fraction of the caused devastation. This prediction was all but confirmed by the mainstream media, when Curt Anderson of the Associated Press reported:
“More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases…” (June 6, 2010).
Aside from the above financial blocks to holding BP accountable, there lays a deeper code of ethics that prohibit government interference into the matters of private corporations, no matter how great the damage done to the general public.
At the top of this corporate code of ethics is the sacredness of property rights, meaning that large corporations have complete control — outside the grasp of any government — to do what they want with their giant wealth and facilities, wherever and whenever they want.
To the U.S. government, this right pre-empts human rights, environmental rights, etc. Property rights are enshrined in every free-trade agreement the U.S. government signs, so that overseas corporate investments are strictly protected, prohibiting foreign nations from using U.S. corporate facilities for the social needs of their native populations. Although BP is a British corporation, the rules of this code are mutual and global.
Nowadays, the tiniest crack in the foundation of corporate property rights constitutes “communism” — a right wing accusation hurled at Obama after he partially nationalized General Motors and other institutions in response to the economic crisis. And although Obama intruded into the sanctity of property rights when the financial crisis exploded, it was with the general consent of the corporate establishment — who viewed those actions as necessary, short-term evils — meant to save the investments of the rich, while using taxpayer money to rehabilitate the companies before they were eventually handed back to shareholders.
The emergency in the Gulf of Mexico, on the other hand, is viewed by the corporate elite as a lesser crisis, demanding the government not set another precedent that would point to the necessity of public ownership.
Obama’s unwillingness to push aside BP and take government charge of the operation makes him an accomplice to the environmental disaster. For example, in order that BP be allowed to remain at the helm, Obama has given them professional credibility where none should exist — “they have the expertise and technology,” etc. BP’s actions prior to the spill constitute criminal negligence. The comments of BP’s CEO since the spill undoubtedly prove that the company views the disaster as more of an inconvenience, to be handled at their leisure.
Furthermore, every public appearance of a BP executive or spokesperson serves to minimize the crisis, implying that a less immediate reaction is required. Indeed, as a for-profit company, BP’s actions remain motivated by concern for their shareholders, whose only motivation is profit. In practice, this means fewer resources are dedicated to the spill than would be otherwise, since higher cleanup costs equal lower profits. One glaring example of this was cited in The New York Times, which quoted a scientist working for the Flow Rate Technical Group, a team of scientists trying to accurately gauge the flow of oil into the Gulf:
“It’s apparent that BP is playing games with us, presumably under the advice of their legal team,” Dr. Leifer said. “It’s six weeks that it’s been dumping into the gulf, and still no measurements.” (June 7, 2010).
Local government officials in Florida are also disgusted with BP’s lack of action in preventing the oil from landing on their beaches, while doing next to nothing in cleaning up the beached oil. The attorney general of Florida complained:
“I’m outraged…why are we waiting so long to do this? Why is the Coast Guard, Obama, BP waiting? They’ve seen it coming, so why are we waiting?” (Bloomberg, June 7, 2010).
Obama’s religious faith in BP to properly handle the spill — after it had no emergency plan to deal with such a spill in the first place — borders on lunacy. But the logic is sensible from the corporate prospective, which preaches that all is rational which protects profits.
In a sane world, BP’s executives would be facing severe criminal charges, and the billions of profits they’ve earned in the last year would be confiscated to pay for the cleanup. BP’s infrastructure would be taken under the control of the U.S. government, which could ensure that the job was done correctly, timely, and publicly, as opposed to the shield of corporate secrecy currently protecting BP.
The ultimate lesson of this environmental/economic catastrophe is that Obama is not at all serious about confronting corporate interests. Rather, he allows them to stampede over the public interests, ensuring that such disasters will happen again.
More than one gigantic eco-system may be destroyed by BP, and the President of the U.S. is sadly reduced to lecturing in “serious tones,” with daily adjustments of tone based on the results of polling agencies.
When the polls reported that Obama wasn’t taking the oil spill seriously enough, his next TV appearance depicted him as “outraged.” Yet his continuing lack of action doesn’t match his new, stronger emotions; nor does his inaction match the dire seriousness of the situation.
Indeed, Obama continues to allow BP to lie about the seriousness of the spill, even when numerous independent scientists disputed BP’s estimates of the spillage. Of course Obama knew that BP had a profit incentive to lie, while Obama has his own incentive to allow the lie — and continued lies — of BP.
One reason Obama doesn’t challenge BP is because he’s on their payroll. The news agency Reuters explains: “During his time in the Senate and while running for president, Obama received a total of $77,051 from the oil giant and is the top recipient of BP PAC and individual money over the past 20 years, according to financial disclosure records.” (May 5, 2010).
In July, BP is set to give its shareholders multi-billion dollar dividends — prompting more toothless anger from Obama — while BP continues to maintain a healthy distance from taking complete accountability for the oil spill.
The results are sadly predictable: many of the effects of the spill will be permanent, while the cleanup and recovery will go on for years and decades, possibly costing the extinction of some species and the United States billions and maybe trillions of dollars in the long term.
BP will throw itself at the mercy of the courts, an elite entity much friendlier to the mega-corporations than to the millions of U.S. workers demanding justice. Add to the equation BP’s elite attorneys and you have an eventual settlement — after years — that will equal the tiniest fraction of the caused devastation. This prediction was all but confirmed by the mainstream media, when Curt Anderson of the Associated Press reported:
“More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases…” (June 6, 2010).
Aside from the above financial blocks to holding BP accountable, there lays a deeper code of ethics that prohibit government interference into the matters of private corporations, no matter how great the damage done to the general public.
At the top of this corporate code of ethics is the sacredness of property rights, meaning that large corporations have complete control — outside the grasp of any government — to do what they want with their giant wealth and facilities, wherever and whenever they want.
To the U.S. government, this right pre-empts human rights, environmental rights, etc. Property rights are enshrined in every free-trade agreement the U.S. government signs, so that overseas corporate investments are strictly protected, prohibiting foreign nations from using U.S. corporate facilities for the social needs of their native populations. Although BP is a British corporation, the rules of this code are mutual and global.
Nowadays, the tiniest crack in the foundation of corporate property rights constitutes “communism” — a right wing accusation hurled at Obama after he partially nationalized General Motors and other institutions in response to the economic crisis. And although Obama intruded into the sanctity of property rights when the financial crisis exploded, it was with the general consent of the corporate establishment — who viewed those actions as necessary, short-term evils — meant to save the investments of the rich, while using taxpayer money to rehabilitate the companies before they were eventually handed back to shareholders.
The emergency in the Gulf of Mexico, on the other hand, is viewed by the corporate elite as a lesser crisis, demanding the government not set another precedent that would point to the necessity of public ownership.
Obama’s unwillingness to push aside BP and take government charge of the operation makes him an accomplice to the environmental disaster. For example, in order that BP be allowed to remain at the helm, Obama has given them professional credibility where none should exist — “they have the expertise and technology,” etc. BP’s actions prior to the spill constitute criminal negligence. The comments of BP’s CEO since the spill undoubtedly prove that the company views the disaster as more of an inconvenience, to be handled at their leisure.
Furthermore, every public appearance of a BP executive or spokesperson serves to minimize the crisis, implying that a less immediate reaction is required. Indeed, as a for-profit company, BP’s actions remain motivated by concern for their shareholders, whose only motivation is profit. In practice, this means fewer resources are dedicated to the spill than would be otherwise, since higher cleanup costs equal lower profits. One glaring example of this was cited in The New York Times, which quoted a scientist working for the Flow Rate Technical Group, a team of scientists trying to accurately gauge the flow of oil into the Gulf:
“It’s apparent that BP is playing games with us, presumably under the advice of their legal team,” Dr. Leifer said. “It’s six weeks that it’s been dumping into the gulf, and still no measurements.” (June 7, 2010).
Local government officials in Florida are also disgusted with BP’s lack of action in preventing the oil from landing on their beaches, while doing next to nothing in cleaning up the beached oil. The attorney general of Florida complained:
“I’m outraged…why are we waiting so long to do this? Why is the Coast Guard, Obama, BP waiting? They’ve seen it coming, so why are we waiting?” (Bloomberg, June 7, 2010).
Obama’s religious faith in BP to properly handle the spill — after it had no emergency plan to deal with such a spill in the first place — borders on lunacy. But the logic is sensible from the corporate prospective, which preaches that all is rational which protects profits.
In a sane world, BP’s executives would be facing severe criminal charges, and the billions of profits they’ve earned in the last year would be confiscated to pay for the cleanup. BP’s infrastructure would be taken under the control of the U.S. government, which could ensure that the job was done correctly, timely, and publicly, as opposed to the shield of corporate secrecy currently protecting BP.
The ultimate lesson of this environmental/economic catastrophe is that Obama is not at all serious about confronting corporate interests. Rather, he allows them to stampede over the public interests, ensuring that such disasters will happen again.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Obama's Oil Spill Response: The Story Behind The Story
Robert Singer - I have received a number of emails about the environmental impacts of the BP oil spill. The size of the spill and the impacts on wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico ecosystems have prompted a number of readers to write:
“Bob, it looks like you are right, the environmental damage and pollution are the goal and not the unintended consequences.”
Others have noted the irony that the leak is believed to have started on Earth Day, April 22, when the Deepwater Horizon sank. [1]
Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, appears to realize there is story behind the story of Obama’s bizarre behavior at his lengthy news conference yesterday at the White House.
“For eight years we had a president who refused to accept blame. Now we have one who seems to enjoy it.
He decorated the East Room with wuddas, cuddas and shuddas: “We should have busted through those constraints. . . . pre-deploying boom would have been the right thing to do . . . I do think our efforts fell short. . . . They should have pushed them sooner. . . . I think that it took too long. . . . Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together.”
As I sat in the fourth row on Thursday, I was struck by the weirdly passive figure before me.
He delivered lawyerly phrases and spoke of his anger about the oil spill but showed none in his voice or on his face.
He was, presumably, there to show how aggressively he has handled the disaster, but he seemed cool, almost bloodless.
CBS’s Chip Reid asked about the resignation hours earlier of Elizabeth Birnbaum, head of the MMS, or Minerals Management Service. “I found out about her resignation today,” Obama replied. Interior Secretary “Ken Salazar has been in testimony throughout the day, so I don’t know the circumstances in which this occurred.”
That’s very clear, sir. But why not share some with the guys at BP who actually are responsible for the spill?”
The leak, instead of being 210,000 gallons of the Earth’s vital fluids being extracted, the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that BP admits “that the leak rate is around 2.5 million gallons a day.
In 2005, world oil-production alone (not including natural-gas) was an incomprehensible 80 — 100 million barrels of oil per day.
USGS coastal geologists understand these factors cannot be ignored as far as influencing earth crust stresses andconfirm the earth’s response to extracting by force 3,360,000,000 — 4,200,000,000 gallons of the planets vital fluids every single day: Earthquakes and tsunamis.
While disagreement abounds on this topic, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) say that oil production at plate boundaries where hard, rocky slabs slide against each other to releases tremendous amounts of energy and could be the cause for the 2004 quake that triggered a deadly tsunami in Sumatra.
“Here’s how it works: With high-tech equipment, oil companies pinpoint oil-rich areas and use large drills to puncture the surface below the sea, sometimes as deep as 10,000 feet. As this pricey fluid gets sucked from the sediment pores, the surrounding rocks shift positions to fill in the newly vacated spaces. At a large scale, for example the volume displaced when millions of barrels of oil are produced, the land movement can actually cause a mini-seismic earthquake, said Robert Morton, a USGS coastal geologist.
During these various stages the globe of the earth is gradually being depressurized and cooled internally, causing contraction for both of these reasons. When objects cool down, they automatically shrink/contract in size. If you let high-pressure air or gas out of a cylinder, it forms ice around the outlet, and cools the entire cylinder. If you let some of the air out of a football, or basketball, the ball shrinks and goes badly out of shape.”
“Apply that to the Earth and you have earthquakes — simple common-sense — not rocket-science. A fact so simple that anyone who understands the oil-extraction process would understand, but, because they are insanely-blinded by their insatiable greed and avarice, they often overlook the obvious.”
“Bob, it looks like you are right, the environmental damage and pollution are the goal and not the unintended consequences.”
Others have noted the irony that the leak is believed to have started on Earth Day, April 22, when the Deepwater Horizon sank. [1]
Dana Milbank, at the Washington Post, appears to realize there is story behind the story of Obama’s bizarre behavior at his lengthy news conference yesterday at the White House.
“For eight years we had a president who refused to accept blame. Now we have one who seems to enjoy it.
He decorated the East Room with wuddas, cuddas and shuddas: “We should have busted through those constraints. . . . pre-deploying boom would have been the right thing to do . . . I do think our efforts fell short. . . . They should have pushed them sooner. . . . I think that it took too long. . . . Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together.”
As I sat in the fourth row on Thursday, I was struck by the weirdly passive figure before me.
He delivered lawyerly phrases and spoke of his anger about the oil spill but showed none in his voice or on his face.
He was, presumably, there to show how aggressively he has handled the disaster, but he seemed cool, almost bloodless.
CBS’s Chip Reid asked about the resignation hours earlier of Elizabeth Birnbaum, head of the MMS, or Minerals Management Service. “I found out about her resignation today,” Obama replied. Interior Secretary “Ken Salazar has been in testimony throughout the day, so I don’t know the circumstances in which this occurred.”
That’s very clear, sir. But why not share some with the guys at BP who actually are responsible for the spill?”
The leak, instead of being 210,000 gallons of the Earth’s vital fluids being extracted, the Los Angeles Times is now reporting that BP admits “that the leak rate is around 2.5 million gallons a day.
In 2005, world oil-production alone (not including natural-gas) was an incomprehensible 80 — 100 million barrels of oil per day.
USGS coastal geologists understand these factors cannot be ignored as far as influencing earth crust stresses andconfirm the earth’s response to extracting by force 3,360,000,000 — 4,200,000,000 gallons of the planets vital fluids every single day: Earthquakes and tsunamis.
While disagreement abounds on this topic, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) say that oil production at plate boundaries where hard, rocky slabs slide against each other to releases tremendous amounts of energy and could be the cause for the 2004 quake that triggered a deadly tsunami in Sumatra.
“Here’s how it works: With high-tech equipment, oil companies pinpoint oil-rich areas and use large drills to puncture the surface below the sea, sometimes as deep as 10,000 feet. As this pricey fluid gets sucked from the sediment pores, the surrounding rocks shift positions to fill in the newly vacated spaces. At a large scale, for example the volume displaced when millions of barrels of oil are produced, the land movement can actually cause a mini-seismic earthquake, said Robert Morton, a USGS coastal geologist.
During these various stages the globe of the earth is gradually being depressurized and cooled internally, causing contraction for both of these reasons. When objects cool down, they automatically shrink/contract in size. If you let high-pressure air or gas out of a cylinder, it forms ice around the outlet, and cools the entire cylinder. If you let some of the air out of a football, or basketball, the ball shrinks and goes badly out of shape.”
“Apply that to the Earth and you have earthquakes — simple common-sense — not rocket-science. A fact so simple that anyone who understands the oil-extraction process would understand, but, because they are insanely-blinded by their insatiable greed and avarice, they often overlook the obvious.”
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