Daily Coastal Protection Coalition Update and Media Clip

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Daily Coastal Protection Coalition Update and Media Clip

From: Fran Gibson
To: Fran Gibson
Subject: Daily Coalition Update and Media Clip
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 20:41:11 -0700

State news: Susan Jordan's battle with Das Williams who supports PXP's T-Ridge project even following the Gulf oil spill aftermath and the Governor's withdrawal of support. Recommend full reading of two of the national clips: *one by UC_Berkeley professor Robert Bea and the other by Robert Kennedy, Jr. on the crisis and the underpinnings going decades back. *Congressional investigations are beginning to uncover the long trail of mistakes and violations (dead batteries, *schematics that did not match the blowout preventer equipment and hydraulic leaks to name a few) that will likely lead to major punitive damages for BP, *Halliburton and Transocean. Class actions are likely and Robert Kennedy, Jr. reports economic losses to Gulf communities at this point at $14 billion. We can all use a little humor by now so check out David Letterman's "top ten" below. *Thanks *-- *Fran *


STATE:
https://www.independent.com/news/201...ssues-forth/**[Santa Barbara Independent special commentary by Paul Mason (ex-coastal advocate with Sierra Club California): **This deal appears dead, but as part of the post-mortem, lets look at how our Assembly candidates handled this difficult issue. **Susan Jordan did a thorough assessment of the agreement, established that it wasn’t enforceable, and made the difficult decision to oppose, even though it hurt her politically and put her in conflict with some longtime friends. **In contrast, Das Williams jumped into the race to exploit a split in the environmental community, and threw his support behind new drilling based on exploiting a political opportunity, rather than any personal research on the issue. **Looking at how Susan handled this exceedingly difficult issue tells us a lot about her commitment to doing what is right, even when it’s difficult. She demonstrated exactly the combination of guts, integrity and leadership that we need in Sacramento during these difficult times. **The difference between her response to this deal and that of her opponent is the difference between being a leader or a follower.*Given the challenges facing California right now, I think we need a leader.] *"...we need a leader." Go, Susan, Go!***




NATIONAL:
https://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2272**[Yale Environment 360 article by John McQuaid (Pulitzer prize winning author of*Path of Destruction: *The Devastation o New Orleans and the Coming Age of Super Storms*) on Gulf crisis and the underlying issues: *Robert Bea (engineering professor with UB-Berkeley) *has worked as an engineer on offshore drilling operations and was also one of the leaders of an independent engineering study of the New Orleans levee failures during Hurricane Katrina. And the Gulf spill has some similarities to the 2005 flood, which was caused in large part by faulty floodwalls approved by the Army Corps of Engineers.*The common threads between Katrina and the current oil spill, Bea wrote in an email, are “hubris, arrogance, ignorance... combined with a natural hazard.” **With near-shore and shallow reserves of fossil fuels largely depleted, drilling has moved farther offshore, into deeper waters and deeper underground. The technology for locating oil and gas reserves and for drilling has improved, but the conditions are extreme and the challenges more formidable. “This is a pretty frigging complex system,” Bea said in an interview. “You’ve got equipment and steel strung out over a long piece of geography starting at surface and terminating at*18,000 feetbelow the sea floor. So it has many potential weak points. Just as Katrina’s storm surge found weaknesses in those piles of dirt — the levees — gas likes to find weakness in anything we connect to that source.” *‘We’ve pushed it to the bloody edge in this very, very unforgiving environment.’ **He questions whether energy companies and government agencies have fully adapted to the new realities.*“The danger has escalated exponentially,” he said. “We’ve pushed it to the bloody edge in this very, very unforgiving environment, and we don’t have a lot of experience.” *Finally, there’s a problem with fragmentation of responsibility: Deepwater Horizon was BP’s operation. But BP leased the platform from Transocean, and Halliburton was doing the deepwater work when the blowout occurred. “Each of these organizations has fundamentally different goals,” Bea said. “BP wants access to hydrocarbon resources that feed their refinery and distribution network. Halliburton provides oil field services. Transocean drives drill rigs, kind of like taxicabs. Each has different operating processes.”] *An analysis very worthy of reading through entirely!


''Sex, Lies and Oil Spills''*by *Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (President of the Waterkeeper Alliance): **"A common spin in the right wing coverage of BP's oil spill is a gleeful suggestion that the gulf blowout is Obama's Katrina. **In truth,*culpability for the disaster can more accurately be laid at the Bush Administration's doorstep. *For eight years, George Bush's presidency infected the oil industry's oversight agency, the Minerals Management Service, with a*septic culture of corruption*from which it has yet to recover. **Oil patch alumnae in the White House encouraged agency personnel to engineer weakened safeguards that directly contributed to the gulf catastrophe. **The absence of an acoustical regulator *-- *a remotely triggered dead man's switch that might have closed off BP's gushing pipe at its sea floor wellhead when the manual switch failed (the fire and explosion on the drilling platform may have prevented the dying workers from pushing the button) *-- *was directly attributable to industry pandering by the Bush team. *Acoustic switches are required by law for all offshore rigs off Brazil and in Norway's North Sea operations. *BP uses the device voluntarily in Britain's North Sea and elsewhere in the world as do other big players like Holland's Shell and France's Total. In 2000, the Minerals Management Service while weighing a comprehensive rulemaking for drilling safety, deemed the acoustic mechanism "essential" and proposed to mandate the mechanism on all gulf rigs. **Then, between January and March of 2001,*incoming Vice President Dick Cheney conducted secret meetings with over 100 oil industry officials allowing them to draft a wish list of industry demands to be implemented by the oil friendly administration. *Cheney also used that time to re-staff the Minerals Management Service with oil industry toadies including a cabal of his Wyoming carbon cronies. In 2003, newly reconstituted Minerals Management Service genuflected to the oil cartel by recommending the removal of the proposed requirement for acoustic switches. The Minerals Management Service's 2003 study concluded that "acoustic systems are not recommended because they tend to be very costly." **The acoustic trigger costs about $500,000. Estimated costs of the oil spill to Gulf Coast residents are now upward of $14 billion to gulf state communities. Bush's 2005 energy bill officially dropped the requirement for the acoustic switch off devices explaining that the industry's existing practices are "failsafe."] Bush's energy policy at work in Gulf crisis today!


t r u t h o u t | Criminal Charges Likely From Gulf Oil Spill, Legal Experts Say [McClatchy Newspapers reporter Marisa Paylor on likely criminal charges stemming from Gulf oil crisis: **Federal investigators are likely to file criminal charges against at least one of the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico spill, raising the prospects of significantly higher penalties than a current $75 million cap on civil liability, legal experts say. **The inquiry by the Homeland Security and Interior Departments into how the spill occurred is still in its early stages and authorities have not confirmed whether a criminal investigation has been launched. **But*environmental law experts say it's just a matter of time until the Justice Department steps in *-- *if it hasn't already *-- to initiate a criminal inquiry and take punitive action. **"There is no question there'll be an enforcement action," said David M. Uhlmann, who headed the Justice Department's environmental crimes section for seven years during the Clinton and Bush administrations. *"And, it's very likely that there will be at least some criminal charges brought." **Such a likelihood has broad legal implications for BP and the two other companies involved — not the least of which is the amount of money any responsible party could be required to pay. *The White House is asking Congress to lift the current $75 million cap on liability under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, but*there's no cap on criminal penalties. In fact, prosecutors in such cases can seek twice the cost of environmental and economic damages resulting from the spill.] *Justice, Baby, Justice! *Punitive damages, *Baby, *Punitive damages!

David Letterman's Top Ten Surprises At The Senate Oil Spill Hearing :

10. We may be moving to Mars sooner than we thought*
9. Proceedings hosted by the delightful Betty White*
8. Executives stalled by doing "Glee"-style musical number*
7. BP promised to never destroy the environment again*
6. Half of the questions were about whether LeBron should come to the Knicks*
5. BP chairman kept doing hilarious "the oily bird catches the worm" joke*
4. Out of habit, CEO from Toyota showed up*
3. Amazing how sleazy those lying bastards are. And the oil executives were worse! Now stay tuned for Jaywalking!*
2. Everyone seems excited about Late Show's Close-Up Magic Week*
1. We'll get Iron Man to fix it



Oil spill investigators find critical problems in blowout preventer [Washington Post reporters Steven Mufson and David A. Fahrenthoid on all the errors coming to surface now: *A House energy panel investigation has found that the blowout preventer that failed to stop a huge oil spill*in the Gulf of Mexico had a dead battery in its control pod, leaks in its hydraulic system, *a "useless" test version of a key component and a cutting tool that wasn't strong enough to shear through steel joints in the well pipe and stop the flow of oil. **In a devastating review of the blowout preventer, which BP said was supposed to be "fail-safe," Rep. Bart Stupak*(D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on oversight, said Wednesday that documents and interviews show that the device was anything but.] **Let us count the ways!*


t r u t h o u t | Craig Collins | The Dementia of Petroleum Addiction? [TruthOut's guest commentary by Craig Collins, Ph.D.: **Petroleum executives assure us that their giant tankers and offshore oil rigs pose no danger to the environment; coal company CEOs insist that their mines are safe and that blasting off mountaintops is ecologically benign; *natural gas companies claim that "fracking" deep underground geological formations will not contaminate fresh water aquifers; *and nuclear power promoters tell us not to worry about core meltdowns or the disposal of millions of tons of highly radioactive waste. **Do we have S-T-U-P-I-D written on our foreheads? Or do we just choose to swallow these lies because, like addicts everywhere, we need these pushers to provide us with our daily energy fix? *These energy "suppliers" have a sordid history of crimes against nature, and their assurances of safety have proven tragically wrong time and time again. Clearly their drive for profit knows no ethical or legal bounds. So why do we continue buy their lies, and reward them with lavish subsidies and tax breaks, instead of kicking our habit and sending these petroleum pushers to prison? *Just last year BP *-- *who now insists BP stands for "Beyond Petroleum," *not British Petroleum *-- *told the government that an oil spill like the one wreaking havoc in the Gulf was highly unlikely, so they didn't need to install the remote controlled valves that could prevent an uncontrolled blowout. *Beyond Petroleum? *More like Beyond Belief. **According to the watchdog group Public Citizen, BP has the worst criminal rap sheet of any oil company - and that's no mean feat. In the last few years, BP has paid $485 million in fines and settlements to the US government for environmental crimes, willful neglect of worker safety, and manipulating energy markets. As BP's massive oil slick smothers the Gulf's fragile wetland ecosystems and lays waste to the fishing and tourist industries, their assurances of safety are no more credible than the sworn testimony of a career criminal.] *Felonies, *Baby, *Felonies!


Oil spill probe: BP had wrong diagram to close blowout preventer - Politics - SanLuisObispo.com [San Luis Obispo report by McClathcy reporters Maria Recio, *Dave Montgomery and Mark Washburn on diagram for blowout preventer NOT matching the actual equipment: ***In the days after an oil well spun out of control in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers tried to activate a huge piece of underwater safety equipment but failed because the device had been so altered that diagrams BP got from the equipment's owner didn't match the supposedly failsafe device's configuration, congressional investigators said Wednesday. **The*oil well also failed at least one critical pressure test on the day that gas surged up the drill pipe and set the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig aflame, killing 11 and setting off a spill that has spewed 210,000 gallons of crude into the gulf every day for three weeks, according to BP documents provided to congressional investigators. *"The more I learn about this accident, the more concerned I become. This catastrophe appears to have been caused by a calamitous series of equipment and operational failures" Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said at a hearing on Wednesday - the third congressional hearing in two days on the unfolding catastrophe.] **An Ikea moment, Baby, an Ikea moment!


Missing data causing rig reconstruction mystery - Yahoo! News [Yahoo News reporters Jeff Donn, *. Josef Hebert and Mitch Weiss: **BP officials said Thursday they would thread a small tube into a jagged*pipe on the seafloor to suck oil to the surface before it can spew into the Gulf and add to a disaster apparently set in motion by a long list of equipment failures. **Engineers will have to make sure the 6-inch-wide tube is inserted deep enough into the 21-inch-wide pipe so gas and seawater don't mix, which can form crystals that could clog the tube. They'll also have to thread the tube into the pipe without hitting debris around the riser. **The smaller tube will be surrounded by a stopper to keep oil from leaking into the sea. The tube will then siphon the crude to a tanker at the surface, though BP declined to estimate how much oil the tube will be able to collect. **Company spokesman Bill Salvin said engineers hope to start moving the tube into place Thursday night, but it will take 12 hours to get the tube fully hooked up.*Another option is a small containment box called a "top hat," which is already on the seafloor*and also would siphon oil to a tanker on the surface. **Officials are waiting to use the box until they know if the tube works, and how well it's working, Salvin said. Engineers still might consider*trying to fill the leak with golf balls and other debris — the "junk shot," though that won't be until at least next week.*And a relief well is being drilled, but that is at least two months away.] **Shots in the dark?!


Beyond Life: BP's Dead Zone [Pacific Free Press's blogger Harvey Wasserman on the real meaning of the Gulf oil crisis: **As you read this, the life of our bodies, nation and planet is being blown out a corporate hole in the Gulf of Mexico and into a BP Dead Zone of no return. The apocalyptic gusher of oily poison pouring into the waters that give us life can only beviewed---FELT---by each and every one of us as an on-going death by a thousand cuts with no end in sight. *Yet our government---allegedly the embodiment of our collective will to survive---has done NOTHING of significance to fight this mass murder. Not one meaningful thing. As it did while New Orleans drowned downstream from a willfully neglected levee system, our most potentially effective counter-force dithers on the other side of the world, in the wrong Gulf. **We squander our treasure on the largest conglomeration of people and weapons the world has ever seen. It's bloated with hardware designed specifically to destroy and kill. Hundreds of thousands of Americans sit on our dime in more than a hundred countries, rotting in the outposts of a bygone empire. **Why aren't they in the Gulf of Mexico, fighting for our truest "national security"? **The depth and scope of this catastrophe is impossible to grasp because it is just beginning. The entire Gulf, the west coast of Florida, the Everglades, the east coast of Florida and all the way up, wherever the currents go....they are all at risk. *This is the most lethal single attack on the life of this nation since December 7, 1941. *It is a time that will live only in infamy.] *Infamy, *Baby, Infamy! *




Florida congressman: Oil spill might last four months | McClatchy [McClatchy Newspaper reporter Sara Kennedy with The Bradenton Herald: **A Republican congressman from Florida said Tuesday that a U.S. Coast Guard official had told him that the runaway Deepwater Horizon well could pump crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a minimum of four months. **"We've got to cap it today," U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan said at a news conference he held on one of the nation's most celebrated beaches in the nation. **"It'll be probably one of the largest, the biggest ecological disaster in our nation’s history," he added.] **Four months more!


Gulf oil spill inquiry focuses on role of costly drilling mud | McClatchy [McClatchy Newspaper reporters Erika Bolstad, *Mark Washburn and Les Blumenthal on role of heavy drilling lubricants in possible blowout in Gulf: **Investigators on Tuesday homed in on whether an uncommon sequence of events involving a decision to remove heavy drilling lubricants early from a pipeline may have triggered the sudden upwelling of gas that led to the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. **The topic came up as both Congress and a federal panel in Louisiana opened inquiries into the April 20 explosion, which killed 11 and mangled a deepwater well that continues to spew 210,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily.] **Gumshoe, *Baby, Gumshoe!



Does Administration’s Proposed Break-up of Offshore Oil Regulator Go Far Enough? - ProPublica [ProPublica.com's Marian Wang's story on splitting MMS into two agencies and if this goes far enough to eliminate oversight and royalty issues: **As a former Minerals Management Service official defended the agency before Congress, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a series of reforms today—most notably, a proposal to break up MMS,*the agency that oversees offshore drilling. *The announcement was the first sign of major restructuring at the agency after BP’s disastrous oil spill, which continues to spread in the Gulf of Mexico. The MMS, an agency within the Interior Department, will be split in two, separating its safety inspection and enforcement responsibilities from its responsibility to oversee leasing, approve permits and collect royalties from oil and gas companies. **As we’ve pointed out in several blog posts, the MMS hasn't had the best track record*in either of these departments.
In 2008, MMS’s royalty department was embroiled in a scandal involving sex, drugs and other inappropriate ties with the industry it regulates. *The regulatory side of the agency expressed concerns about safety equipment on several occasions, but never issues stronger regulations, instead allowing the industry to self-police while collecting insignificant penalties*from companies with violations. *Even after the Deepwater Horizon incident in the Gulf, the part of MMS that oversees leasing exempted 27 offshore oil drilling plans in the Gulf*from having to undergo detailed environmental analysis, including another plan by BP. **Splitting the agency has the potential to help, but it doesn’t go far enough to address the agency’s main conflict of interest, said Mandy Smithberger, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group.] *Schizoid, *Baby, *Schizoid!

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