Tens of Thousands of Gallons of Crude Oil Spill Into Gulf of Mexico

[IDemo]

Source: NBC News

Almost 90,000 gallons of crude oil gushed from a Shell oil facility into the Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana coast on Thursday, leaving a 13- by 2-mile sheen of oil on the waves, federal authorities said.

The Coast Guard said that the spill had been contained and that two companies were being contracted to begin cleanup operations.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which is part of the U.S. Interior Department, said Shell Offshore Inc. reported that production from all wells that flow to its Brutus platform, about 90 miles south of Timbalier Island, Louisiana, had been shut off.

No injuries or evacuations were reported, the safety bureau said.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/tens-thousands-gallons-crude-oil-spill-gulf-mexico-n573311

[Chicago1980]

1. We can't get off of this shit soon enough.

I wish that the fines could be quadrupled for 'incidents' such as these, which happen way too often.

[Peregrine Took]

2. +1000

[Bodych]

5. No fines. CEO time in prison and/or corporate death penalty. n/t

[Lodestar]

6. The fish have not recovered from these spills and that is the real cost

that no fine can remedy. We are killing our oceans.

[JudyM]

12. I want to hear from the candidates on what action they will take on this in their 1st month.

[Chicago1980]

16. Any worthy action would require congressional approval.

With a republican house or senate, expect nothing.

Both chambers need to be flipped.

[JudyM]

17. I think POTUS can impose a moratorium on drilling... Not positive, but s/he has some power there.

Maybe someone reading this knows...

[Chicago1980]

23. The person willing to do that has to be elected.

[sakabatou]

3. Oh god...

[OnyxCollie]

4. The Gulf's already fucked, so what's 90,000 more gallons?

Don't shit where you eat.

[pansypoo53219]

7. NO HUMANS WERE HARMED, cause HUMANS only matter.

[rockfordfile]

8. 90,000 gallons, Where are the penalties?

[Earth_First]

9. The full scale (often double or triple) will be revealed weeks later after initial media reporting.

This is probably closer to several hundred thousand gallons...

[SmittynMo]

10. Every day that goes by

we get closer to our total destruction.

Look around. The Bees, The climate, Nuclear power, Our water, Fracking, etc.......

It just goes on and on.

And yet we never learn anything from our stupidity.

Perfect example: Just look at the elections. The only true, real person that could possibly address these issues, is the underdog? There's something wrong there, and no one sees it. WOW.

Hey, If I'm lucky, I'll live 10-20 more years. Imagine what is going on in the heads that are 20-30 years old? They still have their entire life ahead of them. From my viewpoint, it certainly don't look good unless something is done NOW.

[wordpix]

11. We need to stop regulatin! Sarcasm

Keep those lines coming, repukes, as you keep plundering the oceans and hiding your billions in tax havens and inversions

[rladdi]

13. When will the EPA learn that oil companies are just for profit and do not

care about oil spills. When will America force them to have billions in funds for cleanups before those profits go to the criminal executives.
Before they drill they should have to deposit a few billion with the Feds for use in oil spills, then the tax payers are not footing the bill for cleanups.

[Dustlawyer]

14. They still are not through screwing over the victims of the Deepwater Horizon 6 years after!

Shell will claim any oil damage on BP's spill and so forth...

[Nihil]

18. Much like Chevron et al did for BP ...

... or perhaps you are one of the folks who thinks that the Gulf was
totally pristine before Halliburton did another cheap job on the cement work ...?

[Dustlawyer]

21. Why would you say something like that?

I live by the Texas Gulf Coast. I can recall bringing charcoal starter to the beach to get the tar balls off of us due to an oil spill off of Galveston.

I have litigated mainly against oil companies for the last 26 years. They routinely dump oil, drilling mud, whatever into the Gulf daily. There is little to no enforcement out there. Ships clean their biggest and flush oil into the waters all the time, but the BP was unprecedented in North America in size and in harm to the environment, sea life and the residents of the Gulf Coast.

Are you someone who believes that it wasn't that bad?

[Nihil]

22. I say that because (many of) the inhabitants of the Gulf coast are hypocrites.

I do not deny that the Deepwater Horizon event (I hate it described as just a "spill&quot was
devastating to the environment.

> I have litigated mainly against oil companies for the last 26 years.

And for that I thank you.

> They routinely dump oil, drilling mud, whatever into the Gulf daily.
> There is little to no enforcement out there. Ships clean their biggest (?bilges?)
> and flush oil into the waters all the time

I totally agree with you and, in that respect, totally support any action you may be
part of in order to make the culprits pay (even slightly) for their crimes against
nature. There is almost an expectation that ships going into or out of the Gulf ports
have an implicit amnesty against being prosecuted for such environmental crimes.

My issue with your post - and yes, I accept that it might be down to my reading
of your words - was two-fold: firstly, the apparent acceptance that Shell will get away
with claiming that the damage due to their crimes can be somehow shifted to the
Deepwater crime (in exactly the same way as various interests managed to move
the blame for the historical pollution to be magically the Deepwater "first event&quot
and, secondly, that the continuing absolution of Halliburton (and Transocean) for
their guilt - primary & secondary - in the Deepwater Horizon crime itself.

The readiness for the Deepwater blame to be shifted to a company who does not
employ such a large proportion of the complicit population is seriously hypocritical.

The deliberate ignoring of the effects of the vast agricultural runoff on the Gulf
marine environment is even worse.

If I was reading your words incorrectly then I apologise completely - my interest
is greater than one company or one state or even one particular patch of
coastal populations and yes, I do sometimes jump on words that are merely
abbreviated in context rather than comprehensive. Such is the nature of online
fora but, if you are active in defending the environment (rather than the profits
of group A vs group B) then I am sorry for misinterpreting your words.

[Dustlawyer]

25. Over my lifetime I have watched the fishing go downhill.

As a boy I used to catch fish everytime we went fishing. Now it's a good day if you get a couple of keepers.

The runoff is doing the worst damage. We used to never have flesh eating bacteria. Then it was mid to late August when the waters were very warm. Last couple of years it was in June. Cannot even use the damn Gulf safely anymore, yet they still call for ending pesky regulations! It is horrible and short sighted what we are doing to our environment!

[Bayard]

15. Jail Time!

Absolutely. As the Indigo Girls sing, "Till the pleasure's not worth the pain".

What's a few $M in fines, when they're making billions?

[One_Life_To_Give]

19. Just before Memorial Day, how convenient.

This should cost us about 50 cents a gallon.

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. Great. nt

[Marthe48]

24. Just a great big toilet

n/t

[Bad Dog]

26. At least they won't be able to blame Britain this time.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if Obama starts referring to this multinational company as Royal Dutch Shell, anything to let the fat cats in Wall Street off the hook.

[Judi Lynn]

27. These greedy dirtbags can't be put out of business nearly fast enough. They have no consciences. n/t