Author's posts
Jul 13 2010
Dillon: Is Foreign Govt. Stopping + Detaining us from looking at our own Country ?!
Is a Foreign Government Interfering with OUR OWN CITIZENS on our own soil?!
Or is this a Dispersant Cover Up story ? WDSU channel 6 News/ Fired BP Contractor talks to Adam Dillon 7/11/10
Scott Walker of WDSU News: ” During our visit to a Grand Isle beach in June (on the 11th) to see clean up workers, a WDSU photographer and I blocked from getting with in a hundred yards of them. (This was the infamous Talon security people who are threatening journalists, bloggers, and regular folk down in the Gulf )Adam Dillon, who was fired from BP, was a cleanup contractor from North Carolina, now talks to WDSU.com. ”
video here: http://www.wdsu.com/video/2420…
http://scottwalkertv.com/2010/…
Adam Dillon, fired by BP, now a whistleblower
more video transcript:
Dillon: …. after the way BP treated me, I am telling you now, you deserved an answer.Scott Walker of WDSU News: Shortly after our beach run in, Dillon was promoted. Now he says he was fired because he was seen as a threat to his superiors.
Dillon: I Became a liability to their operation up there because of the info I found out
News: Does BP have anything to hide ? Something other than the cleanup effort going on here ?
Dillon: I saw something when I was out there. I took pictures of something. I brought it to the attention of the command structure. And, Whatever I took pictures of, 12 hours later, I was gone.
News: he believes those photos showed equations related to the used of dispersants used on the oil in the Gulf. While Dillon has harsh words for those in charge and questions, he is just as quick to credit the thousands of workers who are working hard to clean up our shores.
Dillon: At the command center, I worked with some really great people. I worked w/ some great hardworking individuals in there. but the bottom line it’s just about the money. There are some very cutthroat individuals in there they are not worried about cleaning up the spill, as is.
News: this former special ops soldier says lost all faith in BP
Dillon: I will never have loyalty to this company. (BP) I will always have loyalty to my country and my country comes first. What this company is doing to my country is wrong.
News: No comment from BP, Will attempt to reach out to those in charge. More coming Monday in my interview with Dillon, where he tells me, He was confined and interrogated almost an hour.
This is an excerpt of the last part of the video
Adam Dillon, quote: “What this company is doing to my country is wrong.”
Jul 13 2010
The 83rd Day, Gulf of Mexico. Tail of the Dead Dragon
This is the 83rd Day on the Gulf of Mexico During the BP Oil Spill. You will not see these pictures in the MSM.
Dying River Delta and DeepWater Horizon Macondo wellsite
Franklin Eddy. Oil circling endlessly in mid Gulf.
Tail of the Dead Dragon. Southern Gulf of Mexico.
Oil Slick Streamers Brushing Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
Eastern Yucatan Coast, Oil Slick, and Cuba to the East (upper right)
Jul 11 2010
New Cap for Leaking Oil Well as Slick Blows Towards Texas, & More Alaska Drilling
Just when you thought we were up to our a$$es in oily alligators, the Obama Administration Department of the Interior announces plans to open 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to bidding on 190 new tracts for NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING. Bidding will open Aug 11.
Gotta Love Grist. Called it The Dept of Not Learning. http://www.grist.org/article/2…
It’s only another 1.8 million acres.
http://interior.gov/news/press…
Increases number of oil/gas wells by 60% from 310 to 500.
Increases number of acres under drilling by 60% from 3 million to 4.8 million
Teshekpuk Lake is 80 miles east of Point Barrow on the northern Alaska coastline, which is already being damaged by the warming climate and melting arctic sea ice. Up to 90,000 geese use the area to molt every summer, and the Indigenous people use part of the local caribou herd to survive by subsistence hunting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…
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The BP Oil Slick is Blowing Towards Texas. Here’s the satellite image from NASA, Friday, July 9th, from 1 km up in space
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…
Friday, July 9, 2010. Oil slick heads west towards Texas coast. photo NASA
Oil Slick now extends south all the way to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This is the bottom half of the same image of the Gulf of Mexico on 7/9/10 as above. photo NASA
photo from today, Saturday July 10, 2010
Today, July 10, 2010, Gulf of Mexico. Winds are now shifting to come out of the west/southwest again after an east wind drove this oil towards Texas earlier this week. But the oil to the south near the Yucatan peninsula, is probably going to continue to go west, then north again, with the natural Gulf clockwise current. photo, NRL Monterey, biomass, satellite Aqua
Jul 11 2010
New Cap for Leaking Oil Well as Slick Blows Towards Texas, & More Alaska Drilling
Just when you thought we were up to our a$$es in oily alligators, the Obama Administration Department of the Interior announces plans to open 1.8 million acres of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to bidding on 190 new tracts for NEW OIL AND GAS DRILLING. Bidding will open Aug 11.
Gotta Love Grist. Called it The Dept of Not Learning. http://www.grist.org/article/2…
It’s only another 1.8 million acres.
http://interior.gov/news/press…
Increases number of oil/gas wells by 60% from 310 to 500.
Increases number of acres under drilling by 60% from 3 million to 4.8 million
Teshekpuk Lake is 80 miles east of Point Barrow on the northern Alaska coastline, which is already being damaged by the warming climate and melting arctic sea ice. Up to 90,000 geese use the area to molt every summer, and the Indigenous people use part of the local caribou herd to survive by subsistence hunting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T…
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The BP Oil Slick is Blowing Towards Texas. Here’s the satellite image from NASA, Friday, July 9th, from 1 km up in space
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa…
Friday, July 9, 2010. Oil slick heads west towards Texas coast. photo NASA
Oil Slick now extends south all the way to the east of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. This is the bottom half of the same image of the Gulf of Mexico on 7/9/10 as above. photo NASA
photo from today, Saturday July 10, 2010
Today, July 10, 2010, Gulf of Mexico. Winds are now shifting to come out of the west/southwest again after an east wind drove this oil towards Texas earlier this week. But the oil to the south near the Yucatan peninsula, is probably going to continue to go west, then north again, with the natural Gulf clockwise current. photo, NRL Monterey, biomass, satellite Aqua
Jul 09 2010
BP Oil Fined $5.2M for Ripping off Colorado Tribe
While this was first posted at Yubanet back on June 30, it’s still highly relevant in establishing that BP Oil Company does not have a stellar reputation for many reasons besides the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happening now in the Gulf of Mexico, besides the explosion at the Texas City oil refinery in 2005 which killed 15 and injured 170. And it shows they have a previous, recent history of deliberately misstating and lowballing the amount of petroleum and gas product being produced. This is relevant now, because BP and the Federal Government have been steadily revising the estimated amount of oil gushing out from the ruined well upwards as they install more oil collection devices which are still not, obviously, collecting ALL of it. Yet documents obtained from BP by Rep. Markey, show that BP did have a “worst case scenario” of 60,000 to 100,000 barrels of oil per day very early in the disaster when the the government was saying it was only 1000 to 5000 barrels. The lower the official amount of oil spilt, the lower the Federal fines, obviously.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering how the ocean touches the Indigenous beaches of landlocked Colorado…. the “Bureau of Ocean Energy Management” is the new name for the old Minerals Management Service, or MMS. MMS, now BOEM, leases out Federal lands for drilling and mining production. A picture of the lovely area in southwest Colorado may be seen here: http://buffalopost.net/?tag=so…
BP is the second largest producer of natural gas in Colorado, per full data last available in 2008.
http://yubanet.com/usa/Interio…
DENVER June 30, 2010 – The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) announced today that BP America Inc. has been assessed a civil penalty of $5.2 million for submitting “false, inaccurate, or misleading” reports for energy production that occurred on Southern Ute Indian Tribal lands in southwestern Colorado. The civil penalty announced today is not related to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.The Southern Ute Tribal auditors and MRM found that BP reported incorrect royalty rates and prices for royalty purposes, and reported well production on leases other than those to which the production is attributable.
After receiving audit issue letters and an order, the company agreed with the auditors’ concerns and repeatedly promised to correct the problems, which they attributed to errors in their automated files.
As part of its investigation, MRM and Tribal auditors examined later production reports to determine if BP had resolved the issues, as it had agreed. Bromwich said the same reporting errors were found in the later reviews, “leading us to conclude that BP’s continued submission of erroneous reports was knowing or willful.”
BP reported well production on other leases ?!
Jul 03 2010
Froomkin: Plight of the Sea Turtle
Go read: (warning, also has picture slideshow, sad, graphic)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Gulf Oil Spill: The Plight of the Sea Turtle by Dan Froomkin at HuffPo 7/2/2010
In the case of the most endangered species, the Kemp’s ridley turtle, hatchlings leaving their nests in Mexico this season are swimming right into the heart of the spill area, where their instinct to seek shelter and prey among floating vegetation is betraying them by leading them straight to thick clots of oil and oil-soaked seaweed.There, instead of finding security and food, they are getting poisoned, trapped and asphyxiated.
And if that weren’t tragic enough, it turns out that shrimp boats hired by BP to corral floating oil with booms and set it on fire have been burning hundreds if not thousands of the young turtles alive.
Jul 01 2010
Govt To Fed Ex Sea Turtle Eggs to Florida Coast
Because the original is so oftentimes better than the description in the “can’t make this up” category, here is the latest press release from the Government’s Deepwater Horizon Incident JIC page:
http://www.deepwaterhorizonres…
NEW ORLEANS — The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) is proud to announce that FedEx Corporation (NYSE: FDX) is joining the efforts to protect sea turtle nests and eggs from potential impacts of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The company will be donating resources to transport hundreds of nests containing thousands of eggs to Florida’s Atlantic Coast and its logistics experts are working the Unified Command and its partner organizations to implement this complex translocation. The relocation efforts are scheduled to begin in mid-July and continue throughout the hatching season.FedEx is working closely with Unified Command Wildlife Branch scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA and other partners to create the safest transportation solution for the relocation effort. FedEx will take extensive precautions to protect the sea turtle nests and eggs, which will travel exclusively in its FedEx Custom Critical air-ride, temperature-controlled vehicles.
“In light of the imminent threat to sea turtles, we felt it was important to help move this extraordinary project forward,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director of NFWF. “Given our strong partnership with FedEx and our long standing relationship with the federal agencies, we were able to move quickly to develop an effective plan. We’ll continue to work with all parties so that this relocation offers the best hope for sea turtles’ survival.”
FedEx provides logistics expertise, in-kind shipping and funding for disaster preparedness, relief and recovery, working with organizations including the Red Cross, Salvation Army and Heart to Heart International. A FedEx-sponsored Salvation Army disaster response unit is in use to support responders to the oil leak right now. In 2006, FedEx donated its transportation services to deliver more than 1.2 million pounds of medical and other relief supplies to the Gulf Coast area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
NFWF is supporting a number of wildlife projects in the Gulf region and is helping to coordinate the work of federal agencies, biologists and others who will be involved in the massive transport effort. The Foundation, established by Congress in 1984, is a non-profit conservation organization that works closely with federal agencies and private sector partners to protect wildlife and natural resources.
No word yet on whether or not the beaches in Florida will have to be at home and able to answer the phone or doorbell at the time of the delivery, or wait until the next scheduled package delivery on that route after the weekend and on the next business working day.
Help. I’ve lost my habitat.
photo from US Govt. flickerstream, Deepwater Horizon Response, 6/10/2010 UC Davis
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update 7/2/10 : they’re going to hatch the eggs in a climate controlled warehouse, release them, and hope the turtles know where to return years later. http://www.marconews.com/news/…
Jul 01 2010
BP Oil Spill Witness: Kindra Arnesen
Kindra Arnesen is part of a husband and wife fishing & shrimping team that made their living off the coast of Louisiana until the blowout of the BP Deepwater Horizon well destroyed their livelihood. They then tried working for BP as part of the cleanup. What do you do if you see your young child on shore getting so sick from the fumes you have no choice but to try to take her away from this ? What do you do when you see workers told not to use respirators, and fish dying ? This is her story.
This was originally posted on
http://GulfEmergencySummit.org
and it may be also seen here:
http://www.sott.net/articles/s…
partial transcipt highlights: (I am having trouble with some of this, due to sound quality, incomplete)
Jun 30 2010
WTF? Two Drill Pipes in BP’s BOP, Nobody Admitting It
For weeks now, I’ve seen the same discussion over and over again at the Oil Drum. Somebody looks at the picture of the sawed off riser pipe with what looks to be 2 drill pipes stuck inside of it, when they were trimming the bent over riser off the Blow Out Preventer, before they put the LMRP Oil Sucking Cap on it, and they ask,
“what is that second pipe inside the riser ?”
And the answer is, “oh, that can’t be a second drill pipe, it must have been crushed when they cut the riser off with the pipe shear. It’s a figure eight, it’s not two pipes, it’s one pipe, crushed.”
“But it looks like 2 pipes. the diameter looks too big for one pipe. ”
“yes, but it’s one. it’s crimped. ”
Guess what.
http://www.latimes.com/news/na…The gushing BP oil well is a mystery still unfolding, and late last month, a team of scientists from the Energy Department discovered a new twist: Their sophisticated imaging equipment detected not one but two drill pipes, side by side, inside the wreckage of the well’s blowout preventer on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.
BP officials said it was impossible. The Deepwater Horizon rig, which drilled the well, used a single pipe, connected in segments, to bore 13,000 feet below the ocean floor. But when workers cut into the wreckage to install a containment cap this month, sure enough, they found two pipes.
Fancy that ! Bp Tony Deepwotter Spinmeister Hayward never mentioned this before, did he ?
Jun 29 2010
Update:Storm Alex Now a Hurricane, still Warning Heading to Texas
Update. Tues June 29, 8:20 pm PDT. NWS, Miami, FL. Tropical Storm Alex is now officially a Hurricane, and the first hurricane of the season and the first June hurricane since 1995. Alex is about 255 miles / 415 km SE of Brownsville, TX, with winds of 75 mph, moving 9 mph / 15 km/hr . All watches remain in effect. Hurricane Alex is expected to make landfall late Wednesday evening in the Texas/ Mexico border area.
Status of Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Area’s “City of Ships” of Blown Out BP Well : Oil skimming operations by surface boats have been suspended. BP Oil is still so far collecting gas/oil from the riser pipe and the BOP, but the attempt to hook up another gathering ship to the BOP to suck up yet more oil from below the sea’s surface has been delayed due to high winds and waves. BP says they are still working on installing yet another floating riser pipe that they can then quickly disconnect from in the case of bad weather, but it’s not finished yet.
Status of relief well. Still close to wellbore, allegedly within 20 feet yesterday, now drilling past it and down and taking multiple magnetic soundings to locate it before attempt is made to intersect. Still supposedly on track for August of this year.
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Well, I’ve got bad news and good news.
The National Weather Service as of 10:00 pm CDT Monday has upgraded the Hurricane Watch for Tropical Storm Alex to a Hurricane Warning.
But it’s heading northwest to Texas. http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/r… Sorry, eastern Mexico, it’s going to visit you again too.
NOAA and the NWS has also put together a page on New Orleans/Baton Rouge/Deepwater Horizon which has every sort of weather graphic you’d want to see on this. Satellite, radar, wind, wave, trajectories, 37 different weather maps and charts to gawk at.
Bookmark this:
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lix/?n…
Jun 28 2010
Wathen: BP Slick Covers Dolphins & Whales, Video + text
Warning. Heartbreaking.
BP Oil Slick Covers Dolphins and Whales, by hccreekkeeper, John L Wathen. June 21, 2010.
BP slick Covers Dolphins and Whales.mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
video by hccreekkeeper aka John L Wathen , with Tom Hutchins of SouthWings, flight pilot, and author Roger David Helbar (author of Saved By the Sea, A love story with fish) who on June 21 2010 flew over the Gulf to find the source of the BP slick
My imperfect transcript. (not exact, few words skipped. minute numbers added for reference)
“It didn’t take long after leaving the shore, to find our first oil.In the mouth of Mobile Bay, there were patches of light sheen seen behind the islands. oil you couldn’t see it from the beach but
there was a solid mass of oil
on previous flights all, behind safeway ? island, we’d seen was light sheen
now it was turning into the darker pink mass,…. the farther out into the Gulf we got, the more consistent it became
at 17 mile out it was obvious the entire Gulf was covered at this point. there was no more clean water. heavy layers of oil covered the entire horizon
as far as you could see
the bands were getting thicker
at 23 miles out we encountered the heaviest sheen yet, the dark pink and purple
it was obvious this was coming to our beaches there was nothing we could do about it
at 23 mi out, we encountered the heaviest sheen yet, the water there was a deep purple maroon blue, it looked almost like a rainbow, boats on the surface looked tiny on the compared to the horizon
the scope of this is beyond belief.
Jun 27 2010
Hurricanes to Shut Down Oil Gather 10 days each, and Baby Dolphins Cry
It is hurricane season in the Northern Atlantic Ocean.
When the storm winds hit a mere 40 mph, the “floating city” of BP’s oil collection and flare off ships in the Gulf of Mexico has to shut down. They need 4 days in advance to do this, and find safe harbor. This is according to Admiral Thad Allen. They will need 4 days to set back up. The total number of days that the oil from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon can spill freely into the Gulf during a short, 2 day tropical storm, is therefore 10 days.
http://www.theoildrum.com/node…
Guess what.
This is Alex.
Alex is a tropical storm.
By Tuesday, Alex could be a hurricane.
Alex is heading west right now.
Alex could then swing north.