BP Insider: Massive Dead Zone Could Be Produced by Gulf BP-Congress Catastrophe

[G_j]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/BP-Insider-Massive-Dead-Z-by-Rob-Kall-100508-893.html

BP Insider: Massive Dead Zone Could Be Produced by Gulf BP-Congress Catastrophe

By Rob Kall

A BP insider, providing information to OpEdNEws.com, reports that scientists and engineers, fearing the worst, have envisioned a worst case scenario,

"It could very well be that the entire Gulf and the East coast of Florida could become dead zones, with no aquatic life at all."


BP is not just the oil company with theworst safety record in America.It is also a criminal company, currently oncriminal probation, with numerous other offenses as well. Any human with this kind of record would be jailed.

Part of the reason this situation now exists is because BP secured a release from being required to use back-up acoustic coupler shut-off valves from Dick Cheney and the Bush administration, in 2003, when Cheney held secret meetings with energy executives-- the one the Supreme Court protected the secrecy of.

BP and the entire oil industry has been enabled by the Department of the Interior'sMinerals Management Service (MMS)a division that has, to a large extent, been handed over to industry to administer and run, with former industry employees in key roles, with attention to regulations ignored or decided by industry companies, not government regulators. My source informs me that "MMS is the same failed organization that allowed the Massey mining company to get away with all its violations." While immediate calls for congressional hearings and investigations of MMS and everything surrounding the Gulf BP-Congress Catastrophe would seem to be an obvious response, my source reports that the oil industry does not want hearings now, so they're focusing attention on stopping the leaks, as a distraction.

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[merh]

1. The Obama administration cannot blame Deep Horizon on Bush.

Yes, the Bush admin did let the oil corps get away with all sorts of shit, but they are not the admin that allowed the Deep Horizon to begin drilling without having complied with federal law and/or without the necessary blow back safety devices.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[G_j]

3. The MMS

http://trueslant.com/level/2010/04/30/obama-shares-blame-for-failing-to-prevent-gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill/


<snip>

The agency charged with enforcing safety regulations on offshore oil rigs is the Minerals Management Service, nestled within the Department of Interior. The MMS, you might recall, was implicated in a doozy of a scandal toward the end of the Bush administration. The part of the agency that was supposed to be ensuring the federal government collected royalties owed to the American people by companies drilling on federal lands had been completely bought off by the very corporations they were regulating. Justin Rood, then at Talking Points Memo, memorably named the scandal ‘sex-for-oil‘ because of findings of ‘improper social ties’ between MMS staff and oil and gas industry executives (oh yeah, they also called it ‘Lubrigate‘). And that was just the salacious part of the scandal – the financial loss to the American public as a consequence of the cozy relationship between MMS regulators and the companies they were collecting from remains difficult to calculate.

Since the Obama administration has come into office, it has taken a path with MMS that would not suggest that safety was its primary concerns where offshore drilling was concerned.

For instance, the budget for safety remained relatively flat, growing by about $3 million from FY2009 to FY2010, the transition from the Bush to the Obama administration, and then seeing an the budget rise about $119,000 more for this coming year.

At the same time, MMS established some new principles for safety inspection concerned more with risk assessment than covering every facility. The most recent budget request from the Department of Interior states outright that “MMS focuses compliance efforts on those operators whose performance does not meet certain targets.” What this means is that they are focused on the facilities with the greatest risk. And to that end, MMS explained in its budget request that while it completed around 27,000 inspections in FY2009 (the last year of the Bush administration), it anticipated completing fewer inspections in both ‘10 and ‘11 – 22,000 and 23,000 respectively. And for that reason, it’s possible that TransOcean’s Deepwater Horizon may not have been on its radar screen.

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/08

Published on Saturday, May 8, 2010 by McClatchy Newspapers

Since Spill, Feds Have Given 27 Waivers to Oil Companies in Gulf
by Marisa Taylor

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

The waivers were granted despite President Barack Obama’s vow that his administration would launch a “relentless response effort” to stop the leak and prevent more damage to the gulf. One of them was dated Friday — the day after Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was temporarily halting offshore drilling

The exemptions, known as “categorical exclusions,” were granted by the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a BP exploration plan to be conducted at a depth of more than 4,000 feet and an Anadarko Petroleum Corp. exploration plan at more 9,000 feet.

“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?” asked Peter Galvin, conservation director with the Center for Biological Diversity, the environmental group that discovered the administration’s continued approval of the exemptions. “Possibly the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history has occurred and nothing appears to have changed.”

MMS officials said the exemptions are continuing to be issued because they do not represent final drilling approval.

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[chill_wind]

5. *“Is there a moratorium on off shore drilling or not?"*

(Peter Galvin). Great question. Why all the new waivers since the pause? Maybe the poodle press could get these very mixed signals clarified by Mr. Gibbs or Mr. Salazar.

[northernlights]

14. I guess they figure now that they've killed the Gulf of Mexico

They may as well go all out and see how much more oil they can grab, before they go after the Atlantic. Seriously, what environment will be left there to study?

[snagglepuss]

4. You'll get flak for saying this but the indisputable facts speak for themselves.

Like all pols Obama took a calculated risk, one that pitted continued campaign contributions against regulating the oil industry. They took the risk that the PREDICTED catastrophic environmental disaster in the Gulf was not going to happen on their watch.

[jpak]

7. link! link!

:D

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[amborin]

12. as recently as April 2009, this project was exempted from env impact study by Salazar

the buck stops with Obama....he chose Salazar, with his record of coziness with Big Oil

if the required environmental impact study had been conducted, this project would not have been approved

[G_j]

13. Ken Salazar as protector of the environment?

that joke is not funny...

[amborin]

16. hopefully, a formal investigation into the Int Dept will be lauched and heads roll

Salazar should be first to step down

[G_j]

20. don't hold your breath

but the magnitude of this disaster will certainly shake some things up.

[WinkyDink]

6. Well, since corporations are people, JAIL THE BOSSES.

[NickB79]

8. You mean on top of the already massive dead zone that's existed for years?

Don't forget, there has been a dead zone in the Gulf for years already due to run-off from fertilizer and pesticide usage. This oil spill is black, gooey icing on the cake.

[G_j]

10. Efforts to shrink Gulf's 'dead zone' face serious setbacks from oil spill

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2010/05/04/17880/efforts_to_shrink_gulfs_dead_zone_face_serious_setbacks_from_oil_spill

Efforts to shrink Gulf's 'dead zone' face serious setbacks from oil spill

By Sharon Schmickle | Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The massive environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico — oil gushing uncontrolled from a damaged well — threatens to compound a different problem that originates 1,200 miles north of the Gulf in Minnesota.

The Gulf's so-called dead zone, caused by nitrogen runoff along the banks of the Mississippi River, already was suffocating oysters, clams and other sea creatures during the summer months.

Now, the growing oil slick could exacerbate that problem by further depleting oxygen that is vital to a myriad of marine life forms, said John Gulliver, a civil and environmental engineer who conducts research at the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory in Minneapolis.

Timing will be a key. And time does not appear to be on the side of those working to avert the union of the two man-made assaults on life in the Gulf's waters.

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[laylah]

11. My first thought was...

"well, no shit". These bastards will never REALLY pay for the havoc they have wreaked upon us. There are too many politicians, on BOTH sides of the aisle, in their pockets. I am dumbfounded, to say the least.

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. How big is the dead zone caused by the 140,000,000 gallons that leaked from Ixtoc 1 in 79/80?

Would that be any kind of example to look at?

[G_j]

17. there are some good links in this article

http://www.helium.com/items/1819703-environmental-effects-of-the-deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-disaster-in-the-gulf-of-mexico

<snip>
Assuming that Deepwater Horizon is in fact a difficult-to-cap blowout, such situations can produce the largest oil spills ever. In fact the “worst case” has already essentially occurred, also within the Gulf of Mexico: In June, 1979 the two-mile deep exploratory well IXTOC 1 blew out in Mexico's Bay of Campeche, 600 miles south of Texas.

Relief wells helped response crews eventually cap the site nine months later. 140 million gallons of oil were released into the environment, more than twelve times the amount spilled in Alaska's 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. IXTOC 1 fouled the distant beaches of south Texas for more than a year after it began.

Emulsified oil from the blowout was eventually sighted up to 1000 kilometers away from the site. One study also suggested that 25 percent of IXTOC’s oil sank in the Gulf. (The authors of the 1981 case study calculated that about 15,000 square kilometers of the body were effectively “poisoned” by the (IXTOC) event.)

Birds in south Texas were reported “oiled”. Crustaceans and other sand creatures were decimated in sections along the shore. Tourism in the area suffered as well. Yet much of the affected Texas beach region was reputed to have “recovered within months” (after cleanup), thanks in part to heavy rains.

Shore areas in Florida and elsewhere on the U.S. Gulf coast are much closer to the current spill than when relatively far-off IXTOC blew out. Some of Deepwater Horizon’s oil may have less chance to emulsify – turn into a tar-like substance at sea. Sensitive coastal marsh areas, as in the Mississippi River delta, may prove to be particularly vulnerable to effects from a large, oily spill.
<snip>

[Kablooie]

18. And there's a nice cap on their liabilities to make sure they stay in business.

[troubledamerican]

19. Teabaggers will find a way to sympathize with BP, blame the "ecoMarxists" etc.

As usual, upside-down world will emerge from this crisis