Gulf Oil Spill

[Richard]

Iran offers help in fighting Gulf of Mexico oil leak

Might be fun to publicly call their bluff...

Richard's $.02

[bandycpa]

Originally Posted by Richard

Might be fun to publicly call their bluff...

Richard's $.02

I agree.

I also can see the current administration using this as an opportunity to try to create relationship with Iran.

[greenberetTFS]

They are predicting the worst case situation here on the gulf coast and its pretty scary........It will not only knock out the sea life business for this year but also several years to come........ The wild life animals will take such a hit that their afraid they to won't come back for several years........ The tourist business will also suffer,no one wants to come to look at miles of white sandy beaches covered in black smelling oil.......This to a region that was just starting to recover for the devastation of Katrina.......Are these people really worried and afraid,you bet they are.......Jobs which were starting to pick up after these past few years will once again disappear......

Big Teddy

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

They are predicting the worst case situation here on the gulf coast and its pretty scary........It will not only knock out the sea life business for this year but also several years to come........ The wild life animals will take such a hit that their afraid they to won't come back for several years........ The tourist business will also suffer,no one wants to come to look at miles of white sandy beaches covered in black smelling oil.......This to a region that was just starting to recover for the devastation of Katrina.......Are these people really worried and afraid,you bet they are.......Jobs which were starting to pick up after these past few years will once again disappear......

Big Teddy

Teddy:

Consider the source of these reports.

IIRC, Prince William Sound is in pretty good shape these days.

TR

[Utah Bob]

Iran offers help in fighting Gulf of Mexico oil leak

Good idea. Stuff the hole full of Revolutionary Guards.

[ZonieDiver]

Looks as if the Feds might "fund" 6,000 National Guard troops to "patrol the borders" of LA, AL, MS, and FL for "illegal immigrant oil" - yet, Napolitano won't even consider funding 50 NG for the AZ border.

I guess clams count more than Arizona citizens!

[bandycpa]

What I said about our administration using this as a springboard for relationship with Iran? Never mind. Thankfully I was wrong.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03207374.htm


Iran: US should be punished for nuclear "threats"
03 May 2010 16:36:47 GMT
Source: Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday called for states that threaten to use atomic weapons to be punished, a clear reference to a new U.S. nuclear strategy released last month.

Speaking at a meeting of the 189 signatories of the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), he urged "considering any threat to use nuclear weapons or attack against peaceful nuclear facilities as a breach of international peace and security."

The delegations of the United States, Britain and France all walked out of the U.N. General Assembly chamber during the Iranian president's speech. (Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Patrick Worsnip

[echoes]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Teddy:

Consider the source of these reports.

IIRC, Prince William Sound is in pretty good shape these days.

TR

Agree, however, most are not as forward thinking...hence, BP stock, after decades of holding, was all sold today.

Here we go.

Holly

[Sigaba]

From the Christian Science Monitor on-line edition <<LINK>>.

Obama administration pulls no punches on BP oil spill, N.Y.C. bomb plot

The Obama administration is carefully choosing its words about the BP oil spill and failed N.Y.C. bomb plot, as it tries to calibrate its public posture on events.

By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer
posted May 3, 2010 at 5:57 pm EDT
Washington —

The Obama administration ratcheted up its rhetoric Monday on the unfolding environmental and economic disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the failed N.Y.C. bomb plot.

On the massive BP oil spill, triggered by an oil-rig explosion nearly two weeks ago, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs endorsed the language of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who had used graphic tough-guy imagery in talk-show appearances Sunday. “Our job basically is to keep the boot on the neck of British Petroleum,” Secretary Salazar said, citing the company that leased the rig.

President Obama also dramatically ramped up his rhetoric and personal oversight on the disaster Sunday, with a hastily arranged visit to the Gulf Coast and language aimed at showing he “gets it” about the magnitude of the crisis. Mr. Obama called the spill “a massive and potentially unprecedented disaster.”

On Monday, Mr. Gibbs also described the foiled attack Saturday in Times Square as terrorism – after other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, had declined to make that assertion. By Monday afternoon, news reports cited unnamed administration officials as saying that it increasingly appears that the failed bombing was a multiperson plot with international ties.

At his briefing, Gibbs did not equivocate. “I would say that that was intended to terrorize, absolutely,” he said. “Whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist.”

The careful parsing of language and deploying of key words reflect an administration trying to calibrate its public posture on events – or, in the Goldilocks analogy, not too hot, not too cold, but just right. Whether they have succeeded on the public-relations front remains to be seen, as major polls have yet to show public perceptions of these two events.

Some news media promoted a hurricane Katrina analogy on the Gulf oil disaster, suggesting that the Obama administration was underreacting. The administration vehemently objects to that suggestion, saying they’ve had “all hands on deck” from Day 1. Obama’s trip to Louisiana on Sunday appeared aimed in part to put any image of disengagement to rest.

Indeed, Obama did not just fly over the affected area, as President Bush did in the Gulf region several days after Katrina struck in 2005. Obama landed in Louisiana, got a firsthand look at the response, and was briefed on the ground by officials addressing the disaster. The image of Obama delivering a statement in the driving rain – no umbrella-toting aides in sight – added to the sense that he was engaged in his environment and unprotected from adversity.

Still, if the Gulf of Mexico oil slick does rise to the level of catastrophe, the history books may not be kind to Obama. On Saturday, he opted to continue with his planned schedule – a trip to Ann Arbor, Mich., to deliver the commencement address at the University of Michigan, followed by his speech to the ultimate inside-the-Beltway schmoozathon, the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner.

The White House spent Friday insisting that Obama was planning a quiet Sunday in Washington, then changed gears Saturday morning and announced the Gulf trip for Sunday. By then, it would have been too late to plan a presidential trip that day, with all the logistical and security issues involved.

As for the failed terror attack in Times Square, a big consolation for Obama is that the SUV bomb did not fully detonate, and no one was injured. The impact on the administration’s image in the public eye is likely to be minimal. The situation in the Gulf of Mexico, and along the coastline, however, appears to be worsening by the day. The coast’s ecology and seafood industry are on the line. Even if the oil-rig explosion and massive leak are not the administration’s fault, any catastrophe takes a toll on the administration in office.

For Obama, “it’s a no-win situation,” says Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, speaking of the Gulf oil slick. Obama doesn’t want to look like Chicken Little, racing to the scene of every brewing potential disaster, he says. But “if he goes late, even if for a good reason, he winds up getting criticized.”

I hope that the president understands that public posturing is not a sustainable substitute for leadership.

[greenberetTFS]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Teddy:

Consider the source of these reports.

IIRC, Prince William Sound is in pretty good shape these days.

TR

I get your point TR,but the info I was quoting from is sundays (Biloxi-Gulfport) Sun Herald regarding the sea and animal situation......... Lets hope their wrong!

Big Teddy

[incarcerated]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MN1Q1D8SRP.DTL

Schwarzenegger drops offshore drilling project

Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
(05-03) 16:39 PDT Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday withdrew his support for a plan he championed to allow new offshore oil drilling off Santa Barbara County, citing the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Schwarzenegger, whose administration as recently as Friday defended the proposed Tranquillon Ridge offshore drilling project, said images of the spill in the gulf changed his mind.

"All of you have seen, when you turn on the television, the devastation in the gulf, and I'm sure that they also were assured that it was safe to drill," he said at a news conference Monday. "I see on TV the birds drenched in oil, the fishermen out of work, the massive oil spill and oil slick destroying our precious ecosystem. That will not happen here in California, and this is why I am withdrawing my support for the T-Ridge project."

His new stance all but guarantees the demise of the proposal by a Texas oil company to allow the first new drilling in state waters in 40 years....

[Buffalobob]

Exxon Valdez and Prince William Sound

Every once in a while the scientist go back in and survey the place. Its still a mess and seeping oil. The fishery has never recovered.

21 Years Later, Exxon Valdez Scars Still Healing Oil Spill Devastated Alaskan Fishing Community as Remaining Oil Still Impacting Wildlife By Ben Tracy
o As the clean-up efforts of the massive British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continue, CBS News' Ben Tracy returns to the site of another infamous man-made disaster in Alaska.
(CBS) Not even the stunning beauty of Alaska's Prince William Sound can hide the deep and lasting scar just beneath the surface.

"There are some folks I cannot get to talk to anybody about the spill because it brings back nightmares," said Patience Andersen Faulkner, a Cordova resident.

"The Spill" began at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy.

"Evidently leaking some oil and we're going be here for awhile," Exxon Valdez Captain Joseph Hazelwood said during the spill.

Over the course of 56 days, the black cloud spread damaging 1,300 miles of shoreline. Ten thousand people helped clean it up. It took more than four summers and cost Exxon $2.1 billion.

Faulkner lives in Cordova, the largest fishing town on the sound. Twenty-one years later, things look pretty normal.

"Well it does look nice and normal but we don't have any herring," Faulkner said.

That's why Mark King's boat is parked in a warehouse. The former herring fisherman used to pull in up to $150,000 per year. Now he makes about $50,000 fishing salmon. Herring basically disappeared within three years of the spill.

King's hope was to pass on his business to his kids.

"They're gone," King said. "They aren't involved in fishing. They didn't have the opportunities I had growing up here."

While herring populations are still devastated, other species such as salmon and bald eagles have recovered. But perhaps the most remarkable is what never went away - and you can find it just a short plane ride from Cordova. On the shoreline, all you have to do is move a couple of rocks and you strike oil - Exxon Valdez oil - 21 years later.

In fact, over 21,000 gallons of oil are left from the spill. It is naturally decreasing at a rate of 0 to 4 percent per year. So it could take decades - or even centuries - before it's all gone.

Researcher David Janka said that two decades later, the oil is still a threat.

"There are salmon streams nearby, there are birds that utilize these beaches," Janka said.

Along with the oil, a bitterness remains. A jury awarded fisherman and other residents along the sound $5 billion, but Exxon appealed and only had to pay $507 million, while the community has paid a heavy price.

"We've had tons of divorces, tons of domestic violence, alcohol abuse, and suicides," Faulkner said.
So prevention is now the focus. From the air you can see barges stationed on the water with equipment to handle a spill and oil spill drills are held regularly.

"If there was another spill like here like the one that we had, it would be devastating," said Mike Collins, a local pilot. "And there is that constant fear around people that live here."

For the infamous tanker, by law it can never enter these Alaskan waters ever again.

[Richard]

For the infamous tanker, by law it can never enter these Alaskan waters ever again.

By law - I thought it wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.

And so it goes...

Richard's jaded $.02

[Buffalobob]

Given the depth of the water where the spill is and the technology available to study harmful effects at those depths and the gaps in scientific knowledge, it is doubtful that the true extent of the damage will ever be known. Once you couple in the existing effects of nutrient enrichment from the uncontrolled farm runoff in the Mississippi River basin which creates a large area of hypoxia to the west of the spill, you will have an impossible task of determining which source of pollution is causing what effects over the next couple of decades.

Here is a short fact sheet on the existing hypoxia problem.

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/products/gul...l/rabalais.htm

and another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_%28ecology%29

When I first began working, I was with the Mobile District Corps of Engineers and our jurisdiction ran from the Pearl River over to the Aplachicola.

[Defender968]

Originally Posted by greenberetTFS

I get your point TR,but the info I was quoting from is sundays (Biloxi-Gulfport) Sun Herald regarding the sea and animal situation......... Lets hope their wrong!

Big Teddy

GreenberetTFS, for what it's worth my wife is a marine biologist and is tracking this disaster very closely, and her assessment was consistent with what you're hearing/reading. We were talking about this last night and there are serious and very long term implications to this spill (especially considering it may end up being much worse in terms of amount of oil than the Valdez), and it's already effecting the price of seafood. (the chef's she works will have already seen a 30% increase in the price of many products) She thinks the price increases are because of speculation currently, but that in the long term there will likely be significant population issues for gulf species, particularly because o the time of year it is. Right now is a critical time in the reproductive cycle of many species.