Top White House officials manipulated the scientific findings of independent experts to “seriously lowball the amount of oil leaking from the BP Deepwater Horizon,” according to a group of federal, state, and municipal employees.
She married into a family of scheming oil barons on the television series Dallas, but in real life Victoria Principal is calling for tougher oil drilling regulations while supporting organizations working to prevent another environmental catastrophe like BP’s Gulf oil spill from occurring again. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Oceana, two groups that oppose an expansion of offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic, recently announced that Ms. Principal made “extremely generous six-figure donations” to their organizations.
A new federal government report released this week blames BP for most of the errors and oversights that caused the fatal Macondo well blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Compiled by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), the report echoes the findings of earlier probes, including those of a commission formed by President Obama to determine the cause of the spill, but it also slams BP for violating several federal safety regulations in an effort to save time and money.
Keep them waiting, make them desperate, then have them sign releases for inadequate payment in lieu of full compensation and a right to seek future compensation: this is one of the “coercive tactics” BP is using against victims of its massive Gulf oil spill, according to lawyers suing the oil company.
BP and other giant oil corporations have invested billions of dollars to develop means of drilling deeper and farther out to sea, yet they have invested relatively no money in developing effective deep-sea oil cleanup and response methods. Every year, the oil companies continue to push the envelope on offshore drilling in deep, remote regions of the ocean. Yet a devastating problem without a good solution will be created should anything go wrong with these risky operations, as BP’s volcano of oil in the Gulf of Mexico so clearly demonstrates.
With all eyes fixated on the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, BP is stealthily moving toward what could easily be this country’s (and the world’s) next environmental catastrophe: Deep-sea drilling in remote reaches of the Arctic. But will the Minerals Management Service (MMS) stop it? According to a report that appeared in Rolling Stones magazine, no.
Federal regulations require oil companies to prepare and submit detailed spill-response plans before they can begin drilling offshore in American waters — and rightfully so. That body of water we call the Gulf of Mexico is a rich and diverse natural resource that directly sustains a way of life for millions of residents, whether they’re employed by the multi-billion-dollar seafood and tourism industries or any business in between. Simply put, a threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s ecosystems is a threat to our economy and national security.
Tensions continue to mount between BP and the federal government, first over the oil giant’s failure to stop its oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico (the next attempt to contain the spill has been delayed until Wednesday) and now its insistence on using chemical oil dispersants in quantities that trouble regulators.
Much press has been given to the dire threat BP’s oil slick poses to the coastal ecosystems, marine environment, and the economies that depend on the health of both. But now another tragic extension of the oil disaster is becoming apparent – a feeling of hopelessness and abandonment that threatens ways of life and cultural traditions that give the Gulf Coast its own unique, irreplaceable personality.
The Environmental Protection Agency gave BP on Wednesday 24 hours to find an oil dispersant less toxic than the ones it has been spraying in massive quantities above the Gulf of Mexico and under the surface. The EPA requested that BP provide it with a list of available dispersants and begin using the new dispersants within 72 hours.
