BP Oil Spill Approaching Gulf Coast

[reportertype]

COVINGTON, La. – BP chief executive Tony Hayward is apologizing for saying "I'd like my life back" to reporters over the weekend.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100602/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_ceo_apology_1

:furious::furious::furious:

Well, Tony, I'd like my beaches, my fish, my birds and my clean Gulf water back.

 

[reportertype]

Some people really tick me off:
Last week, Obama administration officials admitted that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is the worst oil disaster in American history, exceeding the Exxon Valdez spill, as they estimated that the gusher had spewed between 15 and 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Around the same time, however, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) declared that the oil pumping into the Gulf is “not an environmental disaster”:

Young said: “This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a national phenomena. Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe.… We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover.”
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/03/bp-oil-spill-don-young-tom-cole/

Wow. Yeah oil gets spilled into the ocean but that's usually from a ship, with a fixed amount to spill. Um, Don, this is a big ole hole BP dug and there's months and months worth of oil gushing out. What an idiot.

 

[drip~drop]

Animals suffer after oil spill

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Anima...licid_ap_org_befc0f8b50a44a05b9788f972a9e2e99

It just breaks my heart to see these pics.

O M G! Those poor babies. :cry:
I'm not even sure what they are under all that goop. Poor babies look like they're cast in a scary movie. :furious:

 

[legalmania]

Tonight at 9 pm e.s.t Dateline is going to have full coverage of the disaster. See how you can help.

 

[legalmania]

I was watching the weather channel the other night and they are doing a special about hurricanes this week. At one time the scientist were thinking of doing an experiment covering parts of the ocean with an inch of oil, to see if the oil would cool the ocean enough to stop hurricanes. Well they got their wish, now they can see if their experiment will work, at the expense of the working people and animals. I believe this will spread throughout the entire gulf and spread into the Atlantic.

 

[sandangel]

Some people really tick me off:
Last week, Obama administration officials admitted that the Deepwater Horizon blowout is the worst oil disaster in American history, exceeding the Exxon Valdez spill, as they estimated that the gusher had spewed between 15 and 40 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Around the same time, however, Rep. Don Young (R-AK) declared that the oil pumping into the Gulf is “not an environmental disaster”:

Young said: “This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a national phenomena. Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe.… We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover.”
http://climateprogress.org/2010/06/03/bp-oil-spill-don-young-tom-cole/

OMG!! What an idiot!!! Why does this even surprise me, he's a politician. :banghead: :sick:

 

[mysticrose]

UPDATED Friday, June 4, 2010
Methods That Have Been Tried to Stop the Leaking Oil

Efforts to Suppress the Flow of Oil
Since a fire engulfed the Deepwater horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, engineers have attempted a number of techniques to slow or stop the torrent of oil leaking from the wellhead 5,000 feet below the surface.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/25/us/20100525-topkill-diagram.html?ref=us

 

[mysticrose]

June 4, 2010 | 8:03 PM ET
President Obama Talks to Louisiana Locals About Oil Spill

GRAND ISLE, LA: President Obama came to Louisiana for the second time in a week to view first-hand the damage caused by the BP oil spill. He started his visit in New Orleans where he met with state and local officials of the areas affected by the disaster. Sitting along side Admiral Thad Allen, the President addressed the most recent efforts to stop the oil and gas gushing from BP's oil well. He said "it does appear that the cap, at least for now, is holding; that some hydrocarbons are being sent up to the surface; and that they are still ratcheting up the amount of oil and gas that's being extracted -- they're doing it carefully so that they don't dislodge or disrupt the cap in some fashion. We will know more over the next 24 to 48 hours. And it is way too early to be optimistic. But we're just going to keep on monitoring it."

But the concerns about what happens next persist including the way in which BP has handled the oil spill. The President questioned the use of BP's time and money during the disaster. "The fact that BP can pay a $10.5 billion dividend payment is indicative of how much money these folks have been making," Mr. Obama told reporters traveling with him in Louisiana. "Given the fact that they didn't fully account for the risks, I don't want somebody else bearing the costs of those risks that they took. I want to make sure that they're paying for it."

Upon arriving in Grand Isle, LA, a small 8-mile long island from whose coast more than 30 oil rigs can be counted for in the distance, the President met with residents, an oyster fisherman, and local small business owners. Grand isle is dotted with houses along the beach that many families rent for their summer reprieve. Shrimp and oysters are rich in this area, providing a source of income for many families. But with the oil disaster in its 46th day, the loss of jobs and livelihood is looming heavily over the residents here. Something the President noted. "They've got a bunch of shrimp on ice that they're selling inventory but they're not bringing any new product in. And BP says to them, well your sales don't seem to incline. They try to explain yeah, but we had to lay off all our workers because we're not bringing any new shrimp in. Our coverage is going to be bare in the next several weeks. BP's got to be able to anticipate that," said the President.

http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com...ma-talks-to-louisiana-locals-about-oil-spill/

 

[legalmania]

I just finished watching Dateline and Halliburton was not even mentioned. I believe they used cheap cement.

Halliburton, which had the Deepwater Horizon job, mixes in nitrogen to make its slurry more elastic. The nitrogen also helps create a lightweight cement that resembles a gray foamy mousse and bonds better to the casing.

Federal regulators don't regulate what type of cement is used, leaving it up to oil and gas companies. The drillers are urged to simply follow guidelines of the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group.

In a November 2005 accident where the Deepwater Horizon was positioned above another well in the Gulf, faulty cement work allowed wall-supporting steel casing to come apart. Almost 15,000 gallons (56,800 liters) of drilling fluid spilled into the Gulf.

UNBELIEVABLE
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/24/national/main6513934.shtml

 

[legalmania]

BP had the nerve to make a commercial about coming to Florida beaches. There nice and white no oil. Not anymore. Making commercials at this time is not appropriate. Stop the leak, and clean the mess you made, pay the people of Louisiana and whatever or whoever you've destroyed by this mess, then go away.

 

[legalmania]

I swear I beginning to think they should, cover the hat with giant rolls of duct tape.

 

[bessie]

More fishing closed off the coast of Florida as oil moves east

By Chris Kirkham, The Times-PicayuneJune 05, 2010, 5:19PM

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has closed more than 500 additional square miles of fishing grounds off the panhandle of Florida beginning this evening, as the oil slick moves farther east.
Yesterday NOAA closed more than 2,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing as far east as the Destin area. Today the closure area was widened as far east as off the coast of Panama City Beach, Fla.
In total, 78,603 square miles of Gulf of waters, or about 33 percent of the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, are now closed as a precaution due to the oil spill.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/more_fishing_closed_off_the_co.html

In forty-six days this crime perpetrated by British Petroleum has resulted in the closure of a full third of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. To date, there is no end in sight.

 

[bessie]

Oil arrives on Alabama beaches, bringing worries with it

By Richard Rainey, The Times-Picayune June 05, 2010, 8:51PM

Steve Borgmier stood in the white sand of a beach here late Friday, a beer in his hand, as his grandkids played in rolling waves. Less than 20 yards away, men in reflective yellow vests methodically scooped sand into plastic bags.


The dozens of bags, stretching in a line toward a massive pier in the distance, contained sandy tar balls -- the first ominous arrivals to this bucolic vacationland from a collapsed rig spewing oil at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico for more than six weeks.
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/06/oil_arrives_on_alabama_beaches.html

 

[Gypsy Road]

Here's the newest oil spill forecast info from NOAA

http://www.pnj.com/article/20100606/GRAPHICS/100606003/Oil-spill-may-NOAA-forecast-for-Sunday.

 

[supergirl]

Was at Gulf Islands National Seashore in Perdido, Fl (Pensacola) today and saw many tiny tarballs all over, none bigger than a fist. Lots of people still swimming and in the parking lot the cleanup teams in their hazmat gear sitting around on top of coolers. Our poor paradise is about to take a very bad hit

 

[bessie]

My car came to a screeching halt when I saw my local "shrimp lady" open for business the other day selling fresh shrimp from ice chests in the bed of her pick-up. The shrimp were jumbo, 10-12's, but...different. She said they came from waters close to the La-Tx border. I bought several pounds and boiled them up with a lot of Zatarain's. They didn't taste anything like the Gulf shrimp we're used to
eating. So what? No big deal in the whole scheme of things. Right? Wrong. It's a big sign of what's to come. I won't be buying any more of that product and I won't be the only one.

 

[Gypsy Road]

Bessie, Do you think those shrimp really came from the waters off Tx or LA? I wonder if they came from elsewhere - like some sold at some grocery stores. I was told they get a lot of their jumbo shrimp from Asia! I live in Northwest Florida and have eaten Gulf shrimp ever since I moved here over 20 years ago - usually buy fresh shrimp from the fresh seafood market. However I have had those big jimbo shrimp from the grocery store and although they were huge, they were tough and tasted nothing like our tasty gulf shrimp.

My family owns a restaurant and we are having a tough time finding good tasting oysters now that the Louisiana beds have been closed. We get a lot of our oysters from Appalachicola, but are paying a much higher price. I assume those beds will close too at some point since the oil is heading that way. We've tried the Pacific coast oysters and although they are good - people here on the Gulf Coast like Gulf oysters. They just have a different taste and texture.

 

[legalmania]

Here are some of the innocent faces of ground zero.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/07/lafourche.parish.oil.impact/index.html?hpt=T1

 

[bessie]

Bessie, Do you think those shrimp really came from the waters off Tx or LA? I wonder if they came from elsewhere - like some sold at some grocery stores. I was told they get a lot of their jumbo shrimp from Asia! I live in Northwest Florida and have eaten Gulf shrimp ever since I moved here over 20 years ago - usually buy fresh shrimp from the fresh seafood market. However I have had those big jimbo shrimp from the grocery store and although they were huge, they were tough and tasted nothing like our tasty gulf shrimp.

My family owns a restaurant and we are having a tough time finding good tasting oysters now that the Louisiana beds have been closed. We get a lot of our oysters from Appalachicola, but are paying a much higher price. I assume those beds will close too at some point since the oil is heading that way. We've tried the Pacific coast oysters and although they are good - people here on the Gulf Coast like Gulf oysters. They just have a different taste and texture.

They were very fresh, so I do believe they came from nearby waters. The texture was good, similar to a Gulf shrimp, but the meat was sweet. The next time I see her, I'm going to quiz her a little more about their origin.

Restaurants face huge challenges, and I wish your family the best of luck in meeting them. Satisfying customers like myself, for whom local seafood is a lifelong dietary staple, will take some very creative innovation. Gravies and sauces might mask the difference in taste when cooked that way, but around here we consume tons and tons of raw oysters and boiled seafood. That's a big chunk of business that will be lost. On top of that, higher menu prices for a so-so product is going to drive business away. My husband and I want our favorite seafood vendors and restaurants to be around when "the real stuff" is safe again, so we'll do our best to tough it out with them, just like we did after Katrina. Yet, even if all of their regular customers stick with them, I fear it won't be enough to keep them afloat.

 

[legalmania]

In a interview today with Matt Lauer he talked with President Obama, he had the following to say,

"I have not spoken to him directly," he told Lauer. "Here's the reason. Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he's gonna say all the right things to me. I'm not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."


"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar," the president added. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose *advertiser censored* to kick."

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37566848/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/