Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

(Note added June 13, 2010: Even if the practice of “burning off” parts of the slick has ended [not sure], the title still holds, because there has been plenty of “smoke” on this environmental disaster. I have not written much about it because I find it depressing that it takes a mixture of government and dropping stock prices to force Big Oil to [some] social and environmental responsibility.)

(Note added June 15, 2010: President Obama delivered an 18-minute address from the Oval Office about the spill, and the estimate of the RATE of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico was raised up to 50% more than previously estimated, 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day (1.5 million gallons to 2.5 million gallons per day).

The respected Chicago Tribune reports that the oil spillage from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is GUSHING OIL AT FIVE TIMES THE RATE ORIGINALLY ESTIMATED and THE LEADING EDGE OF THE SPILL  IS ONLY THREE MILES FROM THE LOUISIANA SHORE.

The Tribune reports that the oil spill could even eclipse the record spill of the Exxon Valdez disaster, the worst oil spill in U.S. history (11 million gallons), and could reach the ecologically sensitive and economically valuable Mississippi Delta by tonight.

Government officials said that the blown-out well is gushing oil into the Gulf at about 5,000 barrels/day, which is about 210,000 gallons/day! CNN reports that oil is leaking from three points.

An effort to BURN OFF part of the slick destroyed about 100 barrels, according to Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP, who believes that larger burns of 500 or 1,000 barrels at a time can occur under appropriate conditions.

Do the math.

Efforts to shut down the well have failed so far. BP Group’s CEO, Tony Hayward, told CNN that  the well’s blowout preventer – which he called the “ultimate fail-safe mechanism” – has failed to shut down the well as designed. Other options could take weeks or months. The well has been gushing oil since April 20. Abbouit 33 miles of oil “booms” have been deployed to try to contain the 120-mile slick. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency today.

I first wrote about the explosion and oil spill, which cost 11 lives, on Earth Day, April 22, and followed the entry with a blog entry about serveral Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, from California, WHO FAVOR INCREASED DRILLING OFF CALIFORNIA’S COAST.

(Sorry to “shout,” but I get ANGRY when I think of greedy or stupid (or both ) people who do not mind the destruction of the natural environment in the pursuit of wealth through flawed technology. Besides, increasing CO₂ levels by burning more oil products is not what the earth’s atmosphere needs right now.)

According to CNN, TEN WILDLIFE REFUGES in Mississippi and Louisiana are in the path of the oil slick, with the Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area at the tip of the Mississippi River likely to be the first affected, according to Louisiana’s Governor. The timing is the worst possible – bird specis are breeding, nesting, and extremely vulnerable.

Under the 1990 oil pollution act, which was passed after the Exxon Valdez disaster, the company (BP in this case) is required to pay for the cleanup. We shall see what happens. BP Group’s CEO, Tony Hayward, has blamed the rig operator, Transocean Ltd. for the disaster. There has been no reply from Transocean to BP’s comments.

Textbook.

I “love” the Myers-Briggs “thinking-judging” personalities which comprise upwards of 90% of the executive ranks of most corporations. They dance around “pointing fingers” because they are almost incapable of accepting responsibility for their actions. It would be humorous, except that we have groups of adults, acting like young children, while destroying most things in their path to partial fulfillment of their greed.

While corporations point fingers:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared the oil spill a “crisis of national significance” today, which allows the U.S. governement to apply resources from across the county (which, by the way, are paid for by us taxpayers in the U.S.).

The U.S. Coast Guard urged BP to formally request more resources from the Defense Department.

CNN reports:

Obama has called the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida to discuss the spill, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. Napolitano is scheduled to go to the Gulf Coast on Friday, along with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, to make sure all necessary steps are being taken for the cleanup, her office said.

The Chicago Tribune article states:

The oil slick could become the nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world’s richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life. Oil was thickening in waters south and east of the Mississippi delta about five miles offshore.

The Tribune quotes a fishing guide, Cade Thomas, who did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government, or BP PLC:

“They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren’t proactive,” he said. “As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms.”

I went looking at Midwestern sources of the news, because I felt that news of the impact of this oil spill was not “making it over the Sierra Nevada.”

Are you listening, California politicians?

(Note added May 02, 2010: Nope – California’s Governor STILL wants to drill off the California Coast.)

(Note added May 03, 2010: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today reversed his position on increased offshore drilling, as the result of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.)

(Note added May 08, 2010: Stopping the gushing oil at the source with a containment dome was foiled by gas hydrate formation. The gas hydrates are lighter than water and made the dome buoyant! Meanwhile, the well is still spewing oil at 210,000 gallons/day.)

(Note added May 11, 2010: Remember how the executive ranks of companies are filled with upwards of 90% Myers-Briggs “thinking-judging” types? Such group-thinking folks tend to exclude others who are not like themselves and, like very small children, have a tough time accepting responsibility for their own actions.

Today, BP and subcontractor executives are STILL “finger-pointing” with regard to blaming “the other guy!” Sometimes, I think that the rest of us actually are delighted that they exclude us from their activities and their gated communities, because we surely would not want them living around US! As for BP “paying for the cleanup,” it is nonsense. The same group that ALWAYS pays for such things will, once again: the customer.)

(Note added May 13, 2010: U.S. Representative Henry Waxman (D-California) said that BP told the Energy and Commerce subcommitte on oversight, privately, that the well FAILED A KEY PRESSURE TEST just hours before it exploded on April 20. Waxman said that the test indicated pressure was building up in the well, which could indicate that oil or gas was seeping in and could lead to an explosion.

“Yet it appears the companies did not suspend operations, and now 11 workers are dead and the Gulf faces an environmental catastrophe,” Waxman said, asking why work wasn’t stopped on the well.

Maybe the answer is indicated by the placement of the news article in the “CNNMoney.com” section.)

-Bill at

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