More Spew

There's more to killing the Gulf of Mexico than Deepwater Horizon:

NEW ORLEANS - (AP) Oil is spewing from a damaged well north of a bay where officials have been fighting the spill from the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Coast Guard says a tow boat called Pere Ana C. hit the wellhead near Mud Lake early Tuesday. No injuries were reported.

The Coast Guard did not know who owns the small well or how much oil has leaked. But a sheen has been spotted in the lake. Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts says oil is spewing from the wellhead.

And there's more to killing our ecosystem with oil than just the Gulf of Mexico:

MARSHALL TOWNSHIP -- A leaking pipeline spilled about 840,000 gallons of oil into a creek leading to the Kalamazoo River on Monday, according to estimates from Enbridge Energy Partners, the company taking responsibility for the spill.

The leak resulted from a pipeline malfunction that was still under investigation Monday, said Tom Fridel, general manager for Enbridge Liquids Pipelines in Chicago. The 30-inch pipeline carries about 8 million gallons of oil per day from Griffith, Indiana, to Sarnia, Ontario, according to Enbridge.

The leak originated at the Enbridge site, at 16000 Division Drive near the border of Marshall and Fredonia townships. The oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, which flows northwest into the Kalamazoo River.

Should we start a new slogan, "Extinction in 100" as in human species wiped out within one hundred years?

We can do it, people!

More Spread

Tarballs have reached the shores of Texas. BP oil has seeped into New Orleans' Lake Pontchartrain. Unmitigated, growing, (human) life-threatening disaster with an exponentially growing dead zone.

Scientists want to take measurements but aren't get the money or access they need from BP or our government. My theory is that it is all much, much worse than anyone is saying, even the harshest projections. We're seeing rapid demolition of nature in the Amazon, the Polar Ice Caps, our oceans. We are literally choking ourselves to death with civilization. It's a viral that denudes the earth in search of comfort, speed, pleasure, self.

Yep, the President needs to do more, like letting the scientists in, like maybe going military on BP. Rather than closing the hole, BP is being allowed to harvest whatever oil they can. It's all about their investment.

And while I want Obama to do more, let's not forget who's protecting BP in the Senate:



Unleash the subpoenas. Because even the recovery effort is a lie.

B to the P

So is "top kill" a.k.a. Armageddon underwater going to work? Are there more holes down there than we're seeing? In some ways, the massive damage already inflicted on the Gulf of Mexico and surroundings by what appears to be criminal negligence on the part of British Petroleum is too much to deal with until the hole is plugged...if it ever can be.

Per Philippe Cousteau Jr., the grandson of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, after taking a dive through Gulf waters tainted by both oil and the lethal chemical dispersants, it's a "nightmare" down there. We may lose a species (of whale, no less) thanks to our unquenchable thirst for oil, Dick Cheney-led watering down of regulations, and BP's unmitigated quest for "big and important" profits. Take a look at the ABC News report with Cousteau -- if you have the stomach for it:



For those complaining that the Obama Administration hasn't gotten off the dime, check out this list of actions they've taken. Maybe there's more to do, but at some level they need to be riding BP rather than nationalizing BP's liability. I'd like to see some Tea Party Baggers show they're actually more than identity politics partisans by protesting every BP gas station, U.S. office and even fly over to their home headquarters to show them how America feels about being used as their toilet bowl. They can go protest Halliburton as well, and Dick Cheney at whatever undisclosed location he might be hiding. Then I can give them credit for coherence. More likely, they'll blame Obama.

BP has a terrible reputation within the oil industry. Whatever you may think of big oil, we're addicted to the stuff, and not just in our cars. This PC I'm typing on? There's oil in it. That iPod? iPhone? iPad? And the second iPad you bought for your spouse or kids? Oil. So if we're draining the earth of it's oil and turning it into pollution, at least the companies with the better safety records should be the ones doing it.

Because if you think this is the last time BP is going to have spillage problems...welcome to Alaska.