In a recent interview with National Journal, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.) not only defended offshore oil drilling, but also sought to downplay the current Gulf coast crisis, saying "accidents happen."
You know, just... Fuck you
I'm sorry but that's about all I can say there. I could repeat it a kabillion times if you like but we still wouldn't have an adequate flow rate to match what BP and its enablers have unleashed.
Here are some links.
Maitri: SE Louisiana is "officially screwed"
Chemical dispersants being used in Gulf clean-up are potentially toxic
OSHA requires companies to make Material Safety Data Sheets, or MSDSs, available for any hazardous substances used in a workplace, and the ones for these dispersants both contain versions of a disturbing statement. 9500's states that "Component substances have a potential to bioconcentrate," while the one for 9527A has the slightly more comforting, "Component substances have a low potential to bioconcentrate."
This is not what you want to hear about toxins being dumped in the sea by the hundreds of thousands of gallons. The EPA defines bioconcentration as the "accumulation of a chemical in tissues of a fish or other organism to levels greater than in the surrounding medium." In other words, substances that bioconcentrate tend to move from water into fish, where they can do damage to the fish itself, as well as be passed on to predator fish -- and on up the food chain, to human eaters.
And just how toxic is this stuff? The data sheets for both products contain this shocker: "No toxicity studies have been conducted on this product" -- meaning testing their safety for humans.
This is jaw-dropping. According to Ronald Tjeerdema, chair of the Department of Environmental Toxicology at UC Davis' College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, who has been studying dispersants since the '90s, "The industry typically only stockpiles one or two of these things," and while Corexit 9527 has been the dispersant of choice for a long time, in recent years, Corexit 9500 has gained prominence. Yet Nalco has done no toxicity studies on these industry-dominating products now in heavy use in the Gulf?
They do appear to have toxic properties. Both data sheets include the warning "human health hazards: acute." The MSDS for Corexit 9527A states that "excessive exposure may cause central nervous system effects, nausea, vomiting, anesthetic or narcotic effects," and "repeated or excessive exposure to butoxyethanol [an active ingredient] may cause injury to red blood cells (hemolysis), kidney or the liver."
It adds: "Prolonged and/or repeated exposure through inhalation or extensive skin contact with EGBE [butoxyethanol] may result in damage to the blood and kidneys."
Opinion: An oil-stained cloak (from City Business)
BP’s reach evidently extends beyond the fishermen when it comes to keeping a lid on cleanup operations. CityBusiness reached a number of local businesses known to be involved with BP’s containment operation, and they refused to discuss their work.
No one begrudges legitimate businesses making a profit from this unfortunate situation. To the contrary, most are thankful the expertise and capacity to address such a catastrophe exists in our own backyard, just minutes away from the problem.
What is worthy of resent is keeping people in the dark, especially those who stand in harm’s way. A lack of information generally leads to misinformation, and ignorance can only exacerbate a problem that already stands to reach grotesque proportions.
That greed evidently outweighs concern for the well-being of those affected by the disaster is not only shameful, it borders on criminal.
Broken record time. BP exists to make money. That's what guides its priorities and incentives. Ideally your democratically elected representatives exist to recalibrate things so that your safety and livelihood takes precedence over BP's priorities but then, you know...
(via oyster) Since spill, feds have given 27 waivers to oil companies in gulf
WASHINGTON — Since the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling rig exploded on April 20, the Obama administration has granted oil and gas companies at least 27 exemptions from doing in-depth environmental studies of oil exploration and production in the Gulf of Mexico.Now that... that's probably closer to being "criminal" than City Biz's complaint against BP.
BP struggles with list of ways to plug Gulf of Mexico oil spill
"Top kills" golf balls, giant boxes, slightly smaller giant boxes. Get the feeling they're just giving you something to look at while they spend three months doing the only thing that will actually work? Yeah me too.
BP is managing a PR crisis. Not an environmental crisis. Remember, your elected representatives never required them to plan for that. Because no such plan was required, we've instead been treated to a series of colorful food metaphors to describe the "iced tea", "chocolate milk", "mousse", "toasted marshmallows" happily floating atop the Gulf. We've been told again and again how "unprecedented" and "unpredictable" this situation is/was when that clearly is not the case. We've been prepped with a number of alternate explanations for the sudden appearance of dead or distressed wildlife on the beaches. It has even been suggested that BP's efforts to combat the flow might someday make a great movie.
“It’s just an amazing effort, truly an Apollo 13 effort 5,000 feet below the surface of the ocean trying to stop this spill.”
The worst thing about this is somewhere out there marketing pros are talking excitedly about the challenge of reviving the BP brand or about the pitfalls of "green branding"
Particularly galling, says Merriam, who runs Merriam Associates, is its slow response time. "They put all this emphasis on 'human energy,' and where are the humans now? It took them seven days to get out a Twitter response, and it's so corporate and robotic. If you're going to brag about how honest and open and responsive you are, you have to do that -- would it have killed them to run a Twitter post that said something like, "Our hearts go out to the friends and families of those lost in the accident," or "We are working around the clock to contain the damage"?
Yes, of all the horror, angst and despair brought about by tons of sludge spurting into the ocean I thought that BP's lack of facility with the Tweeter Tubes was "particularly galling".
But OK that's fine. Since there's not much any of us can do to keep the oil off our coastline and out of our seafood by this point we might as well get to work writing BP's new ads for them. So far all I've got is the slogan at the top of this post which is a line from the jingle. It goes like this.
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