Congress committee agrees 7 year offshore ban for BP. 15 July 2010Last updated at 10:36 BP has already accepted its guilt in a separate accident in Texas in 2005 that killed 15 A US Congressional committee has agreed measures that would ban BP from new offshore drilling for seven years. The House committee on natural resources voted in favour of precluding companies with poor safety records from offshore oil exploration permits. The proposed law does not name BP, but would apply to any company that has experienced 10 or more deaths in the last seven years.
The April explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers. Major blow According to the draft legislation, the deaths must have taken place at drilling, production facilities, or refineries, and must have broken US health and environment laws. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote North America and the Gulf of Mexico are one of the cornerstones of [BP's] strategy going forwards” End QuoteEvgeny SolovyovOil equities analyst, SG Securities Key player Unintended consequences.
Think Progress » BP may get tax refund because of oil disaster expenses. By Brad Johnson "BP may get tax refund because of oil disaster expenses. " The costs to the foreign oil giant BP for poisoning the Gulf of Mexico will lower the company’s taxes by billions of dollars, and BP “may be able to get a refund for taxes paid in previous years.” If BP’s cleanup costs reach $60 billion, as Merrill Lynch & Co. estimates, the company will be able to deduct almost $20 billion over time.
In addition to billions in subsidies, the company has received $10 billion in federal contracts from the American taxpayer in the last ten years. BP spokesman Steve Rinehart told Bloomberg News that BP will deduct the $3.5 billion already spent on cleanup efforts and any future expenses: Taxes are paid on profits. BP cannot write off future government fines and penalties, including criminal fines, but it can write off punitive damages that are awarded by courts, according to a report by Center for American Progress tax expert Sima Gandhi.
BP's 'slush fund'? Oops! They didn't mean that! Coast Guard promises greater media access to Gulf exclusion zone | Raw Story. Save the Gulf: Olivia's Bird Illustrations. 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill Photos. Seadrill Catches Fire. After several attempts for securing well that was blowing out for weeks, the fighting to secure the rig and the well was over. Finally, the Seadrill West Altas Jackup ,contracted by PTTEP Australasia, and Montara Wellhead Platform caught fire on 1st November 2009. It’s was so sad news for oilfield. Read more discussion regarding this topic on drillerboard: Gas blowing out over the Montara Wellhead Platform and there was oil spill over the sea. Aerial photo of the Montara offshore oil platform and West Atlas mobile drilling rig. Aerial photo of the Montara offshore oil platform and West Atlas mobile drilling rig.
Oil spill from Montara Platform Aerial photo of oil slicks emanating from the Montara platform in the Timor Sea off Western Australia. West Atlas Jack Up PTTEP attempted several times to a drill relief well in order to stop leaking. Seadrill West Atlas Jack-up Caught Fire on 1st Nov 2009. Images BP Doesn't Want You to See. As a writer and photographer covering the oil spill in the Gulf, I've been frustrated by the well-documented efforts by BP and the US Government to limit media access to the damage. The restrictions tightened last week, when the Coast Guard announced rules that prevent the public—including news photographers and reporters—from coming within 20 meters (about 65 feet) of any response vessels or booms on the water or beaches.
Violate the "safety zone" rule and you can be slapped with a $40,000 fine and prosecuted under a Class D felony. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen defended the buffer, saying it is "not unusual" to enact measures for "marine events" or "fireworks demonstrations. " Allen spokesperson Megan Molney wrote in a July 4 email: "These 20-meter zones are only slightly longer than the distance from a baseball pitcher's mound to home plate.
This distance is insignificant when gathering images. " Perhaps Molney has never shot video or taken a photograph. Click here for Julie's photos. Podesta to Obama: “Nothing less than your direct personal involvement, and that of senior administration officials, can secure America’s clean energy future,” « Climate Progress. Marine Toxicologist Susan Shaw Dives Into Gulf Spill, Talks Disp.
Marine Toxicologist Susan Shaw Dives Into Gulf Spill, Talks Dispersants and Food Web Damage When marine toxicologist Susan Shaw set out to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, she didn't do it from behind a desk. Late in May, a few miles offshore of Louisiana's Pass a Loutre marshlands, Shaw donned a wetsuit, coated her exposed skin with a protective coat of petroleum jelly, and dove into the oil slick. "What I witnessed was a surreal, sickening scene beyond anything I could have imagined," Shaw wrote a few days later in The New York Times: There were patches of oil on the gulf’s surface.
In some places, the oil has mixed with an orange-brown pudding-like material, some of the 700,000 gallons of a chemical dispersant called Corexit 9500 that BP has sprayed on the spreading oil... Dr. Q: How is use of Corexit increasing the scope of the oil disaster? A: Dispersed oil is actually more toxic than regular oil because it's broken up. Q: Is that what people are calling the plumes? A: Yep. BP Ignoring Chemical Limits With Coast Guard's Consent. So much for the May 26 directive from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Coast Guard calling for BP to slash dispersant use in the Gulf. According to records recenty released by the Coast Guard, BP has exceeded the limits on an almost daily basis since the directive took effect—with the express approval of the federal government.
BP was supposed to limit subsea use to 15,000 gallons per day and "eliminate the surface application of dispersants" except in "rare cases when there may have to be an exemption. " But as we reported several weeks ago, the company is still regularly exceeding both those limits. BP also hasn't reduced its average use much at all—just 9 percent from the pre-directive average. In order to surpass the limits imposed by the EPA and the Coast Guard, BP needs to request an exemption from the government's on-scene coordinator (currently Coast Guard Admiral James Watson, who took over on June 1). A look at the requests and approvals makes that clear. Walmart, KFC, Burger King Paper Purchases Destroying Indonesia's. July 6, 2010 | Like this article?
Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Greenpeace is again pointing a finger the international companies responsible for Indonesian deforestation, and the international brands aiding and abetting them through purchasing their products. This time it's the Sinar Mas group and their subsidiary Asian Pulp & Paper clearing forest and Walmart, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, KFC, and other well-known consumer names that are helping them, albeit one step removed. Critical Endangered Species Habitat & Carbon-Storing Rainforest Cleared Illegally The new blame and shame report How Sinar Mas is Pulping the Planet [PDF] documents how Asian Pulp &Paper is clearing forest in the Bukit Tigapuluh Forest Landscape and in the Kerumantan peat forest, both on the island of Sumatra.
Bukit Tigapuluh is one of the last areas where critically endangered Sumatran tigers, and the slightly less endangered Orangutan, live. Jane Fulton Alt Fine Art Photography. US senators call on BP to freeze projects in Libya. A group of US senators called Wednesday on BP to freeze projects in Libya until claims that the British firm pushed for the release of the Lockerbie bomber can be investigated. On Tuesday, the four senators called for an inquiry into allegations that BP lobbied the British government to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, pictured in 2009, in order to protect a lucrative oil deal with Libya. On Tuesday, the four senators called for an inquiry into allegations that BP lobbied the British government to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi in order to protect a lucrative oil deal with Libya. Megrahi was freed by a Scottish court last year on health grounds in a decision that infuriated US lawmakers and the relatives of those killed in the 1998 bombing.
"If BP is found to have helped free this mass murderer, that would further de-legitimize the Scottish court's decision to grant him compassionate release," Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said Wednesday. Hell Has Come to South Louisiana | Dahr Jamail - Independent Reporting from Iraq and the Middle East. Story by Dahr Jamail Photography by Erika Blumenfeld Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010 Clint Guidry is a shrimper from Lafitte, Louisiana. As we sit together, he shows me a picture of his house with 18 inches of water in it as a result of Hurricane Ike in 2008. In his deep voice, he looks me in the eye and says, “My fear is repeating this situation, but with this water with oil on top of it.” Guidry represents all the shrimpers in Louisiana, given that he is the Shrimp Harvester Representative on the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force that was created by the state’s governor.
Prior to this fishing season, he, like the rest of Louisiana’s fishermen, was excited for good season, with the price of shrimp per pound finally weighing more in their favor. “We were primed for a great season,” Guidry says, “And it all got taken away.” Unlike most fishermen who’ve had their livelihoods decimated by BP’s oil disaster, Guidry has chosen not to work for BP doing skimming and booming operations with his boat. Congressmen join drilling industry in town hall meeting, pledge support to fight drilling moratorium | Drilling Contractor. From left: Congressman Pete Olson, IADC 2010 chairman Louis Raspino of Pride International, and Congressman Kevin Brady. Texas Congressmen Pete Olson and Kevin Brady joined the drilling industry in a town hall meeting held by IADC on 7 July in Houston. Both lawmakers pledged their support for the energy industry in fighting the Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium, but also encouraged the industry to work harder at getting its message out.
As Congressman Brady told the audience of nearly 300 people: “If every one of you isn’t meeting with a local lawmaker in the next three weeks, shame on you.” In providing opening remarks, IADC 2010 chairman Louis Raspino, Pride International, noted the urgency of the situation. From left: Louis Raspino of Pride International, Congressman Pete Olson, and IADC president Dr Lee Hunt. Texas Congressman Kevin Brady “The energy industry has been demonized for years. “If we’re going to turn this around, you can’t just leave it to your leadership,” he continued. Images BP Doesn't Want You to See. Girl Confronted BP Over Education. Girl Confronted BP Over Education. Residents outraged: BP dumping oily waste in Gulf landfills | Raw Story. Gulf awash in 27,000 abandoned wells — and no one at all is chec. Mitigating Annihilation | Dahr Jamail - Independent Reporting fr. Story by Dahr Jamail Photography by Erika Blumenfeld Photo by Erika Blumenfeld © 2010 From the air, the area north of Grand Isle, Louisiana, much of it around Barataria Bay, looks like scorched earth.
This area has been and is heavily afflicted by BP’s oil. The so-called clean up efforts, including laying out booms to supposedly prevent oil from destroying more marsh and killing more wildlife, are a farce. Opaque multi-color sheen stains much of the bay, and is visible in countless inlets that snake their way into the marsh. The contrast between the green marsh area yet to be soiled and the marsh already blackened by the oil and the sheen covered Gulf water is stark. While BP has put forth great effort in securing tax benefits acquired from leasing rigs like the sunken Deepwater Horizon, it has also saved money by choosing not to pursue better clean-up methods and technologies. From the air, we see the same boom catastrophe as we did from our recent boat trip into the marsh. Incident Response Frame. Seven reasons BP would like to forget this weekend.
It’s been 81 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank in the Gulf.Photo: U.S. Coast GuardIt should have been a good weekend for BP. Its latest plan to staunch the geyser — lowering a tighter cap over the spewing pipe — is ahead of schedule, and its two relief wells, which could stop the gushing once and for all, remain on track to be ready in mid-August. But, as we’ve come to learn over the past 81 days — and counting — BP reeks of bad karma. Here are seven of examples from last weekend alone: Chum and chummer: In its weakened financial state, BP’s been seen as chum for circling competitors. Now come reports that ExxonMobil — the folks who gave America its last great oil spill — has received clearance from the White House to try a takeover.
NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous (left) and Louisiana NAACP State President Ernest L. Easy to see how she got confused. The Cost of BP's Boys' Club: Why the Oil Industry's Macho Culture Is Bad for Women and the Environment | Environment.