TagMacondo field

More evidence that BP got off too easily

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Last week I wrote here that BP’s $54 billion payout for damages and restoration from the 2010 Gulf oil spill just wasn’t really enough — both because of the ongoing environmental damage from the Deepwater Horizon oil that continues to wash up on our beaches and because dollars trumped real accountability. You won’t hear that critique too much from public officials, who are...

Florida beach laced with BP’s toxic oily goop

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It was just earlier this month that I told you about tests that Marco Kaltofen — the chemical engineer who has worked with me on analyzing samples from the BP oil spill since the early days after the 2010 accident — conducted on a tar mat that came ashore on a Louisiana barrier island called Isle Grand Terre. He reported that the giant blob — which caused state officials to...

33 months later, oil persists near the Deepwater Horizon site

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In Louisiana, we are blessed to have a one-woman environmental protection agency by the name of Bonny Schumaker. A retired NASA physicist and pilot, Schumaker has found a way to merge her love of all creatures and her passion for flying to create an amazing operation called On Wings Of Care. She flies animal rescue missions but since 2010 has also devoted a lot of her energy toward helping her...

We’re keeping the pressure on BP to stop spilling more oil into the Gulf

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Late last week, we won a big victory in federal court when a judge signed off on a plan that will require BP and its rig partner Transocean to monitor the Deepwater Horizon site and nearby to identify the source of fresh oil that continues to create a sheen in the Gulf of Mexico. The order signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan last Friday approves plans by the oil giant and Transocean to...

Proof of 2010 BP coverup shows company and feds can’t be trusted today

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National Oceanic and Atmospheric Information, Greenpeace: Dead sperm whale discovered by the NOAA research vessel Pisces on June 15, 2010.   This is becoming a somewhat old — and tragic — story by now. Yet again, there’s proof that BP — and perhaps more importantly, the federal government — went to great lengths to keep the American people from seeing, let alone...

BP is trying to hide the real cause of the oil sheen in the Gulf — and we need answers

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I’m not satisfied with the answers that we’re getting from BP and the federal government about the new oil slick at the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf that was first reported on this blog earlier this month. Neither are a lot of other folks. People are demanding evidence of where the fresh crude is coming from, because the storyline that BP is floating out there now — that a...

Confirmed: Fresh BP oil from Deepwater Horizon site still polluting the Gulf

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Some 30 months after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers and triggering the worst oil spill in United States history, fresh oil continues to leak from the disaster site and pollute the Gulf of Mexico. This stunning development in the BP saga — backing up suspicions that were first reported on this blog earlier this month and from an...

UPDATED: In the tank? Feds scrub incident report about Gulf spill near BP rig — then bring it back

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UPDATE: It’s baaaack! Hours after this blog reported on the deletion of the federal incident report of a fresh oil sheen, the report was restored and put back on line. That may be because Coast Guard officials have now gone on record confirming the sheen, which they acknowledge is four miles long. Here’s the report that appeared on NOLA.com: The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating an...

Breaking news: New oil sheen near site of Deepwater Horizon disaster

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Here we go again. Federal officials acknowledge that they’re investigating a new oil sheen in the vicinity of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 workers and spewed 5 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. The announcement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, says that British Petroleum is involved in the probe and that the source of...

Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
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