BP finally releases oil spill video, but lies about delay By David Edwards and Diana Sweet via Raw Story.com May 13th, 2010
Gulf Oil Spill At Least 10X Greater Than Thought: Expert
Never Before Heard- Oil Leak Video With SOUND oilspillvideo — May 12, 2010 — Never before seen video footage of oil spill in the gulf with sound
BP finally releases oil spill video, but lies about delay By David Edwards and Diana Sweet via Raw Story.com May 13th, 2010
...Experts say criminal charges 'just a matter of time.'
BP officials finally made an underwater video of its broken well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, after being pressured to do so by media outlets and the White House, and then claiming they hadn't received requests for the footage.
Also, while government agencies continue to examine what led to the oil rig explosion that killed 11 people, environmental legal experts are already predicting that there will be criminal charges ahead for at least one of the companies involved in the oil spill.
A House energy panel looking into what might have caused the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico found yesterday that a vital piece of equipment intended to prevent such disasters had significant problems.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on Wednesday outlined issues with the blowout preventer, a tool that BP claimed was 'fail safe,' that may have prevented it from engaging. The blowout preventer, reports the Washington Post, "Had a dead battery in its control pod, leaks in its hydraulic system, a "useless" test version of a key component and a cutting tool that wasn't strong enough to shear through steel joints in the well pipe and stop the flow of oil."
It was also revealed during the hearing that BP knew 'hours' ahead of the deadly explosion that there were problems with the oil well. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), said "The oil company told the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight privately that the well failed a key pressure test just hours before it exploded on April 20," reports CNN:
The test indicated pressure was building up in the well, which could indicate oil or gas was seeping in and could lead to an explosion, said Waxman.
"Yet it appears the companies did not suspend operations, and now 11 workers are dead and the Gulf faces an environmental catastrophe," he said, asking why work wasn't stopped on the well.
On stemming the flow of oil into the Gulf, BP reported that it could take through the summer to finish a 'relief' well being drilled to shut down the flow. It is estimated that if the leak doesn't worsen, and the relief well is a success, approximately 20 million gallons of oil will have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico, "nearly double the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989."
Legal experts are already saying that it's likely that Federal investigators will file criminal charges related to the oil rig explosion. McClatchy reports:
"There is no question there'll be an enforcement action," said David M. Uhlmann, who headed the Justice Department's environmental crimes section for seven years during the Clinton and Bush administrations. "And, it's very likely that there will be at least some criminal charges brought."
Such a likelihood has broad legal implications for BP and the two other companies involved — not the least of which is the amount of money any responsible party could be required to pay. The White House is asking Congress to lift the current $75 million cap on liability under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, but there's no cap on criminal penalties. In fact, prosecutors in such cases can seek twice the cost of environmental and economic damages resulting from the spill.
Oil spill disaster ‘out of control’ by Tony Allen-Mills and Craig Guillot via The Sunday Times & Timesonline, May 2, 2010
THE Gulf of Mexico oil spill may be growing five times faster than previously estimated and is in danger of accelerating out of control, it was claimed yesterday.
Experts said satellite data indicated the oil was gushing from BP’s sunken Deepwater Horizon rig at 25,000 barrels a day. Previous estimates had put the leak at 5,000 barrels a day.
Professor Ian MacDonald, an ocean specialist at Florida State University, said the new estimate suggested the leak had already spread 9m gallons of heavy crude oil across the Gulf. This compares with 11m that leaked from the Exxon Valdez tanker when it hit a reef off Alaska in 1989.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said deteriorating conditions on the sea bed may result in an even greater flow of 50,000 barrels a day, sufficient to produce one of America’s worst ecological disasters.
and see regarding the magnitude of this disaster:
By Frank James and Allison Richards, via NPR Blog "The Two Way" ,May 13, 2010
NPR's Richard Harris has learned that much more oil, 70,000 barrels a day or more than ten times the official estimate, is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon pipe, based on scientific analysis of the video released Wednesday.
That's the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez tanker full every four days.
If we look at the history of these oil disasters the corporations only clean up approximately 10-20 % of the oil .
This should be a wake up call to those who are deluded into thinking the Oil Companies will clean all of this up. They won't put the resources into what's needed for a clean up and they use a lot of volunteers which is just cheap labor for the oil companies. And if these paid workers or volunteers develop serious illnesses due to being in contact with the oil and or the solvents used by the company- the company will refuse to make any pay out without a long legal struggle which they can afford .
I've often been baffled by the opinion that is sometimes spoke that there is a difference between for instance a lawyer defending a member of the Mafia or drug cartel and a lawyer representing a corporation that does not believe that the laws of the land or even common decency or a sense of fair play plays no role in their business practices.
A corporation (managers, overseers ,bosses, CEO) which sends workers out to an oil rig which they know is unsafe; if the drilling is not being done according to regulations or protocols or send workers into unsafe coal mines so they can save a few dollars or sells someone a car which they know is not up to standards and is unsafe or puts workers on a ship that is not quite sea-worthy and it smashes on the rocks, the mineshaft collapses , the mine explodes , the oil rig blows up, the oil causes an environmental and economic disaster . I would say the same thing about the lawyers who helped Bush and Cheney to give a legal veneer for wanton sadistic torture. John Yoo & Jay Bybee they knew the laws they were creating or opinions they were giving were unconstitutional and illegal and immoral . They should have at least been debarred drummed out of the service. No professional group or businesses should be allowed to just police themselves since they too are bound the rule of law , common sense & most of all Common Decency and respect for the well being of others.
Recovery Still Incomplete After Valdez Spill By WILLIAM YARDLEY via New York Times, May 5, 2010
CORDOVA, Alaska — As the oil spill spreads ominously in the Gulf of Mexico, its impact uncertain, communities here beside Prince William Sound are still confronting the consequences of March 24, 1989, the day of the wreck of the Exxon Valdez.
The tanker Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil, staining 1,500 miles of coastline, killing hundreds of thousands of seabirds, otters, seals and whales, and devastating local communities. The spill stopped after just a few days. Recovery may not have an end date.
Fishing here is far from what it was. Suicides and bankruptcies and bitterness surged. Many people left even as a few became “spillionaires,” getting paid to clean up.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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