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

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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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/
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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/
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