* Obama still kowtowing to oil industry & its uberconservative defenders and Media apologists-
* Another Massive underwater plume of oil discovered.
* Dispersants used by BP may be even more harmful to marine life than the crude oil.
* Rachel Maddow :The technology for stopping a leek has not changed since 1979
* GOP defending oil industry while criticizing Obama for not doing enough
* GOP Tea Party, Rand Paul believe corporations should regulate themselves and it is up to American citizens to pay for the cost of any disaster-
The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.
... the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.
Above quote from:
Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Discover Massive New Sea Oil Plume by Mathew Brown and Jason Dearen at AP Via Huffington Post, May 27, 2010
and for a better perspective of the power of BP and the oil industry and it's lobbyists over the Republicans and other conservatives:
As for The Republican Party, Tea Party Express and Rand Paul they are still defending BP and Big Oil and Big Coal and will continue to do so even if it has negative effects on the environment on other industries and small businesses and leaving the clean up bill for the American tax payers to deal with while they demand more tax breaks for the wealthy.
As Leo Gerard in an article at Alternet points out:
GOP Wants a Country by Corporations for Corporations Leo Gerard Via AlterNet,May 27, 2010
...Rand Paul...simply said what Republicans believe – that this country should focus on promoting corporations and those corporations should have privileges, but not responsibilities. To the GOP, the U.S.A. should be a country of corporations, by corporations, for corporations.
People, by contrast, are trifling to the GOP. In the past couple of weeks, the GOP has made its position on humans clear by trying to end an emergency fund that will create 186,000 subsidized jobs this year for poor people and by blocking an extension of unemployment insurance for those thrown out of work during the worst recession since the Great Depression, a downturn caused by reckless Wall Street corporations. Following the lead of Bunning, who delayed an extension in February, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said the unemployed shouldn’t receive the insurance because it “encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment.”
While attempting to deny relief to the desperate, Republicans have also blocked efforts to force oil corporations to assume full liability for catastrophic spills – like the BP disaster in the Gulf. If the oil corporations – which vehemently oppose an increase in their liability — don’t pay for environmental clean up, then taxpayers – including the unemployed – will get the bill. Still, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio opposed raising the laughably-low liability cap of $75 million, and Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have blocked efforts to lift the cap in the Senate.
James Carville says Obama should have started a criminal investigation intothe BP disaster
Rachell Maddow exposes the fact that the oil industry has not invested much time or money or resources to develop better technology to fix a leak when it occurs.
Maddow compares the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the one in the Gulf in 1979 to point out that the oil industry is relying on outdated technology to stop the leek.
If the oil industry is able to drill miles under water and then miles under the sea floor they should not be permitted to drill at these depths for oil if they have idea how contain or fix a spill or blowout when it occurs.
The public is told that oil companies are as concerned about workers safety and protecting the environment from any accidents,
This is hogwash the oil industry sees such accidents as PR problems and so do not take all the concern seriously.
They have little regard for their oil rig workers
They have little regard for protecting the environment
The don't take threats from the US government or any other government seriously
They know with a few gifts here and there and promises of lucrative jobs and political campaign donations and other bribes the oil industry have usually been able to get their own way.
Besides any regulations of the oil industry are written to please and protect the oil industry with little regard to protecting the public from toxins.
Rachel Maddow- The more spills change_ the more they stay the same-May 26
And now a reminder from Green Peace of BPs poor safety record or concern for the environment
BP wins 'Emerald Paintbrush: Greenpeace 'greenwash' award...
GreenpeaceUK — December 22, 2008 — December 22, 2008 - time to announce the winner of the first annual Greenpeace 'Emerald paintbrush' award for greenwashing above and beyond the call of duty. Cue a quick roll on the drums, and step forward into the spotlight - BP!
Even Rick Sanchez at CNN is keeping up the pressure on BP oil even if Obama & the Democratic Pay are too afraid of BP.
BP Is 'Big And Important': BP Chairman Strikes Out At Critics, CEO Scolds Photographer At Oil Spill Site (VIDEO)
May 25, 2010 YouTube & Huffington Post
Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, has struck out at critics of his company's response to the Gulf oil spill and told The Financial Times that BP is "big and important."
In an interview published Tuesday by FT, Svanberg painted the oil company's relationship with the U.S. as one that was mutually beneficial to both parties. "The US is a big and important market for BP, and BP is also a big and important company for the US, with its contribution to drilling and oil and gas production," Svanberg said. "So the position goes both ways."
Svanberg dismissed calls for a government takeover of the effort to plug the well and said that "if we do the right thing," BP's reputation may not suffer long-term damage.
The chairman's "big and important" assertions about his company came shortly after BP CEO Tony Hayward was recorded acting big and important around photographers covering the spill.
While observing a beach covered in crude, Hayward took it upon himself to scold a photographer whom he thought was too close to the spill.
"Hey, get outta there. Get outta there," Hayward barked to the photographer. "Get him out. Get him out."
Hayward's orders came just before a BP press conference.
It is estimated that approximately 19 -39 million gallons of oil has leaked into the gulf so far. Exxon Valdez released 11 million gallons of oil total.
Gulf Oil Spill Now Far Worse Than Exxon Valdez, Worst In U.S. History, Scientists Say May 27, 2010
...In Washington, meanwhile, Minerals Management Service Director Elizabeth Birnbaum stepped down from the job she has held since July 2009. Her agency has come under withering criticism from lawmakers of both parties over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry.
An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography.
Polls show the public is souring on the administration's handling of the catastrophe, and Obama sought Thursday to assure Americans that the government is in control. He was responding to criticism that his administration had been slow to act and left BP in charge of plugging the leak.
He announced that a new moratorium on drilling permits will be extended for six months. He also said he was suspending planned exploration drilling off the coasts of Alaska and Virginia and on 33 wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.
Roy Sekoff On 'Ed Show': Oil Spill 'Gush Cam' Clashes With Obama's Cool Confidence (VIDEO)
Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Thursday to weigh in on the federal response to the BP oil spill.
For Sekoff, President Obama's remarks Thursday were too dispassionate and lacked urgency.
"I hate to say it, but I think he's giving cool confidence a bad name... We've got to really have a two-fisted approach to this," Sekoff said. "Instead, you know Obama's approach to almost everything, whether it's been health care or the financial reform, has been 'Don't worry, I got it. It's under control.' But what do we see? We see the split camera and we have the 'gush-cam' pouring out... saying to the American people, 'No it's not handled. It's not OK.'"
Obama says he cares and is concerned about the spill every day- but his anger and frustration with BP unfortunately has not resulted in taking tough actions against BP & the oil industry in general . He is still allowing the narrative to be spun by the conservative Democrats ,the GOP and Tea Party elite and their media enablers and other pro-oil groups.
BP officials say they are Big and important as if to dare President Obama to take them on . Seems they have made Obama back down and not take the sorts of legal actions that he could. It is ironic that Obama is not willing to take action such as signing statements and other legal instruments against BP or the Oil Industry whereas the former corrupt rogue regime of President Bush favored doing things by executive orders or signing statements.
Meanwhile Obama turns out on a daily basis to be disappointing as he backs away from one legitimate fight after another. For instance Obama hasn't arrested or even threatened to arrest these daylight robbers or one of these Oil Industry Thugs- There's no surprise he slapped the coal industry on the wrist for its mining disaster killing 19 men so 11 dead is not going to change his mind. What many in the media and the public are saying that this is the perfect occasion to take on BP and the oil industry- But Obama wants to play nice and as James Carville said these people at BP do not wish him (Obama) well their intentions are not good but rather self-serving. BP will do whatever it can not to clean up the spill but to push forward its Public Relations campaign and damage control
ENDNOTES:
and there's more:
Massive underwater plume of oil discovered.
Dispersants used by BP are even more harmful to marine life than the crude oil.
Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Discover Massive New Sea Oil Plume by Mathew Brown and Jason Dearen at AP Via Huffington Post, May 27, 2010
The thick plume was detected just beneath the surface down to about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters), and is more than 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) wide, said David Hollander, associate professor of chemical oceanography at the school.
Hollander said the team detected the thickest amount of hydrocarbons, likely from the oil spewing from the blown out well, at about 1,300 feet (nearly 400 meters) in the same spot on two separate days this week.
The discovery was important, he said, because it confirmed that the substance found in the water was not naturally occurring and that the plume was at its highest concentration in deeper waters. The researchers will use further testing to determine whether the hydrocarbons they found are the result of dispersants or the emulsification of oil as it traveled away from the well.
The researchers say they are worried these undersea plumes may be the result of the unprecedented use of chemical dispersants to break up the oil a mile undersea at the site of the leak.
Hollander said the oil they detected has dissolved into the water, and is no longer visible, leading to fears from researchers that the toxicity from the oil and dispersants could pose a big danger to fish larvae and creatures that filter the waters for food.
"There are two elements to it," Hollander said. "The plume reaching waters on the continental shelf could have a toxic effect on fish larvae, and we also may see a long term response as it cascades up the food web."
Dispersants contain surfactants, which are similar to dishwashing soap.
A Louisiana State University researcher who has studied their effects on marine life said that by breaking oil into small particles, surfactants make it easier for fish and other animals to soak up the oil's toxic chemicals. That can impair the animals' immune systems and cause reproductive problems.
"The oil's not at the surface, so it doesn't look so bad, but you have a situation where it's more available to fish," said Kevin Kleinow, a professor in LSU's school of veterinary medicine.
Gulf Oil Spill: Cleanup Has Cost Federal Taxpayers $87 Million So Far via AP May 27, 2010
Federal officials say cleaning up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has already cost the government $87 million, making it the third-most expensive cleanup effort in the nation's history.ENDNOTES:
Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry has distributed that money to state and federal agencies directly involved in the cleanup. Those include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which projects the oil slick's trajectory, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which rescues oil-soaked birds.
A senior financial analyst at the National Pollution Funds Center says an additional $38 million in emergency money has been assigned to the Deepwater Horizon spill, but it has yet to be spent.
The most expensive cleanup was the Exxon Valdez spill, which cost $121 million. The second was $89 million for cleaning up a 1994 oil spill off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
GOP more concerned about protecting the profits of BP and Big oil than taking actions to defend America from these ruthless greedy stop at nothing Oil Companies.
GOP Wants a Country by Corporations for Corporations Leo Gerard Via AlterNet,May 27, 2010
Tea Party darling and Republican U.S. Senate nominee Rand Paul spoke last week like the political novice he is – revealing unfiltered GOP “truths.”
First he informed MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow that government should not be able to force businesses to serve black people. Corporate desire to discriminate should trump the civil rights of black people, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and pants-wearing women, according to this Republican candidate, who has since rushed to assure everyone that he personally is not a bigot.
Rand Paul followed up the assertion of corporate-privilege-over-human-rights with two more Republican tenet revelations. First he called the Obama administration “un-American” for holding the corporation BP accountable for the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and devastated the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico. Then Rand Paul added that society should refrain from the “blame game” in the case of another corporation, Massey Energy, the owner of the West Virginia mine that blew up killing 29 workers. “We had a mining accident that was very tragic,” he said, “Then we come in, and it’s always someone’s fault. Maybe sometimes accidents happen.”
The Republican candidate who openly espoused these views was embraced last Saturday by U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell at a rally in Frankfort, Ky. And during the primary, former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Republican senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and Jim Bunning of Kentucky actively supported Rand Paul. He simply said what Republicans believe – that this country should focus on promoting corporations and those corporations should have privileges, but not responsibilities. To the GOP, the U.S.A. should be a country of corporations, by corporations, for corporations.
People, by contrast, are trifling to the GOP. In the past couple of weeks, the GOP has made its position on humans clear by trying to end an emergency fund that will create 186,000 subsidized jobs this year for poor people and by blocking an extension of unemployment insurance for those thrown out of work during the worst recession since the Great Depression, a downturn caused by reckless Wall Street corporations. Following the lead of Bunning, who delayed an extension in February, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire said the unemployed shouldn’t receive the insurance because it “encourages people to, rather than go out and look for work, to stay on unemployment.”
While attempting to deny relief to the desperate, Republicans have also blocked efforts to force oil corporations to assume full liability for catastrophic spills – like the BP disaster in the Gulf. If the oil corporations – which vehemently oppose an increase in their liability — don’t pay for environmental clean up, then taxpayers – including the unemployed – will get the bill. Still, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio opposed raising the laughably-low liability cap of $75 million, and Republicans James Inhofe of Oklahoma and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have blocked efforts to lift the cap in the Senate.
Highlights of Obama's orders on offshore drilling Via AP ,May 27, 2010
Highlights of President Barack Obama's new orders on offshore oil drilling safety. Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar discussed the measures Thursday, but no report was released publicly.
SAFER DRILLING?
Obama ordered a number of changes designed to ensure offshore drilling is safer going forward, based on a 30-day review by Salazar, including:
_Extending a moratorium on new deep water drilling leases for six months, until the presidential commission on the spill completes its work.
_Suspending Shell Oil's plans to begin exploratory drilling this summer on Arctic leases as far as 140 miles off the Alaska coast. Now those wells will not be considered until 2011.
_Canceling pending lease sales off the coast of Virginia and in the western Gulf of Mexico.
_Suspending action on 33 deep water exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf.
_Salazar announced additional safety measures, including requiring more thorough inspections of the "blowout preventers" designed to prevent oil spills. The blowout preventer on BP's Deepwater Horizon rig failed.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment