(CNN) -- A huge oil spill oozing toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday threatens hundreds of species of wildlife, some in their prime breeding season, environmental organizations said.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday that the amount of oil spilling from an underwater well after an oil rig explosion last week has increased to as many as 5,000 barrels of oil a day, or 210,000 gallons, five times more than what was originally believed.
The spill continues to grow as 42,000 gallons of oil leaks from an underwater well that was broken open when a drill rig exploded and sank last week. 11 workers are believed to have died in the blast. Their bodies have never been recovered.It will be interesting to see how many safety violations have occurred in the recent past with this drilling outfit. One would hope it would be better than that of the mine owners involved in the recent mining tragedy. Sadly I will not be surprised if it is as bad or worse.
The slick stretches for about 100 miles across the north-central gulf and is about 30 miles wide at some points.
It's within 16 miles of the mouth of the Mississippi, the U.S. Coast Guard reports.
Efforts to cap the well using remote-controlled submarines have failed. Louisiana officials fear the oil could reach the state's shoreline late Friday or early Saturday and damage shellfish and wildlife.
BP, which owns the oil well, is spending $6 million a day trying to control the spill. The company's CEO said today the explosion could have been prevented and he's putting them blame on the rig owner Transocean Ltd. A spokesman for Transocean has declined to respond to BP's comments. But Transocean's Vice President has said the oil rig had no signs of a problem before the blast.
The oil spill from last week's deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico has increased to 5,000 barrels a day -- five times more than the original estimate, said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry.
A third underwater oil leak has been located in the pipeline that connected the rig to the oil well, said Doug Suttles, chief operating officer for BP.
The report by Interior's Minerals Management Service said the agency was conducting helicopter flyovers of the Gulf waters to investigate unconfirmed reports of oil spills and oil sheens, but that it was too early to issue any definitive findings.I have a hard time believing that no oil was spilled by the hurricane, but I will wait and see what they find out. However the Texas Land Commissioner has already declared that no spills occurred. Maybe he should let the Interior Department know so they can call of their flyovers.
"There are no reports of oil impacting the shoreline or affecting birds and wildlife from releases in the Gulf of Mexico federal waters," said the agency.
A confidential list prepared by the Bush administration shows that Cheney and his aides had already held at least 40 meetings with interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries. By the time of the meeting with environmental groups, according to a former White House official who provided the list to The Washington Post, the initial draft of the task force was substantially complete and President Bush had been briefed on its progress.
In all, about 300 groups and individuals met with staff members of the energy task force, including a handful who saw Cheney himself, according to the list, which was compiled in the summer of 2001. For six years, those names have been a closely guarded secret, thanks to a fierce legal battle waged by the White House. Some names have leaked out over the years, but most have remained hidden because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that agreed that the administration's internal deliberations ought to be shielded from outside scrutiny.
...
From the beginning, it was clear that Cheney was running the show, chairing meetings of the task force -- made up of about a dozen Cabinet officers and senior officials -- in his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Much of the task force's work was done by a six-person staff, led by its executive director, Andrew D. Lundquist, a former aide to Republican Sens. Ted Stevens and Frank Murkowski of Alaska. In 2000, Lundquist was the Bush campaign's energy expert; Bush nicknamed him "Light Bulb."
Today, Lundquist is a lobbyist, and he has represented some of the companies who appeared before the task force, such as BP, Duke Energy and the American Petroleum Institute. He did not return phone calls for this article
Who do we know was there?
1. One of the first visitors, on Feb. 14, was James J. Rouse, then vice president of Exxon Mobil and a major donor to the Bush inauguration
2. A week later, longtime Bush supporter Kenneth L. Lay, then head of Enron Corp., came by for the first of two meetings
3. On March 5, some of the country's biggest electric utilities, including Duke Energy and Constellation Energy Group, had an audience with the task force staff.
4. British Petroleum representatives dropped by on March 22, one of about 20 oil and drilling companies to get meetings.
5. The National Mining Association, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and the American Petroleum Institute were among three dozen trade associations that met with Cheney's staff, the document shows.
The list of participants' names and when they met with administration officials provides a clearer picture of the task force's priorities and bolsters previous reports that the review leaned heavily on oil and gas companies and on trade groups -- many of them big contributors to the Bush campaign and the Republican Party. But while it clears up much of the lingering uncertainty about who was granted access to present energy policy views to Cheney's staff, it does not entirely explain why the Bush administration fought so hard to keep it and other as-yet-unreleased internal memos secret.The price of a gallon of gas was around a $1.50. The prices have nearly tripled under the Cheney-Exxon plan. How did the oil companies fare?
Denbury Resources, the largest oil and gas company in Mississippi, is surveying Madison County for carbon dioxide that could be used to increase oil production.The good folks of Madison support drilling, just not in Madison. I wonder how they feel about offshore drilling?
Crews recently have been setting off about 300 controlled explosions a day and have set up seismic survey equipment from Flora to the Ross Barnett Reservoir.
Madison officials denied permission to use city rights of way, Butler said, but workers set up equipment on city property last week and this week.
The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017. Total domestic production of crude oil from 2012 through 2030 in the OCS access case is projected to be 1.6 percent higher than in the reference case, and 3 percent higher in 2030 alone, at 5.6 million barrels per day. For the lower 48 OCS, annual crude oil production in 2030 is projected to be 7 percent higher—2.4 million barrels per day in the OCS access case compared with 2.2 million barrels per day in the reference case (Figure 20). Because oil prices are determined on the international market, however, any impact on average wellhead prices is expected to be insignificant.
Nearly six million gallons of oil pouring out of seven pipelines and
coastal storage tanks ruptured by Hurricane Katrina amount to one of the largest U.S. oil spills in history.
For any of you doubters out there, since the link in the post is to an environmental website, these are for you.Major spills so far involve facilities owned by Shell, Chevron, Murphy Oil and Bass Enterprises Production. Offshore, nearly 40 drilling rigs have been destroyed. Some washed up on local beaches, one crashed into a bridge, while others simply disappeared.
By comparison to Katrina, the Exxon Valdez oil spill -- America's largest -- dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound.
Similarly, lower 48 natural gas production is not projected to increase substantially by 2030 as a result of increased access to the OCS.The real answer is to decrease demand and invest in clean energy research, not pandering to everyday Americans who are hurting at the pump by offering a solution that sounds great but is really just a windfall in profits for the corrupt oil and gas industry. The pander strategy did not work for Senator Clinton on the gas tax holiday and won't work for McCain either. This more than any other election is shaping up to be an election centered on policy. As long as McCain keeps flip-flopping in issues , and worse flopping the wrong way, we Democrats are in good shape.
