Posts Tagged ‘Gulf Oil Spill’

Where’s the Oil?

Thursday, July 29th, 2010

The Oil on the surface in the Gulf has seemed to disappear. Where did it go? My bet is that it is still there, below the surface and the Marshes are still loaded with it. Let’s see what the “experts” say.

Oil in gulf is degrading, becoming harder to find, NOAA head says

Oil from the BP blowout is degrading rapidly in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and becoming increasingly difficult to find on the water surface, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.

“The light crude oil is biodegrading quickly,” NOAA director Jane Lubchenco said during the response team daily briefing. “We know that a significant amount of the oil has dispersed and been biodegraded by naturally occurring bacteria.”

Lubchenco said, however, that both the near- and long-term environmental effects of the release of several million barrels of oil remain serious and to some extent unpredictable.

“The sheer volume of oil that’s out there has to mean there are some pretty significant impacts,” she said. “What we have yet to determine is the full impact the oil will have not just on the shoreline, not just on wildlife, but beneath the surface.”

But much of the oil appears to have been broken down into tiny, microscopic particles that are being consumed by bacteria. Little or none of the oil is on seafloor, she said, but is instead floating in the gulf waters.

Her conclusions come from the work of several NOAA boats now collecting water samples, as well as the analysis of academics brought in to help study the spill effects. The goal, she said, is to get a scientifically sound assessment of the overall environmental effects of the spill.

“To do this, we’re working with the best scientific minds in the government, as well as the independent scientific community, to produce an estimate of just how much oil has been skimmed, burned, contained, evaporated and dispersed,” she said. “We’re getting close to an answer.”

And from the NY Times:

John Amos, president of SkyTruth, an environmental advocacy group that sharply criticized the early, low estimates of the size of the BP leak, noted that no oil had gushed from the well for nearly two weeks.

“Oil has a finite life span at the surface,” Mr. Amos said Tuesday, after examining fresh radar images of the slick. “At this point, that oil slick is really starting to dissipate pretty rapidly.”

The dissolution of the slick should reduce the risk of oil killing more animals or hitting shorelines. But it does not end the many problems and scientific uncertainties associated with the spill, and federal leaders emphasized this week that they had no intention of walking away from those problems any time soon.

The effect on sea life of the large amounts of oil that dissolved below the surface is still a mystery. Two preliminary government reports on that issue have found concentrations of toxic compounds in the deep sea to be low, but the reports left many questions, especially regarding an apparent decline in oxygen levels in the water.

From the Washington Post:

Now, 14 days after the well was closed and 100 days after the blowout, U.S. government scientists are working on calculations that could shed some light on Hayward’s analysis (even if they can’t shed light on why he said it). They are trying to figure out where all the oil went.

Up to 4 million barrels (167 million gallons), the vast majority of the spill, remains unaccounted for in government statistics. Some of it has, most likely, been cleaned up by nature. Other amounts may be gone from the water, but they could have taken on a second life as contaminants in the air, or in landfills around the Gulf Coast.

And some oil is still out there — probably mixed with chemical dispersants. Some scientists have described it floating in underwater clouds, which one compared to a toxic fog.

“That stuff’s somewhere,” said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University. His research has shown concentrations of oil still floating miles from the wellhead. “It’s going to be with us for a while. I’m worried about some habitats being exposed chronically to low concentrations of toxins. . . . If the water’s contaminated, the animals are going to be contaminated.”

‘The truth is in the middle’

We’ll be living with the mess for at least this century. And Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there in some shape or toxic form.

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Peanut Butter – Cat. 2, Hurricane and Recession, and other things to worry about

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Our 1st Atlantic Hurricane of the season is gaining strength in the Gulf:

The storm was expected to pack winds of at least 90 mph when it comes ashore, but those could increase to as much as 110 mph if it strengthened to a Category 2.

And Pew Research has has new poll findings about what happened to our work force in these 30 Months of Recession:

More than half (55%) of all adults in the labor force say that since the Great Recession began 30 months ago, they have suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project.

The Republicans seem to be winning over the Dems to weaken, more, the Financial Reform Bill:

In a last-minute scramble, Democratic leaders reopened talks on the legislation after Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) withdrew his support because of a plan to pay for the financial overhaul with a fee on large banks and hedge funds that would raise nearly $20 billion.

To win back Brown’s support – and get the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster — the House-Senate conference committee agreed Tuesday to instead end the Troubled Assets Relief Program early and shift some of the bailout effort’s funds toward the financial regulation bill, a move that would yield an estimated $11 billion. The rest would come from raising premiums paid by commercial banks to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., whose fund serves as a safety net for consumers when their banks fail. Only banks with more than $10 billion in assets would pay the higher premium.

And Huff Post’s Arthur Delaney is reporting: Unemployment: Congress Has Never Before Dropped Extended Benefits With Jobless Rate So High. (OPINION: Just goes to show that there is no empathy left in this country and until it effects you or your close family, tuff shit unemployed! Maybe the unemployed should move to India or China and work for pennies a day because that’s where all the jobs are!! What happened to this country? So many bitter, selfish, ugly people!)

John Boehner, Speaker Hopeful, Needs to have his foot surgically removed from his mouth from the interview he gave to the Pittsburgh Tribune yesterday. Here’s just one excerpt of why he wants to raise Social Security retirement age to 70. We have to save from SS to pay for the War:

Ensuring there’s enough money to pay for the war will require reforming the country’s entitlement system, Boehner said. He said he’d favor increasing the Social Security retirement age to 70 for people who have at least 20 years until retirement, tying cost-of-living increases to the consumer price index rather than wage inflation and limiting payments to those who need them.

“We need to look at the American people and explain to them that we’re broke,” Boehner said. “If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you’re retired, why are we paying you at a time when we’re broke? We just need to be honest with people.

And Boehner goes on to say:

Boehner’s criticism of the Democratic agenda then moved to the recently-negotiated financial regulatory reform package, which he likened to “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon.”

Boehner’s second in command is making moves now also. Politico has a report about Eric Cantor’s Ambitions

Despite the GOP’s talk of reversing the Health Care Reform Bill, there’s a new poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation Found that 48 percent of the public had a favorable view of the law in June while 41 percent had an unfavorable opinion. A month earlier, the split was 41 percent favorable to 44 percent unfavorable.

General Patraeus has been confirmed by committee and now goes to the Senate for Confirmation. The confirmation hearings brought up many questions of what our strategy will be in Afghanistan.

And Elena Kagen is on her 3rd day of questions in her confirmation hearing. More reports on the hearings as they come up.

With all the talk about cutting entitlements, here’s some info about Social Security and Medicare, neither an entitlement but Insurance, and both paid for by payroll taxes. This info is in pdf format and is the “CRS Report for Congress” entitled “Social Security: Raising or Eliminating the Taxable Earnings Base”. Interesting history of the program and how changes were made throughout the years.

The powers that be seem to want to mess with these programs so it would be a good idea to get your information and talking points ready.

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Peanut Butter – G-20 and other News

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Obama seems to be fighting a battle to get the other countries off their austerity mindedness and rather add stimulus to grow their economies again. Deficit worries seem to take over. And the worry is that this type of thinking will send us into a deeper recession.

From this NY Times article, it seems Obama may be bending their way:

Despite President Obama’s pitch at the summit meeting for developed nations here for continued stimulus measures to prevent another global economic downturn, the United States will go along with other leaders who are more concerned about rising debt and join in a commitment to cut their governments’ deficits in half by 2013, administration officials said on Saturday.

Sec. Geithner, surprisingly, spoke for the stimulus at the G-20. From the LA Times:

U.S. Treasury chief Geithner urges G-20 leaders to continue government spending
The Treasury secretary, speaking at the summit in Toronto, says the global recovery remains fragile and that ill-timed austerity measures could derail gains. Obama meets privately with other leaders.

Toronto thought they were ready for the inevitable protester at the G-20 but the group seemed to splinter. The more militant protesters set cop cars on fire and caused some damage. From the AP and from the Huffington Post
G-20 Protests In Toronto (PHOTOS)

Police say more than 400 arrests have been made after black-clad demonstrators broke off from a crowd of peaceful protesters at the global economic summit in Toronto, torching four police cruisers and smashing windows.

Toronto Police Sgt. Tim Burrows said Sunday a total of 412 people were arrested in Saturday’s destruction.

And today we have our first Atlantic Tropical Storm that could turn into a Hurricane threatening the Gulf of Mexico. From the AP:

Tropical Storm Alex headed overland toward the Gulf of Mexico early Sunday, drenching Belize, northern Guatemala and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with torrential rains.

Meteorologists project Alex, which made landfall on Belize’s coast late Saturday, will weaken as it passes over the Yucatan Peninsula but will regain strength once it emerges Sunday afternoon over the Gulf of Mexico, where warm waters could fuel its growth into a hurricane.

According to the most recent predictions, Alex is expected to make a second landfall midweek on the Mexican Gulf coast — far south and west of the region where a deep-sea oil spill is slicking the U.S. coastline.

Saturday held a few more protests and Parades. Other than the already mentioned G-20 protesters, there was the Hands Across the Sand protest:

Hundreds of people including Florida’s governor joined hands on an oil-stained strip of beach in the Florida Panhandle as part of an international demonstration against offshore drilling Saturday.

Organizers of “Hands Across the Sand” said similar protests were held at beaches around the nation and in several foreign countries.

The demonstration also was intended to show support for clean alternatives to fossil fuels.

And the 40th Annual Gay Pride parades were held in several cities across America. Celebrating where it all started in San Francisco:

SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco’s 40th annual gay pride weekend drew thousands to Civic Center Plaza, with even more expected Sunday for a parade, a Backstreet Boys concert and comments from U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The Big news this week was the block buster story from the Rolling Stone about Gen. McChrystal’s slip of the tongue and the animosity toward the administration spoken by his aide, that got him Fired by President Obama. And this brought the Afghan War front and center to the US and the world. The Sunday Talk Shows are centering on this this morning. Adm. Mullen was just there Backing up Obama’s remarks that nothing will change. From the NY Times:

Admiral Mullen arrived in the Afghan capital at a tumultuous moment: The allied commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, was fired by President Obama this week following publication of comments by the general and his staff that disparaged senior civilian officials. And the war effort is beset by rising violence and a frustratingly slow pace of political and economic progress required to attract a war-weary population.

Admiral Mullen’s agenda included private talks with the most senior level of the Afghan leadership, including President Hamid Karzai and Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

But as Mr. Obama himself acknowledged in a textured statement delivered when he relieved General McChrystal of command, the entire national security team — civilian and military — must now come together and work in greater accord.

The Congressional Committee to combine the bills for Financial Reform have voted on the final bill which now will go to the House and Senate for passage. The lobbyists for both sides are out en force and are headed to DC to try to influence the outcome. From the NY Times:

Well before Congress reached agreement on the details of its financial overhaul legislation, industry lobbyists and consumer advocates started preparing for the next battle: influencing the creation of several hundred new rules and regulations.

The bill, completed early Friday and expected to come up for a final vote this week, is basically a 2,000-page missive to federal agencies, instructing regulators to address subjects ranging from derivatives trading to document retention. But it is notably short on specifics, giving regulators significant power to determine its impact — and giving partisans on both sides a second chance to influence the outcome.

And this coming week, Elena Kagan goes to Congress for confirmation hearings. More on this later.

Lots happening so add your news updates in comments.

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