The Oil Well has Stopped Leaking

Okay, so there are still millions of gallons of oil in the Gulf, and the well could start leaking again at any moment.  Even still, it’s exciting that the oil leak has stopped for first time since the April 20 blowout.  The incident is far from over.  If the pressure in the well rises too much, BP will remove the cap and allow the oil to flow freely again.  The only way to truly stop the leak is the relief well BP is building that should be complete in August.

BP Coffee Spill

No words are needed.

Feds Knew of Gulf Spill Risks in 2000

In 2000, Shell submitted an offshore drilling plan, including a report with the most dangerous hazards of deepwater drilling. One of the men who worked on the report actually worked for the MMS.  The drill site was less than 140 miles from the Deepwater Horizon site.

“Regaining well control in deep water may be a problem since it could require the operator to cap and control well flow at the seabed in greater water depths . . . and could require simultaneous firefighting efforts at the surface,” according to the report.  Some of the warnings included:

1) The chemical dispersants required to clean up a major spill would expose adult birds to a combination of oil and dispersant that could “reduce chick survival.”

2) “Fish eggs and larvae within a potentially large area of the northern Gulf would be killed.”

3) In certain weather and oceanographic conditions, a large blowout could have “severe adverse impacts” for wetland areas.

4) Not all the spilled oil would rise to the surface, and “there are few practical spill response options for dealing with submerged oil.” It predicted that gas surging from a blowout could form hydrates and remain deep underwater, a likely cause of some toxic subsea oil “plumes” that scientists have identified in the BP spill.

While quite prophetic, the report wasn’t perfect.  As usual, Shell still underestimated the risk and claimed it could be far more effective in cleaning up the spill than it actually could be.  The report also stated that the leak would not last longer than 2 days and the leak could be naturally plugged as rocks shift on the gulf’s floor.

While the MMS knew about the hazards, the increasing demand for new oil sources, especially domestically, overshadowed the cause for alarm.  If only they had listened…

Another BP Disaster in Texas

In Texas, any company that emits more than 10 pounds of benzene (a cancer-causing emission) in a 24 hour period must report the discrepancy to the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality.  BP reported this weekend that their Texas City refinery produced 400 pounds of benzene a day for 40 days in April and May.  A total of 500,000 pounds of emissions (including 36,000 pounds of nitrogen) were released during this time period.  The company cited repairs to a compressor as the cause of the flare in emissions.

The Texas City refinery is the same one that exploded in March 2005, killing 15 workers and injuring over 170 others.  The government fined BP $87 million after the explosion for massive safety violations in 2009, which BP is currently challenging.  Other safety incidents at the refinery include:

On 28-July-2005, a hydrogen gas heat exchanger pipe on the Resid Hydrotreater Unit ruptured, causing a release of hydrogen that erupted into a large fireball. One person received minor injuries. The Chemical Safety Board found that a contractor had accidentally switched a carbon steel pipe elbow with a low alloy steel elbow during maintenance, causing a failure mode known as “High Temperature Hydrogen Attack” (HTHA).  The CSB found that BP had not informed the maintenance contractor that the elbows were different, the maintenance contractor had not used any procedure (such as tagging) to ensure that the elbows were re-installed into their original locations.

On August 10, 2005, there was an incident in a Gas-Oil Hydrotreater that resulted in a community order to shelter. This incident occurred when a hole developed in the bottom of a valve that handles high pressure gas and oil.

On January 14, 2008, William Joseph Gracia, 56, a veteran BP operations supervisor, died following head injuries sustained as workers prepared to place in service a water filtration vessel at the refinery’s ultracracker unit.

The refinery is the third-largest in the country and has an input capacity of 437,000 barrels per day.

BP Using Google To Manipulate Public Opinion

If you are researching the BP oil spill, steer clear of Google in your search. BP has bought out several search phrases in order to put their web site at the top of the list and push the smaller (and more critical ones) further down in the results.  It’s costing them approx. $7500 a day, which is chump change for them.  Try using a different search engine for your research.

Thinking Green: Turning Whiskey into Watts

A distillery in Scotland was faced with 2 problems: rising energy costs and the high cost of getting rid of the waste after they finish making their whiskey.  The solution?  Use the waste to make methane gas, which in turn is turned into electricity.  All that’s left after the process is excess water to dispose of.

A New Use for Cow Manure

Internet companies are now looking at using cow manure as an energy source to power their data centers.  This is especially useful in remote countries and locations, as most places can find a place nearby to get manure.  Just another way to go green (or brown).  Read the full report:

A Data Center Power Supply That Moos – NYTimes.com.

With Solar Valley, China Embarks on Bold Green Technology

Sounds like China has the right idea.  If only we could follow suit…

With Solar Valley project, China embarks on bold green technology mission.

Senator is Protecting Big Oil

I woke up this morning and received a disturbing email from Senator Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY).  Here it is:

Dear XXX,

Watching the tragic consequences of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico these past few weeks-from the economic pain of local businesspeople to the environmental degradation-has been positively gut-wrenching.

So I was appalled yesterday when a Senate bill to hold oil companies accountable for their actions and require them to pay the full cost of their deadly mistakes was blocked by a single Republican dissenter.

We can’t let one of the worst environmental catastrophes in decades go unpunished, and we can’t allow something like this to ever happen again. Please sign this petition demanding immediate passage of legislation that raises the cap on how much oil companies have to pay in damages for their offshore disasters.

Click here to add your name to this important petition that ensures we don’t provide any bailouts to big oil companies.

I have sponsored legislation along with my Democratic colleagues, Senators Robert Menendez, Frank Lautenberg and Bill Nelson that proposes raising the cap on damages from $75 million to $10 billion, making sure that taxpayers don’t have to foot the bill for spills caused by reckless oil companies.

But despite support from both sides of the aisle, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska brought the entire effort to a halt, effectively putting special interests before the American people and our environment.

How can we let oil companies get away with shoddy practices and careless errors? How can we not do everything possible to prevent a disaster like this from ever happening again? I, for one, cannot sit back and watch my colleague protect the rights of big oil, and I hope you can’t either

Please click here to sign this petition today. Let’s do everything we can to force BP to pay for this terrible mistake and protect ourselves from any future spills.

We can’t just stand by and watch helplessly as this tragedy unfolds. We must take action. Thank you for joining me in delivering a clear and powerful message.

Sincerely,

Kirsten Gillibrand

In disbelief, I thought there MUST be more to the story and I was just getting the Democrat’s spin on the story.  Unfortunately, it happened just like that.  Here it is from her own mouth, “I don’t believe that taking the liability cap from $75 million dollars to $10 million dollars…133 times the current strict liability limit, is where we need to be right now.”

Senator Murkowski is familiar with the oil companies.  She is from Alaska and remembers the Exxon-Valdez spill and the fight for people to get compensation from the company.  Her top four contributors however, are energy companies.  Her argument against the bill is that the small oil companies (there are many in Alaska) won’t be able to pay such a high cap and they won’t be able to get insurance.  While I appreciate that she is looking out for the “little guy”, she needs to worry about the people who are affected by the oil spill, not the ones who caused it.

Marine Scientists: Oil Leak is Much Worse Than Reported

As if it wasn’t already bad enough, some marine scientists are suggesting the oil leak is actually spilling 70,000 barrels a day, 12 times worse than originally reported.  If that is the case, this spill was worse than the Exxon-Valdez spill it is frequently compared to in just 4 days.

This in the wake of more bad news: an offshore natural gas platform off the coast of Venezuela sunk today.  Fortunately, the valve was sealed and there aren’t any leaks according to government officials.  President Chavez appeared on national television to confirm that all personnel were safe and there wasn’t any risk to the environment.