Gulf Coast Disaster: Morning News Roundup, July 1

Day 73

Highlights in this issue:

> The weather stalls cleanup, threatens beaches
> Biggest skimmer in the world is on its way
> Bills are out of committee in the Senate that advance offshore regulation
> EPA says Corexit is not that toxic
> Claims administrator has bad news for tourism operators
> Relief well close to completion


This morning’s summary:
It’s hard to know where to duck in the Gulf of Mexico right now. As oil continues spewing out of the Deepwater Horizon well uncontrollably, seas were choppy from Hurricane Alex’s eye 500 miles away. Cleanup efforts were halted along the Gulf coast beaches and skimmers called back to shore as heavy winds and 6-foot waves ripped the coast. Experts on the ground say cleanup efforts could be disrupted for days. Digging the two relief wells continued despite the bad weather with optimistic predictions that one of the wells could possibly reach bottom in the next two weeks. While Hurricane Alex turned west and missed the Gulf, authorities remain on guard for what comes next. Only 40 percent of the oil saturating the Gulf is being contained. BP hopes to have 90 percent sopped up by mid July. The BP oil spill is headed toward becoming the largest oil slick ever to stain the Gulf of Mexico. It’s expected to break the record Thursday when it reaches 140 million gallons of oil dumped into the Gulf with no end in sight for this gusher. Meantime, it’s not going to be a very good July 4th weekend on the Gulf coast.

Quotable quote:
"We've been held hostage here for the last two days by the prevailing weather. The weather has really impeded our effort to make a steadily aggressive recovery effort," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft.


National News

CNN: BP oil cleanup efforts disrupted on many fronts by rough seas
The oil spill area dodged a bullet with Hurricane Alex, but the weather still stalled the cleanup.  Oil skimming ships had to return to shore, containment booms were thrown asunder and efforts to burn oil on the surface and break it down through dispersants were put on hold along with efforts to position a third ship to collect oil at the spill site.

Read more
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?hpt=T2

Wall Street Journal: Gulf hurricane threatens fragile wetlands
Because of the weather, there are gaps in the booms along the coast—leaving the wetlands open to oil sweeping in from the storm.

Read more from Ann Zimmerman
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703426004575339011874125550.html


Yahoo.com: World’s biggest skimmer heads to Gulf
The Taiwan, China-flagged former tanker named "A Whale" is the length of 3 1/2 football fields and stands 10 stories high. It just emerged from an extensive retrofitting to prepare it specifically for the Gulf, where officials hope it will be able to suck up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day.

Read more from Tom Breen and Jay Reeves
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100630/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill


USA Today: Relief well near completion
The first of the two relief wells being drilled is now just about 17,000 feet deep ,almost to the 18,000 foot final depth, but the drilling will slow down now and the target deadline of August still stands. National Incident Commander Thad Allen says that the company will place electromagnetic sensors on to guide the drilling process which becomes very sensitive the closer they get.

Read more from Elizabeth Weise
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-06-30-Gulf-relief-wells_N.htm

NOAA: NOAA sends two ships to study loop current and coastal Florida waters
A NOAA research ship and a university-owned vessel left Miami this week to begin two complementary studies gathering data on the Loop Current and area ecosystems in response to BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read more
http://wwwInoaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100630_ships.html


Bloomberg: Dispersants get a pass from the EPA
The controversial dispersant Corexit appeared to get a pass from the EPA Wednesday. The agency said it conducted tests on eight dispersants used on oil spill, including Corexit, and they all have similar effects on marine life. None act as endocrine disruptors, chemicals that can interfere with reproduction.

Read more from Jeff Plungis
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-30/dispersants-have-similar-effects-on-fish-epa-says.html

Also see

New York Times: EPA on dispersants: cure is not worse than disease
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/the-e-p-a-on-dispersants-cure-is-not-worse-tan-the-disease/


Business

CNN: BP plans to get rid of safety watchdog
BP has been trying to shut down an internal safety watchdog agency set up under congressional pressure four years ago, according to sources close to the office and a leading congressman.

Read more from Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/gulf.bp.ombudsman/index.html?hpt=T2


Los Angeles Times: BP fined for falsifying royalty records on tribal leases
More bad news for BP. The Department of Interior Wednesday assessed BP America Inc. a civil penalty of $5.2 million for submitting “false, inaccurate, or misleading” reports for energy production on Southern Ute tribal land in southwestern Colorado. The company's reports were inaccurate in a number of ways, including using incorrect royalty rates. 

Read more
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/06/bp-fined-for-falsifying-royalty-records-on-tribal-leases.html


Wall Street Journal: The price of life in BP’s book
Loss of lives was part of a business model for BP—factored in to the cost of accidents. In an internal “Functional Hazards Risk Register” for 2009 underpinning BP’s health and safety for this year, scenario planners say that a “Major health/safety incident — one or two fatalities” would cause a “financial loss” of $5 million to $100 million to the company.

Read more from Benoit Faucon
http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/06/29/five-million-dollars-the-price-of-life-in-bps-book/


Reuters: Dealtalk: Oil spill should accelerate offshore driller deals
The US has suddenly become a much riskier place for oil drillers to operate, a consequence of the oil spill that could spark a deal making binge. The offshore oil drilling sector has long been seen as ripe for consolidation. But the conditions created by the oil spill should accelerate deals,as it becomes tougher for smaller drillers to compete.

Read more
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN3021816020100630


USA Today: BP buys credibility hiring Washington power brokers
BP is amassing a list of who’s who in Washington politics to help press its case among lawmakers that it’s doing the right thing and working hard to contain the Gulf oil spill. The list includes former aides to President Bill Clinton. The company is "hoping to buy a little extra credibility with Washington government officials and regulators, and these people have credibility and BP has very little credibility," says Melanie Sloan of the non-profit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Read more by Mimi Hall:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-06-30-oil-advice_N.htm


Politics

New York Times: Interior delays offshore expansion hearings
It’s a political hot potato now, so no surprise the Interior Department announced Wednesday that it will delay hearings on the expansion of offshore drilling pending more research and events in the Gulf.

Read more from John Broder
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/us/01offshore.html?hp 


AP: Senate  panels advance oil spill bill
Two Senate committees separately approved bills that would strengthen the government's regulation of offshore drilling, require oil companies to be better prepared to cope with a spill, and lift federal spill-related economic liability limits. One committee also voted to set into law a decision already made by the Obama administration to separate the Interior Department agency responsible for offshore oil drilling into separate entities — one responsible for royalty collection, and another for safety and environmental regulation of offshore drilling.

Read more from Joseph Hebert and Matthew Daly
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSsGsiZ18JYxHwuLGeC7Tu4T2nLwD9GLSC1G2


New York Times: Jindal seals oil spill records
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has made no bones about what a failure he thinks the federal government has been at responding to BP and the oil spill. But now he has vetoed an amendment that would make public all records from his office related to the spill.

Read more from John Collins Rudolf
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/a-governor-seals-oil-spill-records/


New York Times: Spill is election issue far beyond Gulf
The midterm elections in November could tilt the balance of power in Congress. And so, from coast to coast, politicians are seizing on the Gulf oil spill as part of campaign strategy. Republicans say the spill is a lesson in incompetence: the Obama administration has fumbled. Democrats portray the spill as a consequence of Republican ties to Big Oil and deregulation. 

Read more from Damien Cave
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/us/politics/30polmemo.html

Regional

PNJ.com: Oil Spill: BP promises faster claims process
Residents of West Florida met all day with representatives from BP about the claims process. The company says it will speed it up. The locals say they haven’t seen any sign of that so far.

Read more from Jamie Page
http://www.pnj.com/article/20100630/NEWS01/100630016/1006/Oil-spill--BP-promises-faster-claims-process


USAToday: Oil spill fund may not pay claims related to tourism
In what may be a huge and controversial blow to Gulf coast businesses, oil claims chief Kenneth Feinberg warned the House Small Business Committee that he may not be able pay claims of tourism operators in the Gulf for losses because tourists stayed away - that those may be an indirect impact not covered.

Read more
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/energy/2010-07-01-oilspilltourism01_ST_N.htm


AP: Free show by Jimmy Buffet along Alabama coast
Singer Jimmy Buffet put on a free show at sister’s restaurant in Gulf Shores, Ala Wednesday night. Buffet, who grew up in Mobile, has been scheduled to do a concert Thursday night but it was postponed by Hurricane Alex.

Read more from Jay Reeves
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iYlPPcV8kRbUQ89z3HHqzs6JDIoAD9GLVVCO0


Feature

New York Times: Banned trailers return for latest disaster
Remember those infamous FEMA trailers from Hurricane Katrina? Locked for months and then banned for high levels of formaldehyde? They are now showing up in the Gulf as housing for cleanup workers. The government sold them.

Read more from Ian Urbana
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/us/01trailers.html?_r=1&hp


Editorial

ABC News: BP oil disaster solution: “just blow it up”?
It was dismissed by the government as an option weeks ago, but after former President Bill Clinton suggested blowing up the well in remarks over the weekend, the debate started all over again.

Read more from Alice Gomstyn
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Technology/bp-oil-disaster-solution-blow/story?id=11047309


Times-Picayune: BP should foot bill for mental health services in LA.
Mental health experts are warning that the emotional and economic strain from the disaster will lead to higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcoholism and other problems. That's why state officials are asking BP to fund a $10 million program to provide counseling and other therapeutic and psychiatric services in affected communities.

Read more:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/bp_should_fund_louisiana_progr_1.html

Christian Science Monitor: Oily rain and cracks in the earth
The Christian Science Monitor takes on some of the myths associated with the Gulf oil spill.

Read more from Bill Sasser
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0630/Oily-rain-and-cracks-in-the-earth-Busting-Gulf-oil-spill-myths


CIO: The Gulf oil spill: a lesson in failure to innovate
The government was too slow to see the problem, too arrogant to accept foreign assistance and now is putting on a “show” with its commission. It was a failure of leadership and innovation, this blogger says.

Read more from James Todhunter
http://advice.cio.com/james_todhunter/10889/the_gulf_oil_spill_a_lesson_in_failure_to_innovate


Graphics

Map: Interactive tracker
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/01/us/20100501-oil-spill-tracker.html?ref=politics

Photos: Huffington Post: Gulf oil spill myths debunked
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/30/gulf-oil-spill-myths-debu_n_629616.html

USA Today: Track the spill’s spread
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-06-30-oil-advice_N.htm

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