by RLMiller
BP was considering whether it would turn off the spillcams during its topkill operation beginning as early as Wednesday night. Although now it's decided to leave them on, I did find BP's original list to share with you.
continued at Daily Kos....
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Alternative Energy Round-Up
by mark louis
Time for another trip to the world of renewable energy. The last diary I wrote generated a great deal of debate and landed on the rec list. Of course, I did blame everyone for the oil spill, which caused a few angry comments. But, I think there was also a pretty good debate on our use of oil and how it has resulted in creating a climate where such disasters can occur. With that, let's talk about energy.
continued at Daily Kos....
Time for another trip to the world of renewable energy. The last diary I wrote generated a great deal of debate and landed on the rec list. Of course, I did blame everyone for the oil spill, which caused a few angry comments. But, I think there was also a pretty good debate on our use of oil and how it has resulted in creating a climate where such disasters can occur. With that, let's talk about energy.
continued at Daily Kos....
Should the Sky be the Limit, when Big Business, harms regular People?
by jamess
Direction on the oil spill liability cap By Kate Sheppard, By Washington Post editor -- May 25, 2010 The Obama administration today finally weighed in on the question of how high the liability cap should be raised for oil spills, arguing that there should be no limit at all -- at least for drilling in deep waters and at least for future spills. The administration was still hesitant to offer direction on whether legislation should act retroactively for the BP spill and whether it should include all offshore drilling operations. Still, a new measure in the Senate that would have eliminated the cap, offered after the administration's comments, failed Tuesday as Republicans blocked Democrats from bringing it up under unanimous consent. A measure to raise the cap to $10 billion had been blocked twice previously. Republicans continue to protest that raising or eliminating the cap would bar smaller companies from entering the market. But it's OK to throw other People OUT of Work, when such 'Accidents Happen'?
continued at Daily Kos....
Direction on the oil spill liability cap By Kate Sheppard, By Washington Post editor -- May 25, 2010 The Obama administration today finally weighed in on the question of how high the liability cap should be raised for oil spills, arguing that there should be no limit at all -- at least for drilling in deep waters and at least for future spills. The administration was still hesitant to offer direction on whether legislation should act retroactively for the BP spill and whether it should include all offshore drilling operations. Still, a new measure in the Senate that would have eliminated the cap, offered after the administration's comments, failed Tuesday as Republicans blocked Democrats from bringing it up under unanimous consent. A measure to raise the cap to $10 billion had been blocked twice previously. Republicans continue to protest that raising or eliminating the cap would bar smaller companies from entering the market. But it's OK to throw other People OUT of Work, when such 'Accidents Happen'?
continued at Daily Kos....
Big as Both Wars combined !
by Vetwife
This man made disaster is as big IMO as both wars combined and should absolutely be nationalized. We cannot let a corporation run a war on nature. Iraq and Afghanistan is devistating lives to be sure. People are dying. People will be dying from this as well. Oxygen comes from the seas. This thing is bigger that people believe.
continued at Daily Kos....
This man made disaster is as big IMO as both wars combined and should absolutely be nationalized. We cannot let a corporation run a war on nature. Iraq and Afghanistan is devistating lives to be sure. People are dying. People will be dying from this as well. Oxygen comes from the seas. This thing is bigger that people believe.
continued at Daily Kos....
Permit for new coal-burning plant in Michigan: DENIED!!!
by Eclectablog
Cross-posted at Eclectablog.com. In a sea of bad, very bad and even worse news on the ecological/energy front, score one for the good guys. Last Friday, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) denied a permit for the Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, Inc. to build a new coal-fired power plant in Rogers City, Michigan. While the permit was NOT issued, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) issued a bit of a smack-down to Wolverine Power instead.
continued at Daily Kos....
Cross-posted at Eclectablog.com. In a sea of bad, very bad and even worse news on the ecological/energy front, score one for the good guys. Last Friday, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) denied a permit for the Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, Inc. to build a new coal-fired power plant in Rogers City, Michigan. While the permit was NOT issued, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) issued a bit of a smack-down to Wolverine Power instead.
continued at Daily Kos....
UPDATE: Oil Action - Let's Not Kill the Arctic Too!
by greendem
If you are like me, you are feeling completely depressed and hopeless about the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. And new pictures like this are just heartbreaking. The yellow oil containment booms being easily overtopped by slime are starting to look more like police Crime Scene Tape to me. There was a crime committed against the USA and our Planet. Big Oil and 20 years of Conservative deregulation were responsible. What can we do? I have been doing some research, and this seems like a start. By July the Obama administration needs to make a decision about whether it will allow Shell Oil to begin installing oil rigs off America's Arctic coast.
continued at Daily Kos....
If you are like me, you are feeling completely depressed and hopeless about the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. And new pictures like this are just heartbreaking. The yellow oil containment booms being easily overtopped by slime are starting to look more like police Crime Scene Tape to me. There was a crime committed against the USA and our Planet. Big Oil and 20 years of Conservative deregulation were responsible. What can we do? I have been doing some research, and this seems like a start. By July the Obama administration needs to make a decision about whether it will allow Shell Oil to begin installing oil rigs off America's Arctic coast.
continued at Daily Kos....
Special investigation: Disaster in East Tennessee
by Sue Sturgis
In December 2008, one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history unfolded at the TVA's Kingston coal plant when a massive coal ash holding pond burst. A year and a half later, communities are still feeling the impact -- and there are fears that without federal action a similar disaster could strike elsewhere.
continued at Daily Kos....
In December 2008, one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history unfolded at the TVA's Kingston coal plant when a massive coal ash holding pond burst. A year and a half later, communities are still feeling the impact -- and there are fears that without federal action a similar disaster could strike elsewhere.
continued at Daily Kos....
UPDATE - Diving into the Oil - Finally Seeing under the Water
by Ellinorianne
"Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters." Quite a headline but that's just what they do and you get to see, first hand, what it looks like to swim through the muck of dispersant and oil that is looming under the surface. It's a metaphor for so much that is wrong with our energy policies in this Country, the costs that we don't see, that are out of sight and out of mind but this disaster is bringing it to full sight now, isn't it? It's something we cannot turn away from.
continued at Daily Kos....
"Philippe Cousteau Jr. and Sam Champion take hazmat dive into Gulf's oily waters." Quite a headline but that's just what they do and you get to see, first hand, what it looks like to swim through the muck of dispersant and oil that is looming under the surface. It's a metaphor for so much that is wrong with our energy policies in this Country, the costs that we don't see, that are out of sight and out of mind but this disaster is bringing it to full sight now, isn't it? It's something we cannot turn away from.
continued at Daily Kos....
"From Abstract Speculation To Miserable Reality"
by Laurence Lewis
The backlash from the BP Oil Spill has only begun. As more and more oil hits shore, more and more people will realize the depth of the disaster. It's beginning to happen. Fred Grimm, of the Miami Herald, reports from Grand Isle, Louisiana: Grand Isle, a mile wide, hardly eight miles long, offers a brutal model in miniature of what a giant oil spill brings to a tourism economy built around the beach and the sea. The town, with only 1,500 permanent residents, lives off the 300,000 visitors a year who come to fish and swim and play on the beach and bath in the Gulf of Mexico waters. None of that was evident Friday. The tourist hotels are empty but for cleanup crews. All the local businesses, both large and small, will suffer for this. All the people that work for those businesses will suffer. All the businesses that do business with those directly impacted will suffer. If Florida wants to regard Grand Isle as a laboratory to study the effects on tourism from that dark swill vomiting up from the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon, early indications look damn near fatal. Grand Isle's mayor closed the beach Friday afternoon but his order was not much more than an empty gesture. An obvious question hung over a mostly empty strand: Closed to whom? The popular beach and wildlife refuge on Elmer's Island was being kept off-limits, even to the press. The Herald sent a reporter and a photographer, and they were turned away. Why? But the mood all along the Louisiana coast was turning bitter this week, a month after the oil rig exploded 50 miles out in the Gulf, as the spill finally reached the coast. The ecological and economic damage was finally transformed from abstract speculation to miserable reality. And it's going to get worse. An enormous mass of oil is just miles off Grand Isle's shore, and is heading its way. But Grand Isle is just a beginning. As the oil works its way into the Loop Current, Florida likely will be next. And even that will be but a beginning. Matthew Brown, of the Associated Press, explains: The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said. Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil. They warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good. The only viable option for many impacted areas is to do nothing and let nature break down the spill. Fifty miles of Louisiana's coastline already have been hit, including a major pelican rookery. The Louisiana marshes served as nurseries for shrimp, crab and oysters. Will the local fishing industry survive? Even if it does, how long will it take for even moderate recovery, and how many jobs will be lost, both temporarily and permanently? Those marshes also served as a buffer for New Orleans, when hurricanes hit. This just keeps getting worse. And it will take many years for nature to break this mess down. Among other ominous developments, BP is responding to the EPA's order that it seek an alternative to the dangerous chemical dispersant it had been using by saying it intends to continue with the one it has. Who is in charge, here? Gulf Islands National Seashore is imminently threatened not only by the oil, but by those chemicals. And the government official leading the response to the disaster says only BP has the expertise to plug the leak, and he trusts they are doing their best. Which raises the question of why we entrust entire ecosystems to the expertise of a corporation whose best is a continuing catastrophe. The magnitude of this disaster is so overwhelmingly large that it's easy to overlook the ways in which it is very small. As in the human scale. The people on Grand Isle who will lose their businesses and their jobs. Those employed in the Louisiana fishing industry. Those employed in the industries that depend on the catch. Those living and working on the coast of Florida, and beyond. The people for whom this disaster could not be much larger. And all the fragile ecosystems that will be destroyed. This is a teaching moment, for us all. It should be a learning moment. If someone would take this moment to teach. So that enough people would learn. So that we could, collectively, do what needs be done. On the large scale. On the small.
continued at Daily Kos....
The backlash from the BP Oil Spill has only begun. As more and more oil hits shore, more and more people will realize the depth of the disaster. It's beginning to happen. Fred Grimm, of the Miami Herald, reports from Grand Isle, Louisiana: Grand Isle, a mile wide, hardly eight miles long, offers a brutal model in miniature of what a giant oil spill brings to a tourism economy built around the beach and the sea. The town, with only 1,500 permanent residents, lives off the 300,000 visitors a year who come to fish and swim and play on the beach and bath in the Gulf of Mexico waters. None of that was evident Friday. The tourist hotels are empty but for cleanup crews. All the local businesses, both large and small, will suffer for this. All the people that work for those businesses will suffer. All the businesses that do business with those directly impacted will suffer. If Florida wants to regard Grand Isle as a laboratory to study the effects on tourism from that dark swill vomiting up from the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon, early indications look damn near fatal. Grand Isle's mayor closed the beach Friday afternoon but his order was not much more than an empty gesture. An obvious question hung over a mostly empty strand: Closed to whom? The popular beach and wildlife refuge on Elmer's Island was being kept off-limits, even to the press. The Herald sent a reporter and a photographer, and they were turned away. Why? But the mood all along the Louisiana coast was turning bitter this week, a month after the oil rig exploded 50 miles out in the Gulf, as the spill finally reached the coast. The ecological and economic damage was finally transformed from abstract speculation to miserable reality. And it's going to get worse. An enormous mass of oil is just miles off Grand Isle's shore, and is heading its way. But Grand Isle is just a beginning. As the oil works its way into the Loop Current, Florida likely will be next. And even that will be but a beginning. Matthew Brown, of the Associated Press, explains: The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said. Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil. They warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good. The only viable option for many impacted areas is to do nothing and let nature break down the spill. Fifty miles of Louisiana's coastline already have been hit, including a major pelican rookery. The Louisiana marshes served as nurseries for shrimp, crab and oysters. Will the local fishing industry survive? Even if it does, how long will it take for even moderate recovery, and how many jobs will be lost, both temporarily and permanently? Those marshes also served as a buffer for New Orleans, when hurricanes hit. This just keeps getting worse. And it will take many years for nature to break this mess down. Among other ominous developments, BP is responding to the EPA's order that it seek an alternative to the dangerous chemical dispersant it had been using by saying it intends to continue with the one it has. Who is in charge, here? Gulf Islands National Seashore is imminently threatened not only by the oil, but by those chemicals. And the government official leading the response to the disaster says only BP has the expertise to plug the leak, and he trusts they are doing their best. Which raises the question of why we entrust entire ecosystems to the expertise of a corporation whose best is a continuing catastrophe. The magnitude of this disaster is so overwhelmingly large that it's easy to overlook the ways in which it is very small. As in the human scale. The people on Grand Isle who will lose their businesses and their jobs. Those employed in the Louisiana fishing industry. Those employed in the industries that depend on the catch. Those living and working on the coast of Florida, and beyond. The people for whom this disaster could not be much larger. And all the fragile ecosystems that will be destroyed. This is a teaching moment, for us all. It should be a learning moment. If someone would take this moment to teach. So that enough people would learn. So that we could, collectively, do what needs be done. On the large scale. On the small.
continued at Daily Kos....
The Battle's Lost. The War's Begun.
by Crashing Vor
As oil continues to pour from the wreckage of the Macondo lease, a new source of pollution has opened up. Politicians seeking electoral advantage, pundits seeking recognition and worried citizens seeking some answer to this growing hell-sea have been popping up with greater frequency, spewing blame and toxic rhetoric on the media beaches. Bobby Jindal wants more booms. David Vitter thinks Thad Allen's stalling on building berms. Chris Matthews wants Barack Obama to wave a wand. Mike Papantionio wants supertankers with skimmers. Salazar wants to pose with his boot on somebody's neck. All of them want camera time. And none of them want to tell the truth. Me, neither, but it's time someone does. If you're a big fan of hope, you may want to skip this diary.
continued at Daily Kos....
As oil continues to pour from the wreckage of the Macondo lease, a new source of pollution has opened up. Politicians seeking electoral advantage, pundits seeking recognition and worried citizens seeking some answer to this growing hell-sea have been popping up with greater frequency, spewing blame and toxic rhetoric on the media beaches. Bobby Jindal wants more booms. David Vitter thinks Thad Allen's stalling on building berms. Chris Matthews wants Barack Obama to wave a wand. Mike Papantionio wants supertankers with skimmers. Salazar wants to pose with his boot on somebody's neck. All of them want camera time. And none of them want to tell the truth. Me, neither, but it's time someone does. If you're a big fan of hope, you may want to skip this diary.
continued at Daily Kos....
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