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

[kpete]

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

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 the worst safety record in America. It is also a criminal company, currently on criminal 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.

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

[ensho]

1. kick

nt

[Divine Discontent]

22. The "Bush-Cheney BP Oil Spill".

[kestrel91316]

2. Should read simply ".....BP catastrophe...". Congress is not responsible. BP is.

[troubledamerican]

4. Congress fought oversight.

And they will continue to. And I wouldn't be surprised if Obama continues to.

[kestrel91316]

6. Nonetheless, BP is the one with the duty to avoid harming the environment and

thereby the taxpayers.

[troubledamerican]

7. Surely you are joking. If Congress fights for BP to not be penalized, that's a green light.

By all legal means, Congress has fought to ensure that BP is NOT (in your words) "the one with the duty to avoid harming the environment" because there is no legal duty to avoid harming the environment according to Congress.

Congress is not merely guilty of negligent homicide, or eco-cide. Congress advocates deregulation -- no laws.

[kestrel91316]

9. I guess I am talking about the ethics and morals of the situation and

you are talking about the letter of the law. They are vastly different.

[flyarm]

15. are you kidding? You must be..Ethics and Morals?????? Do some research

please!

Stop the silliness.

WTF is moral about the fuckers taking money from a corp that has now all but killed the Gulf of Mexico..then looking the other way when they cut corners and destroyed our waters..and environment?????????????

People from Tampa down to Ft Meyers are breathing god knows what, that is burning their eyes and throats and giving them headaches..

and that is 300 miles away from the gusher..our beaches have been seeing dead birds for over a week..and dead fish........and from what Merh said last night they are getting horrible air in the top Gulf states..

what kind of nonsence are you getting your info from???????????

I live on the Gulf and I assure you ..you don't want to be breathing what shit we have been breathing and have no idea how dangerous it is!

wake up..there are a damn lot of people responsible for this..and you can start with Congress!

They knew damn well what the dangers of these drilling were..they were too busy greasing their pockets to give one rats ass!


Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8303566

Paul Krugman:Sex & Drugs & the Spill
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/10/opinion/10krugman.htm...

“Obama’s Katrina”: that was the line from some pundits and news sources, as they tried to blame the current administration for the gulf oil spill. It was nonsense, of course. An Associated Press review of the Obama administration’s actions and statements as the disaster unfolded found “little resemblance” to the shambolic response to Katrina — and there has been nothing like those awful days when everyone in the world except the Bush inner circle seemed aware of the human catastrophe in New Orleans.

Yet there is a common thread running through Katrina and the gulf spill — namely, the collapse in government competence and effectiveness that took place during the Bush years.

The full story of the Deepwater Horizon blowout is still emerging. But it’s already obvious both that BP failed to take adequate precautions, and that federal regulators made no effort to ensure that such precautions were taken.

For years, the Minerals Management Service, the arm of the Interior Department that oversees drilling in the gulf, minimized the environmental risks of drilling. It failed to require a backup shutdown system that is standard in much of the rest of the world, even though its own staff declared such a system necessary. It exempted many offshore drillers from the requirement that they file plans to deal with major oil spills. And it specifically allowed BP to drill Deepwater Horizon without a detailed environmental analysis.

(snip)
For the Bush administration was, to a large degree, run by and for the extractive industries — and I’m not just talking about Dick Cheney’s energy task force. Crucially, management of Interior was turned over to lobbyists, most notably J. Steven Griles, a coal-industry lobbyist who became deputy secretary and effectively ran the department. (In 2007 Mr. Griles pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his ties to Jack Abramoff.)

Given this history, it’s not surprising that the Minerals Management Service became subservient to the oil industry — although what actually happened is almost too lurid to believe. According to reports by Interior’s inspector general, abuses at the agency went beyond undue influence: there was “a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” — cocaine, sexual relationships with industry representatives, and more. Protecting the environment was presumably the last thing on these government employees’ minds.

[JDPriestly]

21. BP will face huge lawsuits. That is why it is in BP's shareholders' interests

that BP operate safely. Government regulation is important, but the management of a corporation like BP owes it to its shareholders to use reasonable care in operating its business profitably.

Government regulation is just one way to motivate people and corporations to operate safely.

Let's say that you have a house. And you leave something dangerous garden tool that is attractive to children in your yard. The neighbor child sees that dangerous tool, picks it up and plays with it and is injured. Your neighbor can sue you.

Same with workmen. If you hire an unlicensed contractor to work on your house, and the contractor hires workmen but doesn't provide workmen's compensation for them, one of the workers can sue you if the worker is injured due to some dangerous condition on your property.

There probably isn't a regulation or ordinance or law against the specific condition, say a board with a rusty nail. But you are still required to make sure that you are reasonably careful about the condition of your yard.

You can be sued and then whether you pay damages is up to your insurance company, the judge and the jury and your ability to negotiate a deal.

Regardless of government regulations, BP is ultimately responsible for doing business so as to insure the safety of the public.

[flyarm]

24. Until they file bankruptsy!!...remember Dow Chemical and breat implants..

they were allowed to split the corp to minimize their liability!

Millions of women got fucked!!

[flyarm]

14. the enviornment is already severly harmed. that is a done deal! and congress is damn well

responsible ..as well as BP..you are only fooling yourself if you believe otherwise!..As well as many of Obama's advisors..look it up!

[amborin]

16. Obama himself, for choosing Salazar, who exempted BP in 4/09

from the environmenal impact study

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36956650/ns/us_news-washing...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/36976376#3697637...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/30/in-ironic-twist-bp...
jean

[flyarm]

17. and here as I have posted often here at DU..strange bedfellows!!

ahhh the strange bedfellows.....remember Dashle who pushed Obama during our primaries..and was one of his top advisors...........working with Whitman..the lady who lied about the air quality at Ground zero in NY?? Can i tickle your memory..she lied and people died and keep dying!! And that is just one example..

Spill, Baby, Spill
By Michael Isikoff, Ian Yarett and Matthew Philips | NEWSWEEK
From the magazine issue dated May 10, 2010

BP has been trying hard to burnish its public image in recent years after being hit with a pair of environmental disasters, including a fatal refinery explosion in Texas and a pipeline leak in Alaska. One major step was to announce, in 2007, that it had hired a high-powered advisory board that included former EPA director Christine Todd Whitman, former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and Leon Panetta, who were each paid $120,000 a year. (Panetta left when he became President Obama's CIA director.) Two years ago the oil giant's chief executive, Robert Malone, flew board members out to the Gulf of Mexico on a helicopter to demonstrate the safeguards surrounding BP's advanced drilling technology. "We got a sense they were really committed to ensuring they got it right," Whitman told NEWSWEEK.

Now BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, finds itself blamed for what could prove to be the worst oil spill in U.S. history. And only weeks after Obama announced an ambitious plan to open up more U.S. offshore waters to oil drilling, shunting aside environmental concerns from his own Democratic Party, his administration is facing a comeuppance from hell. "There was a lot of wishful thinking, I guess," says Villy Kourafalou, a scientist at the University of Miami's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. "The new technologies were said to be so wonderful that we'd never have an oil spill again." Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who had sought to block the expanded drilling, says the oil and gas industry was pushing this idea hard. "They said, 'We'll never have a repeat of Santa Barbara,'?" referring to the 1969 rig explosion off the California coast. Both the Bush and Obama administrations "were buying the line that the technology was fine," Pallone adds.

BP pressed hard to make that point in D.C. Its PR efforts included payments of $16 million last year to a battery of Washington lobbyists, among them the firm of Tony Podesta, the brother of former Obama transition chief John Podesta. Last fall, after the U.S. Interior Department proposed tighter federal regulation of oil companies' environmental programs, David Rainey, BP's vice president for Gulf of Mexico exploration, told Congress that the proposal was unnecessary. "I think we need to remember," he said, that offshore drilling "has been going on for the last 50 years, and it has been going on in a way that is both safe and protective of the environment."

Read the full article at:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/237298

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You should also look at this and the Loop currents ..from Tampa news..!0 Connects ..Tampa Bay Fl..great map of Loop Current.

Oil Spill: Loop Current and winds

http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=131...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf
Source: McClatchy

Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf

By Marisa Taylor | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded 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, or MMS, and included waiving detailed environmental studies for a British Petroleum 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 offshore drilling or not?" asked Peter Galvin, the conservation director at 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."

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/07/93761/despite-spi...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and never forget this..we Floridans won't!!!


YouTube - Barack Obama on Offshore Oil Drilling ( to Florida voters while asking for their votes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8fkbEuCQss&NR=1

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Obama: “Oil Rigs Today Generally Don’t Cause Spills”

Obama Repeats Katrina Oil Spill Myth To Defend Offshore Drilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm8gLmuTvJ4&feature=play ...


By: David Dayen Thursday April 29, 2010 1:42 pm

snip:

What a difference 18 days makes. Here was Barack Obama, on April 2, before the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, claiming that oil rigs are safe to justify his position on offshore drilling:

I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.

Not only does this quote look ridiculous in hindsight, it wasn’t true at the time, as Brad Johnson points out:

Obama’s claim that oil rigs did not cause any spills during Hurricane Katrina is simply false, as the Wonk Room reported in June, 2008, when Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and other conservatives made the same false claim:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.”

http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/04/29/obama-oil-rigs-t ... ’t-cause-spills/

[amborin]

23. should all be its own OP

[abelenkpe]

20. Yeah please support libertarian talking points

Nothing like blaming the evil government.

[zenprole]

8. WTF?

'Congress isn't to blame'? Are you joking? There's more than enough blame to go around, but soft-peddling the retail legislature is delusional.

[Aramchek]

3. more opinion with no facts, and look they even decided to tie Congress to BP

what a shitty article!

[LaydeeBug]

5. DU Insider: Bears crap in the woods. nt

[donheld]

10. indeed, and my fear is that this may not be the last oil disaster we see.

[Octafish]

11. Then there's BP's human rights record...

Kill a person.
Kill the earth.
What's the difference?

[havocmom]

12. And then Big Oil will shrug it's shoulders and say, 'hey, the place is trashed,

we might as well sink more monster wells and get the oil. No environment to save'

[texanwitch]

13. Yes, you said it.

BP wouldn't give a damn it the Gulf of was dead, the oil is still there.

[blindpig]

18. k&r

[hatrack]

19. It'll mesh nicely with the existing 7,000-square-mile dead zone from ag. runoff

Or, as BP would refer to it, synergy!!

[jpak]

25. yes, but if BP could divert all the Mississippi River N and P to the spill zone

the prokaryotes would eat all the oil up!

problem solved

yup!