Gulf Coast Disaster - Monday, August 2

Day 105

Highlights in this issue
> BP, Halliburton and Transocean cooperate on water, play blame game on land
> Oil spill – not as bad as we thought?
> BP’s Dudley heads to Russia with Hayward in tow
> EPA: Dispersants no more toxic than oil
> Community oversight likely with oil spill recovery

This afternoon’s summary:
We’re anticipating an interesting week in the Gulf of Mexico and some long-delayed success. The ‘static kill’ is expected to start late tonight and will turn off the spigot from the top by the end of the week. The relief well may start working shortly after the ‘static kill’ gets into action, and there may be really good news from the Gulf in a very short time. We’re likely to know by this time Tuesday whether the ‘static kill’ – flooding the broken oil well with thousands of barrels of drilling mud – is working and if the goal of shutting down that well forever is attainable. As BP inched closer to permanently sealing the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, congressional investigators railed against the company and Coast Guard for liberal use of toxic chemicals that helped disperse the oil, but at unknown expense to sea life. The EPA said Monday the dispersants were no more toxic than oil.

Quotable Quote:
“Once we've made the intercept, depending upon the status of the well, whether we still have to kill the annulus, the casing, or both, the kill procedure could take anywhere from a number of days to a few weeks," said BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells


National News

MSNBC: BP, Halliburton and Transocean cooperate on water, play blame game on land
BP, Halliburton and Transocean are a set of sparing partners, engaging in a billion-dollar blame game over the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. At sea, they're depending on each other to finally plug up the environmental disaster. On shore, they are pointing fingers.

Read more:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38501585/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/


Christian Science Monitor: Oil spill – not as bad as we thought?
Have we all bee crying wolf over the millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico? Signs of recovery from the Gulf oil spill are already appearing, but scientists caution that many unknowns exist – including the effect of millions of gallons of oil dispersants.

Read more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2010/0802/Gulf-oil-spill-Not-as-bad-as-we-first-thought


Reuters: BP’s Dudley heads to Russia with Hayward in tow
BP Plc Chief Executive-designate Bob Dudley will fly to Moscow this week to meet government officials and partners in the oil company's Russian venture -- his first visit since fleeing the country in 2008. The visit comes as BP is making a worldwide effort to shore up relations with its partners and looks to raise money to help pay for the spill. Former BP CEO Tony Hayward is with him. Hayward will be taking up a new post for BP in Russia.

Read more:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5TA20100802


Wall Street Journal: Community oversight likely with oil spill recovery
The public may soon have a say in overseeing the cleanup of the Gulf oil spill. A Senate bill mandating a citizen oversight council to oversee the oil industry and paid for by them was marked up for floor debate this week. It’s a move to create the same kind of local community oversight that was established in Alaska's Prince William Sound following the 1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe.

Read more by Jim Carlton:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703292704575393492820269842.html

Bloomberg: BP has other headaches
BP's plans to drill for oil off Britain's Shetland isles and the Libyan coast are facing opposition after the company's disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill. No sweat. They’ve got a new CEO (Bob Dudley) and a new commitment to be better at what they do.

Read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9HBBITG0.htm


Examiner: Yes, there is oil to clean
Don’t believe everything you’re hearing about the end of oil washing up on Gulf shores. Though BP and the federal government report that there is no visible oil on the surface to be skimmed, officials in Louisiana have a different story. They say oil continues to wash ashore and they are still cleaning it from the Gulf. Some officials have said they see no change in the amount of oil that they are cleaning.

Read more:
http://www.examiner.com/x-58009-Oil-Spill-Recovery-Examiner~y2010m8d2-Louisiana-oil-spill-response-crews-continue-to-find-clean-plenty-of-oil-see-no-change-video


AP: EPA: Dispersants no more toxic than oil
The Environmental Protection Agency says a new study shows that dispersants used to break up oil in the Gulf of Mexico are no more toxic to aquatic life than oil alone.

Read more:
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/epa_says_chemical_dispersants.html


BBC: Friction grows between US and Scotland over Lockerbie bomber and BP
The friction continues to simmer between the U.S. Senate and the Scottish government over the release of the Lockerbie bomber and any connection to BP. Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has again denied that the convicted Lockerbie bomber was released from prison because of pressure from BP.In a letter, he has challenged US senator Robert Menendez to provide evidence Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was freed for reasons relating to oil.

Read more:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-10842452


ABCNews: SEC looks at BP insider trading since spill
U.S. securities regulators are investigating whether people may have illegally profited from trading on nonpublic information at BP Plc in the weeks and months following the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, two sources familiar with the investigation said on Monday.

Read more:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11306761


Regional

AP: 9,000 workers eligible for BP grants
Up to 9,000 people will be eligible for money from a $100 million fund set up by BP to help oil workers idled by a federal moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read more:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jM11RGdNwIAhNsWQWX26h22sw2-QD9HBF1J02

Check this one out, too
http://www.katc.com/news/bp-donation-of-100-million-will-offer-assistance-to-deepwater-rig-workers/


Bloomberg: Homes may lose $56,000 in value as result of spill
We know the aftershocks from the Gulf oil spill will be bad, but here’s some evidence of just how bad: Gulf of Mexico coastal homes may lose as much as $56,000 each in value as buyers shun areas marred by the worst oil spill in U.S. history, according to CoreLogic Inc.

Read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-08-02/bp-spill-may-cost-gulf-coast-homes-56-000-apiece-in-value.html

See this one, too
http://business.blogs.starnewsonline.com/10776/oil-spills-impact-on-home-values-could-reach-billions/


New York Times: Paleontologists hurt by Gulf oil spill, too
There’s a very small group of scientists that are being hurt by the oil spill, too. These consultants are paleontologists who are a necessity for deepwater oil drilling. They provide real-time guidance to drillers burrowing beneath layers of salt, a rock that baffles traditional seismic imaging. And they are being idled by the Gulf oil drilling moratorium.

Read more:
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/08/02/02greenwire-gulf-drilling-boom-goes-bust-for-key-group-of-76708.html


AL.com: Dead sea grows in Gulf
The size of the yearly “dead zone" that forms every summer in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the largest ever measured. It’s just another sign of how the massive BP oil spill is affecting the Gulf area.

Read more:
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/dead_zone_in_the_gulf_of_mexic.html


Editorial

Times-Picayune: Make sure oil spill does not disappear from people’s minds
Now that people aren't seeing images of the oil geyser every day, it's likely that national attention will evaporate - far more quickly than the oil. But we can't let the story be that everything is just back to normal, because it isn't. Not yet. And until it is, Louisiana needs to make sure that BP is on the job, the Times-Picayune writes.

Read more:
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/bps_oil_lingers_seen_and_unsee.html


Feature

NPR: Photographer bears witness to the Gulf oil spill
David Zimmerman is not conducting your average documentary project. Unlike most photographers in the Gulf, Zimmerman can't exactly sling his camera around his neck and hop in a boat. The cumbersome view camera has to take root somewhere. So Zimmerman plants his makeshift studio in parking lots, in hardware stores, "places where most people go," he said over the phone. In doing so, he asks random passers-by to stop and share their stories.

Read more by Claire O’Neill
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2010/08/02/128927578/gulf-portraits


Graphics:

Animated graphic shows spill’s eerie progression
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/animated_deepwater_horizon_dis.html