Tag: Gulf of Mexico

Will Washington dispense with a new round of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran? Or will the warmongers in the White House march for war against the country?

The current hoo-hah over President Obama's public statement of the obvious, that Muslims have the same rights as everyone else, to worship, to speak, to petition the government for redress, to get jiggy, and just about whatever, Dude, has had the media, the Republicans and a few chicken shit Democrats obsessing through the weekend and deep into today, with no end in sight.

Since the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank on April 20 killing 11 workers the NOAA estimates that 206 million gallons of "light sweet crude" spewed from BP's Macondo well field, fouling the waters of the Gulf, shutting down much of the commerce of the surrounding region and creating a giant toxic bouillabaisse in which now swim whatever critters managed to survive poisoning, suffocation, or being roasted alive.

Sickening? Yes, this oil, this poison brings a sickness of the senses, of sight and touch and smell ... it poisons air and water, killing all it contacts, but it also brings a sickness of the soul, of the heart which many will not survive.

IS DISSOLUTION, DISMEMBERMENT AND DELEGITIMACY INEVITABLE FOR AMERICA? By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor To millions of Americans, the "end times" seem to be on us.  The...

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles," declared Reagan; then, in a classic example of leading from the front, he had the solar panels removed from his roof. It was a clear statement that would set the tone for future energy policy and place control of the game in the hands of the energy moguls.

The subtitle of the BP oil spill is the Price of the Pelican. We will never fully know the cost of this spill to wildlife and wetlands, because it will continue its slow-motion rampage long after the lawyers have settled. Rowan Gould, the acting director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said the spill “in all likelihood will affect fish and wildlife resources in the Gulf and across the North American continent for years, if not decades to come.’’

For animal lovers, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Gulf spill is the oil-drenched wildlife washing up on shore. If you're too horrified to look at any photos, you're in luck — BP doesn't want you to see them. As of Friday morning, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s tally of dead animals collected in the Gulf area was 527 birds, 235 sea turtles (six to nine times the average rate), and 30 mammals, including dolphins

Who's BP's favorite politician ever? If you're just going by the numbers, it's none other than President Barack Obama, who leads BP's lifetime campaign donation list with $77,051. That puts him just ahead of reliable oilmen such as Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young, his retired colleague Sen. Ted Stevens, and George W. Bush. According to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, BP and its employees have given more than $3.4 million to federal candidates since 1990, with much of their largesse going to these 20:

BP Plc’s failure since April to plug a Gulf of Mexico oil leak has prompted forecasts the crude may continue gushing into December in what President Barack Obama has called the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history. BP’s attempts so far to cap the well and plug the leak on the seabed a mile below the surface haven’t worked, while the start of the Atlantic hurricane season this week indicates storms in the Gulf may disrupt other efforts.

BP is a convicted serial environmental criminal. Why is there no criminal investigation? Why hasn't the government launched a criminal investigation into BP? * By Jason...

Survivors told a congressional panel last week that Massey Energy had flouted safety regulations and rendered the poorly ventilated coal mine into "a ticking time bomb." Upper Big Branch became a deadly monument to ineffectual enforcement by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Massey Energy was essentially allowed to regulate itself.

I asked the sheriff of St. Bernard Parish, Jack Stephens, if he was at all optimistic about BP stopping the gusher of oil that is fouling the Gulf of Mexico in time to prevent a long-term environmental catastrophe in the southern Louisiana wetlands.

I have watched in sadness and anger the coverage of the unnecessary destruction of the Gulf of Mexico. The oil is now into the Gulf's "loop current" and will be in the Keys within ten days. Here's an update on the attempt to clean up this mess from the St Petersburg Times.

Oil spewing from BP's ruptured undersea well in the Gulf of Mexico has now reached the US coast, choking marshlands and fragile marine life. Amid the massive mop-up operation, Al Jazeera's John Terrett takes a boat ride around southern Louisiana's coast. The thick slick is already causing the local economy and the environment massive damage, but many fear the worst is yet to come.

The latest facts, stats, pictures and maps for the BP oil spill, its size, its impacts on wildlife, and the efforts at containment and cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 killed 11 people and led to the BP oil spill that threatens coastal Louisiana, Gulf Coast fisheries, Gulf of Mexico ecosystems, and perhaps the East Coast, as the spill reaches the loop current.

VENICE, La. -- A flotilla of shrimp boats skimmed the waters of Brenton Bay at the mouth of the Mississippi Thursday in a desperate attempt to limit the damage to coastal marshes from the long tendrils of oil snaking in from the giant spill.

Last Thursday, BP began putting more than 100,000 gallons of chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico to disperse some of the hundreds of thousands -- if not millions -- of gallons of petroleum its undersea volcano of oil has gushed so far. Chemically dispersing oil spills "solves the political problem of visible oil but not the environmental problem," Robert Brulle, a 20-year Coast Guard veteran and an affiliate professor of public health at Drexel University, told me. These dispersants "do not actually reduce the total amount of oil entering the environment," as a 2005 National Academy of Sciences report on the subject put it.

A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could be on the verge of becoming an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf. A confidential government report on the unfolding spill disaster in the Gulf makes clear the Coast Guard now fears the well could become an unchecked gusher shooting millions of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf.

A former contractor who worked for British Petroleum (BP) claims the oil conglomerate broke federal laws and violated its own internal procedures by failing to maintain crucial safety and engineering documents related to one of the firms other deep water production projects in the Gulf of Mexico, according to internal emails and other documents obtained by Truthout.

The oil spill that began when one of oil giant "BP's" offshore oil rigs exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last week was initially reported as leaking at the rate of 1000 barrels per day. Last night the Coast Guard upped the estimated leak rate to 5000 barrels per day. I assume that they are talking about the typical 42 gallon "barrel" the standard measurement for the toxic fluid now gushing from a pipe drilled in a hole in the sea floor. If so, that's 210,000 gallons of toxic, flammable, carcinogenic, fish, fowl and coral killing sludge every day.