Oil on Pensacola Beaches 9 mi of it

by Chaoslillith

So I was watching AC360 and the part I caught had a report of about 9 miles of Tar Balls on Pensacola Beach that washed up today.

One of the many links

and so it continues.

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News from Native American Netroots-Updated re: Blood Diamonds

by Oke

Please read and rec a related diary,"Please help 11th Hour Vote on the New Blood Diamonds." The  brutalization of people on their native land, that is literally stolen, happens all over the planet.

Cross Posted at Native American Netroots

Welcome to News from Native American Netroots, a Monday evening series (delayed until Wednesday this week) focused on indigenous tribes primarily in the United States and Canada but inclusive of international peoples also.

A special thanks to our team for contributing the links that have been compiled here. Please provide your news links in the comments below.

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EcoAdvocates: Wind Farms, Cities, & Urgent Action on Conflict Minerals and Burning Sea Turtles

by citisven

While no one technology or source of energy can or should claim to be the exclusive savior in our quest to find alternatives to fossil fuels, offshore wind power has moved beyond symbolic feelgood status and become one of the most promising contenders to be an economically viable source of energy.

Aside from the obvious environmental benefit that a malfunctioning turbine or platform doesn't annihilate entire ecosystems, windmill technology has come a long way since its early days. You know it's not just pretty talk when energy companies are investing billions in offshore wind parks. That's exactly what's happening in the North Sea, where major international power companies are currently staking out the future of Europe's energy supply off the coasts of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and Britain.  

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The sky is bleeding too... {eKos Earthship Wednesday}

by eKos

Welcome to the eKos Earthship, your one-stop-shop for green diaries and series.

Tonight's editor: LaughingPlanet

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As the Earth bleeds her millions of years-old fluids a mile beneath the the ocean, scary events are taking place up above as well. Acid rain, once considered a problem solved, has returned in a new and nefarious way due to our ongoing unsustainability.

Our current ways of doing things DO. NOT. WORK.

Without sudden and aggressive action, expect lots more blowback from mother nature on increasingly devastating scales. Over 97% of scientists agree.

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Beneath the fold you will find news and notes, community announcements, and our eco-diary roundup.

All views expressed by today's editor do not necessarily represent those of eKos or eKos listed diarists.

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Report: Coal Industry Harms TN and WV More Than It Helps

by Bruce Nilles

Two reports released this week reveal that when it comes to the bottom line of state budgets, the coal industry costs Tennessee and West Virginia more than it provides.

These reports are among the first to examine actual revenues and expenditures related to coal industry employment, taxes and subsidies in Tennessee and West Virginia. Downstream Strategies produced the reports.

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Final Update #16: The Week in Editorial Cartoons - General A*S Kicking and When Joe Met Tony

by JekyllnHyde

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS
This weekly diary takes a look at the past week's important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.
When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist's message.

:: ::

Jeeves and Wooster


Mike Luckovich, Comics.com (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


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Oil flowing freely after accident forces cap removal

by Jed Lewison

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, leader of the Federal response to the BP oil disaster, announced this morning that an accident involving a robotic submarine at the site of the leaking well has dislodged the containment cap which had been capturing a significant portion of oil gushing from the well. As a result, Allen said, the oil is now flowing freely into the Gulf.

Allen said that a remotely operated vehicle had bumped into one of the cap's vents, closing it. Because excess oil and gas could not escape from the vent, gas began to rise through a pipe carrying warm water to the cap, forcing technicians to remove the cap.

The purpose of the pipe carrying warm water is to block the formation of slush-like hydrates in the containment cap. Hydrates are problematic because they block the flow of oil through the pipe connected to the containment cap, making it impossible to capture oil.

If no hydrates formed when the warm water flow was cut off and the cap was removed, then the cap can be put back in place later today, otherwise Allen said it will take "significantly longer." He didn't quantify "significantly."

Yesterday, just over 27,000 barrels of oil were captured, representing the most successful day so far since the leak began, but until the cap can be placed back on the leaking pipe, those gains have been completely erased.

Allen also said that two workers involved in response efforts had passed away, although it was unclear whether either death was directly related to response work. He said one death involved a swimming pool accident and the other involved a Vessel of Opportunity boat operator and was being investigated by police in Gulf Shores, Mississippi. Update: The boat operator died of a gunshot wound, so the death appears unrelated to the oil itself, though it's possible it occurred while the boat operator was on duty.

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Breaking: Dramatic Increase in Oil Flow--2 Deaths

by Dartagnan

Not Good

WASHINGTON - Oil was again gushing uncontrollably from the BP spill site on Wednesday after the company was forced to remove the containment cap when a robotic submarine hit a vent. The news came as officials also reported two deaths of workers in the response effort.

The deaths appear to be unrelated to the actual containment effort.

The deaths reported Wednesday were not tied to the containment operation. The Coast Guard said the workers had been involved in cleanup operations did that their deaths did not appear to be work related.

One death was a boat captain who died of a gunshot wound, a Coast Guard spokesman sai.d Further details were not immediately available.

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BP Catastrophe Liveblog Mothership:  #29

by Liveblog

The current ROV DIARY: BP Oilpocalypse Liveblog ROV # 133

Rules of the Road

• We take volunteers for subsequent diaries in the sub diaries or ROV's as we have playfully coined them.
• Please rec this mothership diary, not the ROVs.
• Please be kind to fellow kossacks who may have limited bandwidth and refrain from posting images or videos.

PLEASE visit Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier's diaries to find out how you can help the Gulf now and in the future. We don't have to be idle! And thanks to Crashing Vor and Pam LaPier for working on this!

To repeat: please refrain from commenting in this mothership diary, unless you're volunteering for a submersible shift.

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A Clear difference: setting the Price of Carbon, so WE get a Share

by jamess

Clearly America needs to reach for, and achieve, a Clean Energy Future.

Not so Clear is the Road we will take, if any, to ultimately get there ...

Kerry says Obama intends to move votes on energy
Reporting by Timothy Gardner and Richard Cowan, Editing by Sandra Maler, Reuters -- June 22, 2010

WASHINGTON - [...]
Obama is slated to meet leading Republican and Democratic senators on Wednesday to discuss a way forward for the energy legislation.
[...]
Kerry said the bill must include ways to price carbon but was not "locked into any one single way of doing it."

"The fact is if we don't price carbon, we will create one tenth of the jobs and reduce only one tenth of the emissions," he said. "It would essentially be an energy-only bill."

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Orange Satan says "WTF! I mean seriously WTF!"

by LaFeminista

"We welcome Judge Feldman’s decision to lift the moratorium on deepwater operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
"The administration acted appropriately in its immediate steps to inspect every rig in the Gulf following the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Those inspections were necessary to assure Americans that offshore operations were safe and subject to appropriate oversight.

"In addition, the oil and natural gas industry took immediate steps to review practices and equipment to ensure safety and environmental protection, through the formation of two industry-wide task forces. The task forces provided important insights to the Department of Interior during its earliest examination of Gulf operations.

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The Gulf Wildlife CAN Be Saved

by Stranded Wind

 OK, after a brief conversation with Kossack Nb41 we have a potentially workable solution for the mess in the Gulf.

   No, we can't stop the oil, but we can easily interdict quite a bit of the deleterious effect with some basic technology already commonly in use in the oil industry.

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Legal-Ease

by Crashing Vor

I never would have thought I'd say this, but Ken Salazar is a freaking genius.

When Judge Feldman granted a preliminary injunction against the federal government for ordering a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling yesterday, he called the drilling hiatus "arbitrary and capricious" and its basis "factually incorrect." The administration vowed to immediately appeal.

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