Nalco Lobbies Congress Re: Corexit Dispersant, which BP is *Still* Using

[amborin]

Nalco’s Chief Lobbies Congress on Gulf Oil Dispersant

By Jim Snyder

May 27 (Bloomberg) -- Nalco Holding Co.’s chief met with members of Congress yesterday to convince them that its chemical dispersant should continue to be used on BP Plc’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as the U.S. weighs restrictions.
J. Erik Fyrwald, chief executive officer of the Naperville, Illinois-based company, sought to reassure lawmakers that the chemical, Corexit, is “safe and effective” after the Environmental Protection Agency demanded that BP curb its use to break up the spill, company spokesman Charlie Pajor said.
“The decision to use it or any dispersant is made by the responders to a spill,” Pajor said in an e-mailed statement. “We are simply complying with their requests.”

The EPA ordered BP to scale back the amount of Corexit used while the agency conducts independent tests and seeks a “better choice” of dispersant, Administrator Lisa Jackson told reporters on May 24. She said the chemical was being used at a “world record” rate and its effects on aquatic life were unknown.
“We are still deeply concerned about the things we don’t know,” said Jackson.

Nalco was already becoming more active in Washington when the Gulf spill occurred. It recently opened an office and hired Ramola Musante, a former EPA official, as its lobbyist.
The company sold $40 million of Corexit for the Gulf cleanup through last week, Pajor said. Nalco, which provides water-treatment chemicals, reported $3.75 billion in revenue last year and net income of $60.5 million.

Sales Small
While Fyrwald has said Corexit sales are too small to affect the company’s financial results, Nalco climbed 5.9 percent in New York trading on May 3 after announcing BP was applying the product and fell 5.3 percent on May 20 after the EPA called for curbing its use.
Nalco rose $1.31, or 6 percent, to $23.18 at 4:15 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and has fallen 9.1 percent this year.
The Gulf spill provides potential revenue for Nalco of $800,000 to $6.5 million a day, Laurence Alexander, an analyst in New York with Jeffries &

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http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-27/nalco-s-chief-lobbies-congress-on-gulf-oil-dispersant-update1-.html


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BP is still using this toxic variant of Corexit, albeit in smaller quantities; it has already dumped more than 700,000 gallons into the gulf, a record use of this substance, which is banned in Britain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/28/science/earth/28workers.html?scp=1&sq=bp%20corexit&st=cse

[RadiationTherapy]

1. Oops. Spill something? Corexit corrects it!