Oil spill: US failing to tighten ecological oversight, say activists

[undeterred]

Source: The Guardian

The Obama administration waived environmental reviews for 26 new offshore drilling projects even as the BP oil disaster spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, environmental activists said today.

The charge came as hopes for a quick fix to the Deepwater Horizon spill were dashed when a build-up of crystallised gas blocked pipes in a huge metal containment box that had been built to cap the well. Engineers are now considering a "junk shot", shooting a mix of debris – including shredded tires and golf balls – into the well at high pressure to clog it, said Thad Allen, a US coast guard commander.

With the spill still unchecked and spreading to Alabama's beaches, there was renewed focus on oversight procedures that allowed BP and Transocean to drill without backup plans in place. The Centre for Biological Diversity said that even after the disaster, the Obama administration did not tighten its oversight of offshore drilling. An investigation by the respected environmental group revealed that since 20 April, when an explosion the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers, 27 new offshore drilling projects have been approved by the Mineral Management Service (MMS) the regulatory agency responsible for overseeing extraction of oil, gas and other minerals.

All but one project was granted similar exemptions from environmental review as BP. Two were submitted by the UK firm, and made the same claims about oil-rig safety and the implausibility of a spill damaging the environment, the centre said. "This oil spill has had absolutely no effect on MMS behaviour at all," said Kieran Suckling, the director of the centre. "It's still business as usual which means rubber stamping oil drilling permits with no environmental review."



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/09/oil-spill-ecological-review-environment

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Infuriating. :mad:

[emilyg]

1. k/r

[tomm2thumbs]

2. I hope someone is considering fuel bladders

they could link quite a few and since they are within the ocean, would probably not require physical support for their weight such as tanks on land - I understand there are some that range between 50,000 to 210,000-gallons. Instead of trying to get the oil up to the surface, why don't they at least capture it down below for now

perhaps it is something about the pressures so deep, but seems to me they've got nothing but time to try something now until they think of another plan

http://www.imagesbydave.com/U-Tapao_Photo_Page_43.html
http://www.interstateproducts.com/fuel_storage_bladders.htm
http://www.aireindustrial.net/products/default.aspx?id=190

either that or try getting a deflated military blimp roughly receiving the output of that pipe underwater - even a Goodyear blimp has a volume of 202,700 cubic feet

[saigon68]

3. Caving in to capitalist greed

[political custard]

4. see how big the oil spill is when super-imposed over a city of your choosing...

Just found this great http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/">website which enables you to get a really good sense of how big this thing is.

[undeterred]

6. Had to install google earth to see it

but it was worth it.

[polichick]

5. In this respect the Obama admin. is at least as bad as the Bush admin. nt

[KoKo]

7. No Matter WHICH PARTY! "DRILL, BABY....DRILL!"

Move along here...nothing to see. Just getcher "Pom Poms ready" and cheer on our "New Dems!"

:party:

[northernlights]

8. I am so done with this administration

:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

I'll be voting my conscience from now on. I'm done with the lesser of 2 evils, and will never waste my time and energy on "hope" for "change you can believe in" again.

[undeterred]

9. What are the chances of getting a national candidate

who says no to the corporations and cares about the environment? Neither major party seems to care enough about what we are doing to the planet.

[northernlights]

11. I had hoped they would at least learn enough from this

to be able to extrapolate to pushing ahead with nukes without understanding the *real* risks involved -- greed for the almighty dollar over everything. Or if we'd need to lose a region for 10s of thousands of years first.

Now I see they are so blind, willfully ignorant, and/or hatefully evil they can't even imagine the devastation of ruining another region for decades with oil geysers...

[dgibby]

10. I'm beginning to think it 's a waste of time to vote

unless you have enough money. After all, what chance does my vote have against a multi-national corp. that can buy Congress and any Pres. it wants?
Kind of an exercise in futility, I think (although I'll probably vote out of force of habit).:shrug: :cry:

[northernlights]

12. I've been voting faithfully for 38 years...almost 4 decades

it IS a waste of time and totally hopeless. But from now on, out of force of habit and to generate a drop of good karma, I'll be voting green only. If necessary, I'll write-in a vote for Gaia or Mother Earth or something. :cry: :cry: :cry: