Oil Spill in the Gulf

Another Gulf Oil Spill: Well Near Deepwater Horizon Has Leaked Since at Least April 30

Editor's Note: These back-to-back oil spills conveniently follow back-to-back coal mining incidents, which should give the Senate justification for passing the economy-killing clean enery bill.

June 7, 2010

Alabama Live - The Deepwater Horizon is not the only well leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico for the last month.

A nearby drilling rig, the Ocean Saratoga, has been leaking since at least April 30, according to a federal document.

While the leak is decidedly smaller than the Deepwater Horizon spill, a 10-mile-long slick emanating from the Ocean Saratoga is visible from space in multiple images gathered by Skytruth.org, which monitors environmental problems using satellites.

Federal officials did not immediately respond when asked about the size of the leak, how long it had been flowing, or whether it was possible to plug it.

Skytruth first reported the leak on its website on May 15. Federal officials mentioned it in the May 1 trajectory map for the Deepwater Horizon spill, stating that oil from the Ocean Saratoga spill might also be washing ashore in Louisiana.

The only other mention the Press-Register was able to find of the spill in federal documents occurred in a May 17 transcript of a U.S. Coast Guard media conference. In that transcript, Admiral Mary Landry said that she was unaware there was another drilling rig leaking oil in the Gulf.

Officials with Diamond Offshore, which owns the drilling rig, said that they could not comment on the ongoing spill and referred the Press-Register to well owner Taylor Energy Co., which hired Diamond. Taylor Energy officials did not return calls seeking comment.

Saturday, the Southwings environmental group flew over the Ocean Saratoga with photographer J. Henry Fair of Industrial Scars.com and returned with photos that appear to show a large oil crew boat pumping dispersants into the water at the spill site.

"It appeared the crew boat had barrels of dispersant on board," said Tom Hutchings of Southwings, a volunteer organization of pilots who monitor environmental problems from airplanes.

Henry Fair said that his photos show a large hose coming off the boat and disappearing into the water with several buoys tied to it. It was unclear how far the hose extended underwater.

"I see a hose going over the side. The boat was not moving, but it was making a wake, disturbing the water a lot," Fair said. "I see a glossy slick that one would usually identify as petroleum, and it goes a long way away."

Officials at the National Response Center said that the spill had been reported, but would not say when it began. The U.S. Coast Guard did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.

"We accidentally discovered this spill looking at the Deepwater Horizon images. The question is, what would we see if we were systematically looking at the offshore industry?" said John Amos with Skytruth.org. "Is this an aberration, or are things like this going on all the time? That's why we are calling for public, transparent monitoring everywhere offshore drilling is going on in U.S. waters."

Oil Spill May Move Up the Atlantic Coast

June 3, 2010

247wallst - The National Center for Atmospheric Research has put together computer models that show the slick from the Deepwater Horizon leak reaching the East Coast and well into the Central Atlantic by Labor Day.

The simulation takes the projection out until the 132nd day after the leak began. The leak began 45 days ago.

The computer simulations indicate that, once the oil in the uppermost ocean has become entrained in the Gulf of Mexico’s fast-moving Loop Current, it is likely to reach Florida’s Atlantic coast within weeks. It can then move north as far as about Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, with the Gulf Stream, before turning east. Whether the oil will be a thin film on the surface or mostly subsurface due to mixing in the uppermost region of the ocean is not known.

The federal government and BP have made no official estimates of the trajectory of the slick beyond their current 72-hour projections. NOAA ought to. It would allow some degree of preparation for those likely to be effected.

The Real Reason the Oil Still Flows into the Gulf of Mexico

May 30, 2010

JoAnneMor - As you know, the Deep Water Horizon has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been spewing oil from a ruptured wellpipe for over a month.

BP and the US Government has said they are trying everything possible to stop that multi million gallon oil from continuing to flow into the Gulf.

I am about to dispute that claim and offer an expose' as to why that story about them doing everything possible is a lie and a profitable enterprise to those who would make money from this disaster.

The Top Kill method was started and suspended several times. It was being attempted only half heartedly. The reason is, there is no money to be made with a solution that simple.

The real money is in the use of dispersements.

There is a company called NALCO. They make water purification systems and chemical dispersements.

NALCO is based in Chicago with subsidiaries in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia.

NALCO is associated with UChicago Argonne program. UChicago Argonne received $164 million dollars in stimulus funds this past year. UChicago Argonne just added two new executives to their roster. One from NALCO. The other from the Ill. Dept of Educaution.

If you dig a little deeper you will find NALCO is also associated with Warren Buffett, Maurice Strong, Al Gore, Soros, Apollo, Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Hathaway Berkshire.

Warren Buffet /Hathaway Berkshire increased their holdings in NALCO just last November. (Timing is everything).

The dispersement chemical is known as Corexit. What it does is hold the oil below the water's surface. It is supposed to break up the spill into smaller pools. It is toxic and banned in Europe.

NALCO says they are using older and newer versions of Corexit in the Gulf.. (Why would you need a newer version, if the old one was fine?)

There is big money and even bigger players in this scam. While they are letting the oil blow wide open into the Gulf, the stakes and profit rise.

The Dolphins, Whales, Manatees, Sea Turtles and fish suffocate and die. The coastal regions, salt marshes, tourist attractions and the shore front properties are being destroyed, possibly permanently.The air quality is diminished. The Gulf of Mexico fishing industry is decimated.

All to create a need for their expensive and extremely profitable poison.

Massive Media Blackout in Gulf Oil Spill
Attorney: Deepwater Horizon Managers Knew About Oil Rig Problem Before Explosion
BP buys top Google search result for ‘oil spill’
Obama Warns Oil Spill Will Substantially Impact Economy
Evidence Points To BP Oil Spill False Flag

Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: Obama Hopes Oil Spill(s) Will Boost Support for the Climate Bill, Renamed the American Power Act to Destract from the Real Purpose of the Bill, Which is to Implement Wall Street's Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme

June 3, 2010

Washington Post -President Obama tried Wednesday to channel public outrage about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill into support for a climate-change bill, seeking to redefine an issue that threatens to tarnish his presidency.

In a speech at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Mellon University, Obama made one of his strongest pitches for comprehensive climate legislation, arguing that the case for breaking the nation's addiction to fossil fuels has been made clearer by the environmental catastrophe in the gulf.

The president vowed to gather votes for the climate bill in the "coming months" and repeated his intention to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for big oil companies, to tap natural gas reserves as an alternative to coal, and to increase reliance on nuclear power -- although energy experts said that such a program would leave the country just as dependent on offshore oil.

"I will make the case for a clean-energy future wherever I can, and I will work with anyone from either party to get this done. But we will get this done," Obama said. "The next generation will not be held hostage to energy sources from the last century."

Allies of the president have argued for weeks that the administration should stop talking about BP, the oil company responsible for the spill, and instead tap into the public attention to the catastrophe in hopes of giving it at least some redemptive value in the long term.

"The oil disaster adds new urgency and a new opportunity for connecting with the public," said Daniel J. Weiss of the Center for American Progress. "The administration was going to do it anyway, but this gives it a new way to talk about it."

Those urging action have sent White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel briefs that argue for a final push on the climate legislation, and others have had conversations with climate adviser Carol M. Browner and legislative director Phil Schiliro.

In an online column posted Wednesday, Weiss and CAP President John D. Podesta argued that "the horrible BP oil disaster has reminded Americans that we must reduce our oil use," adding:

"We share the view that this presents an unprecedented opportunity to take bold action to achieve this goal."

Energy experts warned that climate legislation would have little impact on the need to search for oil in the Gulf of Mexico to meet U.S. demands. Offshore oil provides a growing portion of U.S. oil production, and deep-water wells account for a rising share of the offshore output. The gulf provides about 40 percent of U.S. oil production.

Obama's earlier mandate to improve automobile fuel efficiency will do much more than a climate bill to cut oil use, but even a sharp drop in U.S. consumption would leave the nation a net importer and thus dependent on offshore oil. The president made this point when he endorsed an expansion of offshore drilling weeks before a drilling rig exploded April 20 and triggered the spill.

"The president is correct that we need more [renewable energy], but we need more oil, too," said J. Robinson West, chairman of PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm.

The leading supporters of climate-change legislation on Capitol Hill cheered Obama's remarks as a clear step up from his rhetoric in recent months, when he often left unclear whether he was going to push for energy reform this year.

"This is just what we needed with Congress coming back into session next week," Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the co-sponsor of the main Senate bill, wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "Just as we saw with health care, when the president throws down the gauntlet, and puts his prestige on the line and puts the full weight of the White House behind it, we can do big things."

It was not clear whether Obama's pitch for a climate bill would deflect public discontent about the oil spill.

"It wasn't about having [the administration's] foot on the throats of BP but about giving their hearts to the fishermen and the people in Louisiana," said pollster Peter D. Hart. "All the things aimed at showing an additional remedy, I don't think get to the true touchstone of this issue."

Moreover, the administration will have trouble finding enough support in Congress, where Republicans will try to keep Obama from turning the issues of climate change, financial regulation and health-care reform into a trifecta of legislative achievement heading into November's midterm elections. Senate Republicans immediately challenged Obama's call to action, saying he is using the gulf disaster to promote legislation that would undermine the nation's economy.

"Instead of devoting every possible resource to getting the gulf cleaned up, the Obama administration is once again using a crisis to push its job-killing agenda," said Rep. Tom Price (Ga.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee. "The president seems to think American ingenuity cannot produce 21st-century energy solutions unless Washington raises the cost of everything Americans buy with a national energy tax."

Senate Democrats have said for weeks that they hoped to bring a climate bill to the floor this summer, but the prospects for that have been in doubt. The White House was unclear about its preferred timing, and the sole Republican cooperating on the bill, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), pulled out of the talks, accusing the Democrats of prioritizing immigration reform over energy reform in an attempt to score political points. Graham said he still supports the bill in principle, but his willingness to bring other Republicans on board is in question.

The oil spill initially made the White House more reluctant to push the climate bill, fearing that the public would see Obama as focusing on a political problem instead of the environmental one.

But Senate Democrats are now voicing confidence about the legislation's chances, and White House aides say they see a "window." Schiliro, the administration's legislative liaison, visited senators this week to discuss the measure, while Emanuel called Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) and other Democrats to alert them to Obama's Carnegie Mellon speech and to reiterate the president's desire to have the bill come up this summer.

The biggest sticking point on a Senate measure, aides said, would almost certainly be language about expanding offshore drilling, which had been intended as way to draw Republican support but is now looking far more questionable in light of the disaster.

Also welcoming Obama's more aggressive rhetoric were House Democrats, who have lamented for months that the Senate has not moved more quickly. The House passed its own bill limiting carbon emissions a year ago.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said Obama's remarks were "extremely helpful" in the effort to get legislation through the Senate and into a conference.

"He's turning up the volume," Hammill said.