Gulf Coast Disaster - Morning News Roundup, July 7
Posted July 7, 2010 in Moving Beyond Oil, Reviving the World's Oceans, The Media and the Environment
Day 79
Highlights in this issue
-Tarballs coming in the back door to New Orleans, now at Lake Ponchartrain
-Texas asks for oil cleanup money
-Crews made progress in hooking up third containment vessel
-Air quality looks very bad
-Coast Guard now strained
-27,000 oil wells abandoned in Gulf
This morning’s summary
We’re watching an environmental disaster unfold and get worse every day. Instead of stabilizing and retreating, the Gulf oil catastrophe is expanding. Its tentacles are touching everywhere, now in the waterways leading to New Orleans’ Lake Pontchartrain.The fallout continues on the political front, too. The plan to build a vast oil pipeline from Canada to the southern shores of the United States faced angry lawmakers on Capitol Hill who see red right now when oil is mentioned. A new report from the Associated Press details more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurking in the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield. No one is keeping an eye on these potentially deadly sites. Meanwhile BP CEO Tony Hayward is on a trip to Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich emirate. No one is saying what he’s doing there. It flies in the face of BP’s announcement Tuesday that it’s not looking for investors to help pay for the Gulf cleanup.
Quotable Quote
"I am very concerned about how we can fully utilize the Reserve to support this operation without burning out our Reservists -- either in terms of demands and stresses on the individual Reservists, their families and employers or the statutory caps on our recall authority," Rear Adm. Sandy Stosz, Coast Guard Reserve Acting Director
National News
AP:New Orleans seeing oil coming in the back door
Until this week New Orleans had dodged the tar balls - that is until officials found them seeping in the back door of the Big Easy. Balls of tar were found in the Rigolets, one of two passes that connect Lake Pontchartrain with the Gulf of Mexico. “Our universe is getting very small," said Pete Gerica, president of the Lake Pontchartrain Fishermen's Association.
Read more from Mary Foster
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38106510/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
See also
Los Angeles Times: Gulf Oil Spill reaches Lake Pontchartrain
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100707,0,1300456.story
Times Picayune: Coast Guard’s resources strained by oil spill response
Now it is the Coast Guard that is stretched thin, sending officers to the Gulf oil spill, and trying to back fill the rest of its needs with reservists, who have restrictions on their call-up times.
Read more from David Hammer
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/coast_guard_finds_resources_st.html
CNN: Crews connecting oil vessel to ruptured well
Crews are in the process of connecting the vessel Helix Producer to the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The hookup has been partially completed despite rough seas.
Read more
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/07/06/gulf.oil.disaster/index.html?video=true&hpt=T2
CBSNews: BP oil skimming estimates far from reality
Over two days in Louisiana, crews have collected almost 1,700 pounds of tar balls. Texas has tar balls. Alabama has oil-smeared hermit crabs. Critics say too much oil is getting past the booms and skimmers, and BP has been overstating how much oil it has actually collected.
Read more from Mark Strassman
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/06/eveningnews/main6652191.shtml?tag=stack
AP: 27,000 abandoned oil sites in Gulf
Now comes another alarming fact about the Gulf of Mexico: More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking.
Read more by Jeff Down:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100707/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill_abandoned_wells
Wall Street Journal: BP: About 24,980 barrels of oil recovered July 5
BP said Tuesday that it captured about 24,980 barrels of crude from the Deepwater Horizon spill in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Monday, indicating that oil recovery efforts at the site of the spill have stabilized even as a new storm could soon hinder the operation.
Read more
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100706-707010.html
Huffington Post: Scientists beg for chance to gather basic data
A group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data about the BP oil disaster, has put together a crash project intended to definitively measure how much oil has spilled and where and how it is spreading throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But they need to get the go-ahead -- and about $8.4 million -- from BP or the federal government or both. And that does not appear imminent.
Read more from Dan Froomkin
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-oil-spill-scientists_n_636981.html
The Raw Story: Coast Guard bans reporters from oil cleanup sites
Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week. It's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights.
Read more from Daniel Tencer
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0704/coast-guard-bans-reporters-oil-cleanup-sites/
NavalGazing: As everyone looks down to see what Gulf oil spill has wrought, UC Irvine Researchers look up to test the air
Instead of looking down into the water, scientists from UC Irvine are trying to research air quality over the Gulf of Mexico. Their initial findings discovered concentrations of certain chemicals exceeding any they've found before, including over Mexico City, Oklahoma oil tank farms and other heavily polluted urban areas like Los Angeles.
Read more from Matt Coker
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/school-daze/uc-irvine-gulf-oil-air/
Regional
Bloomberg: Texas asks BP for $25 million for cleanup
Now that tar balls have washed up on beaches in Texas, the state is asking BP for $25 million in cleanup money
Read more from Laurel Brubaker Calkins
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-06/texas-asks-bp-for-25-million-for-gulf-spill-cleanup.html
About.com: Gulf oil spill environmental damage could get much worse
In addition to the thousands of fish, reptiles, birds and marine mammals that will die as a direct result of the oil spill, the long-term damage to marine species in the Gulf is what really has scientists and environmentalists worried.
Read more from Larry West
AP: Texas group to look at oil, natural gas drilling
A new group will pool Texas' brightest minds to come up with better and safer ways of drilling and producing oil and natural gas in the wake of the Gulf oil spill, Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday.
Read more from Juan A. Lozano
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j5k1tn_9yTMQTCny1MIeKSGBoP9gD9GPS7HG3
Vancouver Sun: Sandhill cranes migrating through B.C. at special risk from Gulf oil spill
An estimated quarter of a million sandhill cranes that migrate through B.C. to the Gulf are at risk from the continuing BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a wildlife expert at Simon Fraser University said Tuesday.
Read more from Larry Pynn
The Globe and Mail: Increase in oil spill liability caps urged
It is another sign of how wide the ripples are moving from the Gulf oil spill. In Canada, the disaster has caused federal and provincial governments to review regulations covering Canada’s offshore oil sector.
Read more from Shawn McCarthy
Wallet Pop: FTC warns of Gulf oil spill job scams
The Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers again about scams related to the BP Gulf oil spill and clean-up effort. This time it's alerting people of fake job ads that could end up costing the consumer money or result in identity theft.
Read more from Stella M. Chavez
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/07/06/ftc-warns-of-gulf-oil-spill-job-scams/
AP: Gulf seafood since the oil spill: a running history
This is a series of photos and captions showing how chefs are coming up with substitutes for seafood, in shorter supply since the Gulf oil spill.
Take a look
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-seafood-bp-oil-spill_n_633709.html
Politics
AFP: Oil spill fuels opposition to Canada-U.S. pipeline
The plan to build a vast oil pipeline from Canada to the southern shores of the United States faced congressional opposition Tuesday amid fierce anger over the Gulf of Mexico spill. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Ca) called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to block the proposed 2,151 mile Keystone pipeline, which would transport crude from Alberta, Canada to refineries in Texas.
Read more
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iCqaIYhSePaXlkgJh_Z-Lzi3pBNA
Wall Street Journal: Revived push for drilling ban
Saying the stakes are even higher now, that it is hurricane season, the Obama Administration appealed to a federal appeals court seeking to impose the six-month ban on deepwater drilling that was blocked by a judge a month ago---arguing that the permanent risk to humans and to marine life is more important than possible economic harm. The hearing on the emergency request is scheduled for Thursday.
Read more from Stephen Power and Ann Zimmerman
Business
Bloomberg: Gulf States credit rating escapes damage as oil soaks coasts
Fiscal damage to states caused by BP’s leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico has been “manageable” so far, and current credit ratings will remain unchanged in the near-term, Standard & Poor’s said.
Read more from Esme E, Deprez
Daily Beast: BP’s chief fights for survival
BP CEO Tony Hayward has been traveling the world to salvage BP’s position and his own, trying to throw blame back on US officials and contractors “to shift much of the blame for the blowout onto the three American sub-contractors.” Days after the well is finally capped, Hayward will authorize the publication of a report on the oil spill, first, to begin the hard chore to restore BP’s reputation and, secondly, "to humiliate the lawmakers who heaped all the blame on BP and himself.”
Read more from Tom Bower
Bloomberg: Hayward in Abu Dhabi, courting investors?
Despite BP’s assurances on Tuesday that it’s not looking for capital to help finance the Gulf oil spill, BP CEO Tony Hayward is still on the road courting possible investors. He may be seeking money from oil-rich Abu Dhabi. He’s just not saying.
Read more:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-07/bp-chief-hayward-in-abu-dhabi-may-court-investors.html
CNN: BP’s stock price and the now or never trade
BP's shares are up a whopping 12 percent in London and its American Depositary Receipts closed up nearly 9 percent in the U.S. on Tuesday. According to this analyst, “Call it the now-or-never trade: if BP doesn't fail in the short term, as investors are betting, it never will.”
Read more from Heidi N. Moore
http://wallstreet.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/07/06/bps-stock-price-and-the-now-or-never-trade/
Editorial
TimesUnion.com: Politicians in denial over spill lessons
There’s been a lot of tough talk by politicians, but unfortunately, BP is not walking the walk, the Times Union writes.
Read more from Tom Blackburn
http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=948318&category=OPINION
Feature
BNET: BP Gulf oil spill: One ship captain’s invention to battle tar balls
If necessity is the mother of invention, Gulf Coast residents are busy inventing, One ship captain came up with a cage-like trash bag filtration system after he watched skimmers struggle to capture heavy oil just below the surface. It is so successful that as many as 1,000 units are expected to be manufactured and put into service in the next several weeks.
Read more from Kirsten Korosec
Graphic:
CNN tracker
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/29/interactive.spill.tracker/index.html
