Original Article

NEW ORLEANS – The Coast Guard says BP PLC has managed to cap one of three leaks at a deepwater oil well, but the work is not expected to reduce the overall flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class David Mosley says the work Tuesday night should reduce the number of leak points that need to be fixed on the ocean floor. BP officials have said that fewer leaks will make it easier to drop a containment box on the breach.

The well has been spewing at least 210,000 gallons per day since an April 20 explosion at a rig 50 miles off Louisiana.

Original Article

Editorial: National Review Online

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico threatens to do as much damage to U.S. energy policy as it has to the environment. Obama’s weeks-old executive order allowing for limited coastal exploration — which we never considered a sure thing — has been stayed and will probably be rescinded. There will be budgetary considerations as federal dollars are used to clean up the Gulf. And there will be legal concerns: What kind of responsibility do BP and Transocean bear?

The answers to the policy questions will depend on the extent of the damage and on the most important factual question: How did this happen? Others already have observed, correctly, that the risks involved in drilling off the coast of the United States are small in proportion to those involved in shipping oil across the ocean or drilling off the coasts of countries that do not treat safety and environmental standards with our own degree of care.

Oil remains the most cost-effective source of transportation fuel we have; as long as our economy is thriving, we will need to produce or import a lot of it. Global-warming alarmists and zealous proponents of alternative energy have already made the BP spill the new Exhibit A in their case against fossil fuels. In evaluating their claims, we should be mindful of the economic and environmental costs of the spill relative to those associated with their preferred alternatives.

Consider the cost of cap-and-trade legislation, for instance. It’s hard to know what the economic damages of this spill will be, but even if they exceed the estimated $7 billion that it cost to clean up the Exxon Valdez spill, that would still be a far cry from the estimated $161 billion annual hit to GDP that would result from enactment of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill. On the environmental side of the ledger, will the damages from this spill outweigh the thousands of birds killed in wind turbines each year? Possibly. How about the slashing and burning of thousands of acres of rain forest that come as a result of ethanol subsidies? We doubt it.

It should also be noted that the rig in question was built to drill at depths of over a mile. Deep-water drilling is a newer technology, and this episode demonstrates that we still have a lot to learn about the associated risks. BP and Transocean will be saddled with enormous costs in the wake of this disaster, and investors in these rigs will think twice before putting money into similar projects in the future. In other words, the market will act as a check on deep-water exploration practices. At this time, it is not obvious that any new regulation would serve any purpose other than to let politicians claim that they’ve “done something” in response to the accident. As usual, overreaction is a significant danger: The reaction to Three Mile Island set the development of safe and clean nuclear power back for a generation.

As for the administration’s now-it’s-lifted, now-it’s-not drilling ban, most of the exploration and drilling that would take place if Obama actually followed through would be located in shallower coastal waters.  The safety record of shallow-water drilling remains very impressive, and this deep-water calamity neither tarnishes that record nor indicates that it couldn’t be duplicated if Obama opened more of the coastline to exploration. In any case, the president’s moratorium on new drilling is a self-defeating proposition: New rigs will take years to construct and to begin production; their safeguards will incorporate whatever lessons we learn from the investigation of this catastrophe. If there is any present danger of further damage, it comes from existing operations, which the president, who has good political reasons to dread a spike in the price of oil, does not at the moment propose to restrict.

A word on conspiracy theories: It is unfortunate that the timing of this event, coming so soon after the administration’s drilling order, has led some commentators (of varying degrees of seriousness) to entertain some outlandish scenarios. The environmental movement did not sabotage the rig to further its agenda, nor did Big Oil do it to create artificial scarcity in the market for crude. Disasters happen, and this is one.

But it is not one that should not reorder our thinking when it comes to energy production. “Drill, baby, drill,” has lost whatever usefulness it may have had as a slogan, but offshore drilling remains a crucial source of energy — and clearing obstacles to future exploration is still part of the right policy mix.

Original article

As BP announced small steps Monday toward containing a spewing oil well a mile below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, southeast Louisiana parishes rallied their residents to their own defenses against the spill’s attack on the local environment and economy.

Bad weather — with some swells reported to reach 17 feet — crimped response efforts during the weekend and much of Monday as crews around the Gulf region worked to contain the plume of oil rising unfettered since the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and sank a day later. Officials estimate 210,000 gallons of light crude are leaking into offshore waters each day.

As speculation mounts about the spill’s ultimate impact on Gulf Coast states, New Orleans’ 8th U.S. Coast Guard District commander, Rear Adm. Mary Landry, said stopping the leak remainsthe top priority.

“That is our most important task and we’re tightly focused on it,” she said.

Doug Suttles, BP’s chief operating officer for exploration and production, said the company had completed the first of three dome-like structures, known as coffer dams, which it plans to lower over the heaviest of the well’s three major leaks to siphon spewing oil to the Enterprise, a drill ship that will be waiting at the surface. Normally used in shallow water, no coffer dam has ever been deployed at such a depth, BP officials said.

Crews also started drilling the first of two relief wells Sunday shortly after 3 p.m., but those efforts will take at least two months to complete.

Additionally, the smallest of the three leaks could be capped soon, Suttles said. Crews were working to weld a valve over it.

Submersibles continued to inject a dispersant chemical into the largest oil flow with the hope of breaking down the crude before it reaches the surface, Suttles said.

A report from a BP official in Mobile, Ala., earlier Monday stating that the company had successfully reduced the flow of oil coming from the well turned out to be inaccurate.

“You would see me doing cartwheels down the hall, if that was the case,” Suttles said.

He said crews operating remote-controlled vehicles had managed to close a part of a blowout preventer, an emergency device designed to cap the well that had failed when the rig exploded, but oil continued to leak around its seal.

BP in deep water

BP officials acknowledged Monday that the company was responsible for the cleanup effort and will compensate people for “legitimate and objectively verifiable” claims for property damage, personal injury and commercial losses, according to the Associated Press.

But BP CEO Tony Hayward said on the “Today” show that his company was not responsible for the rig’s explosion, pointing out that although the oil giant operated Deepwater Horizon, it was owned by Transocean Ltd.

Before the flow of oil has even slowed, legal battles began brewing Monday.

BP quickly backed off several provisions included in waivers that volunteer workers were asked to sign before they could assist in the cleanup, said Jim Klick, an attorney representing a number of Plaquemines Parish shrimpers.

The provisions included a requirement that the workers waive their rights to damages resulting from their work, which BP officials later told Klick were included in a “boilerplate” waiver form, and will not be enforced.

Bill increases liability

Meanwhile, three U.S. senators Monday introduced legislation that would increase the cap on oil company liability for economic damages from $75 million to $10 billion.

U.S. Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.; and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said it’s important that BP cover damages for lost business revenue from fishing and tourism, natural resources damage and lost local tax revenue.

“The bottom line is that oil spills can leave massive holes in the economy. If you spill it, you should have to fill it,” Menendez said. “We’re glad that the costs for the oil cleanup will be covered, but that’s little consolation to the small businesses, fisheries and local governments that will be left to clean up the economic mess that somebody else caused. We can’t let the burden fall on the taxpayers — we should ensure that those who cause the damage are fully responsible.”

The White House on Monday repeated President Barack Obama’s stance that BP would bare the brunt of the disaster’s cost.

“Speaking with the parish presidents, speaking with the local fishermen, you get a sense of what’s at stake, both environmentally and economically,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. “And I think the president reiterated to all of us, as he has said over many, many days, and that is we must do all that we can, as aggressively as we can, to combat this incident.”

Gibbs said even under current law he believes BP would be liable for lost wages caused by the spill.

“Absolutely. That’s part of the law. Absolutely,” he said. “The economic damages that are incurred are part of the cost of this incident.”

To the boats

The affected communities have witnessed a flood of volunteers bent on keeping the expanding oil slick from the shores and estuaries within the southernmost reaches of the Mississippi River delta.

Roughly 3,500 volunteers across the Gulf region have been trained to fight the spill with 700 vessels joining the effort, Suttles said.

After a conference call with President Obama, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser and Gov. Bobby Jindal said they learned the federal government would support local parish’s efforts to act without waiting for BP’s directives.

At least 60 commercials boats could be in the water by this afternoon, loaded up with booms and under contract with BP, Nungesser said while speaking with captains during a visit by U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La.

“The only way to protect this area is proactively,” Nungesser said. “We prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

The dozen captains at the meeting told Nungesser and Vitter they were eager to get into the water and feared that bureaucratic problems would lead to a response that was too slow to protect the area.

“All the fishermen are ready to go,” said Kevin Drury, a shrimper.

BP and the Coast Guard have approved a containment plan devised by Plaquemines Parish and Jindal said he expects approval soon of a plan submitted by St. Bernard Parish. He said the state and parishes are moving forward with plans because the BP and Coast Guard plans were inadequate and were not detailed enough to deal with the threat to the marshes.

“It’s become clear there is no detailed plan to address this spill on this scale,” Jindal said. “This spill, it can fundamentally, fundamentally threaten our way of life in Louisiana.”

The current plans by the governor’s office and parish presidents for protecting the areas of the state east of the Mississippi river would cost an estimated $107.7 million for the first 30 days. This would include the laying of booms, absorbents and supplying the effort. A plan for the west side would cost $177.8 million, Jindal said.

He said the company plans to open $25 million block grants to each affected state to cover expenses.

Original Article

VENICE — Federal officials shut down fishing from the Mississippi River to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday because of the uncontrolled gusher spewing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the environmental disaster is still expected to take at least a week to cut off.

Even that toxic scenario may be too rosy because it depends on a low-tech strategy that has never been attempted before in deep water.

The plan: to lower 74-ton, concrete-and-metal boxes into the gulf to capture the oil and siphon it to a barge waiting at the surface. Whether that will work for a leak 5,000 feet below the surface is anyone’s guess; the method has previously worked only in shallower waters.

If it doesn’t and efforts to activate a shutoff mechanism called a blowout preventer continue to prove fruitless, the oil probably will keep gushing for months until a second well can be dug to cut off the first. Oil giant BP PLC’s latest plan will take six to eight days because welders have to assemble the boxes.

President Barack Obama toured the region Sunday, deflecting criticism that his administration was too slow to respond and did too little to stave off the catastrophe.

Satellite images indicate the rust-hued slick tripled in size in two days, suggesting the oil could be pouring out faster than before. Wildlife, including sea turtles, have been found dead on the shore, but it is too soon to know whether the spill, caused by an April 20 oil rig explosion, was to blame.

Even if the well is shut off in a week, fishermen and wildlife officials wonder how long it will take for the gulf to recover. Some compare it to the hurricane Louisiana is still recovering from after nearly five years.

“It’s like a slow version of Katrina,” Venice charter boat captain Bob Kenney said. “My kids will be talking about the effect of this when they’re my age.”

More than 6,800 square miles of federal fishing areas, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Florida’s Pensacola Bay were closed for at least 10 days on Sunday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco says government scientists are taking samples from the waters near the spill to determine whether there is any danger.

Fishermen still were out working, however: They have been dropping miles of inflatable, oil-capturing booms around the region’s fragile wetlands and prime fishing areas.

Bad weather, however, was thwarting much of the work; Alabama Gov. Bob Riley said 80 percent of the booms laid down off his state over the previous three days had broken down. He said booms along other coasts also are breaking down.

The Coast Guard and BP have said it’s nearly impossible to know exactly how much oil has gushed since the blast, although it has been roughly estimated to be at least 200,000 gallons a day.

At that rate, it would eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill — which dumped 11 million gallons off the Alaska coast — as the worst U.S. oil disaster in history in a matter of weeks.

“None of us have ever had experience at this level before. It ain’t good,” said Bob Love, coastal and nongame resources administrator with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “The longer it goes, the more fish and wildlife impacts there will be.”

Obama has halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster. On Sunday he called the spill a “massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster,” and made clear that he was not accepting blame.

“BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill,” he said, rain dripping from his face in Venice, a Gulf Coast community serving as a staging area for the response.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said any comparison between the ruptured BP oil well and Katrina was “a total mischaracterization” and that the government has taken an “all hands on deck” approach.

Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser met with Obama on Sunday in Venice and said the president’s “let’s-get-it-done approach was overwhelming.” He said he hopes that Obama pressures BP to approve funding for a plan to have fishermen start laying oil-sopping booms very soon.

Obama acknowledged the booms haven’t been working well in the choppy gulf, Nungesser said.

After the oil rig explosion, which killed 11 people, the flow of oil should have been stopped by a blowout preventer, but the mechanism failed, as have continuing efforts to activate it.

“As you can imagine, this is like doing open-heart surgery at 5,000 feet, with — in the dark, with robot-controlled submarines,” BP PLC Chairman Lamar McKay said on ABC’s This Week. He defended his company’s safety record.

Charlie Holt, drilling and completing operations manager for BP in the Gulf of Mexico, said Sunday that it’s still unclear why the blowout preventer failed. But he suggested something could be in the way, or it could be damaged.