BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official account | Environment | The Guardian

BP oil spill: scientists find giant plume of droplets 'missed' by official account | Environment | The Guardian: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

"Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily degraded," said Richard Camilli, the lead author of the paper. "Well we didn't find that. We found it was still there."

At the heart of the debate is the rate at which naturally occurring microbes have consumed the oil from the runaway well. Even by the White House estimates, about one quarter of the oil was siphoned away from the well, skimmed off the surface, or burned. But the White House, in a high-profile briefing, earlier this month suggested that microbes had eaten as much as 50% of the remaining oil.

The study reinforces earlier reports from research voyages led by scientists from the University of Georgia and Texas A&M University who detected the presence of deepwater plumes of oil.

But the authors argued that theirs was more authoritative as it is the first to be published in a major peer-reviewed journal since oil began pumping into the ocean from the broken well four months ago. The authors also noted their access to superior technology including one of the few underwater robots available outside the oil industry.

BP Oil Spill Coverup: Fishermen Speak Up - The Daily Beast

BP Oil Spill Coverup: Fishermen Speak Up - The Daily Beast: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

While officials claim most of the oil from America's worst-ever spill has disappeared, fishermen hired by BP are still finding tar balls—and being instructed to hide their discoveries.

Two weeks ago, as federal officials prepared to declare that some three-quarters of the estimated 5 million barrels of oil released into the Gulf over three months had disappeared, Mark Williams, a fishing boat captain hired by BP to help with the spill cleanup, encountered tar balls as large as three inches wide floating off the Florida coast.

WJLA-TV reporter Doug McKelway was suspended by the station following his July 20 report on a Capitol Hill rally by the left-wing groups Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Public Citizen. Anonymous sources at the station said he "lapsed into partisan territory," according to the Washington Post.

VETERAN DC ABC NEWS ANCHOR, DOUG MCKELWAY, SUSPENDED AFTER REPORTING OBAMA ACCEPTED $77,051 IN CAMPAIGN FUNDS FROM BP

VETERAN DC ABC NEWS ANCHOR, DOUG MCKELWAY, SUSPENDED AFTER REPORTING OBAMA ACCEPTED $77,051 IN CAMPAIGN FUNDS FROM BP: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

WJLA-TV, a Washington, D.C. ABC affiliate, suspended reporter Doug McKelway following his alleged “partisan” comments at a liberal rally on Capitol Hill marking the three-month anniversary of the Gulf oil spill. Video of the broadcast tells a different story:

Apparently facts are now “partisan.”

McKelway stuck to the truth about BP’s political contributions and pending cap-and-trade legislation, newsworthy subjects given that the event’s organizers were lobbying to “pass legislation to end America’s addiction to oil and urged lawmakers to donate campaign money raised from the oil industry to the clean-up efforts in the Gulf.”

According to the Washington Post, it was McKelway’s supposedly controversial comments on July 20 that led to his suspension. Anonymous sources at the station are now accusing him of “insubordination” in an apparent attempt to fire him.

The BP Cover-Up | Mother Jones

The BP Cover-Up | Mother Jones: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

WE'RE SWINGING ON ANCHOR this afternoon as powerful bursts of wind blow down through the Makua Valley and out to sea. The gales stop and start every 15 minutes, as abruptly as if a giant on the far side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu were switching a fan on and off. We sail at the gusts' mercy, listing hard to starboard, then snapping hard against the anchor chain before recoiling to port. The intermittent tempests make our work harder and colder. We shiver during the microbursts, sweat during the interludes, then shiver again from our own sweat.

I'm accompanying marine ecologist Kelly Benoit-Bird of Oregon State University, physical oceanographer Margaret McManus of the University of Hawaii-Manoa, and two research assistants aboard a 32-foot former sportfishing boat named Alyce C. On the tiny aft deck, where a marlin fisher might ordinarily strap into a fighting chair, Benoit-Bird and McManus are launching packages of instruments: echo sounders tuned to five frequencies; cameras; and a host of tools designed to measure temperature, salinity, current velocity, chlorophyll fluorescence, and zooplankton abundance, all feeding into computers lashed into the tiny forward cabin.

Feds Giving Spill Data to BP—But Public Stays in Dark | Mother Jones

Feds Giving Spill Data to BP—But Public Stays in Dark | Mother Jones: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The federal government is now painting a rosy picture of the Gulf spill, reporting Wednesday that much of the oil has miraculously disappeared. The folks at the New York Times bought in, proclaiming, "US Finds Most Oil From Spill Poses Little Additional Risk."

But the oil isn't gone. More than 100 million gallons of it—at least nine and a half times more oil than the Exxon Valdez dumped—remain at the surface or dispersed undersea. And the government is still keeping crucial information about the extent of the damage a carefully guarded secret—from everyone except BP.

                               — Flickr/IBRRC

BP Scores Stimulus Cash | Mother Jones

BP Scores Stimulus Cash | Mother Jones: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

The federal government is giving a joint venture involving oil giant BP millions of dollars in stimulus money to build a power plant on farmland near the tiny Kern County town of Tupman, even as the company faces heavy government pressure and a criminal probe into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP is benefiting from a $308 million federal grant over several years for the cutting-edge power plant on cotton and alfalfa fields seven miles from the western edge of Bakersfield. More than half of the money, $175 million, is coming from stimulus funds. The rest is coming from another federal program.

The stimulus portion alone ranks as the second biggest award in California to a corporation and among the largest in the country benefiting private interests, according to data reported to the government by stimulus recipients.

Attorney Mike Papantonio Says BP is a Criminal, Sociopathic and Predatory Corporation « SpeakEasy

Attorney Mike Papantonio Says BP is a Criminal, Sociopathic and Predatory Corporation « SpeakEasy: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Environmental lawyer, advocate for working Americans, and host of Ring of Fire, Mike Papantonio and his firm have handled thousands of cases throughout the nation, including asbestos, breast implants, pharmaceutical litigation, factory farming, securities fraud, the Florida tobacco litigation, etc., and has received numerous multi-million dollar verdicts.

Recently, he has been making frequent appearances on The Ed Show and Hardball to discuss the ramifications and implications of British Petroleum’s oil spill, in an effort to hold BP accountable for the damage that they have caused to the environment and persons, as well as to expose the lies that BP continues to feed the news media.

The Poisoning | Rolling Stone Politics

The Poisoning | Rolling Stone Politics: "On July 15th, just as this article was going to press, BP lowered a 75-ton cap over the damaged wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico and closed — at least temporarily — the gushing hellmouth of oil. How long that cap will hold is not clear. At the moment, BP and government scientists are trying to determine whether the structure of the well itself was damaged by the blowout, and, if it was, whether oil and gas could be leaking through other parts of the well, or even through the sea floor itself. Depending on the integrity of the well, the gusher could be permanently capped in a matter of weeks; or there could be oil flowing into the Gulf again tomorrow. 'This is an extremely unstable situation,' retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the federal response to the clean-up, told me on the day the cap was lowered into place.

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“Independent claims czar” on BP payroll

“Independent claims czar” on BP payroll: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Gulf disaster “independent claims czar” Kenneth Feinberg is on the payroll of BP, he has admitted. The administrator of the escrow account set up by the Obama administration to compensate victims of the BP blowout has so far refused to reveal how much the oil giant pays him.

Nothing could more clearly expose Feinberg’s pretensions of neutrality and objectivity in the distribution of funds from the $20 billion Independent Claims Facility (ICF) established by the Obama administration on June 16. Feinberg is in fact an attorney in the employ of BP. He cannot, by definition, be a neutral arbiter.

In a July 19 web chat, Feinberg said he would not say how much BP pays him, declaring “that’s between me and BP.” Last week he backtracked somewhat, saying he would reveal his pay package within “weeks.” “I don’t want to just announce what my estimated salary is for the next few months, I want to give a budget that will include that salary,” he said in explaining the delay.

BP offers one-off payouts to stem Gulf oil spill lawsuits | Environment | The Guardian

BP offers one-off payouts to stem Gulf oil spill lawsuits | Environment | The Guardian: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"