NY Times: Scientists Fault Response of Government to Oil Spill in Gulf

[Karmadillo]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/science/earth/20noaa.html

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.

Go to Blog The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to organize necessary scientific expeditions, especially to get a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface.

They point out that in the month since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, the government has failed to make public a single test result on water from the deep ocean. And the scientists say the administration has been too reluctant to demand an accurate test of how many gallons of oil are flowing into the sea from the gushing oil well. “It seems baffling that we don’t know how much oil is being spilled,” Sylvia Earle, a famed oceanographer, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “It seems baffling that we don’t know where the oil is in the water column.”

The administration acknowledges that its scientific resources are stretched thin by the disaster, but contends that it is moving to get better information, including a more complete picture of the underwater plumes.

more...

[amborin]

1. Guardian article also documents NOAA's suppression of data:

Atlantic coast now under threat as current spreads Gulf oil slickScale of disaster apparent as no-fishing zone doubles and controversial dispersant is used

snip

Fighting the spill is risky. Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, acknowledged that authorities were relying heavily on Corexit, a chemical banned in the UK because of its effects on limpets and other sea life.

"There has been a real reliance on them, maybe more than anybody thought would ever happen," she told the Senate environment and public works committee.

snip

Salazar was also adamant that the administration had been right to seek an expansion of offshore drilling last March, and made it clear there would be no revisiting that decision.

The White House this week intensified its efforts to limit the potential political damage on November's mid-term elections by backing an independent commission to investigate the disaster. In testimony yesterday defensive actions also included dogged resistance by administration officials to senators' demands to provide estimates of the size of the spill.

The stonewalling went beyond the Senate hearings. For the past 48 hours, officials have resisted reports by scientists that the spill could have entered the loop current, or downplayed their significance. "By the time the oil is in the loop current, it's likely to be very, very diluted. And so it's not likely to have a very significant impact. It sounds scarier than it is," said Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/18/oil-spill-threatens-atlantic-coast

[polichick]

2. They're worried about political damage?!? The Gulf of Mexico is being destroyed! nt

[amborin]

3. priorities : political expedience above all

[earth mom]

4. If there is a hell, may they burn in hell for putting politics above the planet.

:grr:

[Mojorabbit]

6. It makes no sense at all this secrecy

He should have our best scientists out there testing the water, he should be giving press conferences with blow by blow updates. It isn't like you can hide what is happening in the long run. I am beyond disgusted with this response.

[amborin]

7. and put BP into trusteeship or whatever it takes to shove them away

criminals that they are

to allow them to lie and dink around all these weeks and compound the tragedy with 500,000 gallons of toxic disperstant, etc....while all the while up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day gushes out....is unconscionable

[Karmadillo]

10. It is difficult to understand their behavior. Are corporations so powerful now that we

defer to them no matter how irrational the deference?

[BrklynLiberal]

5. To say this is disappointing is the understatement of the year.

[amborin]

8. +1

[readmoreoften]

9. Yes it is.