Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Evil Wildlife Agents
From the blog birdallyx, evidence that the U.S. government practically stymied the efforts of yet another aspect of the BP oil disaster This time, it's related to rescue of oiled wildlife
Rescue workers, speaking anonymously due to fears that public complaints would cause further problems, claimed that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been preventing them from using proven techniques to capture oiled birds, restricting the hours spent in the field, and performing most search and collection in non-oiled areas.
One member of the response team maintained that USFWS threatened to fire International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) for "stepping out of line", which includedquestioning protocols, strategies, daily plans, taking photos, [and] talking to press.
"I feel like calling Obama," said another staff member who felt at a loss for a remedy.
With a great frustration setting in, this long-running, slow-motion disaster seemed to be taking a toll on the responders. "We've had to sit back and observe oiled birds not being captured for a month".
Here's a link to the entire post.
I certainly hope that everyone responsible for strong arming the press and rescue volunteers, everyone responsible for hiding the truth from the public will be known for the scumbuckets they really are
Rescue workers, speaking anonymously due to fears that public complaints would cause further problems, claimed that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has been preventing them from using proven techniques to capture oiled birds, restricting the hours spent in the field, and performing most search and collection in non-oiled areas.
One member of the response team maintained that USFWS threatened to fire International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC) for "stepping out of line", which includedquestioning protocols, strategies, daily plans, taking photos, [and] talking to press.
"I feel like calling Obama," said another staff member who felt at a loss for a remedy.
With a great frustration setting in, this long-running, slow-motion disaster seemed to be taking a toll on the responders. "We've had to sit back and observe oiled birds not being captured for a month".
Here's a link to the entire post.
I certainly hope that everyone responsible for strong arming the press and rescue volunteers, everyone responsible for hiding the truth from the public will be known for the scumbuckets they really are
The Judge has ruled
The Federal Judge Martin Feldman has ruled AGAINST the White House on the drilling moratorium in the Gulf. Judge Feldman said the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reason for the moratorium. Additionally, he said because one rig failed does not mean all rigs pose imminent danger.
White House spokeman Robert Gibbs says the government will immediately appeal the ruling to the 5th
U.S. Court of Appeals.
Many thanks for the Support
Last night on CNN, Larry King Live ran a telethon to benefit the Gulf Coast due to the enormous impact on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Thanks to all who pledged, they raised $1.3 Million Dollars! Many thanks to those who donated.
From The Huntsville Examiner dot com:
The Larry King Live Gulf Telethon raised 1.3 million dollars in 2 hours. And it did something every more important - it got MILLIONS of Americans talking about this environmental issue in the Gulf states. Whether donating money, thinking it was ridiculous or just talking to a neighbor about the telethon- the idea that we, as a nation, started mobilizing began at the telethon last night.
From The Huntsville Examiner dot com:
The Larry King Live Gulf Telethon raised 1.3 million dollars in 2 hours. And it did something every more important - it got MILLIONS of Americans talking about this environmental issue in the Gulf states. Whether donating money, thinking it was ridiculous or just talking to a neighbor about the telethon- the idea that we, as a nation, started mobilizing began at the telethon last night.
Cleanup Crews need schooling
Crews cleaning up the oil (from Houston) in one Louisiana parish have trampled the nests and eggs of birds including the brown pelican, which came off the endangered species list last year, the head of the parish said Wednesday.
Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said the parish doesn’t want to turn away contractors, but he called for more care when crews work in the sensitive wetlands.
He said officials recently found broken eggs and crushed chicks on Queen Bess Island, near Grand Isle.
Here’s a link for Queen Bess Island: http://www.cajunimages.com/Pages/Places%20to%20Visit.htm
Plastic bags containing snare boom were “recklessly placed” around the island without consideration for wildlife.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/US/06/16/louisiana.trampled.nests/story.trampled.nests.jpg
Nungesser met with the Humane Society of the United States and asked it to work with contractors who are cleaning the birds to come up with a better way to enlist the help of volunteers, the parish said.
“We want to improve our comfort level of knowing someone is out there looking for these birds and other animals — doing all they can to save them,” Nungesser said on the parish website.
“The people BP sent out to clean up oil trampled the nesting grounds of brown pelicans and other birds,” he said. “Pelicans just came off the endangered species list in November of last year. They already have the oil affecting their population during their reproduction time, now we have the so-called clean up crews stomping eggs.
“The lack of urgency and general disregard for Louisiana’s wetlands and wildlife is enough to make you sick,” he said.
Neighbors helping Neighbors
Serving Fishermen and Families
Organized by Pigeon, Executive Chef Matt Murphy of the Ritz-Carlton, and Wendy Warren of the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA), the event featured Louisiana staples like fried catfish, duck and andouille gumbo, alligator sausage, jambalaya and bread pudding. "I can't plug an oil leak, but I can cook," said Chef Murphy. "I can come and show them that there are other communities out there that care for them."I think this is awesome," said Grand Isle resident Wilson Bourgeois. "These people are awesome. It's nice to know we're thought about like that. It's a lot of people donating a lot of time and effort Bourgeois – a deck hand on a shrimping boat that can't leave the dock – said that seeing his neighbors was a mixed blessing of sorts. "This is the time of year when you don't see many of us unless you're at a shrimp dock. It's a way of life down here that's being effected… Right now we supposed to be fishing so we're all sort of lost. "But on this day, the sense of loss was lightened by a sense of community, shared respect and love among the people of southern Louisiana. The music played, the food was passed around the picnic table, friends and family greeted one another with hugs and handshakes, and if you looked past the military police, assigned to the oil cleanup, feasting on gumbo while leaning against the Community Coffee truck, it looked like any of the fishing rodeos that have made Grand Isle famous
Posted: 21 Jun 2010 01:01 PM PDT
It turned out to be much more than just a Father's Day gift from a dozen chefs at New Orleans restaurants. They traveled to Grand Isle's Bridge Side Marina to not only feed local fishermen and their families … lives devastated by the BP oil spill … but also as an act of appreciation for years of hard work "Today is a day of rest for you," Kara Pigeon of Signature Destination Management Company told the crowd. "You are not alone. We are here for you."
Chefs prepare food for residents of Grand Island, La.
Organized by Pigeon, Executive Chef Matt Murphy of the Ritz-Carlton, and Wendy Warren of the Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA), the event featured Louisiana staples like fried catfish, duck and andouille gumbo, alligator sausage, jambalaya and bread pudding. "I can't plug an oil leak, but I can cook," said Chef Murphy. "I can come and show them that there are other communities out there that care for them."I think this is awesome," said Grand Isle resident Wilson Bourgeois. "These people are awesome. It's nice to know we're thought about like that. It's a lot of people donating a lot of time and effort Bourgeois – a deck hand on a shrimping boat that can't leave the dock – said that seeing his neighbors was a mixed blessing of sorts. "This is the time of year when you don't see many of us unless you're at a shrimp dock. It's a way of life down here that's being effected… Right now we supposed to be fishing so we're all sort of lost. "But on this day, the sense of loss was lightened by a sense of community, shared respect and love among the people of southern Louisiana. The music played, the food was passed around the picnic table, friends and family greeted one another with hugs and handshakes, and if you looked past the military police, assigned to the oil cleanup, feasting on gumbo while leaning against the Community Coffee truck, it looked like any of the fishing rodeos that have made Grand Isle famous
Monday, June 21, 2010
Love Billy Nungesser
From Facebook page My Home, A Way of Life
'The people BP sent out to clean up oil trampled the nesting grounds of brown pelicans and other birds.' 'We ought to take him offshore and dunk him 10 feet underwater and pull him up and ask him 'What's that all over your face?' 2>Billy Nungesser, on BP CEO Tony Hayward"
'The people BP sent out to clean up oil trampled the nesting grounds of brown pelicans and other birds.' 'We ought to take him offshore and dunk him 10 feet underwater and pull him up and ask him 'What's that all over your face?' 2>Billy Nungesser, on BP CEO Tony Hayward"
Faulty BOP id'd before rig blast
BP rig worker 'told bosses of problem with blowout device'
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Publication date: 2010-06-21
FURTHER pressure was heaped on BP today, when a worker on the Deepwater Horizon rig claimed that he discovered a problem with safety equipment weeks before the explosion.
Tyrone Benton told the BBC's Panorama programme that he identified a fault on a device known as the blowout preventer.
He claimed it was shut down instead of being fixed and a second device was relied on instead.
BP said rig owner Transocean was responsible for operating and maintaining that piece of equipment.
Transocean said it tested the device successfully before the blast. On April 20, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded killing 11 people, the blowout preventer, (BOP), as it is known, failed.
The most critical piece of safety equipment on the rig, the blowout preventers are designed to avert disasters just like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The BOP has giant shears which are designed to cut and seal off the well's main pipe. The control pods are effectively the brains of the blowout preventer and contain both electronics and hydraulics. This is where Mr Benton said the problem was found.
"We saw a leak on the pod, so by seeing the leak we informed the company men," Mr Benton said of the earlier problem he had identified. "They have a control room where they could turn off that pod and turn on the other one, so that they don't have to stop production." Meanwhile, full-page advertisements were still running in America's newspapers touting the steps BP is taking to counter the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and help those affected, but no amount of money spent on public relations has been able to change the only page that really matters for the energy giant: the front one.
And yesterday, just when you thought BP had exhausted every PR gaffe possibility, America's headline writers had another field day at the expense of the hapless chief executive Tony Hayward, after it emerged that he had spent part of the weekend watching his yacht racing in Cowes. "Capt Clueless", blasted the New York Post.
The "BP Bozo", another Post coinage, was there for Saturday's JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race after directors sent him back to London and away from running the spill operations.
Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, attacked Mr Hayward. "That's the height of arrogance," he said. "I can tell you that yacht ought to be here skimming and cleaning up a lot of the oil. He ought to be down here seeing what is really going on, not in a cocoon somewhere."
Barataria Bay's Destruction by BP.
From nola dot com:
Barataria teems with wildlife, including alligators, bullfrogs, bald eagles and migratory birds from the Caribbean and South America. There are even Louisiana black bears in the upper basin's hardwood forests.
Before the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, oyster and shrimp boats plowed through these productive bays as fishers snapped up speckled trout and redfish within minutes of casting their lines.
Now it resembles an environmental war zone. Many of the bay's nesting islands for birds are girded by oil containment boom, and crews in white disposable protective suits change out coils of absorbents to soak up the sticky mess.
"The whole place is full of oil," said fishing guide Dave Marino. "This is some of the best fishing in the whole region, and the oil's coming in just wave after wave. It's hard to stomach, it really is."
Local leaders say the environmental damage could have been prevented if decisive action had been taken as soon as the well blew out. Within a week of the rig explosion, parish officials wanted to block the passes, but those plans were stymied by government hesitation and concerns by ecologists.
The oil finally breached into the bay around May 20, a month after the explosion.
Now, the oil is inside -- in the marshes and wetlands -- and people are angry.
Barataria teems with wildlife, including alligators, bullfrogs, bald eagles and migratory birds from the Caribbean and South America. There are even Louisiana black bears in the upper basin's hardwood forests.
Before the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, oyster and shrimp boats plowed through these productive bays as fishers snapped up speckled trout and redfish within minutes of casting their lines.
Now it resembles an environmental war zone. Many of the bay's nesting islands for birds are girded by oil containment boom, and crews in white disposable protective suits change out coils of absorbents to soak up the sticky mess.
"The whole place is full of oil," said fishing guide Dave Marino. "This is some of the best fishing in the whole region, and the oil's coming in just wave after wave. It's hard to stomach, it really is."
Local leaders say the environmental damage could have been prevented if decisive action had been taken as soon as the well blew out. Within a week of the rig explosion, parish officials wanted to block the passes, but those plans were stymied by government hesitation and concerns by ecologists.
The oil finally breached into the bay around May 20, a month after the explosion.
Now, the oil is inside -- in the marshes and wetlands -- and people are angry.
Behind the Scenes w/Obama and BP
From the Wall Street Journal.
Despite being put under pressure by the U.S. government to pay for the oil-spill aftermath, BP has succeeded in pushing back on two White House proposals it considered unreasonable even as it made large concessions, according to officials familiar with the matter.
BP said costs related to its oil-spill response had reached $2 billion as it continues work to contain the leak and to pay claims for damages.
BP last week agreed to hand over $20 billion—to cover spill victims such as fishermen and hotel workers who lost wages, and to pay for the cleanup costs—a move some politicians dubbed a "shake down" by the White House. Others have portrayed it as a capitulation by an oil giant responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history. A truer picture falls somewhere between.
The fund is a big financial hit to BP. But behind the scenes, according to people on both sides of the negotiations, the company achieved victories that appear to have softened the blow.
BP successfully argued it shouldn't be liable for most of the broader economic distress caused by the president's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. And it fended off demands to pay for restoration of the Gulf coast beyond its prespill conditions.
After the high-profile meeting of administration and BP officials on Wednesday, it was in the interest of neither to discuss such details. BP wanted to look contrite and to make a grand gesture, and the White House wanted to look tough.
President Barack Obama came away touting how BP's money would be handed over quickly and impartially to those hurt by the spill. Not only did BP earmark the $20 billion fund but it promised an additional $100 million for Gulf workers idled by the drilling moratorium.
The drilling industry estimates the moratorium will cost rig workers as much as $330 million a month in direct wages, not counting businesses servicing those rigs like machine-shop workers.
BP and its defenders argue that the moratorium was a White House policy decision for which it shouldn't be responsible. The final deal was structured to limit the company's exposure to such claims.
BP negotiators also said the company won't pay for Mr. Obama's pledge to restore the Gulf of Mexico to a condition better than before the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.
White House officials want to use the oil-spill disaster to implement long-developed plans to restore natural marshlands and waterways. Facing record budget deficits, that pledge could founder with BP balking.
Administration officials say the concessions extracted from BP are unprecedented. Negotiators were able to graft a deal onto the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the main law dictating corporate responsibility in such a disaster, without having to ask Congress to change the law.
"A blank check was never in the cards," said an administration official at the talks. But, he added, the deal hammered out "went a very long way."
The Wednesday meeting at the White House was designed to go smoothly, the latest in a string of administration showdowns with corporate titans from General Motors to Wall Street banks. By the time BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and Chief Executive Tony Hayward walked up the White House driveway just past 10 a.m., the company had agreed in principle to the fund. "The president knew when he walked in that we were amenable to the kind of proposal we had already agree on in principle," a BP negotiator said.
Five days of preliminary talks between BP's hired lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, and White House counsel Robert Bauer had coalesced around the $20 billion figure.
But the talks—with about a half-dozen people on either side—stretched longer than expected. "A lot of the work was done before, but there were a lot of details," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in an interview. "Details matter."
Twice, the two sides retreated from talks in the West Wing's Roosevelt Room to consult privately: On BP's ability to appeal decisions made by the $20 billion fund's independent administrator, Kenneth Feinberg; and on how far BP would go to meet Mr. Obama's request that it also aid workers hurt by the drilling moratorium.
Both sides described the negotiations as businesslike. BP hired Ms. Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, from the white-shoe law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, in part because of her ties to Democratic lawyers including Mr. Bauer.
But there was one item barely discussed ahead of the meeting: assistance for workers hurt by the moratorium, which has forced 33 deepwater rigs to pull anchor. To drive home the request, the president had Mr. Bauer relay the request to Ms. Gorelick the day before, negotiators for both sides said.
At the meeting's start, Mr. Obama told the group of his concerns about those workers, most of whom did not work for BP.
When the president and vice president left the room, Ms. Gorelick told White House negotiators their legal position mandating BP's assistance to displaced workers was weak. White House officials conceded such workers may not be able to qualify for direct assistance under the $20 billion fund, a White House official in the room said.
A BP negotiator said the White House position was "half-hearted" and its negotiators quickly gave up. "You won't find many lawyers who will say when the government imposes a moratorium, it's the company's obligation to help the workers impacted," the BP adviser said.
The BP side was so confident that Ms. Gorelick suggested the two sides let idled workers submit claims to Mr. Feinberg and allow a court to decide whether the company was liable.
A White House official said the administration believed it had grounds to push BP, but in the end, Mr. Bauer made an emotional appeal.
He called BP's move cynical and asked why the company was "lawyering" after it told Congress and the administration it wouldn't duck its financial responsibility.
In response to that appeal, BP's negotiators agreed to voluntarily add $100 million as "a goodwill gesture," one adviser said. The two sides didn't agree how that money would be distributed.
BP used the word "fund" to describe the separate pot of money. The White House called it a foundation. As of Friday afternoon, they still had a long way to go to structure the fund, said a member of the team working on final details.
—Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com
Despite being put under pressure by the U.S. government to pay for the oil-spill aftermath, BP has succeeded in pushing back on two White House proposals it considered unreasonable even as it made large concessions, according to officials familiar with the matter.
BP said costs related to its oil-spill response had reached $2 billion as it continues work to contain the leak and to pay claims for damages.
BP last week agreed to hand over $20 billion—to cover spill victims such as fishermen and hotel workers who lost wages, and to pay for the cleanup costs—a move some politicians dubbed a "shake down" by the White House. Others have portrayed it as a capitulation by an oil giant responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history. A truer picture falls somewhere between.
The fund is a big financial hit to BP. But behind the scenes, according to people on both sides of the negotiations, the company achieved victories that appear to have softened the blow.
BP successfully argued it shouldn't be liable for most of the broader economic distress caused by the president's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. And it fended off demands to pay for restoration of the Gulf coast beyond its prespill conditions.
After the high-profile meeting of administration and BP officials on Wednesday, it was in the interest of neither to discuss such details. BP wanted to look contrite and to make a grand gesture, and the White House wanted to look tough.
President Barack Obama came away touting how BP's money would be handed over quickly and impartially to those hurt by the spill. Not only did BP earmark the $20 billion fund but it promised an additional $100 million for Gulf workers idled by the drilling moratorium.
The drilling industry estimates the moratorium will cost rig workers as much as $330 million a month in direct wages, not counting businesses servicing those rigs like machine-shop workers.
BP and its defenders argue that the moratorium was a White House policy decision for which it shouldn't be responsible. The final deal was structured to limit the company's exposure to such claims.
BP negotiators also said the company won't pay for Mr. Obama's pledge to restore the Gulf of Mexico to a condition better than before the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20.
White House officials want to use the oil-spill disaster to implement long-developed plans to restore natural marshlands and waterways. Facing record budget deficits, that pledge could founder with BP balking.
Administration officials say the concessions extracted from BP are unprecedented. Negotiators were able to graft a deal onto the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the main law dictating corporate responsibility in such a disaster, without having to ask Congress to change the law.
"A blank check was never in the cards," said an administration official at the talks. But, he added, the deal hammered out "went a very long way."
The Wednesday meeting at the White House was designed to go smoothly, the latest in a string of administration showdowns with corporate titans from General Motors to Wall Street banks. By the time BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and Chief Executive Tony Hayward walked up the White House driveway just past 10 a.m., the company had agreed in principle to the fund. "The president knew when he walked in that we were amenable to the kind of proposal we had already agree on in principle," a BP negotiator said.
Five days of preliminary talks between BP's hired lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, Associate Attorney General Thomas J. Perrelli, and White House counsel Robert Bauer had coalesced around the $20 billion figure.
But the talks—with about a half-dozen people on either side—stretched longer than expected. "A lot of the work was done before, but there were a lot of details," said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in an interview. "Details matter."
Twice, the two sides retreated from talks in the West Wing's Roosevelt Room to consult privately: On BP's ability to appeal decisions made by the $20 billion fund's independent administrator, Kenneth Feinberg; and on how far BP would go to meet Mr. Obama's request that it also aid workers hurt by the drilling moratorium.
Both sides described the negotiations as businesslike. BP hired Ms. Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, from the white-shoe law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, in part because of her ties to Democratic lawyers including Mr. Bauer.
But there was one item barely discussed ahead of the meeting: assistance for workers hurt by the moratorium, which has forced 33 deepwater rigs to pull anchor. To drive home the request, the president had Mr. Bauer relay the request to Ms. Gorelick the day before, negotiators for both sides said.
At the meeting's start, Mr. Obama told the group of his concerns about those workers, most of whom did not work for BP.
When the president and vice president left the room, Ms. Gorelick told White House negotiators their legal position mandating BP's assistance to displaced workers was weak. White House officials conceded such workers may not be able to qualify for direct assistance under the $20 billion fund, a White House official in the room said.
A BP negotiator said the White House position was "half-hearted" and its negotiators quickly gave up. "You won't find many lawyers who will say when the government imposes a moratorium, it's the company's obligation to help the workers impacted," the BP adviser said.
The BP side was so confident that Ms. Gorelick suggested the two sides let idled workers submit claims to Mr. Feinberg and allow a court to decide whether the company was liable.
A White House official said the administration believed it had grounds to push BP, but in the end, Mr. Bauer made an emotional appeal.
He called BP's move cynical and asked why the company was "lawyering" after it told Congress and the administration it wouldn't duck its financial responsibility.
In response to that appeal, BP's negotiators agreed to voluntarily add $100 million as "a goodwill gesture," one adviser said. The two sides didn't agree how that money would be distributed.
BP used the word "fund" to describe the separate pot of money. The White House called it a foundation. As of Friday afternoon, they still had a long way to go to structure the fund, said a member of the team working on final details.
—Jeffrey Sparshott contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com
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