Perry says oil slick 150 miles from Texas shore

[white cloud]

HOUSTON — The oil slick polluting the waters of the Gulf of Mexico remains at least 150 miles from Texas waters and is not making much progress toward the state's coastline, Gov. Rick Perry said on Saturday.

Perry toured the command center BP set up in its Houston headquarters. Perry said he and other state officials are holding daily conference calls with the White House and other Gulf Coast governors to monitor the spill, its progress and response.

"It's not making much headway, fortunately," Perry said, noting weather and currents were keeping the slick far from Texas.

The Horizon drilling platform, leased by BP from Transocean, blew up on April 20. Since then, millions of gallons of crude oil have been pouring into Gulf of Mexico waters. So far, numerous attempts to plug the leak have been unsuccessful.
>>>>>
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/deepwaterhorizon/7006813.html


The long term damage to the entire gulf environment is going to make the Exon Valdeze look environmentally friendly. The gulf is a giant fish ,shellfish and turtle nursery and food source.The long term ramifications of a disaster on this scale are pretty much impossible to foresee,to many potentially harmful variables Which will play out as they begin to interact.
The ultimate cost will not be measurable in dollars,but in the loss of our future quality of life.Its now beginning and NO ONE can accurately predict the future devastation from this.

[sonias]

1. Slick Rick doesn't think 150 miles is a problem

And you're right white cloud, just because we haven't seen tar balls on our beaches doesn't mean the gulf coast area won't be decimated. Fishing industry is taking a hit, no matter what. Plus tourism is already down I hear. Especially deep fishing tours. Can you blame them for canceling trips right now?

[onestepforward]

2. Seasonal currents start to reverse and flow south in August

toward the Texas and Mexican coasts:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/12/gulf-oil-spill-could-reac_n_574078.html?page=2&show_comment_id=47213143#comment_47213143

MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials fear the Gulf oil spill could reach their coasts if the leak is not stopped by August, when seasonal currents start to reverse and flow south. They also worry about the impact of the upcoming hurricane season.

snip-
But those currents start to shift by August, and by October the prevailing currents have reversed toward Mexico.

snip-
Environment Secretary Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada also told local media that officials are concerned the hurricane season – which begins in the Atlantic on June 1 – could potentially stir up or spread the oil slick farther.
snip-

This oil spill is tremendously devastating on so many levels and no one really knows to what extent. I really don't see how Texas will not be affected in some way.

Edited to add: I'm not for sure about the rest of Texas, but Houston's air flow is generally South to North, which will not only bring in toxic oil fumes but also fumes from the oil dispersant that BP is using, also known as " deodorized kerosene."

More information about the oil dispersant here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/16/louisiana-oil-spill-toxic-chemical-bp

[sonias]

3. Plus that dead zone (red tide) may grow too

Way to early too tell how much damage this spill is going to produce.

Trading one species for another according to your link

Louisiana health and hospitals secretary Alan Levine said federal regulators have been too quick to dismiss worries about the chemicals: "Our concerns about the use of these dispersants underwater is based on the fact that there is virtually no science that supports the use of those chemicals. We're trading off what we know is going to be environmental damage on the surface for environmental damage of a level we don't know that is going to be under the surface."

Carys Mitchelmore, an environmental chemist at the University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Science and a co-author of a 2005 US National Academies report on dispersants, told Nature: "No one will tell you using dispersants won't have an effect. You're trading one species for another. The long-term effects are really unknown. The dispersant has inherent toxicity. And these oil droplets tend to be the same size as food particles for filter-feeding organisms."

Sad, sad continuation of this debacle that has still to be capped!

[onestepforward]

8. I feel like there is a knife in the heart of the Gulf

and news like this is just twisting it. :cry:

[white cloud]

4. BP: Tube Is Sucking Oil From Gulf Well

BP: Tube Is Sucking Oil From Gulf Well
by NPR Staff and Wires


Charlie Riedel/AP
Rescuers clean a brown pelican Saturday at the Fort Jackson Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at Buras, La.
text size A A A May 16, 2010
BP officials said Sunday that a new mile-long tube is diverting some oil from the Deepwater Horizon well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. It's the first time in more than three weeks that any of the company's strategies have worked to slow the flow.

Yet even as the company reported the success after weeks of fruitless efforts, scientists warned oil that has already spewed into the Gulf could have dire consequences for the environment. Computer models show the black ooze may have already entered a major current flowing toward the Florida Keys, a researcher told the Associated Press on Sunday.

Heard On 'All Things Considered'
May 15, 2010

NPR's Elizabeth Shogren Talks About The Spill With Guy Raz
<5 min 8 sec>
Add to Playlist Download The contraption used by BP was hooked up successfully Sunday after being hindered by several setbacks. Company officials refused to estimate how much of the oil is being captured.

Kent Wells, BP's senior vice president for exploration and production, said during a news conference that the amount being drawn was gradually increasing, and it would take several days to measure it.

The tube's success gave crews partial control of the leak for the first time since the rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people. Still, Wells offered a tempered response to the news.

"It's a positive move, but let's keep it in context," he said Sunday.

Crews will slowly ramp up how much oil the tube collects over the next couple of days. They need to move slowly because they don't want too much frigid seawater entering the pipe, which could combine with gases to form ice-like crystals that would clog it.

The first chance to choke off the flow for good should come in about a week, when engineers plan to shoot heavy mud into the crippled blowout preventer on top of the well, then permanently entomb the leak in concrete. If that doesn't work, crews also can shoot golf balls and knotted rope into the nooks and crannies of the device to plug it, Wells said.

The final choice to end the leak is a relief well, but it is more than two months from completion.

Meanwhile, scientists warned of the effects of oil that has already leaked into the Gulf.

Computer models show the black ooze may have already entered the loop current — which is the largest in the Gulf — said William Hogarth, dean of the University of South Florida's College of Marine Science. A research vessel is being sent to the Gulf on Tuesday to collect samples and learn more.

One computer model shows that the oil has already entered the current, while a second model shows the oil is 3 miles from it — still dangerously close, Hogarth said. The models are based on weather, ocean current and spill data from the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other sources.

The current flows in a looping pattern in the Gulf, through the area where the blown-out well is, east to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and beyond.

Other scientists warned that miles-long underwater plumes of oil discovered in recent days could poison and suffocate sea life across the food chain, with damage that could endure for a decade or more.

Three or four large plumes have been found, at least one that is 10 miles long and a mile wide, said Samantha Joye, a marine science professor at the University of Georgia.

The hazardous effects of the plume are twofold. Joye said the oil itself can prove toxic to fish swimming in the sea, while vast amount of oxygen are also being sucked from the water by microbes that eat oil. Dispersants used to fight the oil are also food for the microbes, speeding up the oxygen depletion.

"So, first you have oily water that may be toxic to certain organisms and also the oxygen issue, so there are two problems here," said Joye, who's working with a group of scientists who discovered the underwater plumes in a recent boat expedition to the Gulf. "This can interrupt the food chain at the lowest level, and will trickle up and certainly impact organisms higher. Whales, dolphins and tuna all depend on lower depths to survive."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126852086&sc=nl&cc=nh-20100516

[sonias]

6. Well lets hope they do suck up a lot of that oil

I really, really hope they get this under control.

[sonias]

5. State of Readiness

Texas Tribune 5/10/10
State of Readiness

Could a BP-style mega-spill happen closer to Texas shores, threatening the state's fisheries and beaches? Of course.

In fact, smaller spills happen all the time. Last year, 539 spills dumped more than 87,000 gallons of oil into state waterways, according to the General Land Office. That’s far less than the 200,000 gallons a day now spurting from BP's well in the Gulf, but it’s enough to coat the occasional bird or beach.

(snip)
In 1991, the Texas legislature passed the Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act. This law essentially handed control of oil spill management in Texas waters to the GLO, which now has an oil spill division, with 56 employees, financed by a fee on each barrel of oil shipped in and out of Texas ports. Companies must report spills to the GLO within an hour of their occurrence, but the agency also patrols Texas waters like Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel. Workers investigate each reported spill — and sometimes catch unreported ones.

(snip)
Of course, Texas had already endured a much worse spill more than a decade earlier. In June 1979, 600 miles off the Texas coast, some 140 million gallons were spilled after a drilling rig blowout two miles beneath the water's surface. The rig had been leased to Pemex, Mexico's national oil company. The gushing well was not capped until nine months later; meanwhile, South Padre Island's beaches got coated with oil.

(snip)
"The lesson from the Valdez," says Garry Mauro, who was the Texas Land Commissioner from 1983 to 1999, was that "you've got to have pre-positioned equipment and pre-positioned personnel." The GLO now has five offices with boats and booms at the ready: in Corpus Christi, Port Lavaca, Nederland, Brownsville and La Porte. All ships using Texas ports are also required to have an oil-spill response plan, according to Jerry Patterson, the current land commissioner.

Note that the agency was created under a Democratic Land Commissioner - Gary Mauro and signed into law by Ann Richards. What have the Republicans been doing during this crisis? Oh yeah Slick Rick says don't worry - it may just be an act of god. :eyes:

[white cloud]

7. Gov. Perry Supports Congressional Efforts to Block Misguided EPA Endangerment Findings

“The EPAs misguided plan paints a big target on the backs of Texas agriculture and energy producers and the hundreds of thousands of Texans they employ,” Gov. Perry said in his letter. “Congress has a unique opportunity to prevent one-size-fits-all mandates from being imposed by unelected federal bureaucrats and instead recognize the rights of states to tailor economic and environmental policies in the manner that are in the best interest of their citizens.”

Texas has a record of working proactively to protect natural resources and improve environmental quality. We have reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 46 percent, cut ozone levels by 22 percent and reduced carbon dioxide emissions more than nearly every other state, all without government mandates or extravagant fines. Rather than making traditional energy sources more expensive, Texas leaders continue to support making alternative energy technologies less expensive, thereby encouraging widespread commercial use and removing barriers to innovation and competition.







_______________________________________________________
Gov. Perry Named Chair of IOGCC
“More mandates, restrictions and penalties are not the kind of thing that will encourage innovation and investment. As it stands, this bill would usher in the single largest tax in the history of our nation, along with an unprecedented degree of federal intrusion into every American farm, home and workplace,” Gov. Perry said. “These energy taxes will cause every product that uses energy in its creation, cultivation or transportation to become more expensive, forcing hard-working Americans to bear massive new costs and kicking the legs out from underneath a national economy that is already wobbling.”

The governor reiterated the importance of developing a diverse energy portfolio by pursuing innovative energy sources as an alternative to the burdensome regulations associated with the proposed Waxman-Markey Bill, which would increase the cost of living for families and crush Texas and the nation’s energy producing sectors.
http://governor.state.tx.us/news/press-release/13749/

[onestepforward]

9. Perry will fight anything Obama/Feds.

He doesn't care about families, just lining his pocket.

We need a leader to shift us away from oil and onto renewable energy and a cleaner invironment here in Texas. Hopefully he will be gone in November.

[white cloud]

10. 60 minnutes video special on the accident

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6490348n&tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea.2

[sonias]

11. It was excellent news reporting

DKos member also has a write up of the show here:

Daily Kos diary 5/16/10
60 Minutes: Critical equipment damaged weeks before blowout

60 Minutes may be the last bastion of real journalism on broadcast television. Tonight they did it again, interviewing Mike Williams, a surviving crewmember of the Deepwater Horizon. Key points revealed, below the jump.

1) This was the second attempt to drill a well in about the same spot. The first well had to be abandoned because the well had been drilled too fast (under pressure from BP to bring the well in quickly). Result: the rock fractured, causing loss of control of pressure in the well. Twenty-five million bucks down the drain, said BP to the crew. So they had to try again, in a rock formation known to be problematic.

Diary also has video excerpts linked.

[sonias]

12. BP Atlantis rig

If I were the government - the second highest priority (after capping the Deepwater spill) would be a through investigation of the Atlantis rig. The warning signs are all there. And that one could be much, much worse than Deepwater.

Truth Out 4/30/10
Whistleblower: BP Risks More Massive Catastrophes in Gulf
(snip)
The whistleblower, whose name has been withheld at the person's request because the whistleblower still works in the oil industry and fears retaliation, first raised concerns about safety issues related to BP Atlantis, the world's largest and deepest semi-submersible oil and natural gas platform, located about 200 miles south of New Orleans, in November 2008. Atlantis, which began production in October 2007, has the capacity to produce about 8.4 million gallons of oil and 180 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

It was then that the whistleblower, who was hired to oversee the company's databases that housed documents related to its Atlantis project, discovered that the drilling platform had been operating without a majority of the engineer-approved documents it needed to run safely, leaving the platform vulnerable to a catastrophic disaster that would far surpass the massive oil spill that began last week following a deadly explosion on a BP-operated drilling rig.

BP's own internal communications show that company officials were made aware of the issue and feared that the document shortfalls related to Atlantis "could lead to catastrophic operator error" and must be addressed.

:scared:

[onestepforward]

13. Good news on this front:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igHROO_er9Vqe3rVDlGLi6wEs9pwD9FOO7H80

Lawsuit seeks closing of BP platform in the Gulf
By MATTHEW BROWN (AP) – 3 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge was asked Monday to shut down a BP oil and gas platform that operated with incomplete and inaccurate engineering documents in the same part of the Gulf as the company's massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

A lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Houston says the U.S. Interior Department failed to investigate warnings of possible safety problems with BP's Atlantis platform.

Atlantis is stationed in 7,070 feet of water more than 150 miles south of New Orleans. It can produce 8.4 million gallons of oil and 180 million cubic feet of natural gas daily.

Citing BP documents, the lawsuit asserts that a blowout from Atlantis could be far worse than the Deepwater Horizon spill, which already ranks as one of the worst in the nation's history.

"In two days, a blowout from the BP Atlantis would spill more oil than the Exxon Valdez," an attorney for the plaintiffs wrote.

The lawsuit was filed by Washington, D.C.-based Food and Water Watch and Kenneth Abbott, a former BP subcontractor. Abbott claims he was fired last year after voicing concerns over Atlantis.

A spokeswoman for the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department branch that oversees drilling in the Gulf, said the agency could not immediately respond to the lawsuit.

In 2009, an independent firm hired by BP found that the giant petroleum company was violating its own policies by not having completed engineering documents on board the Atlantis when it began operating in 2007.

BP did not immediately respond to telephone calls seeking comment, but the company said in a letter to Congress in January that Atlantis is compliant with all federal requirements.

"BP has reviewed the allegations and found them to be unsubstantiated," managing attorney for BP Karen K. Westall wrote.

[white cloud]

14. John Stewarts take on BP spill.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-may-13-2010/there-will-be-blame

[sonias]

16. The Mayans were right - we're all going to die!

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Top Hat, Hot Tap, and then the Junk Shot.
:wtf:

[sonias]

15. I hope the judge rules to shut it down

We can't afford the risk. We're going to pay for it either way, so I say lets all share some of the higher price of gas pain, before we have another disaster. It's a blowout waiting to happen.

I don't trust BP or the MMS to have made that rig safe.

[sonias]

17. The Next Deepwater?

Texas Tribune 5/18/10
The Next Deepwater?
(snip)
Yesterday, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation group filed suit in a Houston federal court, alleging that Atlantis lacks critical safety documents required under federal law. The Mineral Management Service, the Department of Interior division charged with overseeing offshore mineral leases, is the target of the suit, which asks for an injunction against BP’s operation of Atlantis.

"We have learned that, with respect to the Atlantis rig, the same safety deficiencies exist ," says Mikal Watts, the San Antonio-based lawyer representing Food and Water Watch. "There's a complete and wholesale lack of documentation that is required under federal law in order to operate an offshore rig on United States oil and gas properties."

Watts believes Deepwater and Atlantis are "very similar," noting that they were both manufactured in the same shipyard and share the same "incredible capacity to draw oil out of the ground."

"I can tell you, knowing as much as I do about this, that one of them has a complete absence of care shown that's caused a leak," he says, "And the other one is in just as bad of shape that certainly will cause a leak if we can't stop this from happening."

I hope this story keeps getting coverage. Atlantis seems like a a really bad name for a deep ocean oil rigs right now. We may be able to avert another disaster if they shut this one down and do a complete evaluation of its safety.

[white cloud]

18. Oil spill to shut down 19 percent of Gulf fishing

19% of Gulf of Chainey, but it is the prime area.

2 hrs 33 mins ago
NEW ORLEANS – Federal officials say they're expanding the area of the Gulf of Mexico where fishing is shut down because of a massive oil spill.

They had already shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle soon after an offshore oil rig exploded and sank last month. About 7 percent of federal waters were affected.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Tuesday that it's expanding the closed area, though it won't say exactly where until later in the day. Nearly 46,000 square miles, or about 19 percent of federal waters, will be shut under the expanded ban.
>>>>>>>>>
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100518/ap_on_re_us/us_gulf_oil_spill_commercial_fishing

[white cloud]

19. looks a little bleak for the Keys,

http://sero.nmfs.noaa.gov/sf/deepwater_horizon/DWH_FisheryClosure051810.pdf

http://www.roffs.com/deepwaterhorizon.html

http://www.roffs.com/DeepwaterHorizon/ROFFSOil17May10.pdf

[white cloud]

20. 60 Minutes Last Night

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490197.shtml
Lot of the BP crap going on.

[sonias]

21. 20% is high but I think it's going even higher

Businessweek 5/18/10
Florida, Gulf States May Suffer From BP Oil Spill, Moody’s Says

May 18 (Bloomberg) -- Florida and Gulf Coast cities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama may see credit ratings cut because of the BP Plc oil spill if tourism falls and property values drop, Moody’s Investors Service said.

The spill may have "severe" effects if it reaches coastal communities in Florida’s northwestern panhandle, since they rely on tourism and the state depends on sales taxes from the region, Moody’s analyst Edith Behr said today in a report.

"Cities, towns, school districts, and counties will likely experience a decline in property tax values, which will necessitate a reduction in services or an increase in other revenue to maintain current rating levels," Behr said. Any rating changes would follow "careful assessment" of how the spill affects tax revenue and debt payments.

Lower ratings may raise borrowing costs for state and local governments in the region as investors in the $2.8 trillion municipal-bond market demand higher yields to compensate for increased risk. Moody’s rates the credit quality of borrowers in the market. Tax revenue is likely to fall over the long term for coastal cities, which may force cutbacks in services, Behr said.

It's all connected like the ecology of the ocean. It all starts to domino down.

[white cloud]

22. GOP Stands by its Man BP

by: Libby Shaw
Mon May 17, 2010 at 08:55 PM CDT

Republicans continue to fall all over themselves defending BP. All are likely up to their eyeballs in donations from the oil and gas industry.
God forbid should BP be expected to pay every claim proposed by those whose loved ones have been killed and those whose businesses and careers have been destroyed by BP's reckless, irresponsible and apparently unstoppable oil volcano and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile here in Texas our Attorney General is doing the same thing. According to a press release issued by Democratic candidate Barbara Radnofsky today Abbott seriously underestimated the devastating long term impact of the Gulf oil leak.

Why was Attorney General so quick to proclaim that BP had made "all the right actions and all the right comments"? He has 2 million reasons. According to Attorney General Abbott's publicly available campaign finance reports between 1992 and 2009, he accepted over $2 million in campaign contributions from oil and gas employees and PACs.

It is always helpful to know just who precisely our elected officials work for. In Perry and Abbott's case, neither works for us.

The gusherf**ck.

Meanwhile the carnage in the Gulf grows worse. A geologist has provided horrifying graphs that BP, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott don't want us to know about.
http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/10365/gop-stands-by-its-man-bp

[white cloud]

23. Any engineer knows

BP is not getting 20% of the oil spill.

A 6.75" casing under 2000 to 3000 psi is putting out a whole lot more that a 4" suction line could every handle.

It is just like sticking a straw in a swollen river.

Where are the ROV pictures of the stopped leak, and the Brl numbers from the container ships barge?

[white cloud]

24. Best and Latest spill maps

http://gallery.mailchimp.com/cc6fffaf5aa33dfe45833da26/files/2010_05_18_weather.pdf

[sonias]

25. Wow- thanks for that link

Great maps! :applause:

I watched some of the Senate hearing yesterday with the executives of BP and Transocean. It was torturous - they're swimming in it (a pile of goo).

One thing one of the Senator's brought up was Hurricane season - what then? Both said they were trying their best to prevent that from adding more injury. The Coast Guard however said it was an enormous task already. Like protecting the whole coast at once. There has never been an operation like this.

The Senator from Florida (Nelson) repeatedly asked how BP would pay for damages to the coral reefs off the Florida Coast? How would it even be valued?

Huffington Post 5/19/10
Gulf Oil Spill: Still No One Knows How Much Oil Is Leaking Or Where It Will Head Next
(snip)
Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told another committee that the growing size and scattershot nature of the spill were creating "severe challenges" in containing it and cleaning it up. He called it more complicated than any spill he's ever seen.

"What we're basically trying to do is protect the whole coast at one time," Allen said.

(snip)

Government scientists, meanwhile, were surveying the Gulf to determine if the oil had entered a powerful current that could take it to Florida and eventually up the East Coast. The Coast Guard says tar balls that floated ashore in the Florida Keys aren't linked to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Questions remained about just how much oil is spilling from the well, and senators expressed frustration about a lack of answers during a full day of hearings that included top executives from BP PLC, the oil giant that leased the blown well, and Transocean Ltd., the rig owner.

Oh and Kay Bailey kept sticking up for Big Oil. Thank them for everything they are doing. How responsibly they're acting blah, blah, blah.... :(

:kick:

[white cloud]

26. Coast Guard Under 'BP's Rules'

Neither BP nor its contractors have any authority anywhere other than property owned by BP, such as BPs oil rigs, ships, boats, refineries, or other facilities. BP has no legal authority to prevent access to ANYPLACE that it doesn't own, no matter what the emergency situation.

US Coast Guard personnel have authority over civillians on the water and on Federally-owned property, but that authority is strictly limited and well-defined by law.

Neither BPs employees nor USCG personel have any legal right to prevent the free movement of press or any other civillian on public or private property, except in cases of safety concerns or national security, neither of which applies here - the crew was heading for a BEACH, to film some NEWS FOOTAGE, showing oil washing up on shore. No more dangerous than any other day at the beach or on the water, no extraordinary circumstances, and no need to limit their freedom of movement.


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6496749n

[sonias]

27. Huffington Post has it too

Huffington Post 5/19/10
BP, Coast Guard Officers Block Journalists From Filming Oil-Covered Beach (VIDEO)

Emerging reports are raising the question of just how much of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill journalists are able to document.

When CBS tried to film a beach with heavy oil on the shore in South Pass, Louisiana, a boat of BP contractors, and two Coast Guard officers, told them to turn around, or be arrested.

"This is BP's rules, it's not ours," someone aboard the boat said. Coast Guard officials told CBS that they're looking into it.

As the Coast Guard is a branch of the Armed Forces, it brings into question how closely the government and BP are working together to keep details of the disaster in the dark.

Nothing to see here - move along.... :grr:

[white cloud]

28. Bad Petrol is lying again

Check the story and video and see what you think about their claim of recovering 3000bpd of the 5000bpd leak???. The suction pipe looks like a broom stick.

What kind of dang fool do they take us to be. :mad:
Lies and more Lies :mad:


http://videos.nola.com/times-picayune/2010/05/oil_spill_video_insertion_tube.html

[sonias]

29. Like a straw

Trying to suck out water from a gushing water hose. You won't be getting very much out this way at all.

Huffington Post 5/19/10
Gulf Oil Spill: Markey Demands BP Broadcast Live Video Feed From The Source

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) on Wednesday lashed out at BP for hiding the true extent of its now four-week-old oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and demanded that the oil company and the Coast Guard make a live video feed from the source of the leak continuously available to the public.

The few videos BP has released so far have been short and of poor quality, but the footage of filthy plumes of oil and gas endlessly billowing into the Gulf's clear waters has nevertheless given the public a visceral sense of what's at stake -- and has given some scientists reason to believe that BP's 5,000-barrel estimate for daily flow is off by a factor of 10, 20, or even more.

"Oil has been spewing into the ocean for 30 days yet the true extent of this spill remains a mystery," Markey said. "BP thinks this is their ocean. This is BP's spill, but it is the American people's ocean....

Accoring to an update the video feed was supposed to be posted on Markey's web page last night.
Markey's website globalwarming.house.gov

It's not there now so BP must have weaseled out of the agreement. The BP guy probably had his fingers crossed behind him when he swore to deliver it. :eyes:

[sonias]

30. The Gulf slick and hurricanes: Your questions answered

SciGuy blog Houston Chronicle 5/20/10
The Gulf slick and hurricanes: Your questions answered
With the rapid onset of hurricane season (just 10 days now) I've been receiving lots of questions about the effects, if any, of the Gulf oil slick on hurricane activity.

The answer is something of a mystery to scientists, as well. Those interested in modifying hurricanes (a fruitless task, by the way) have long contemplated covering the surface of an ocean with a substance, thereby blocking evaporation as a means of cutting off a storm's access to "fuel" for intensification. Oil is one such substance.

(snip)
Any reason to think the upper Texas coast will see oil on its beaches soon?

The flows coming out of the Mississippi River and Atchafalaya River are generally carried westward along the immediate coastline, toward Texas. So if the slick gets to those areas, it could be carried west.

The Loop Current in the Gulf is another question. It periodically forms closed eddies that drift westward. One of these eddies could bring oil westward. So there's nothing out there that's preventing oil from making it to Texas eventually, but the currents haven't been taking it in that direction so far.

Watch out for the Loop Current.

[white cloud]

31. Expert claims NOAA is guilty

"NYT: Scientists accuse Obama over oil spill

Expert claims NOAA is guilty of a 'catastrophic failure'By Justin GillisThe New York Timesupdated 3:34 a.m. CT, Thurs., May 20, 2010
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.

The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the magnitude of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean.

They are especially concerned about getting a better handle on problems that may be occurring from large plumes of oil droplets that appear to be spreading beneath the ocean surface.
>>>>>>>>> more

Robert Gebeloff, Andrew W. Lehren, Campbell Robertson and Matthew L. Wald contributed reporting.

This story, headlined "Scientists Fault U.S. Response in Assessing Gulf Oil Spill," first appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright © 2010 The New York Times URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37248587/ns/us_news-the_new_york_times//"

[white cloud]

32. Macondo/Deepwater Horizon Spill Updates (2nd Thread)

5-20-10, 1:00 p.m. – Ed Markey (D-Soros) strikes again.

Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat who has taken on the role of Chief Demogogue in the House Energy and Commerce Committee while this spill has gone on, has pushed for and received an EPA ruling which bans the use of Corexit 9500A and Corexit 9527A as a chemical dispersant on the oil spill both on the surface and at the spill site. Markey began raising the concern yesterday, taking up the cries of fellow Democrats Peter DiFazio (D-Oregon) and Jerrod Nadler (D-New York) that the dispersant was toxic to marine life and popping out a letter to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson saying the following:
>>>>> more

http://thehayride.com/2010/05/macondodeepwater-horizon-spill-updates-2nd-thread/

[sonias]

33. Yep I'm disappointed he hasn't been riding BP's ass!

The Obama administration should be all over this and making sure everyone knows they are in charge. And it's not happening yet. Making the admin look very, very bad.

Here's a link to the NY Times article
Scientists Fault Lack of Studies Over Gulf Oil Spill - NY Times 5/19/10

Meanwhile the spill cam is finally live.

[white cloud]

34. New video shows Deepwater Horizon's collapsing

The National Geographic Channel has released footage showing the Deepwater Horizon oil platform collapse into the Gulf of Mexico as it burns out of control on April 22, 2010, two days after the explosion that killed 11 men.

The footage will be part of the special "Gulf Oil Spill," which airs at 9 p.m. Thursday, May 27, on the National Geographic Channel.


http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/new_video_shows_deepwater_hori.html

[white cloud]

35. BP says 'top kill' unlikely before Tuesday

Let's all hope the riser and drill stem is crimped over enough at the top of BOP for the Junk shot to work. Otherwise they can't stop flow then pump cement down hole to cement the casing and stop flow.

I really have my doubt about the junkshot working because we are now finding out that the 1000bpd they told us about is 5000bpd by the thoughts. Petro PE are saying the flow may be 100,000bpd+ (UNKOWN REALLY)
That really knocks down there ability to stop flow and then cement. Keep your finger crossed.
:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:


ROBERT, La. -- BP now says it will likely be at least Tuesday before engineers can shoot heavy mud into a blown-out well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Three ultra-deepwater rigs and other equipment are at the site where the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded April 20. They're preparing for a delicate procedure called a "top kill" that BP hopes will stop the flow of oil from the well.

Crews will pump in heavy drilling mud, which is a thick, viscous fluid that's twice the density of water. That should stop the oil, and then they'll use cement to keep more from gushing out.


http://blog.al.com/live/2010/05/bp_says_top_kill_unlikely_befo.html

[sonias]

37. top hat, junk shot, top kill

I really don't care that all these operations have silly names. I'm with you I want this - I want it to work! The oil spill has got to be stopped. We're going on 4 weeks now. The rig blew on April 20th!

:cry:

[sonias]

36. National Geographic special

I'm taping that for sure.

Thanks!

[white cloud]

38. The Gulf of Mexico loop current

Not looking good for the Western GOM from this article.

http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2010/reports/oil_spill_clean_up/loop.shtml

[sonias]

39. We are so screwed

Florida would love that loop current to bring the oil back our way.

No one wins in this game of black crap. :(

[white cloud]

40. Refuges Most at Risk from the BP Gulf Oil Spill

Well to help draw attention to this catastrophe and the impacts it’s having, we’ve released Special Places at Risk in the Gulf: Effects of the BP Oil Catastrophe along with the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization. The report lists the following 15 top national and state parks and wildlife areas at risk to contamination because of the BP drilling rig explosion. They range from Padre Island National Seashore in Texas to the Everglades National Park in Florida.

Here’s our list of the 15 national parks, wildlife refuges and state parks most threatened by the ongoing BP oil spill:



Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/national-wildlife-refuge-gulf-oil-spill-0527#ixzz0pBZt6b5d

15 National Parks and Wildlife Refuges Most at Risk from the BP Gulf Oil Spill

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/national-wildlife-refuge-gulf-oil-spill-0527#ixzz0pBZTIIG6

[onestepforward]

41. Thanks for the list.

I've been to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and it has an incredible number and diversity of wildlife. Padre Island too. This whole mess is truly heartbreaking. I hope it will be cleaned up soon and hopefully spare the rest of the coast.

[white cloud]

42. A video........ cut and paste into browser

<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7lBQkNgY3bY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/7lBQkNgY3bY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xd0d0d0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lBQkNgY3bY&feature=player_embedded