Environment Archive

Best Explanation of what’s going on with BP Spill

June 3rd, 2010. By Hunter West

I don’t live anywhere near the Gulf Coast, so the Great Oil Spill does not affect me. But I am mad as hell on behalf of the people who DO live there, and earn their livelihoods from the sea, and the fresh air. What has lately been described as easily the worst oil spill in US history is going to have lawyers locked up and busy for years, acting on behalf of those whose lives have, or will be ruined by all of this. 

And with good reason… 

What were they thinking? Were there interventions planned for this type of disaster? If a drill rig topples, or a submarine rams the pipe, should there not be provision to instantly and automatically cap the wellhead on the ocean floor? Isn’t this just common sense? 

I caught a fast-and-dirty explanation of what’s going on the other day via satellite courtesy of the CBC in Canada. Bob McDonald, the science guy who hosts a radio show called ‘Quirks and Quarks for the radio side of the network,’ is the guy CBC turns to in an effort to explain in layman’s terms, what all this means and why it’s happening. 

He was on camera for no more than 90 seconds, but he nailed it. 

Picture the Deepwater Horizon sitting on top of a pipe—or a super-long straw, if you will—sucking up the oil from the wellhead deep on the ocean floor. The explosion and fire on April 20^th decimated the drill rig and platform, and it toppled into the ocean—taking the pipe—or straw—with it.

Now that pipe is laying on the ocean floor, pretty much in one piece, but with kinks and bends. Like a kinked drinking straw after a child has done using it. There are, as McDonald explained, two or three kinks in the pipe—and the oil is leaking out of those kinks, as well as the end. 

BP has twice tried to cap the leaks, the latest effort failing last weekend when ‘Top Kill’ didn’t work. 

Now BP is trying to cut the pipe at the wellhead, with a clean cut, and cap the well. Drilling additional relief wells to stem the pressure will, hopefully, also help. 

But McDonald puts it all into perspective. According to his observations, the kinks in the pipe are effectively helping to stem the crude oil flow, serving as a governor. The kinks are limiting the pressure. Even though millions of gallons have spewed out into the Gulf in the last 6 weeks, it could have been a lot worse had the crude been allowed to be relaesed totally unimpeded. 

Well, that’s what BP, if I understand McDonald correctly, is about to do: cut the pipe cleanly at the wellhead, and then attempt to cap it. 

McDonald said it would be like opening up a fire hydrant completely, then attempting to cap the rushing water with a cap not much larger than the opening itself, and doing all this from miles away with rushing fluid at high pressure, as your guide and adversary. 

Omigod… 

Legal eagles will be hovering over this for years. Lawsuits are now, and will continue to roll out and meander through the system forever and a day. Let’s just hope there are sufficient resources, either on BP’s part or the feds, to compensate people properly. 

In the meantime… 

Pray. 

Tags: BP, BP Oil Spill
Posted in Emerging Issues, Environment | No Comments »

Fix the BP Spill Idea-of-the-Day (#1)

June 2nd, 2010. By AbiK

We’re posting your ideas on how to fix the BP Oil Spill. All ideas are from submissions to LawyersAndSettlements.com—some may have a prayer in hell, some may be hair-brained, but all are with good intentions. And hey, you never know. So with that, here’s the…

Idea-of-the-Day to Fix the BP Oil Spill (#1)

“If possible erect a 12×12 box of steel or whatever metal is feasable weighing about ten tons with a sealed opening that can withstand the pressure of the oil escaping that can be entered with a pipe that is forced into it with pressure from above.”

Got an idea you’d like to share? Let us know. Or email our editor at .

Tags: BP, BP Oil Spill, Idea of the Day
Posted in Emerging Issues, Environment | 2 Comments »

BP Oil Spill: The Fallout and Who’s Affected…Including You

May 27th, 2010. By Kristine B

With an environmental disaster as large as BP’s oil spill, no doubt many people are affected. Some are affected directly. Others, however, are affected indirectly and might not even realize it. This week, Pleading Ignorance gives some examples of people who might have no idea that this environmental disaster has affected them. We look at property damage, business losses and other effects of the oil spill.

BP Oil Spill + Property Damage + Property Ownership/Rental

Obviously Affected

Anyone in real estate knows it’s all about location, location, location. Most often, the choicest locations—particularly at the height of rental and time-share season—involves a beachfront somewhere, and that beachfront comes at a high price. Unfortunately, the BP oil spill has given new meaning to the phrase “tar beach” for folks who could afford a beachfront stretch. With oil encroaching upon their waterfronts, there’s property damage afoot. That damage could cost these homeowners for repair, maintenance and replacement of anything on the property damaged by oil, not to mention the cost of cleaning up.

The other damage that homeowners suffer is the loss of enjoyment of their property—their own, and that of others if they were planning on renting out their home. After all, who wants to enjoy the beach when the beach is covered by oil? So there’s potential loss of income, too.

Finally, there’s the loss in property value to consider. Try sticking a “for sale” sign up on beachfront property right now in, say, Louisiana or Alabama. If folks can’t use the beach, they sure aren’t going to come to an open house—let alone fork over a downpayment.

Possibly Affected

Even if you don’t live along the beach, if you live close to the beach—say, a few blocks off—you’ll also be affected by the oil spill. You may not suffer property damage, but proximity to the beach means that you enjoy the beach as one of the perks of your location. That’s a perk you probably still paid a hefty sum for. Because of the oil spill, you don’t have the option of enjoying the beach anymore. Nor would anyone you’d hope to sell your place to. And that adds up to a decrease in property value. 

People who rent long-term along the beach or near the beach are affected, too. Although they don’t suffer the same property damage as homeowners, they probably pay high rent for the sake of living near the coastline. Like homeowners, they no longer have use of the beach, something they pay for.

Basically, if part of your cost of residence involves use of the beach, you’re no longer getting what you paid for, through no fault of your own.

Remotely Affected

For those folks who vacation on the Gulf Coast each summer, you may have already paid for—or at least put a downpayment on—a rental. But chances are, you’ve been re-thinking that Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BP, BP Oil Spill, Pleading Ignorance
Posted in Emerging Issues, Environment, Pleading Ignorance | 2 Comments »

Fake BP Gets More Followers Than the Real BP

May 25th, 2010. By AbiK

There’s something rather disturbing in this newsflash: the fake BP Twitter account has more followers than the real BP Twitter account. Yes, 18,149 more followers to be precise as of my writing this.

And with tweets like…

The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick! #bpcares

and…

Oh man, this whole time we’ve been trying to stop SEAWATER from gushing into our OIL. Stupid Terry was holding the diagram upside down.

it’s pretty clear that the fake tweets are not the official BP tweets, though it’s also clear that folks are finding the fakes to be more engaging—and dare I say more humorous if you can find humor in such a disaster—than the reality. After all, the reality of the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf is a bit too much to take—it’s day #36, there hasn’t been much progress with the clean-up and the damage continues to grow.

I’m all for humor and sarcasm as a means to put more focus on an issue—or even just to let off some steam. But @BPGlobalPR went a bit too far at one point with this tweet:

@willarkatone – It’s not our oil, it’s America’s oil! In the meantime, if you’d like to donate to help us clean up go to www.bp.org

There are folks out there who genuinely want to help and who would make a donation to do so. Posting a bogus url is just irresponsible. But—NOT posting the fact that the proceeds from the t-shirts you’re peddling are going to healthygulf.org is just stupid. I’m just amazed that the authors of the BPGlobalPR Twitter stream see fit to hide behind a bogus bio (“This page exists to get BP’s message and mission statement out into the twitterverse!”) and then, when they have the opportunity to rally some support for the cause vs. merely just coughing up some sarcasm, they drop the ball—they hype the t-shirts but not the cause! Go figure. And, while I’m at it, partnering with Amazon or another established online etail op (cafepress, zazzle…) may have given their t-shirt transactions a bit more street cred than the streetgiant site they’ve got…just my two cents.

Tags: BP, BP Oil Spill, Twitter
Posted in Environment | No Comments »

Psst…Remember that 2006 BP Spill in Alaska?

May 24th, 2010. By AbiK

While all eyes are on the BP disaster in the Gulf, it’s easy to forget about a bit of unresolved BP business up in Alaska: the 2006 Prudhoe Bay pipeline spills. Well, while the rest of us may have back-burner’d it, rest assured, the US Department of Justice and folks up in Alaska have not.

According to a report in the Anchorage Daily News, “lawyers for BP and federal regulators appear to be working hard to settle a civil lawsuit the government brought against the oil company in connection with the 2006 pipeline spills”. Spills to the tune of 212,252 gallons of oil in March, 2006, and a second spill that required a partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay.

Lawsuit?

Yes. Lawsuit. No, you didn’t hear about it back in 2006—that’s because it was filed in March 2009 by the US Dept. of Justice on behalf of the EPA and federal pipeline regulators. The civil suit alleged water and air pollution violations and a failure to meet deadlines stemming from a corrective action order from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The suit is seeking millions in fines.

And, there’s another civil suit against BP that was filed by the state of Alaska. That one seeks at least $1 billion in back taxes and “other collections”.

If you’re wondering why these are civil suits and not criminal suits, that’s because back in 2007 the Alaskan BP subsidiary had been sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to pay $20 million after pleading guilty to a federal environmental misdemeanor. That plea basically ended any criminal prosecution of BP.

Now, if you’ll recall, we also recently posted about the would-be environmental award BP was to receive—until, of course, the Gulf disaster. The Prudhoe Bay spills though beg the question of how—how?!?—could BP be up for an award when it was less than five years ago that disaster struck in Alaska? And the award was sponsored by the federal Minerals Management Service—what, do they all have exceedingly short-term memory over there?

Needless to say, with regard to Alaska’s $1 billion lawsuit, BP’s lawyers have asked Superior Court Judge Peter Michalski to dismiss much of the charges. Hmm.

Tags: Alaska, BP Oil Spill, Prudhoe Bay
Posted in Environment | No Comments »