Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Oil to Spill Into Gulf 'for at Least Two More Months'
Millions of gallons of oil could be gushing into the Gulf of Mexico for at least the next two months, as Barack Obama's top energy adviser said the spill was the biggest environmental disaster in US history.
BP and federal authorities said they are now turning to a new strategy to stop the leak after admitting their "top kill" operation had failed, but it will take at least four to seven days before it can be put into place.
Oil mixes with water off the coast on May 29, in the Gulf of Mexico near Venice, Louisiana. BP engineers scrambled Sunday to implement another high-risk plan to stem the devastating Gulf oil spill now being described as likely the worst environmental disaster in US history. (AFP/Getty Images/File/Win McNamee) At least 20 million gallons are now estimated to have gushed into the ocean since the disaster unfolded five weeks ago, threatening an environmental and economic catastrophe across hundreds of kilometers of the US Gulf Coast.
"After three full days of attempting 'top kill,' we have been unable to overcome the flow from the well, so we now believe it's time to move on to the next of our options," BP Chief Operations Officer Doug Suttles told a press briefing.
President Barack Obama called the developments "enraging" and "heartbreaking".
Speaking on NBC's Meet The Press, Carol Browner, the White House's energy adviser, said: "More oil is leaking in the Gulf of Mexico than at any other time in our history. It means there is more oil than the Exxon Valdez (in Alaska in 1989)."
Engineers had spent days pumping some 30,000 barrels of heavy drilling fluid into the leaking well head on the ocean floor in a high-pressure bid to smother the gushing crude and ultimately seal the well with cement.
The announcement marks the latest failure for BP, which despite a series of high-tech operations over the past month has appeared powerless to bring the disaster to heel since an explosion on the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig April 20 which killed 11 workers. The rig sank two days later.
The British energy giant had stressed that "top kill" was the best chance at stopping the leak other than drilling an entirely new relief well, a process that has already begun but is expected to take another two months.
"Obviously, we're very disappointed in today's announcement and I know all of you are anxious to see this well secured," US Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry told the briefing.
Efforts will now focus on severing the damaged riser pipes that lay crumpled on the ocean floor, then installing a containment device that could capture the leaking oil and syphon it to the surface.
The new containment plan, scheduled to begin next week, is called the "Lower Marine Riser Package Cap (LMRP Cap)."
It is a complex operation that will be carried out by remotely operated robots on the ocean floor, BP officials said - nearly one mile (1.6 kilometers) below the spot where the drilling rig exploded.
The robots, wielding cutting tools, will sever the bent riser pipe and replace it with the LMRP cap, BP officials say.
The cap will then be connected to a riser leading to the drill ship Enterprise, nearly above the robots.
The setback came after Mr Obama visited the region for the second time since the spill began 40 days ago, in an attempt to bring new urgency to the response.
"It is as enraging as it is heartbreaking, and we will not relent until this leak is contained, until the waters and shores are cleaned up, and until the people unjustly victimized by this manmade disaster are made whole," Mr Obama said.
He ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other top environmental officials to return to the region next week to continue their work aggressively responding to the spill.
Government data released Thursday suggested between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have poured into the Gulf - far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster. It has already been labelled the worst US environmental disaster in history.
Amid the environmental catastrophe, there were also growing fears for the health of cleanup workers exposed to the oil and chemical dispersants.
Four more crewmen aboard ships helping burn off surface oil were evacuated to hospital late Friday after falling ill, a day after the Coast Guard announced that seven workers were evacuated for medical emergencies.
97 Comments so far
Show AllIt's a tragedy that Obama became president, being the empty and corporate suit, he is.
It is also a tragefy that this oil spill happened and will continue to rage on and on and on and on and on and on and on.........as long as Obama the do-nothing president continues to do nothing along with his crime syndicate pals like Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton and Ken Salazar.
And, this ain't no Joke, Jack. Damn right it ain't.
Imagine these guys in charge and during the Apollo 13th accident.
Wait the Guvmint was in charge back then!
I supsect that the true amount of crude being dumped into the oceans is around 4 times more the current "official" 19,000 barrels which is about 4 times more what BP and the Goverment first tried to pass off as the amount.
If yhis goes on 2 more months thats another 5 million barrels. But the Caribbean and the Atlantic are such BIG oceans folk wont notice it...right?
Throw every last damn politician and every last oil executive and corporate CEO in prison for the rest of their lives--all are criminals against the American people as they continue to allow and continue the looting of America in every which way. This is a crime against the American people and if this was the other way around, U.S. officials would be saying such things against other nations who allowed such crimes.
This is an environmental crime against the American people and this crime should not go unpunished or taken lightly because it is the futire of this country at stake and allowing any more of this crap only makes the nation more impoverished.
This is f-ing serious folks.
And, it ain't no Joke, Jack!!!!!!
I started writing the following letter - this is what I have so far - to a senator of my state - is it even worth sending it? Are these people aware of anything? Do they care enough to do something?
Senator,
Rumors abound that many countries across the world have offered to assist in solving the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. If this is true, if they have solutions, and BP and the US government are refusing these offers for whatever reason, this would constitute a crime against the American people and all the people of the world who will be affected by this catastrophe.
This catastrophe in the Gulf is one more example of how the corporate plutocracy, and its oligarchic CEO's - in and out of government - are destroying this country. Do you understand what people want out here? What they want is an end to this grotesque situation whereby the super-rich elites are free to do whatever they want to do no matter how much damage it does.
They exploit the earth and human beings, start wars based on lies, get bailed out and subsidized by tax payers and generally get their way on everything, and people are sick of it, and totally outraged.
We need to seriously re-think our entire way of life. What we need, Senator, is for all of you in Washington, especially the President, to start standing up to the corporations and attacking their human-exploiting, greed-ridden, anti-ecological fundamentalist-capitalist worldview as the obsolete monstrosity that it is.
With resource depletion, environmental degradation and climate change, this country and indeed all the world is heading for global catastrophe - dont you people in Washington see this? What are you waiting for?
Nice job.
But you're nothing to them. They don't give a shit.
The bottom line is your pleas will be ignored. They only serve
their masters.
Good letter, and I'm not going to say anything cynical, like "as if any senator will give a damn what you think," or "as if they're anywhere NEAR ascribing this disaster to capitalism." Actually, I'd love to hear what the senator's response might be. I commend you for doing this.
The senator's response will be a form letter, soon followed by a request for campaign funds.
My ex-Senator, took the opportunity to sell me his ideas via form letter.
Dear so and so,
Thanks for writing me about ______; But, I'm doing it this way cause you are too small to matter, etc..
On the form letter I received, there was an invitation to his office with the enticement of milk and cookies(Durban).
That's been my experience, time and again, on issue after issue. Sometimes, the form letters are so far removed from the issues I covered in my letter/s that I can't figure out to what he/Schumer is replying. Still, though, I continue to write letters.
I like fax better because they hate them.
C-span's little directory gives all the fax #s
It is also fun, since I know they just delete
e-mail. My faxs arn't formal at all because
I know they don't give a rats ass about what
we think.
But at least they have to dig them out of
their fax machines.
Good letter, very good - but as others have said it's unlikely to be well received - or even read by the right person. How about converting it a bit and sending it to some local newspapers ? I'd do the same, but all the newspapers in this godforsaken state are so right-wing they'd refuse to print it.
How about getting a few gigantic bull dozers to flatten Wall Street? Next, the White House, Pentagon and the Capitol.
Millions of gallons ? How about millions of barrels ! And this is just the beginning !
Obama is a criminal corporate sock puppet serving the special interests of Big Oil, including the endless occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Both BP and ExxonMobil now have oil contracts in Iraq made possible by tax subsidized warfare. Afghanistan is the key to the exploitation of Central Asian oil and natural gas for Asian markets. Public war debt for private profit.
But Obomber is also willing to wage an environmental and economic corporate class war against the American people.
No doubt Bush and Cheney put in the Big Oil fix with the MMS, But Obomber has outdone Bush by granting new offshore leases along with the elimination of environmental reviews. And in light of the recent disaster his plan is for only a temporary moratorium.
From: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_releases/2010/post-disaster-permits-05-07-2010.html
Center For Biological Diversity
MMS Approved 27 Gulf Drilling Operations After BP Disaster
26 Were Exempted From Environmental Review, Including Two to BP
Salazar's "Moratorium" on New Drilling Permits Allows Continuation of the Same Flawed
Environmental Exemption Process that Allowed the BP Catastrophe
TUCSON, Ariz.— Even as the BP drilling explosion which killed eleven people continues to gush hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) has continued to exempt dangerous new drilling operations from environmental review. Twenty-seven new offshore drilling projects have been approved since April 20, 2010; twenty-six under the same environmental review exemption used to approve the disastrous BP drilling that is fouling the Gulf and its wildlife.
“Salazar is playing a cynical shell game, making the public think he stopped issuing the faulty approvals that allowed the disastrous BP drilling to occur, when in fact he has given MMS the green light to keep issuing those very same approvals,” said Suckling. “The only thing Salazar has stopped is the final, technical check off which comes long after the environmental review. His media sleight of hand does nothing to fix the broken system that allowed what may be the greatest environmental catastrophe of our generation to occur.”
That's right, another week to implement the next scam on us, then another two weeks for the next sacm to set up, mean while the relief wells are going and before they know it, BP can get their oil.
Capping the gusher now means BP would have to abandon all that liquid gold, never to return. Better to pull a massive hoax and cover up for BP till the relief wells are done and they get the juice.
Heaven knows the plutocrats couldn't bear all that oil being left in the earth. As fas as we the people, they'll be dancing on our oil slicked graves, thrilled that they don't have to share anything God intended for them.
probably, but those wars, replete w/massive amounts of DU, are still on-going, & could result in a nuclear confrontation (israel/iran/pakistan/india).
The gulf survived the Ixtoc oil well disaster of Mexico in 1980. Ixtoc was the third largest spill in history. Ixtoc spilled 3,500,000 barrels of oil into the gulf. The current oil spill has leaked about 492,000 barrels of oil in 41 days (best case) and 4,100,000 barrels of oil worst case. If it goes another 60 days 1,212,000 barrels will have leaked into the gulf best case and 10,100,000 barrels worst case. If it goes three months the oil leaked into the gulf would be 1,572,000 barrels best case and 13,100,000 barrels worst case.
Therefore: worst case 13,100,000 barrels leaked vs 3,500,000 barrels leaked in 1980 Ixtoc would be a 3.7 times greater spill (plus the unknown effect of the dispersant).
The loss will be great but the planet will survive. I'm not trying to minimize the loss, but we all need to step back and take a deep breath. There is so much info out there from one extreme to the other that a reality check is needed. This is not the end of the world. I only hope it will be the beginning of the end of dependence on fossil fuels. Akhenaten had all this figured out back in ancient Egypt. He was the first monotheist and worshiped the rays of the sun.
(492,000 barrels leaked so far comes from PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/05/how-much-oil-has-spilled-in-the-gulf-of-mexico.html
1 barrel of oil = 42 gallons
504,000 gallons leaking a day = 12,000 barrels a day leaking
12,000 barrels a day times 41 days = 492,000 leaked to date best case
Worst case is 100,000 barrels a day leaking
Worst case 100,000 times 41 days plus 90 days (three month more) = 13,100,000 barrels spilled
You're using the media as your source. They only repeat what the Coast Guard, BP, or the WH tells them, all proven liars. That's your mistake,
The independent scientists claim 4 million gallons a day.
Four months running, the volume of oil poisoning the air and water is unprecedented.
4,000,000 gallons a day equals 95,238 barrels a day (4,000,000 gallons/42 gallons per barrel = 95,238 barrels per day). I'm using worst case of 100,000 barrels a day. There is no mistake in my math.
My worst case is also using another three months of leak and not two.
This is not a planet killer!
Oh, I sure hope not.
Personally, killing the Gulf region is pretty horrifying.
I don't need total destruction to get upset.
Yes it is !!!!!
The accumulation of all the spills,
the exhaust,
taking all the carbon from the earth
and putting it in the atmosphere...
friend, the earth is dead for humans..
How many years do you give it????
Thanks for posting. It's not a planet killer, obviously. But it's still a major catastrophe with a whole lot of unknown consequences. Also there's a lot of disputation on the rate and volume of emission from the blowout, as well as all the stuff being thrown on the fire by usually sober Sullivan about a whole other vent. In short, I don't think we have enough information to be bracketing worst case scenarios at this time.
One thing is certain, and from the tenor of your previous posts, you obviously get this: it's time to begin seriously the transition away from fossil fuels soonest. All you can hope for with an incident like this is that it will have some positive political fallout.
I would like to think that some good will come of all that has been lost, but I'm not optimistic. I remember my brother coming back from a trip to Mexico City 35 years ago and telling me that those people have been duped into thinking that they are all involved in an ongoing revolution and that they are changing things. Sound familiar! Look at Mexico today. One of the biggest oligarchies in the world. All their protests did not change a thing. I've always wondered if they were big letter writers also.
People in Louisiana are already asking Obama to lift the drilling ban.
you are also assuming that they will ever be able to plug the hole.
and no one knows how much oil is there. it could be leaking for a long, long time.
maybe dumping huge quantities of it into the gulf isn't a planet killer...
our burning it into the atmosphere as we go about our daily business is...
Akhenatan? So an ancient Egyptian pharoah warned against fossil fuel use? That's a new spin on anthropology studies! And what the hell, we can survive this. What's ten million or so barrels of oil, "worst case"? Just move on. It's not the end of the world, so everyone calm down.
Akhenaten did not warn against the use of fossil fuel in the days of ancient Egypt. He recognized the true value of the rays of the sun and made them his god. The interesting thing is that he worshiped the rays of the sun, (photosynthesis), and not just the bright ball in the sky. We should do the same. The future is solar power.
I was living in Corpus Christi, Tx. when the Ixtoc I blew out. Yes, the gulf did survive, but it took years to recover and had you been there to watch the surf reduced to thick muck sloshing up on the beaches of Padre Island, the birds killed, the fish killed, the bottle nose dolphins killed, the endangered Kemps Ridley sea turtles killed, and the miles upon miles of oil fouled beaches, you would realize just how serious this spill is.
This oil spill is larger and will affect a much larger area the the Ixtoc I, which blew out near the Yucatan Penninsula. This spill is mostly underwater and has already been caught in the Loop Current that flows clockwise in the Gulf of Mexico and into the gulf Stream which runs up the eastern seaboard, across the Atlantic, and along the west coast of Europe.
In short, this spill cannot be compared to the Ixtoc I spill, and is an environmental catostrophe that is beyond all imagination.
"Four more crewmen aboard ships helping burn off surface oil were evacuated to hospital late Friday after falling ill, a day after the Coast Guard announced that seven workers were evacuated for medical emergencies."
Why the hell are the regular workers being put at risk? They need to get BP's top executives down there including the so far useless CEO, cleaning up this mess. Along with board of directors..
Let them get poisoned, the profit seeking bastards! And the ones who made the decisions to take short cuts, that lead to this disaster.
Nothing matters but getting the oil.
Stop thinking we're dealing with decent people.
These oil company turds just crawled our of a cesspool.
They might look like you or me, but they lack empathy.
They are similar to serial killeers.
Something amiss in the head.
These guys wear nice cloths, they speak well, seem pretty OK, but so did Ted Bundy.
They should be down there working the clean-up AND donating their salaries for this year and the next to a relief fund for all the lives they have ruined in the Gulf.
I've run out of things to say on this topic. I am just sick.
For what it's worth, I'm finding that the best site to keep up with this is the Center for Biological Diversity website.
I guess we would find out why if we followed the money.
Ixtoc = 200 ft water
This is a mile down, oil has a rough time getting to the surface.
Estuaries, spawning beds; the whole gulf ecosystem is interconnected. This is just the beginning; look at the Naomi's video showing what washed up on shore!
If we ALL demand the end of foreign wars, with genuine repentance, might our unutterably greedy karmic consequences change? Isn't it worth a try?
dreamer...snap out of it..war is profitable!! Get used to it.
There's no telling how bad this is going to be for us here in the gulf--because much of the oil is traveling southward deep under the surface. It is very possible that other beaches and estuaries far away from here will start seeing some of this crude cocktail of toxic waste real soon--but I do know that there has been some damage done by their use of Corexit--how severe and for how long it will effect our area, we can only depend on the scientists reports--I would like to see some outsiders doing the research, because by now you would have to be an idiot to believe anything this Gov. or BP says.
dateline sept 2012:
BP sez at least two more months . . .
Yo Ephraim, don't be so insensitive man--there are those who this just mite be the end of their world--where do you live? I'm sure given enough time they will be able to fuck you up too.
First off, I'll make this short: We are being lied to. If reporters are being restricted from the area, weelll duuhhhh!
At least it's sweet crude, can anyone imagine the kind of evacuations that would be neccessary if that was sour gas powering that gusher? But the technology to contain a sour gas well is not any better.
As everyone on these threads know, the environment on this
planet has changed more in the last 100years than the
previous 10k years, unfortunatly, this spill is not going to
change man's corporate culture anymore than the warnings of
catostrophic climate change has. I wish BP would put the
camera back on the gusher and leave it, let everyone see
minute by minute all the oil flowing into the Gulf. It took
over a month for the government and BP to jump from 5k barrels a day to 20k barrels a day, looking at the gusher,
it is plain to see the thrust into 5000ft of water. Show it
to us BP, nonstop.
We have wars and belligerency extending into all regions of
the world, all to obtain natural resources, mostly oil. The
USA and their allies have left many regions of the world in
the same condition that the Gulf is going to be left in.
Those of us that have been watching this transpire for the
last forty years know damn well we are doomed, if not this
immediate generation, certainly our childrens.
I always hated the term "Baby Boomer".
We should have been labeled "The Destroyers"
And for all you do gooder liberals ...Screw You !!!!!
You have been as big of a problem as the right wing.
The blowout is happening under a water column of one mile.
The hydraulic pressure there is enough to crush nuclear submarines (USS Thresher- imploded at appx 1200 feet - far less than 5000). Yet the oil pressure from the hole is such that the gusher appears like it is spewing into thin air. And it is ejecting like a jet engine. So how do you stop something with that much pressure, a mile underwater? The hardened-metal blowout preventer was around five storeys tall. It was apparently shouldered aside by the flow.
The biggest problem comes if they can't ever stop it, and its now-branching sibling blowouts. Then after months or even years of this, the entire field is spewed into the sea, to vortex around the world on the great ocean conveyer. Then it does become a planet killer. So this truly is a planetary emergency.
Hopefully, the costs of the last stages of peak oil (and drilling at the very ends of the Earth are a sure sign) are apparent now, and transitions to forms of civilization other than unbridled capitalism or unquestioned totalitarianism-corporatism are deemed necessary for the very survival of life on Earth.
The limits of growth and technology (is BP or is CHENEY'S HALLIBURTON running any nuke plants? oe are any other corporations?), and the necessity of transitioning to other more benign forms of energy should now be self-evident (or see THE LONG EMERGENCY and THE REVENGE OF GAIA for truly depressing looks into the dystopian future).
But maybe the necessity of these transitions is STILL not self-evident to those who refuse to see- most especially the teabag-brained, the neo-cons, the neo-libertarian Rand-Friedmanite captialist pigs, the money-is-god-worshippers,and the fascist Republicons.
So maybe the Mayan caledar was right after all. 2012 here we come.
"So maybe the Mayan caledar was right after all. 2012 here we come."
Could be. If so, I wonder how they knew.
This is far worse than anything that Osama bin Laden and his scant score of Saudis ever threw at us. I assume that our Pentagram is in the final stages of preparing a premptive retaliatory strike on London and environs. This could continue for YEARS and give the Evilgelicals their long sought Armageddon!
But we have met the enemy and he is us! Maybe as a nation we can connect oil addiction, war and pollution. Life is not fair and we are going to get a good dose of that.
Are you, my goodness, after all these years of corporate looting, job cuts, pay cuts, pension bankruptcies, endless wars----Sick and Tired Yet?
This oil spill is just one more indicator of the corporate looting and its allowance by our criminal elected politicians and corporate criminals to boot. Mr. Obama is another criminal as well from war crimes to his assault on civil liberties/constitution and drone attacks on innocent civilians. Moreover, it's a damn tragedy that Obama became president being the empty and corporate suit, he is. It is also a tragedy that this oil spill happened and will continue to rage on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
The ObamaBots and suck-ups to him--Barack Obama---will never be able to read this article and take it the way you wrote it. The ObamaBots will shamelessly defend this fraud Obama and his criminal pals in the White House forever and ever without fail or shame.
The system and that Obama is just operating under a "flawed and broken system" just ain't cutting it any longer.
Rationalizing and justifying problems away as being part and parcel of the system one operates under just doesn't work any more. The nation is literally coming apart so those old paradigms of argument no longer hold water.
Politicians who are complicit in these crimes all belong in prison, by the way. Bush and Obama are of course criminals as well as scum like Senator Mary Landrieu who covers for these crooks at BP like Tony Hayward. Obama has the corporate media defending him at every turn regarding this crisis. In a just society, Tony Hayward would be in jail right now after having his rights read to him. It's okay for an illegal citizen like Tony Hayward to come to America and f--k up the country with his oil company and everyone is fine with that jerk from BP. Allow some Mexicans into America to do honest labor and the race police are out in full gear. Why not arrest Tony Hayward of BP and put him into the dungeron he so deserves to be? And, put Obama, Biden, Clinton, and all the rest of these political scums into the dungeons that they belong in forever.
Either the new system has to be revamped by completely new people in office or there has to be an overthrow of the current failed system we all live in under now.
The current system is a failed one. In any other part of the world, such inaction by a government would be looked upon as failed government.
The U.S. government is a failed government at this point because it is not taking care of the people across the country and the deep poverty in so many regions of America qualifies the U.S. to be a failed state. The prison system and the increasing amount of "brain drain" here in the U.S. because of job loss also qualifies the U.S. to be a failed state. The debt and inflation of the U.S. also qualifies the U.S. to be a failed state.
The lack of effective governance here in the U.S. is also a huge qualifier which puts the U.S. into the category of a failed state. The lack of proper oversight and regulations on BP-a foreign entity exemplifies the failed state of the U.S. government. Any other country would be called on the carpet by the international community for allowing such crimes to occur.
As more and more governance failures occur, just remember that the U.S. under Obama is operating essentially as a failed state. It will only become worse and worser over time.
And, by golly, this ain't no Joke, Jack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But don't you know, "Obama is enraged". "Obama is dissatisfied." "Obama is waking up." Well, I guess we can forgive him for his standoffishness because now,(according to mainstream press,) we are going to see the real Barrack spring into action. Do you believe that line? I don't. Obama has already taken big oil's side when he put Salazar in charge of the Dept. of the Interior. He has taken the Banker's side when he put in Geithner and Summers. His unrelentingly pro war policy was established when he puts in Petraeus and McCrystal. If Barrack is enraged it is because the people he has chosen to manage these policies are so incompetent that they are starting to make him look bad. But don't doubt whose side Obama is on.
True, and he is slick too. Recently in Louisiana he said, "we" will not spare any cost to clean up this mess. Hmmmm, what happened to BP paying the costs? He plans to stick the costs on the U.S. taxpayer, not BP. Is Obama's smile the smile of a sociopath?
Could be: a smooth and charismatic sociopath. That would arguably make him more dangerous than Bush. Just take a look who he has appointed to top positions. Oh, and pshcyo-sociopaths DO win peace prizes.
The world makes sense once you realize it makes no sense at all.