Spintested: 06/04/10

Tony Hayward To Step Down From Oil Spill Management In Surprise Move

Friday, June 4, 2010

FYI -

Not only is the cap is still leaking, but with the hurricane season having begun, the tanker that's collecting the oil (and it's only siphoning 1000 of the 19,000 barrels that gush daily) will have to be detached, moved out of the area during storms. That means the entire amount of oil and gas that is gushing will continue to gush into the Gulf (and into the loop current to the eastern seaboard and the N. Atlantic Ocean. Only now it's 20% more oil and gas that's gushing than before they cut off the crimped section of the pipe in order to put the cap on.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Ken Salazar Calls Gulf Coast Disaster A 'Grave Scenario' And 'Very Catastrophic' (VIDEO)

That's not the problem. People are angry for a reason.

What we have here is a corrupt government, including Obama, which intends to continue the status quo of offshore drilling.

It's not because we have to, that there aren't alternatives. It's because our political system is controlled by big money interests that make huge profits from oil.

It makes their argument, that transitioning to wind and solar is too expensive, abzurd.

The oil companies, BP included, are all positioned to make more obscene profits from the (Obama)-Kerry-Lieberman-Graham-energy bill, which is all nuclear, coal, gas and oil. There's chump change in it for green sustainables.

This is one of those moments in history which exposes real greatness. If it's there. If Obama had that ability, had he the vision & the talent, he would have recognized the opportunity in this crisis, embraced this event as the vehicle to get us off of oil. He would've turned his back on his Corporate Masters, trusted that the People had his back, & led us to the only future possible for human survival: Green, clean, sustainable. He could have solved every problem that's bogging him (& us) down, from soup to nuts (economy to wars).

But Obama's not the one.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

The Cape Wind project was approved by Ken Salazar eight days after the Deepwater Horizon blowout. The project will be developed in the Nantucket Sound, is controversial and opposed by different groups of residents in Nantucket (from Native Americans to fishermen) due to the unknown impact the turbines would have on marine life and migratory birds. Locals who earn their living through tourism are concerned about the effect that so many turbines will have on the "pristine beauty of the Cape Cod area".

This would be the first project of its kind in the US, and no federal or state agency has experience in evaluating the long-term effects of an offshore wind farm. In the FEIS, in the monitoring and mitigation section, the report states that "no federal or state agency has past experience evaluating how projects such as the proposed action will interact with the marine environment...".

Just think of how the Gulf coast states might be different now if the care and concern going into this decision had taken place before the waters off their shores became littered with thousands of oil rigs.

There was a time (early in the 20th century) when oil was considered a tonic, and people drank it like an aperitif. Back when the first asphalt roads were paved, it was common practice for young people to pick up pieces of hot tar off of freshly paved roads and chew it like gum.
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

No, you're not the only one.

BP isn't telling the US government what to do -- The US government is deferring to BP, and that is something that is authorized from the very top.

Obama shares culpability with the oil industry for this disaster, along with the Bush administration and both political parties.

Do you remember Obama's excuse at last week's press conference about why his Interior Department issued exemptions to BP:

"[T]here is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. . . . .Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. The result is, they're continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's."

Only it's not true.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/salazar/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103126.html?hpid=topnews
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

BP's runaway deepwater well could still become a moneymaker for the company, even as it tries to stem the gush of crude oil that's fouling the Gulf of Mexico.

If the current containment effort works — and BP and the government say they're optimistic that it will — the oil giant will salvage much of the oil that's now spewing from the crumpled pipes on the ocean floor. That captured oil, McClatchy estimates, could generate more than $1.4 million in revenue for BP each day.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/03/95299/bp-us-could-make-millions-from.html
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

BP, Coast Guard withheld video showing massive scope of oil spill

Federal officials and the oil giant BP effectively conspired to keep the worst images of the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico from the public, according to a report Thursday.

The US Coast Guard, which is coordinating response efforts to the spill on behalf of the government, had hours of video showing the extent of the spill within nine days after the spill began. But by that point, they'd released only a single fuzzy still image.

"But inside the unified command center, where BP and federal agencies were orchestrating the spill response, video monitors had already displayed hours of footage they did not make public," ABC News' veteran investigative reporter Brian Ross reports. "The images showed a far more dire situation unfolding underwater. The footage filmed by submarines showed three separate leaks, including one that was unleashing a torrent of oil into the Gulf."

BP told the network they'd turned the video over to the Feds, and the decision to release the video was on the Feds alone.

"The video has been available to the unified command from the very beginning," BP spokesman Mark Proegle was quoted as saying. "It's always been here from the beginning. They had it."

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0604/bp-feds-videos-showed-magnitude-spill-secret/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tar Balls Wash Ashore On Florida Beaches, Scientists Warn Oil May Spread Up Atlantic Coast (VIDEO)

BP CEO Tony Hayward has indicated that he will go ahead with massive dividend payouts to shareholders in the aftermath of the worst oil spill in US history. $10 billion in payouts are scheduled for this year. The cost of the spill has been estimated in the tens of billions, but ExxonMobil only ended up paying a $507 million settlement for the 1994 Exxon Valdez spill after 20 years of appeals.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0604/bp-10-billion-dividend-payouts/
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

Whether it's actual liberal people or liberal policies, this president has kept liberals out, in limbo, prevented their voices from being heard, either covertly (like Dawn Johnsen's nomination to the OLC) or through threats & attacks unrelated to policy, unleashing the White House attack dogs on Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich, & others working for inclusion of a public option in any healthcare bill the president would sign.

This president refused a seat at the table for proponents of single payer universal health care. They were actually physically removed & arrested from his promised "transparent process" when they focused a spotlight on Obama's unilateral decision to eliminate consideration of what many, if not most, Americans support. Before any debate began, before any negotiations took place, this president forbid any discussion of the one method that all sides acknowledged would get medical costs down: The competition from a public option.

On every issue before this administration, from the wars to massive job stimulus, restoration of the middle class and substantial regulatory reform, Obama has consistently shut the liberal perspective and its proponents out of the debate.

Democratic voters did not put Obama and Democrats into power to pursue and achieve the Republican Party's agenda.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

"Democracy allows for all voices to be heard, and not a winner - party - take all initiative"

======================================

What you are describing, what it is that you think the US is, is a direct (or representative, or proportional) democracy. But the US is NOT a direct democracy; it's a democratic republic. We the People have the right to express our preferences in how our government is run, who we would like to make the decisions for us and the laws we have to obey. But those preferences don't have to be followed or even considered, and that's where courts have left this, as a "political question" or issue.

You may believe that "Democracy allows for all voices to be heard", but that's not the law, and it's also not what Obama believes or practices.

"Democracy allows for all voices to be EXPRESSED". You have a right to speak, but I have a right not to listen. And this president has not allowed all voices to be heard & part of the debate on the issues before us.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

"In fact, some of us Democrats care about the concerns of unaffiliated, Republicans, and others confused by factionalized ideologies"

================================================

Where are these "unaffiliated" and "confused" people? Would they say that they're confused? And what Republicans claim to be "unaffiliated"?

And you say you care about their concerns, to what end? To help them realize their conservative/Republican/libertarian ideas into law?

Democratic politicians work for us, Democratic voters. Or are supposed to. They weren't put into office, into power, to achieve the goals of the Republican party.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

Our nation didn't suddenly become extreme leftwing liberals when Obama took oathe.

======================================

There are no "extreme leftwing liberals" in the Democratic Party to speak of. Just the run-of-the-mill, garden variety liberals in the same mold as the founders of the nation. They're the Democratic base, and they (we) make up about 70% of the Democratic Party.

When informed about the issues, most Americans hold the same opinions on those issues as liberals. Even those who aren't informed, those who showed up at Town Halls last summer with signs reading "No on government-run healthcare, but keep your hands off my Medicare!" (although they'd be loathe to admit it).

Most everyone h8tes abortion, wishes there would be no need for abortion, is misinformed about the actual numbers of abortion (and the numbers of women having multiple abortions & at what stage in a pregnancy women are actually having them), but all are sure that they don't want the government preventing them from having one if they believe they needed to have one.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

The excuse which the court condemned as "misleading" is exactly the one Obama and his aides have been repeatedly making for why they issued exemptions to BP: namely that, as the President put it, "under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review." As a result, the court found that MMS's approval of Shell's drilling plan (including the exemptions it issued) violated NEPA, and thus invalidated the approval and ordered MMS to re-review the proposal in compliance with the law. That decision was issued in November, 2008 -- before the Obama administration even began -- so the notion that Obama Interior officials believed they only had 30 days to conduct a review, and that it therefore was forced to issue exemptions to BP, lacks credibility, to put that mildly."

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/salazar/index.html
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

==The agency may be correct that it's difficult for an agency to conduct a full EIS in only thirty days, but its argument that OCSLA precludes such a result is unconvincing. There is flexibility built into the regulatory scheme so that the agency can perform its full duties under NEPA. The thirty-day clock begins to run only when an exploration plan is deemed complete. 30 C.F.R. § 250.233(a). If the agency is able to identify gaps before that point, then it can request that information be added before the proposal is finalized. See 30 C.F.R. § 250.231(b). Additionally, at the end of the thirty-day review period, the agency may opt to require modifications to an EP if there are concerns that it does not comport with environmental standards. 30 C.F.R. § 250.233(b). These options give the agency additional time to consider a plan & compile an environmental impact statement, if necessary. To say simply that the agency only has thirty days to complete a full EIS is misleading.==

KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

"The excuse the BushAdministration gave for failing to conduct that review is the same one Obama gave in his press conference. As the court put it: "MMS argues that the strict timelines in OCSLA indicate that an EIS isn't a feasible option at the exploration stage. The agency only has thirty days to approve or disapprove of an exploration plan" & officials "argue that thirty days is not enough time to generate a full EIS." The court categorically rejected that excuse:

KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

"Even if that 3o-day excuse were true, it reflects very poorly on the administration. But as The Washington Post, in a good piece of reporting, noted on Tuesday: that excuse is false. An appellate court in 2008 rejected the 30-day interpretation now being asserted by Obama officials everywhere. That 9th Circuit ruling, in the case of Alaska Wilderness League, et al. v. Kempthorne, is really quite instructive to read, both because it illustrates how false is the excuse of Obama officials and, more generally, because of what it reveals about how completely co-opted MMS regulators are by the oil industry.

In that case, numerous environmental groups sued in order to challenge the Bush Interior Department's approval of a Shell Oil plan to drill multiple offshore exploratory oil wells over a three-year period in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. This is what happens frequently: environmental groups have to sue in order to prevent the Interior Department and the oil industry from working jointly to circumvent Congressional regulations for drilling projects. Just as was true for the BP Deepwater Horizon project, MMS in the Shell case had issued an exemption from the legal requirement that an environmental impact study be conducted before the drilling project could be approved, notwithstanding numerous, serious concerns raised even by Bush Interior Department officials about the impact of the Shell project."

KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

Glenn Greenwald's reaction when he heard Obama's excuse was similar to mine:

"That excuse made very little sense to me as soon as I heard it. It seems highly unlikely that Congress -- which is not exactly notorious for imposing excessively rigorous regulations on the oil industry -- would enact a statutory requirement which, self-evidently, would be too rigorous to meet. But even if that were true -- even if Congress really did impose an impossible-to-meet 30-day period for conducting environmental reviews -- why didn't the Obama adminstration, whose party controls the Congress, ever ask that the law be amended to provide 6o or 90 days, or however much time is needed to complete the review? Or why didn't Interior officials tell the oil industry that they would refuse to issue these permits until the industry had their lobbyists instruct Congress to change the law to allow for a more reasonable timeframe? Instead, faced with a supposedly impossible-to-meet statutory requirement of conducting environmental reviews, the Interior Department just threw its hands up and circumvented the spirt of the law by oh-so-reluctantly and helplessly handing out exemptions like candy to any oil company that asked? Is that at all believable?"

KEEP READING
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

Yes, but as the court has ruled, it's not true and the court condemned Obama's excuse.

It's also yet another instance of Congress conspiring with corporations (this time Big Oil) to provide cover and shift responsibility, give a c0ck&bull story to the public about why oil companies are able to drill environmentally unsound wells (as if the public wouldn't realize that this law wasn't dropped down from the sky by tooth fairies).
About Gulf Oil Spill
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

'Furious' Obama Explains Oil Spill Frustration To Larry King (VIDEO): 'Venting' Won't Solve Anything, Says Obama

Do you remember Obama's excuse at last week's press conference about why his Interior Department issued exemptions to BP:

"[T]here is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. . . . .Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. The result is, they're continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's."

Only it's not true.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/salazar/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103126.html?hpid=topnews
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

Then there's this: Obama's excuse at last week's press conference about why his Interior Department issued exemptions to BP:

"[T]here is a thorough environmental review as to whether a certain portion of the Gulf should be leased or not. . . . .Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. The result is, they're continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public's."

Only it's not true.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/03/salazar/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/31/AR2010053103126.html?hpid=topnews
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

That is pretty much standard operating procedure for Obama. Rarely a day goes by where something 'Bushy' isn't being done by him or his administration, and then he'll l!e about it.

If pushed, if the media follows up and there is a public outcry, Obama may relent (like today after it was learned drilling was resuming in the Gulf, Obama allegedly reversed course, issued a moratorium on ALL drilling in the Gulf, but then Ken Salazar and the new head of MMS said, "Not true", so now we're back to mixed messages & conflicting information coming out of his administration.

On top of it comes the news that BP, which should be preparing to close up shop & it's officers packing a toothbrush for prison, is instead going ahead with plans to drill in the arctic.

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Gibbs Ducks Crucial Question On Sestak, Romanoff Job Offers

MomMakingChange is uninformed and wants to remain so, for whatever reason. I don't think she can be swayed by any argument; she's going to have to learn the hard way, as most of us have.

MomMakingChange probably doesn't know that on the same day that the Obama administration announced it was reversing the Bush era intensive logging plan and restoring protection for old growth forests and the species that depend on them in western Oregon, Obama had (with no publicity or fanfare) ordered the clear-cutting (the most destructive of all harvesting methods) of an old growth national forest in Alaska -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/16/obama-administration-appr_n_235311.html

KEEP READING
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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