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Scientist Rick Steiner Got Gulf Disaster Right From The Beginning, Warns Crisis Is Far From Over

August 26, 2010 by Infinite

Related articles:

– Gulf Chemist: Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Extremely Toxic Dispersant – at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner – Which BP Says It No Longer Uses (Pictures)

The FDA is not testing sea food in the Gulf of Mexico:

– FDA admits NOT testing for MERCURY, ARSENIC, or any other TOXIC HEAVY METALS in Sea Food

American lives seem to continuously drop in value:

– Gulf claims chief Ken Feinberg says BP no-sue rule was his idea, takes control of BP’s $20bn fund

Former Prof. at the University of Alaska Rick Steiner

I first spoke to Rick Steiner more than three months ago — about two weeks into the Deepwater Horizon disaster — after a source recommended I talk to him for a story I was writing about the spill as a teachable moment. Steiner is a marine conservationist and activist in Alaska who started studying oil spills when the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, and never stopped.

What Steiner said to me during that first interview was blunt, depressing — and struck me as having the ring of truth. Little did I know how true.

“Government and industry will habitually understate the volume of the spill and the impact, and they will overstate the effectiveness of the cleanup and their response,” he told me at the time. “There’s no such thing as an effective response. There’s never been an effective response — ever — where more than 10 or 20 percent of the oil is ever recovered from the water.

“Most of the oil that goes into the water in a major spill stays there,” he said. “And once the oil is in the water, the damage is done.”

Steiner was also one of the first scientists to warn that much if not most of BP’s oil was remaining underwater, forming giant and potentially deadly toxic plumes.

I thought of Steiner last week, as I sat in a congressional hearing room listening to Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ed Markey question Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Lehr was one of the authors of an increasingly controversial federal report about the fate of BP’s spilled oil that Obama administration officials misleadingly cited as evidence that the “vast majority” of the oil was essentially gone.

Markey’s persistent questioning eventually got Lehr to acknowledge that, contrary to the administration spin, most of the spill — including the oil that has been dispersed or dissolved into the water, or evaporated into the atmosphere — is still in the Gulf ecosystem. Then Markey got Lehr to recalculate what percentage of the spill BP had actually recovered, through skimming and burning.

That amount: About 10 percent.

In other words, Steiner was right.

The other part of Steiner’s prediction — that the government and BP would low-ball the volume of the spill — had already played out very publicly. BP and NOAA both opened with a 5,000 barrel a day estimate. NOAA officials stuck to that estimate for weeks, despite the fact that they had access to video feeds from the wellhead clearly showing how far off they were. More than two weeks after some of that video was made public, the government finally, grudgingly, upped its estimates to 12,000 to 19,000 barrels daily; then 20,000 to 40,000 barrels, then 35,000 to 60,000 barrels, before finalizing its estimate in early August at 62,000 barrels a day at the beginning of the spill, declining to 53,000 barrels a day toward the end.

Gulf Chemist: Mercenaries Hired By BP Are Now Applying Extremely Toxic Dispersant – at Night and In an Uncontrolled Manner – Which BP Says It No Longer Uses (Pictures)

August 26, 2010August 26, 2010 by Infinite

Bob Naman is an analytical chemist with almost 30 years in the field, based in Mobile, Alabama. When WKRG News 5 gave Naman samples of water from the Gulf of Mexico, Naman found oil contamination, and one of his samples actually exploded during testing due – he believes – to the presence of methane gas or Corexit, the dispersant that BP has been using in the Gulf:

WKRG.com News

But the story only starts there.

A few days ago, Naman was sent a sample of water from Cotton Bayou, Alabama.

Naman found 13.3 parts per million of the dispersant Corexit in the sample:

That’s a little perlexing, given that Admiral Thad Allen said on August 9th that dispersants have not been used in the Gulf since mid-July:

We have not used dispersant since the capping stack was put on. I believe that was the 15th of July.

***
But I would tell you, there are no dispersants being used at this time.

More imporantly, Naman told me that he found 2-butoxyethanol in the sample.

BP and Nalco – the manufacturer of Corexit – have said that dispersant containing 2-butoxyethanol is no longer being sprayed in the Gulf. As the New York Times noted in June:

Corexit 9527, used in lesser quantities during the earlier days of the spill response, is designated a chronic and acute health hazard by EPA. The 9527 formula contains 2-butoxyethanol, pinpointed as the cause of lingering health problems experienced by cleanup workers after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and propylene glycol, a commonly used solvent.

Corexit 9500, described by [Nalco’s spokesman] as the “sole product” Nalco has manufactured for the Gulf since late April, contains propylene glycol and light petroleum distillates, a type of chemical refined from crude oil.

Moreover, Naman said that he searched for the main ingredient in the less toxic 9500 version – propylene glycol – but there was none present. In other words, Naman found the most toxic ingredient in 9527 and did not find the chemical marker for 9500.

Gulf claims chief Ken Feinberg says BP no-sue rule was his idea, takes control of BP’s $20bn fund

August 25, 2010 by Infinite

Oil spill claims tsar Ken Feinberg takes control of BP’s $20bn fund

Obama’s former pay tsar Kenneth Feinberg

BP’s $20bn (£12.9bn) compensation and clean-up fund officially opened for business on Monday as Ken Feinberg, the man in charge of the process, said he was behind a decision to limit successful claimants from suing the British oil giant.

Mr Feinberg, who is administering the new Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), took responsibility for the controls on the rights of claimants, after the company was initially criticised for the decision.

President Barack Obama’s former pay tsar took over the process from BP, which had been handling the flood of claims since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

He told the US Congress last week that his aim was to stop people who feel they have been hurt financially by the spill from “going to court”.

“I want people coming to the fund. Why should a claimant spend five years in court… and owe money to a lawyer rather than come into the Gulf Coast claims facility?” Mr Feinberg told a US House of Representatives’ committee.

Scientists Find Giant 22-Mile Plume Of Oil Droplets From BP’s Deepwater Horizon Well ‘Missed’ By Official Account

August 21, 2010 by Infinite

– Bolivia: Over 1 Million of Dead Fish and Thousands of Alligators, Turtles, Dolphins and Other River Wildlife are Floating Dead in Rivers

A 22-mile plume of droplets from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico undermines claim that oil has degraded

Images taken during the descent of an underwater vehicle show oil droplets appearing at a depth of 1065-1300m. Photograph: Ho/AFP/Getty Images

Scientists have mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP’s rogue well in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, providing the strongest evidence yet of the fate of the crude that spewed into the sea for months.

The report offers the most authoritative challenge to date to White House assertions that most of the 5m barrels of oil that spewed into the Gulf is gone.

“These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume,” said Christopher Reddy one of the members of the team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The report, which is published in the journal Science, also said the plume was very slow to break down by natural forces, increasing the likelihood that oil could have travelled long distances in the Gulf before it was degraded.

“Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily degraded,” said Richard Camilli, the lead author of the paper. “Well we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.”

‘Fake Fishermen’ Conning BP Out of Gulf of Mexico Compensation Money

August 14, 2010August 12, 2010 by Infinite

Fraudsters are posing as fisherman to con BP out of thousands of dollars in compensation for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

US authorities have arrested three people in the past week on suspicion of abusing the system designed to compensate commercial fisherman for lost business since the disaster.

The British oil giant has given more than $308 million to individuals and businesses so far but it is feared conmen are fraudulently claiming to be fishermen to receive payouts.

In order to claim compensation from BP, fishermen must prove they hold a commercial fishing license, which can be obtained from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF).

The LDWF has seen a steep rise in the number of licence applications since the spill – despite many fishing grounds being closed due to the disaster. The trend is thought to be a result of fraudsters trying to milk the system.

It said it has sold 2,200 licences since oil started leaking into the sea following the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig – an increase of nearly 60 per cent on the same period last year.

Lt Col Jeff Mayne of the LDWF Law Enforcement Division says some of those licences may have been used to commit fraud.

“Originally BP was paying to cheques to just anybody who had a licence and that may have spurred some of the fraud,” he told the BBC. “There were no real checks and balances on whether they were they really commercial fishermen.

“I would like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not. It’s a lot easier to go and steal a resource than to rob a bank. I think we’ll be working items associated with this oil spill for years to come.”

Matthew Simmons: ‘We’ve Now Killed The Gulf Of Mexico’ (Flashback)

August 21, 2010August 9, 2010 by Infinite

Don’t miss: Matt Simmons Dies In An ‘Accidental Drowning’ At His Home

Added: 21. July 2010

“What we don’t know anything about is the open hole which is caused by the drill bit when it tossed the blow-out preventer way out of the hole…and 120,000 minimum of toxic poison has now covered the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. So what they’re talking about is the biggest environmental cover-up ever. And they knew that that well, that riser, would finally deplete. And then they could say it’s over. And unfortunately, we now have killed the Gulf of Mexico.”

Gulf Oil Blowout: Matt Simmons Was Right!

August 21, 2010August 9, 2010 by Infinite

Matt Simmons died today:

– Matt Simmons Dies In An ‘Accidental Drowning’ At His Home

1 of 4:

2 of 4:

3 of 4:

4 of 4:

“What we don’t know anything about is the open hole which is caused by the drill bit when it tossed the blow-out preventer way out of the hole…and 120,000 minimum of toxic poison has now covered the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. So what they’re talking about is the biggest environmental cover-up ever. And they knew that that well, that riser, would finally deplete. And then they could say it’s over. And unfortunately, we now have killed the Gulf of Mexico.”

– Matt Simmons: BP Cap Is A Fraud – ‘It’s The Biggest Cover-Up We have Ever Seen’

– Matt Simmons: ‘We’re going to have to evacuate the gulf states.’

– Matt Simmons on Bloomberg: There Is A Much Larger Leak, Creating A Gigantic Plume; US Military Should Take Over And Use Nuclear Weapons to Seal The Blowout

EPA Whistleblower On Gulf Health Risk Cover-Up: ‘People Who Work Near Corexit Are Hemorrhaging Internally.’

July 27, 2010 by Infinite

EPA Whistleblower Accuses Agency of Covering Up Effects of Dispersant in BP Oil Spill Cleanup

With BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf of Mexico, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. We speak with Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. [includes rush transcript]

SHARIF ADBEL KOUDDOUS: The Obama administration has given BP the go-ahead to keep its ruptured well sealed for another day despite worries about the well leaking some oil and methane gas. National Incident Commander Thad Allen said the seep was not cause for alarm. Meanwhile, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has released its analysis of BP’s data on the exposure of cleanup workers to the chemical dispersants being used in the Gulf. OSHA chief David Michaels told the environmental website Greenwire that, quote, “I think you can say exposures are low for workers. Exposures of workers on shore are virtually nonexistent. There are significant exposures near the source, and that’s to be expected given the work being done there. Those workers are given respiratory protection,” he said. But with BP having poured nearly two million gallons of the dispersant known as Corexit into the Gulf, many lawmakers and advocacy groups say the Obama administration is not being candid about the lethal effects of dispersants. At a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski grilled administrators from the EPA about Corexit and said she didn’t want dispersants to be the Agent Orange of this oil spill.

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI:

AMY GOODMAN: Maryland Senator Barbara Mikulski. While concerns over the impact of chemical dispersants continue to grow, Gulf Coast residents are outraged by a recent announcement that the $20 billion government-administered claim fund will subtract money cleanup workers earn by working for the cleanup effort from any future claims. Fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg says the ruling will apply to anyone who participates in the Vessels of Opportunity program, which has employed hundreds of Gulf Coast residents left out of work because of the spill. It’s seen as an effort to limit the number of lawsuits against BP. We’re joined now by two guests on these two issues, on Corexit and the workers. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail is joining us from Tampa, Florida. He’s been reporting from the Gulf Coast for three weeks. His latest article at Truthout is called “BP’s Scheme to Swindle the ‘Small People.'” And from Washington, DC, we’re joined by Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response. He’s been a leading critic of the decision to use Corexit. We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Let’s begin with Hugh Kaufman. First of all, explain what Corexit is, the company that makes it, what’s in it, and your concerns.

HUGH KAUFMAN: Well, Corexit is one of a number of dispersants, that are toxic, that are used to atomize the oil and force it down the water column so that it’s invisible to the eye. In this case, these dispersants were used in massive quantities, almost two million gallons so far, to hide the magnitude of the spill and save BP money. And the government-both EPA, NOAA, etc.-have been sock puppets for BP in this cover-up. Now, by hiding the amount of spill, BP is saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in fines, and so, from day one, there was tremendous economic incentive to use these dispersants to hide the magnitude of the gusher that’s been going on for almost three months.

Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect. Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher. And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate. But the use of dispersants has not. Consequently, we have people, wildlife-we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging.

People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that’s what dispersants are supposed to do. EPA now is taking the position that they really don’t know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It’s very dangerous, and it’s an economic-it’s an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.

Now, the one thing that I did want to mention to you, Amy, that’s occurred in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, “follow the money.” And that’s correct. In this case, you’ve got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it’s BP. But then the next question-I’ve only seen one article that describes it-who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it’s the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what’s needed, we now know that there’s a cover-up. Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks-Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski-are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who’s getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.

Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Rig Blast: Safety Alarm Was Off

July 24, 2010 by Infinite

– Rachel Maddow: The Gulf Of Mexico Déjà Vu (Must See!)

A fire alarm on the BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that exploded triggering an environmental catastrophe had been turned off, the chief electrician on the rig has alleged.

The oil rig Deepwater Horizon catches fire, Port of Venice, Gulf of Mexico Photo: REX

Michael Williams told a US government investigation that the alarm – which could have detected a build-up in natural gas and closed parts of the rig – was disarmed so it would not wake people up at night.

The BP rig exploded in April, killing 11 people and triggering a leak that released tens of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Speculation was mounting on Friday that Tony Hayward, BP’s chief excutive, would stand down on Tuesday after facing increasing pressure from the board as a result of the spill.

Sky News reported that the British oil giant – which has seen £46bn wiped from its market value since the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion on April 20 which triggered the spill – may announce its chief executive’s exit as early as Tuesday, when the company is due to publish its interim results.

Mr Williams, who is suing the owners of the rig, claims that he raised his concerns about the alarm and other alleged safety failings with his managers.

“The general alarm was inhibited,” said Mr Williams, who worked for Transocean, the Geneva-based company that owned the rig. He claimed that the system had been disabled because rig managers “did not want people woken up at 3am with false alarms”.

The alarm was designed to automatically shut air vents into engine rooms. During the accident, natural gas is believed to have been sucked into the engines, causing them to speed up and explode.

Mr Williams alleged the system was a “wreck” when he started working on the rig in 2009, with many faulty detectors. He said he tried to repair it, but faced problems with malfunctioning equipment.

And Now: BP Plans Deep-Water Drilling Off Libya

July 24, 2010 by Infinite

BP is to begin deep-water drilling off Libya, despite environmental concerns following the Gulf of Mexico spill and an international row over the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

BP drilling in Libya comes amid international concerns about Lockerbie (AP)

The plans, reported in the Financial Times, come in the shadow of controversy, as the oil giant faces new scrutiny of its 2007 deal to acquire gas and oil fields off the Libyan coast at a cost of $900 million.

At a depth of more than 1700 metres below sea level, the new site in Libya’s Gulf of Sirte will be 200 metres deeper than the Gulf of Mexico well that exploded on April 20, killing 11 oil workers and causing immeasurable environmental damage.

The 2007 agreement has since come under fire from American politicians, after BP revealed that it lobbied the UK government over a prisoner transfer agreement between Britain and Libya.

Despite increased pressure from senior officials, including US President Barack Obama, the UK oil group has vigorously denied any involvement in the release of Libyan terrorist Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, after the Lockerbie bomber was freed by the Scottish government on compassionate grounds.

The issue was raised last week when British Prime Minister David Cameron met President Obama for talks in Washington. Mr Cameron has indicated there could be an inquiry into the release.

BP maintains it was “not involved in any discussions with the UK government or the Scottish government about the release of Mr al-Megrahi”.

A US senator has begged Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, to assist a hearing into the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

In a letter, Frank Lautenberg said he was “pleading” with the Scottish government to reconsider its decision not to send officials to a hearing into the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi.

The company’s Chief Executive, Tony Hayward, is expected to appear before US Senators on Thursday to deny the claims.

A spokesman for BP confirmed the Libya drilling, saying: “Drilling at the new site will start within a few weeks”.

Who Really Owns BP?

July 24, 2010July 24, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 11. July 2010

Rachel Maddow: The Gulf Of Mexico Déjà Vu (Must See!)

July 22, 2010 by Infinite

More information:

– Matt Simmons: BP Cap Is A Fraud – ‘It’s The Biggest Cover-Up We have Ever Seen’

– Gulf Of Mexico Water Sample EXPLODES! Other Samples Prove To Be Toxic

– Toxicologists: Corexit ‘Ruptures Red Blood Cells, Causes Internal Bleeding’, ‘Allows Crude Oil To Penetrate ‘Into The Cells’ and ‘Every Organ System’

– BP Oil Blowout: All States Along Gulf Of Mexico Affected By Slick

– U.S. Senate Traitors Block Investigative Power for Oil Spill Commission

– And Now: BP admits failing to use industry risk test at any of its deepwater wells in the US

– Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

– CNN: 1st Amendment, Free Press Suspended Near Gulf Disaster Area

Matt Simmons: BP Cap Is A Fraud – ‘It’s The Biggest Cover-Up We have Ever Seen’

July 19, 2010 by Infinite

Matt Simmons is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, so you really cannot trust him for a planck second.

Matt Simmons recommends to use a nuclear weapon to seal the blowout.

And what will happen if all the methane in the Gulf explodes???

– History Channel Mega Disasters: Methane Explosion

“The health problems are so serious,” Simmons said. “When you inhale methane you just die.”

Added: 19. July 2010

Oil industry insider Matt Simmons blew the whistle on the made-for-TV
capping of the so-called oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, July
15, during an interview on KPFK radio, the NPR station in Los Angeles.

Simmons, former energy adviser to the second President Bush, explained
that according to his reading of the data from NOAA, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, capping of the so-called riser
and the subsequent announcement by U.S. President Obama was “the
biggest con job we’ve ever seen.”

Simmons, creator of an investment bank catering to oil companies, told
radio host Ian Masters that the real problem continuing to gush oil
into the Gulf was not the 6-inch “riser” that apparently has been
capped amid much TV hoopla, but that an open hole or cauldron perhaps
up to 10 miles distant from where British Petroleum’s cameras are
focused which continues to spew 120,000 BARRELS per day, and that BP’s
much publicized effort to drill relief wells in what the company says
is an effort to stop the flow of oil is nothing but a cynical
publicity stunt.

“The dimensions of this lie are beyond belief,” said Simmons,
explaining that the idea of a relief well is “tricky at best,” since
trying to hit a pipe of less than a foot in diameter 35,000 feet below
the surface of the Gulf may be entirely futile because the casing of
the original pipe is not even there, having blown away at some point.

But Simmons noted that both BP and Obama continue to deny that this
open hole, or cauldron, even exists, even though Simmons and others
insist the NOAA data from satellites prove by speed of flow and depth
of light that the amount of oil that has been flowing through the
on-camera riser could not possibly account for the amount of oil that
has spilled into the Gulf.

“The riser is totally irrelevant,” Simmons stressed, adding “and
there’s no way to cap the open hole.” He explained that BP continues
to deny the open hole exists and theorizes the continuing flow of oil
into the Gulf is really just the residue from what has already been
spilled during the first 90 days of the disaster.

“There is denial that there’s even a problem,” Simmons said. “In about
a month or two people will realize that this actually was the biggest
con job we’ve ever seen.”

Toxicologists: Corexit ‘Ruptures Red Blood Cells, Causes Internal Bleeding’, ‘Allows Crude Oil To Penetrate ‘Into The Cells’ and ‘Every Organ System’

July 10, 2010 by Infinite

As I have previously noted, Corexit is toxic, is less effective than other dispersants, and is actually worsening the damage caused by the oil spill.

Now, two toxicologists are saying that Corexit is much more harmful to human health and marine life than we’ve been told.

Specifically Gulf toxicologist Dr. Susan Shaw – Founder and Director of the Marine Environmental Research Institute – dove into the oil spill to examine the chemicals present.

Dr. Shaw told CNN:

If I can tell you what happens – because I was in the oil – to people…

Shrimpers throwing their nets into water… [then] water from the nets splashed on his skin. …

[He experienced a] headache that lasted 3 weeks… heart palpitations… muscle spasms… bleeding from the rectum…

And that’s what that Corexit does, it ruptures red blood cells, causes internal bleeding, and liver and kidney damage. …

This stuff is so toxic combined… not the oil or dispersants alone. …

Very, very toxic and goes right through skin.

***

The reason this is so toxic is because of these solvents [from dispersant] that penetrate the skin of anything that’s going through the dispersed oil takes the oil into the cells – takes the oil into the organs… and this stuff is toxic to every organ system in the body. …

Similarly, marine biologist and toxicologist Dr. Chris Pincetich – who has an extensive background in testing the affects of chemicals on fish – says that Corexit disrupts cell membranes.

He also explains that EPA toxicity testing for Corexit is woefully inadequate, since EPA testing for mortality usually only requires a 96-hour time frame. His doctoral research found that fish that were alive at 96 hours after exposure to pesticide were dead at two weeks, so the chemicals were considered non-lethal for the purposes of the test.

BP Oil Blowout: All States Along Gulf Of Mexico Affected By Slick

July 7, 2010July 7, 2010 by Infinite

Tar balls from the Gulf oil spill have been found on a Texas beach, the first evidence that crude from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well has reached all the Gulf states.

Smoke rises from the BP oil spill site, as natural gas is burned off, while the drilling of two relief wells continue in the Gulf of Mexico (Reuters)

A Coast Guard official said it was possible that the oil hitched a ride on a ship and was not carried naturally by currents to the barrier islands of the eastern Texas coast, but there was no way to know.

The amount is tiny in comparison to what has coated beaches in the hardest-hit parts of the Gulf coast in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle but it still provoked the quick dispatch of cleaning crews and a vow that BP will pay for the trouble.

U.S. Senate Traitors Block Investigative Power for Oil Spill Commission

July 6, 2010 by Infinite

The elite criminals that control the US government have their puppets in both parties in the right places.

Are they protecting (Dick Cheney’s) Halliburton?

– David Icke On The Gulf Oil Spill And FEMA Camps: A ‘Biblical’ Catastrophe That Will Affect Us All

Just eight days before the Gulf blow-out, Halliburton also announced that it had agreed to buy Boots & Coots for $240.4 million. Who are Boots & Coots?

The world’s largest oil-spill clean-up company which also deals with oil and gas well fires and blowouts.

What an incredibly fortunate coincidence. What a slice of luck.

– Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill: The Halliburton Connection:

The company acknowledged Friday that it had completed the final cementing of the oil well and pipe just 20 hours before the blowout last week.

More coincidences:

– BP CEO Tony Hayward sold £1.4 million of his shares weeks before Gulf blowout

– Goldman Sachs Sold 44% Of Its BP Stock 3 Weeks Before Gulf Blowout

– Rig firm makes $270m profit from Gulf of Mexico oil spill

This much is true: You have been lied to:

– Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

And the government is NOT telling the people how contaminated the air really is that they are breathing right now.

The US government knows that many, many Americans will die from this disaster, but the government does not care about them at all.

If you are living in the Gulf region and have relatives elsewhere, call them, ask if you can stay with them for a while and leave.

If you can afford to leave the Gulf region, leave NOW.

The US House of Representatives voted 420 to 1 to give the presidential commission investigating the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico full subpoena power.

The Senate blocked it = No subpoena powers = No investigation.

—-

Transcript:

And Now: BP admits failing to use industry risk test at any of its deepwater wells in the US

July 5, 2010 by Infinite

BP was facing fresh criticism over its approach to safety on Saturday night after critics said it did not use an industry standard process to asses risk ahead of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The procedure, known as a safety case, was developed in Britain after the catastrophic Piper Alpha oil rig explosion of 1988 in which 167 people lost their lives.

Royal Dutch Shell confirmed that it always develops safety cases – a lengthy written document – on each of its thousands of wells in the world, even though they are only mandatory in some countries.

However, BP admitted to The Sunday Telegraph that it does not use safety cases on any of its US wells, including the high-pressure deep water Macondo well from which up to 60,000 barrels of oil per day are still leaking in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is now 75 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, killing 11 men and triggering the catastrophic spill.

Warning To Gulf Volunteers: Almost Every Cleanup Worker From The 1989 Exxon Valdez Disaster Is Now Dead

July 3, 2010July 3, 2010 by Infinite

Are you sure that you want to help clean up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico? In a previous article we documented a number of the health dangers from this oil spill that many scientists are warning us of, and now it has been reported on CNN that the vast majority of those who worked to clean up the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska are now dead. Yes, you read that correctly. Almost all of them are dead.

In fact, the expert that CNN had on said that the life expectancy for those who worked to clean up the Exxon Valdez oil spill is only about 51 years. Considering the fact that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is now many times worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster, are you sure you want to volunteer to be on a cleanup crew down there? After all, the American Dream is not to make big bucks for a few months helping BP clean up their mess and then drop dead 20 or 30 years early.

(Bonus: Uncovered BP Document Brags Of Declining Production Costs)

This news clip from CNN is absolutely stunning. If this is even close to true, then why would anyone want to be involved in helping to clean up this oil?….

The truth is that what we have out in the Gulf of Mexico is a “toxic soup” of oil, methane, benzene, hydrogen sulfide, other toxic gases and very poisonous chemical dispersants such as Corexit 9500.

Breathing all of this stuff is not good for your health, but the reality is that the true health toll of this oil spill is not going to be known for decades.

However, the early reports are not encouraging….

*Already, a large number of workers cleaning up the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico report that they are suffering from flu-like symptoms.

*According to another new report, exposure to the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in 162 cases of illnesses reported to the Louisiana state health department.

*In addition, according to one local Pensacola news source, “400 people have sought medical care for upper or lower respiratory problems, headaches, nausea, and eye irritation after trips to Escambia County beaches.”

Gulf of Mexico Disaster: BP Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales

July 1, 2010July 1, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 26. June 2010

A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all around it’s blow hole.

BP burns rare sea turtles alive, blocks efforts to save them

June 25, 2010 by Infinite

(NaturalNews) By now, almost everyone is aware of the out-of-control oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico that seems to be getting exponentially worse with each passing day. But what people may not know is that BP’s efforts to control the oil by burning it are actually burning alive a certain rare and endangered species of sea turtle.

For several weeks now, rescue crews have been feverishly trying to save Kemp’s Ridleys sea turtles, as well as four other endangered varieties, from being caught in the oil corral areas that are being intentionally burned by BP, but according to Mike Ellis, one of the boat captains involved in the project, BP has now blocked all such rescue efforts from taking place.

“They ran us out of there and then they shut us down, they would not let us get back in there,” he explained in an interview with Catherine Craig, a conservation biologist.

According to Dr. Brian Stacy, a veterinarian with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there are five different endangered sea turtles living in the Gulf that are all at risk, but the type being found “dead or covered in oil” the most is the Kemp’s Ridleys variety, which is the rarest species of them all.

So why would BP intentionally block rescue efforts aimed at protecting and saving wildlife and other endangered species from being burned alive in controlled burning pits? For starters, the Kemp’s Ridleys sea turtle is listed in the Endangered Species Act, which means there are severe penalties for those who harm or kill them.

According to the law, harming or killing even one animal on the endangered species list can result in a fine of up to $50,000 and may include prison time. This means that the hundreds, or even thousands, of endangered sea turtles being burned alive by BP are going to cost the company a lot of money, not to mention the prison time its executives might have to serve.

Matt Simmons: ‘We’re going to have to evacuate the gulf states.’

June 25, 2010June 25, 2010 by Infinite

Council on Foreign Relations member Matt Simmons calls for the evacuation of the gulf states.

Don’t miss:

– Former Shell CEO John Hoffmeister On MSNBC: ‘The Whole Casing System Is Deteriorating’

Each day, another way to define worst-case for oil spill

An enduring feature of the gulf oil spill is that, even when you think you’ve heard the worst-case scenario, there’s always another that’s even more dire.

The base-line measures of the crisis have steadily worsened. The estimated flow rate keeps rising. The well is like something deranged, stronger than anyone anticipated. BP executives last month said they had a 60 to 70 percent chance of killing it with mud, but the well spit the mud out and kept blowing.

The net effect is that nothing about this well seems crazy anymore. Week by week, the truth of this disaster has drifted toward the stamping ground of the alarmists.

The most disturbing of the worst-case scenarios, one that is unsubstantiated but is driving much of the blog discussion, is that the Deepwater Horizon well has been so badly damaged that it has spawned multiple leaks from the seafloor, making containment impossible and a long-term solution much more complicated.

Video from a robotic submersible, which is making the rounds online, shows something puffing from the seafloor. Some think it’s oil. Or maybe — look again — it’s just the silt blowing in response to the forward motion of the submersible.

More trouble: A tropical wave has formed in the Caribbean and could conceivably blow through the gulf.

“We’re going to have to evacuate the gulf states,” said Matt Simmons, founder of Simmons and Co., an oil investment firm and, since the April 20 blowout, the unflagging source of end-of-the-world predictions. “Can you imagine evacuating 20 million people? . . . This story is 80 times worse than I thought.”

Former Shell CEO John Hoffmeister On MSNBC: ‘The Whole Casing System Is Deteriorating’

June 25, 2010June 24, 2010 by Infinite

Related interview with Matt Simmons:

– Matt Simmons on Bloomberg: There Is A Much Larger Leak, Creating A Gigantic Plume; US Military Should Take Over And Use Nuclear Weapons to Seal The Blowout

BUT there is an enormous amount of methane in the Gulf:

– US Scientist: Methane In Gulf ‘Astonishingly High’, As Much As 1 Million Times The Normal Level

What happens if methane explodes?

– History Channel Mega Disasters: Methane Explosion

Added: 24. June 2010

More:

– BP Plans To Dump All North Sea Assets In Dramatic Attempt To Cut Costs

– BP Blocking Media Access To Workers (Video)

– BP Official Admits to Damage BENEATH THE SEA FLOOR

– BP Buys Search Term ‘Oil Spill’ From Google

– BP CEO Tony Hayward sold £1.4 million of his shares weeks before Gulf blowout

– Goldman Sachs Sold 44% Of Its BP Stock 3 Weeks Before Gulf Blowout

– Feds and BP Withheld Videos Showing Massive Scope of Oil Spill

US Scientist: Methane In Gulf ‘Astonishingly High’, As Much As 1 Million Times The Normal Level

July 25, 2010June 24, 2010 by Infinite

Update: Gulf Of Mexico Water Sample EXPLODES! Other Samples Prove To Be Toxic

CHICAGO (Reuters) – As much as 1 million times the normal level of methane gas has been found in some regions near the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, enough to potentially deplete oxygen and create a dead zone, U.S. scientists said on Tuesday.

Texas A&M University oceanography professor John Kessler, just back from a 10-day research expedition near the BP Plc oil spill in the gulf, says methane gas levels in some areas are “astonishingly high.”

Kessler’s crew took measurements of both surface and deep water within a 5-mile (8 kilometer) radius of BP’s broken wellhead.

“There is an incredible amount of methane in there,” Kessler told reporters in a telephone briefing.

In some areas, the crew of 12 scientists found concentrations that were 100,000 times higher than normal.

“We saw them approach a million times above background concentrations” in some areas, Kessler said.

The scientists were looking for signs that the methane gas had depleted levels of oxygen dissolved in the water needed to sustain marine life.

“At some locations, we saw depletions of up to 30 percent of oxygen based on its natural concentration in the waters. At other places, we saw no depletion of oxygen in the waters. We need to determine why that is,” he told the briefing.

BP Plans To Dump All North Sea Assets In Dramatic Attempt To Cut Costs

June 20, 2010 by Infinite

Oil company is looking to axe £9.5bn in spending in order to sustain profitability amid the costs of the US oil spill

BP is looking to cut costs by £9.5bn. (Guardian)

Embattled BP is to cut costs by $14bn (£9.5bn) in six months as part of a radical plan to sustain profitability in the wake of the explosion at its Deepwater Horizon oil rig that has led to the worst spill in US history.

Well-placed City sources say that BP is planning to sell its remaining North Sea interests as well as stakes in dozens of exploration and production projects where it does not exercise overall control. The board will also consider whether to sell its 1.4% stake in Rosneft, Russia’s largest oil company, which it acquired at the time of Rosneft’s 2006 flotation for $1bn.

But there is no question of BP selling out of its Russian joint venture with TNK, as that operation accounts for 25% of its worldwide resources and around 10% of profits.

BP Death Clouds Already Onshore: Benzene 3400 PPB and Hydrogen Sulfide 1200 PPB

June 15, 2010 by Infinite

Added: 14. June 2010