Archive for gulf of mexico oil leak
As BP crisis continues, will drilling moratorium be passed?
Posted by: | CommentsOver two months later it appears that the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may be entering a new phase, a phase that hopefully will result in the most success to date in capping the tragic flow of oil into the ocean. While the situation remains precarious and the clean up task still looms large the future of oil shore drilling remains in the balance. Public opinion at present would suggest that some type of changes are desperately needed, whether this will result in a temporary moratorium on deep-water drilling remains to be seen. The Obama administration are anxiously seeking another opportunity to have a legal precedent restrict deep-water drilling after failing on two recent attempts. The hope is that revised evidence that stresses safety concerns coupled with some subtle rewording may result in a temporary freeze allowing the industry to be properly evaluated and changed as needed.
While the legal wranglings look set to continue the current situation continues to worsen by the day. Meanwhile the proponents and opponents of the case are split along the lines you might anticipate; industry experts proclaiming the demands to be unreasonable and too radical while environmental groups applaud the moves and call them long overdue.
The department of the interior have renewed optimism that the case will be supported as new evidence about how the industry can not manage a deep-water blowout and subsequent oil spill is growing in real time as the BP situation continues to develop. One of the very few bright spots with the current disaster is that it may help cement the belief that spill response capacity is not suitable and add gravity to the request to suspend such operations. The initial case wanted to restrict any rigs drilling at a depth of greater than 500 feet while the newest revision seeks to review any free floating drilling rigs. As the landscape keeps changing so does the scope of the proposed restrictions. The industry of course is fearful that the reaction may be overcompensating for the current event, but can your really overcompensate for the worst US environmental disaster in history? That hardly seems possible.
In the meantime the difficult dance between energy/economic needs seeks to be offset by creating a blueprint for a process that better protects the environment. Its almost as if this courtroom drama is scheduled to become a large and very publicized metaphor for the entire ebb and flow of the environmental movement. It’s a theme I find myself returning to -objectors say the costs are too high in a fiscal sense, while activists say there is no greater cost than the result of doing nothing. This is one battle that apathy must not win – the dismay of millions who have watched the escalating tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico must not return to what they were doing before. The easy protest vote seems to be ‘boycott BP’ but the fundamental problems run so much deeper. This is not just an issue with BP – this is an issue with safety and planning, reward versus risk. It’s an issue in which we each hold vested interest.
Tags: BP, BP Oil Disaster, BP Oil Spill, drilling moratorium, gulf of mexico oil leak, impact of drilling disaster, moratorium on drilling, off shore drilling, planet forwardHow a tiny non profit blew the whistle on scale of oil rig disaster
Posted by: | CommentsWhile following events surrounding the BP oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico the last few weeks I was struck by how an event that initially took place on April 20 seemed to quickly slip into becoming a non-story (or at least a much smaller headline) for about a week. Initial reports as early as 48 hours after the oil rig sank stated that ‘officials don’t feel the well is leaking’ and also ‘risk of significant leaking is minimal’ and then about a week later the alarm bells rang out loud. At first it was reported 5-10,000 gallons a day of oil were leaking, then two days later officials said up to 20,000 gallons per day before the grim reality set in that some 100,000 gallons per day were gushing out of the ocean floor and entering the ocean.
How did the officials and the media get it so wrong in the first place? Why was the information that was released so inaccurate? After the leak was confirmed why did the estimates appear to be so conservative? I’d reason that balancing a PR campaign, optimism or hoping to allay fear may have all been factors in the timeline of events but the truth is something we’ll learn at a later date I’m sure. Remarkably the scale of the disaster
was observed by a tiny non-profit who were monitoring events and insisting the government and officials were providing misinformation.
SkyTruth began to analyze satellite and radar data very soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank following the explosion and fire. They were quick to question the early estimates that 1,000 barrels of oil were flowing every 24 hours from the well. Shortly after officials and BP revised the daily guess upwards by 500% to 5,000 barrels per day. This weekend SkyTruth released information estimating the slick was the result of over 11 million gallons of oil in turn they estimated the daily leak to be 25,000 barrels in total. That would be just over 1,000 barrels of oil per hour, some 42,000 gallons an hour. The numbers are just staggeringly bleak – as much as 700 gallons per minute entering the gulf. Not to be too alarming but the group also feel these estimates may be at the low end.
While the Coast Guard say its not possible to estimate the size of the spill SkyTruth countered with:
“Quite frankly, the continued leakage of anything for an extended period of time is going to cause an extraordinary amount of problems for us, anybody can browse the Web and see the pictures; we want to get the underlying satellite image and bring it into our system at SkyTruth. We map-rectify it so it can be used to accurately measure and locate things, like the location of fisheries, wildlife refuges or other sensitive areas that could be impacted by this event.”
SkyTruth’s work has constested both industry and federal officials during previous spill events with the release of information stirring up ire from the ‘official’ company view released by the oil companies. SkyTruth volunteers work from computer software and download digital satellite images that are available online.
The depth of this disaster remains unknown, however the initial reporting and downplaying of the incident was rather unforgivable as critical time was wasted.
Tags: BP, BP Oil Disaster, BP Oil Rig, deepwater horizon, environmental disaster, fossil fuel, gulf of mexico oil leak, marine life damage, Oil Spill, planet forward, size of oil spill, skytruth
