We're poisoning ourselves

Source April 8, 2013

Third major oil spill in a week: Shell pipeline breaks in Texas

Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week.

Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.

By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found "no evidence" of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that Shell had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.

Exxon

We'd like them a whole lot better if they were better citizens and gave a damn about anybody besides their shareholders.

I've always wondered...

I've always wondered why the states in the deep south aren't more densely populated. I mean, given the superiority of wintering in the warmer climate of the southern states, why do places like New York, Michigan, California, etc. have so many more residents? Could it be because, as my mother used to believe (God rest her soul), the warm weather breeds lunacy? It was always Mom's feeling that the reason there is so much fighting in the Middle East all of the time is because everyone is so hot. Could this be true? And could it be true that the people in the southern part of the U.S. are just as nuts?


The article below was posted on Gawker - and it seems to add evidence to the claims that people in the south are greedy and a little more than dumb to think they wouldn't be found out.

How the Doobie Brothers Conquered the Gulf Oil Spill

John Cook — After ejaculating 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP doled out $750 million to state and local governments in a panicked attempt to seem less evil. The states, being dutiful stewards of the environment, directed the money to cleanup and mitigation. Kidding! No, they spent it on the Doobie Brothers and iPads.

The AP has taken out the green eyeshades and come up with a hilarious accounting of how Gulf Coast states and cities used BP's money, and lets just say the results don't go very far toward combating certain stereotypes associated with the Old South. Florida spent $560,000 for the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, and Lynyrd Skynyrd to play shows on Okaloosa Island. Charlotte Randolph, the president of Louisiana's Lafourche Parish, sent BP the bill for a new iPad, which she purchased six weeks after the leak had been capped. And this:

Lafourche Parish spokesman Brennan Matherne, who bought a new Dell laptop and accessories for $3,165, said working on the spill had worn out the computer he got just a year earlier for $2,700.

Biloxi, home to a strip of casinos overlooking the Mississippi Sound, bought 14 sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, two boats, two dump trucks and a backhoe loader with its $1.4 million share of BP grant money.

Mayor A.J. Holloway, who drove a city-owned 2006 GMC Yukon before the spill, now has one of the vehicles the city purchased with the BP grant - a black 2011 Chevy Tahoe 1500 LT that cost more than $35,000. The city's public works director and chief engineer also are driving SUVs bought with BP money.

As long as, in the end, BP is getting screwed, who's to judge?

The Republicans want it ALL ways...

From Acerbic Politics

One cost of the Gulf oil spill

From Acerbic Politics

Clarke & Dawe on the US Oil Spill

Is McCain Uninformed, Or Just Lying Again?

Watch the video...

In fact, the clear satellite evidence of major spills was borne out by final reports. In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter.”

Pipeline damage from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (MMS 2007). Click to enlarge.

Unsurprisingly, this devastation caused significant spillage, according to the official report prepared for the MMS by a Norwegian firm: