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IN TODAY’S RADIO REPORT: Oil ashore that’s going ashore! Latest developments in the BP oil disaster in the Gulf: Heavy oil hits Louisiana marshlands; EPA halts use of toxic dispersants; The oil enters powerful Gulf Loop Current…. PLUS: Testy, testy, testy: CEOs and feds testify under fire on Capitol Hill … All that and more in today’s Green News Report!
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Green News Report
with Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen
5/20/2010
‘Green News Report’ – May 20, 2010 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen... · · · · · ‘Green News Report’ – May 20, 2010 | With Brad Friedman & Desi Doyen...
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IN ‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: Big Oil Trade Group Seeks To Punish Tulane For Environmental Law Clinic; Arctic drilling proposal advanced amid concern; A new source of dioxins: Anti-bacterial soap; U.S. scientists urge a price on climate emissions; Wash. Times falsely suggests past warm periods disprove human-caused global warming; Desalinization: dream water supply or drain on taxpayers?; Clean Air Act Settlement Will Close Ohio Power Plant; U.S. Reliance on Oil Sands Grows Despite Environmental Risks…PLUS: And now for something completely different: Concept Car inhales C02, emits oxygen …
Info/links on those stories and all the ones we talked about on today’s episode follow below…
- LATEST on the BP Oil Spill Disaster:
- WATCH THE BP OIL SPILL ONLINE NOW LIVE ON CAMERA (Mobile Press-Register)
- BP, under fire, says its oil leak control advances (Reuters)
- Jindal: ‘The Day We’ve Been Fearing Is Upon Us’: Oil arrives on La. shore, edges into key current (AP)
- First signs of thick oil found in Plaquemines marshlands (Times-Picayune)
- White House asks BP to share more information on Gulf oil spill (Times-Picayune)
- Oil Is Fouling Wetlands, Official Says (NY Times)
- Small part of oil slick reaches powerful current (AP)
- Loop Current Destabilizes, Lowering Gulf Oil Spill’s Threat to Fla. — for Now (Greenwire)
- The Oil and the Loop Current (NYT Green)
- BP concedes more oil than estimated flowing into the Gulf (AP)
- U.S. to check BP spill size, heavy oil comes ashore: The U.S. government will independently verify how much oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from a ruptured undersea well owned by BP, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said on Thursday. (Reuters)
- BP won’t try ‘top kill’ stop-leak measure for Gulf oil leak until at least Sunday, official says (Mobile Press-Register)
- If You Build It … Kevin Costner’s Oil Spill Cleanup Invention Approved for Testing by BP (NYT Green)
- BP OK’s test of Costner’s oil-cleaning device (WWL-TV)
- Where Will the Deepwater Horizon Oil End Up?: The short answer is everywhere–the sea surface, deep waters, the Gulf Coast, in deepwater corals and even as far as the Arctic. (Scientific American)
- Seafood testing from Gulf oil disaster could last years (USA Today)
- WTF?: Coast Guard Threatens CBS with Arrest, “These are BP’s Rules”: (Mother Jones)
- More Revelations on What Happened & When:
- Costly, time-consuming test of cement linings in Deepwater Horizon rig was omitted, spokesman says (Times-Picayune)
- Schlumberger says its crew left Horizon day of fire: Schlumberger Ltd, the world’s largest oilfield services company, said it’s crew on the Deepwater Horizon were sent home without doing testing work, only hours before the explosion and fire that engulfed the rig. (Reuters)
- Heavy oil ‘blanket’ hits Louisiana wetlands (Reuters)
- BP won’t try ‘top kill’ stop-leak measure for Gulf oil leak until at least Sunday, official says (Mobile Press-Register)
- Orange Beach, AL residents report petroleum-like scent (Mobile Press-Register)
- EPA Orders BP to Use Less Toxic Dispersants:
- EPA demands a less toxic dispersant in Gulf oil spill response (Mobile Press-Register)
- In Gulf Spill, BP Using Dispersants Banned in U.K.
- EPA Gives BP 24 Hours to Stop Dumping Toxic Chemical on Gulf Spill (Treehugger)
- EPA demands less-toxic dispersant (Washington Post/Post Carbon)
- Why Is the EPA Letting BP Use Dirty Dispersants? (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)
- Testy, Testy, Testy: Oil CEOs, Federal Regulators Under Fire for Massive Failures:
- Why Is BP Still In Charge of the Spill Site?: One thing is clear: “All outsider estimates are considerably higher than BP’s,” he said, adding later that the size of the spill is “fully an order of magnitude higher than what BP projects, without question.” (Kate Sheppard, Mother Jones)
- Interior Unveils Plan to Split MMS Into 3 Agencies: In response to the Gulf of Mexico disaster, the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling will be split into three divisions to separate its energy development, enforcement and revenue collecting functions. (Greenwire)
- BP told feds it could handle oil spill 60 times larger than Deepwater Horizon (Times-Picayune)
- There Will Be Blood: Sen. Bill Nelson wants the government office infamous for its “sex orgies and pot parties” probed for its lax oversight of offshore drilling. (Mother Jones)
- NOAA Discussed “Submerged Oil” From Spills Back in 2000 (Firedoglake)
- BP Continues Stealth Public Relations During Its Crisis (Newsweek)
- Rep. John Mica (R-FL) casts blame on Obama administration for spill (The Hill)
- More on BP and AMerica’s Dangerous Addiction to Oil:
- U.S. lawmakers to urge BP to idle its Atlantis rig (Reuters)
- Renegade Refiner: OSHA Says BP Has “Systemic Safety Problem”: 97% of Worst Industry Violations Found at BP Refineries (Center for Public Integrity)
- Peak oil production coming much sooner than expected (Grist)
- Research Shows Federal Oil Leasing and Royalty Income a Raw Deal for Taxpayers: Oil industry controls huge swaths of public land at world’s cheapest prices (Solve Climate)
- Africa’s oil spills are far from U.S. media glare (Reuters)
- OP-ED: Obama and the Oil Spill (NY Times):
No, the gulf oil spill is not Obama’s Katrina. It’s his 9/11 “” and it is disappointing to see him making the same mistake George W. Bush made with his 9/11. Sept. 11, 2001, was one of those rare seismic events that create the possibility to energize the country to do something really important and lasting that is too hard to do in normal times.
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I suggested a $1-a-gallon “Patriot Tax” on gasoline that could have simultaneously reduced our deficit, funded basic science research, diminished our dependence on oil imported from the very countries whose citizens carried out 9/11, strengthened the dollar, stimulated energy efficiency and renewable power and slowed climate change. It was the Texas oilman’s Nixon-to-China moment “” and Bush blew it.Had we done that on the morning of 9/12 “” when gasoline averaged $1.66 a gallon “” the majority of Americans would have signed on. They wanted to do something to strengthen the country they love. Instead, Bush told a few of us to go to war and the rest of us to go shopping. So today, gasoline costs twice as much at the pump, with most of that increase going to countries hostile to our values…
‘GREEN NEWS EXTRA’: More green news not covered in today’s audio report…
- Big Oil Trade Group Seeks To Punish Tulane For Environmental Law Clinic (Huffington Post Green):
In the latest chapter of a long-running battle in Louisiana, a trade group which represents oil and chemical companies has teamed up with some state lawmakers to punish Tulane University for the actions of the school’s environmental law clinic.
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Some leading legislators also oppose the bill — Senator Nick Gautreaux even suggested to the Times-Picayune: “”Maybe the attorney general should hire Tulane law students to sue BP. If they can scare the chemical association this bad, then they can scare BP, TransOcean and Halliburton.” - Wash. Times falsely suggests past warm periods disprove human-caused global warming (Media Matters)
- The Next Environmental Disaster: Reliance on Oil Sands Grows Despite Environmental Risks (NY Times)
- A new source of dioxins: Clean hands: Anti-bacterial soaps create contaminants, risks unknown (Science News)
- U.S. reports urge a price on climate emissions (Climate Ark)
- Arctic Drilling Proposal Advanced Amid Concern: The approvals also came after many of the agency’s most experienced scientists had left, frustrated that their concerns over environmental threats from drilling had been ignored. (NY Times)
- CA Desalinization Plant: Dream Water Supply or Drain on the Pacific and Taxpayers? (Environmental News Service)
- Clean Air Act Settlement Will Close Ohio Power Plant (Greenwire)
- SAIC YeZ Concept Car inhales C02, emits oxygen (Gizmag)
This is a watershed moment that is being lost for lack of leadership.
And we are supposed to be comforted that the tar balls washing up on Florida and in North Carolina at Oak Island are not from this spill, they’re from another?!?!?