BP OIL SPILL

[trimmonthelake]

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/overlooked_bp_oil_spill_proble.html
Overlooked BP oil spill problem: Well gushes vast amounts of methane, could create Gulf 'dead zones'
Published: Friday, June 18, 2010, 7:12 AM
NEW ORLEANS -- It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico's fragile ecosystem.

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

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That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

"This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history," Kessler said.

Methane is a colorless, odorless and flammable substance that is a major component in the natural gas used to heat people's homes. Petroleum engineers typically burn off excess gas attached to crude before the oil is shipped off to the refinery. That's exactly what BP has done as it has captured more than 7.5 million gallons of crude from the breached well.
A BP spokesman said the company was burning about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas daily from the source of the leak, adding up to about 450 million cubic feet since the containment effort started 15 days ago. That's enough gas to heat about 450,000 homes for four days.

But that figure does not account for gas that eluded containment efforts and wound up in the water, leaving behind huge amounts of methane.

BP PLC said a containment cap sitting over the leaking well funneled about 619,500 gallons of oil to a drillship waiting on the ocean surface on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a specialized flare siphoning oil and gas from a stack of pipes on the seafloor burned roughly 161,700 gallons.

Thursday was focused on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers chastised BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Testifying as oil still surged into the Gulf at between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day, coating more coastal land and marshes, Hayward declared "I am so devastated with this accident," ''deeply sorry" and "so distraught."

But he also said he was out of the loop on decisions at the well and disclaimed knowledge of any of the myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion. BP was leasing the rig the Deepwater Horizon that exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the environmental disaster.

"BP blew it," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House investigations panel that held the hearing. "You cut corners to save money and time."

As for the methane, scientists are still trying to measure how much has escaped into the water and how it may damage the Gulf and it creatures.

The dangerous gas has played an important role throughout the disaster and response. A bubble of methane is believed to have burst up from the seafloor and ignited the rig explosion. Methane crystals also clogged a four-story containment box that engineers earlier tried to place on top of the breached well.

Now it is being looked at as an environmental concern.

The small microbes that live in the sea have been feeding on the oil and natural gas in the water and are consuming larger quantities of oxygen, which they need to digest food. As they draw more oxygen from the water, it creates two problems. When oxygen levels drop low enough, the breakdown of oil grinds to a halt; and as it is depleted in the water, most life can't be sustained.

The National Science Foundation funded research on methane in the Gulf amid concerns about the depths of the oil plume and questions what role natural gas was playing in keeping the oil below the surface, said David Garrison, a program director in the federal agency who specializes in biological oceanography.

"This has the potential to harm the ecosystem in ways that we don't know," Garrison said. "It's a complex problem."
In early June, a research team led by Samantha Joye of the Institute of Undersea Research and Technology at the University of Georgia investigated a 15-mile-long plume drifting southwest from the leak site. They said they found methane concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal, and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent or more.

The scientists found that some parts of the plume had oxygen concentrations just shy of the level that tips ocean waters into the category of "dead zone" -- a region uninhabitable to fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures.

Kessler has encountered similar findings. Since he began his on-site research on Saturday, he said he has already found oxygen depletions of between 2 percent and 30 percent in waters 1,000 feet deep.

Shallow waters are normally more susceptible to oxygen depletion. Because it is being found in such deep waters, both Kessler and Joye do not know what is causing the depletion and what the impact could be in the long- or short-term.

In an e-mail, Joye called her findings "the most bizarre looking oxygen profiles I have ever seen anywhere."

Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged that so much methane in the water could draw down oxygen levels and slow the breakdown of oil in the Gulf, but cautioned that research was still under way to understand the ramifications.

"We haven't seen any long-term changes or trends at this point," said Robert Haddad, chief of the agency's assessment and restoration division.

Haddad said early efforts to monitor the spill had focused largely on the more toxic components of oil. However, as new data comes in, he said NOAA and other federal agencies will get a more accurate read on methane concentrations and the effects.
The question is what's going on in the deeper, colder parts of the ocean," he said. "Are the (methane) concentrations going to overcome the amount of available oxygen? We want to make sure we're not overloading the system."

BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed Joye's suggestion that the Gulf's deep waters contain large amounts of methane, noting that water samples taken by BP and federal agencies have shown minimal underwater oil outside the spill's vicinity.

"The gas that escapes, what we don't flare, goes up to the surface and is gone," he said.

Steven DiMarco, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University who has studied a long-known "dead zone" in the Gulf, said one example of marine life that could be affected by low oxygen levels in deeper waters would be giant squid -- the food of choice for the endangered sperm whale population. Squid live primarily in deep water, and would be disrupted by lower oxygen levels, DiMarco said.

[islandmonkey]

BP Oil Spill: Against Gov. Jindal's Wishes, Crude-Sucking Barges Stopped by Coast Guard
59 Days Into Oil Crisis, Gulf Coast Governors Say Feds Are Failing Them
 

June 17, 2010
Eight days ago, Louisiana  Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered barges to begin vacuuming crude oil out of his state's oil-soaked waters. Today, against the governor's wishes, those barges sat idle, even as more oil flowed toward the Louisiana shore.

Louisiana Governor Jindal frustrated over decision-making red tape.  "It's the most frustrating thing," the Republican governor said today in Buras, La. "Literally, yesterday morning we found out that they were halting all of these barges."

Sixteen barges sat stationary today, although they were sucking up thousands of gallons of BP's oil as recently as Tuesday. Workers in hazmat suits and gas masks pumped the oil out of the Louisiana waters and into steel tanks. It was a homegrown idea that seemed to be effective at collecting the thick gunk.

"These barges work. You've seen them work. You've seen them suck oil out of the water," said Jindal.


"The Coast Guard came and shut them down," Jindal said. "You got men on the barges in the oil, and they have been told by the Coast Guard, 'Cease and desist. Stop sucking up that oil.'"

A Coast Guard representative told ABC News today that it shares the same goal as the governor.

"We are all in this together. The enemy is the oil," said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Dan Lauer.

But the Coast Guard ordered the stoppage because of reasons that Jindal found frustrating. The Coast Guard needed to confirm that there were fire extinguishers and life vests on board, and then it had trouble contacting the people who built the barges. WTF???


Louisiana Governor Couldn't Overrule Coast Guard
 The governor said he didn't have the authority to overrule the Coast Guard's decision, though he said he tried to reach the White House to raise his concerns.

"They promised us they were going to get it done as quickly as possible," he said. But "every time you talk to someone different at the Coast Guard, you get a different answer."

After Jindal strenuously made his case, the barges finally got the go-ahead today to return to the Gulf and get back to work, after more than 24 hours of sitting idle.

Along Gulf Coast, Governors Ask, 'Who's In Charge?'
Fifty-nine days into the crisis, it still can be tough to figure out who is in charge in Louisiana, and the problem appears to be the same in other Gulf Coast states.

In Alabama today, Gov. Bob Riley said that he's had problems with the Coast Guard, too.

Riley, R-Ala., asked the Coast Guard to find ocean boom tall enough to handle strong waves and protect his shoreline.


"It was picked up and moved to Louisiana," Riley said today.

The governor said the problem is there's still no single person giving a "yes" or "no." While the Gulf Coast governors have developed plans with the Coast Guard's command center in the Gulf, things begin to shift when other agencies start weighing in, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It's like this huge committee down there," Riley said, "and every decision that we try to implement, any one person on that committee has absolute veto power."


http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindals-wishes-crude/story?id=10946379&page=2

[trimmonthelake]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100619/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill
As oil spews in Gulf, BP chief at UK yacht race
  By RAPHAEL SATTER, Associated Press Writer Raphael Satter, Associated Press Writer   – 23 mins ago

LONDON – BP chief executive Tony Hayward, often criticized for being tone-deaf to U.S. concerns about the worst oil spill in American history, took time off Saturday to attend a glitzy yacht race off England's Isle of Wight.

Spokeswoman Sheila Williams said Hayward took a break from overseeing BP efforts to stem the undersea gusher in Gulf of Mexico to watch his boat "Bob" participate in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race.

The one-day yacht race is one of the world's largest, attracting hundreds of boats and thousands of sailors.

In a statement, BP described Hayward's day off as "a rare moment of private time" and said that "no matter where he is, he is always in touch with what is happening within BP" and can direct recovery operations if required.

That is likely to be a hard sell in Gulf states struggling to deal with the up to 120 million gallons of oil that have escaped from a blown-out undersea well.

A pair of relief wells that won't be done until August is the best bet to stop the massive spill that was set off by an oil rig explosion that killed 11 workers on April 20. BP has been hammered for its response, in part because of comments by Hayward that Gulf Coast residents horrified by the spill consider insensitive.
By late June, the oil giant hopes it can keep nearly 90 percent of the flow from hitting the ocean. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen on Friday said a newly expanded containment system is capturing or incinerating more than 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of oil daily, the first time it has approached its peak capacity.

British environmental groups immediately slammed Hayward's outing. Charlie Kronick of Greenpeace said Hayward was "rubbing salt into the wounds" of Gulf residents whose livelihoods have been wrecked by the disaster.

"Clearly it is incredibly insulting for him to be sailing in the Isle of Wight," he said.

Hugh Walding, the coordinator of the Isle of Wight Friends of the Earth, said Hayward's choice of venue was sure to arouse anger.

"I'm sure that this will be seen as yet another public relations disaster," Walding said.

Hayward's public persona has already dented the company's image. Hayward angered many in the United States when he was quoted in the Times of London as suggesting that Americans were particularly likely to file bogus claims. He later shocked residents in Louisiana by telling them that no one wanted to resolve the crisis as badly as he did, adding: "I'd like my life back."

On Thursday, Hayward told lawmakers on a U.S. House investigations panel that he was out of the loop on decisions surrounding the blown well. Both Democrats and Republicans were infuriated when he asserted, "I'm not stonewalling."
The next day, BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg seemed to suggest that Hayward was being withdrawn from the front line of the oil spill response, although his comments were later qualified by company spokespeople.

"It is clear that Tony has made remarks that have upset people," Svanberg said in a U.K. television interview.

It was not clear whether Hayward actually took part in Saturday's race or attended as a spectator. Williams refused to comment beyond saying that the embattled chief executive was there with his son.

Peta Stuart-Hunt, a press officer for the event, said Hayward "wasn't listed on any of the crew list." She said she could not immediately who was on the crew list.

"If he is on the boat, he's in contravention of the rules," she said.


Hayward can go straight to he!!

[islandmonkey]

Waive the damn Jones Act ASAP...........I am seeing here imcompetence at levels that nobody unless they live on the coast is watching although they hear about it, but seeing is another thing an it's infuriating to see the admin drag their f***ing heels while the shore all over the Gulf Coast is slowing being destroyed and the marshes and estuaries are ruined for decades.......the beaches will heal and are on a scale of 1-10 to clean a 2, so get your heads out of your ass O and waive the Jones Act ASAP

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Jones Act: Maritime politics strain Gulf oil spill cleanup
Pressure is building for President Obama to lift a 1920 protectionist law so that high-tech foreign oil skimmers can help with the Gulf oil spill. Why are 1,500 available US oil skimmers not on the scene?

 A fleet of oil skimmers collect oil from the broken oil well under the surface at the Gulf oil spill site, approximately 42 miles off the coast of Louisiana. The Coast Guard is calling in more skimming boats and equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain.




The Coast Guard Friday "redoubled" efforts to keep the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from impacting Gulf states by calling in more skimming boats and equipment from the Netherlands, Norway, France, and Spain after previously telling one Dutch official "Thanks, but no thanks," to an offer of help.

That revelation comes as Florida lawmakers beg for more skimmers to ward off Gulf spill oil approaching the state's white sand beaches and the Unified Command – led by Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen – struggles with chain-of-command issues as BP changes its on-scene leadership.
The news of more foreign ships steaming toward the Gulf also comes amidst a heated political debate over the role of the 1920 Jones Act, a protectionist law that prohibits foreign-flagged boats and crews from doing port-to-port duty within 3 miles of the US coast.

On Friday, Sen., Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R) of Texas filed legislation to waive the Jones Act to welcome more high-tech foreign clean-up boats, saying the Jones Act is standing in the way. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last week "that we have not had [a] problem" with the Jones Act. At the same time, US marine interests complain that up to 1,500 US-flagged skimmers sit idle, and should be used first.


"We are still receiving reports of foreign-flagged vessels being turned away or their offers of assistance hanging in limbo. That should not be the case," Sen. George LeMieux (R) of Florida wrote to President Obama Friday. "There is a breakdown of communication and it is critically important the situation get fixed and we see an armada of skimmers at work."

Confusion has steadily built around the exact US skimmer strategy and the role of the 1920 Jones Act. President Bush waived the act temporarily to allow foreign ships to help with the hurricane Katrina relief effort.

Only a day after Fox News quoted Adm. Allen saying, "To date, nobody has come for a Jones Act waiver," Coast Guard Captain Roger Laferriere, the second-in-command, told ABC World News that both Allen and President Obama had, in fact, worked to waive the Jones Act to allow more foreign vessels to attack the spill. That is a BLATANT lie

"We have exhausted all our east coast supply of skimming vessels," Capt. Laferriere said. "We are now looking at Norway, France, Spain and other European vessels."
There are currently 447 skimming boats working the unabated spill area, the mass of which is now inching towards Florida. Unified Command last week implemented a "surge" strategy of moving the fleet to areas directly threatened by the spill.

Evidence built this week that Obama and the Unified Command are walking a political tightrope over the Jones Act and the role of foreign vessels in the Gulf oil spill cleanup. Some Republican congressmen, including Charles Djou of Hawaii, already oppose the Jones Act, saying it drives up consumer prices. Largely Democratic-leaning unions, meanwhile, support the act, and are carefully gauging Washington's reaction.

Maritime industry spokesmen say boat owners and longshoremen – who are tied to the AFL-CIO, one of Obama's biggest union supporters – have no issue with waiving the act if US vessels can't be found to do the job. Yet, "There are American vessels that are completely equipped to deal with this situation with no instructions to do anything," Mark Ruge, who works with the Maritime Cabotage Task Force, tells Human Events blogger Robert B. Bluey. SNAP~There is one of the reasons, the damn unions , GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
In testimony last week to Congress, Ken Wells, CEO of the Offshore Marine Service Association, said the oil spill response threatens to "degrade" the Jones Act, even though the dozen or so foreign boats currently on the scene have American crews.

"We find that many of these vessels are blatantly ignoring the Jones Act," Mr. Wells testified. "Worse, we find that the agency charged with enforcing the Jones Act has failed to live up to its responsibilities to enforce the law and to interpret the law as Congress intended."

Proximity of the US skimming fleet could be complicating deployment, since many boats are staged along the west coast and in Alaska. But with Obama yet to publicly address the practical and symbolic Jones Act issue, the confusion is part of what Emory University political scientist Alan Abramowitz calls an "improvised response" to the spill in part due to BP's lack of preparation for an unprecedented wellhead event as well as slowness by the administration to grasp the scope of the disaster.

Grasping to boost the spill response as BP tries to contain a runaway wellhead spewing up to 60,000 barrels of oil into the Gulf a day, Adm. Allen announced Friday that Unified Command is outfitting 2,753 locally-owned boats with skimming equipment, a process that could take two months. That, at least, is likely to prove politically popular along the Gulf Coast, where many residents are clamoring for ways to help fight the spill – and to get paid doing it.

"This is something that is on a scale that far exceeds anything we've done in a domestic response before," Allen said.


http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0619/Jones-Act-Maritime-politics-strain-Gulf-oil-spill-cleanup/(page)/2

[islandmonkey]

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2010/06/18/94643053/index.xml


Far from blameless

ShareI watched the President brief the American public Tuesday evening on the Gulf oil spill. It amazes me how this President cannot accept blame for anything. Once again, the “Blame Bush Syndrome” is rampant in the White House.

Don’t get me wrong — the blame goes to BP. They messed up my favorite coastline.

The President once again said he was on the problem from the beginning. What problem was he on top of? When the Governor of Louisiana requested to build barrier islands to protect the marshes of that state, it took the Obama Administration weeks to approve a fraction of what was requested.

In his speech, the President said that if something wasn’t happening, he wanted to hear about it. Well, it is 50-some days after the Deep Water Horizon sank and the President has yet to waive the Jones Act.

The Jones Act states that all ships operating in U.S. territorial waters must be under the U.S. flag, been built in the U.S., and be crewed by U.S. citizen or permanent residents. When Katrina happened, President Bush waived the Jones Act almost immediately. Why has President Obama dragged his heels on this one? Is it to protect his union backers? If so, I don’t think this is an appropriate time for political payback. Do you?
As I said, once again the President had Blame Bush Syndrome. He spoke of how the Material and Mining Service was corrupt and told of his orders to Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to “clean it up” when he took office.

I agree the MMS was quite corrupt. What the President didn’t say was that the Deep Water Horizon missed 16 inspections the last two years, and the inspection it underwent two weeks before the disaster was by someone still in training. WHY???? Could  it be because BP basically helped write the Cap and Trade bill??

At the end, the President started his promotion for new environmental regulation with some flat-out lies. Yes, I said it. He lied to us. He said because we are running out of oil, we are forced to go to deeper waters to drill.

What? Remember ANWAR? The proposal for offshore drilling there would be in less than 150 feet of water. Remember that we are not allowed to drill off the west coast. Also remember there are places on land where we are not allowed to drill.

The environmentalists and the NIMBY crowd are forcing us to drill so far off-shore. Why has the Department of Interior bought up about a third of Nevada and Utah? All in prime oil and oil-shale country?  Mr. President, what was that about us running out of places to drill? It’s only because you and our government won’t allow us to drill where it is more convenient and safer.

Now that we are almost two months into the worst oil spill in our nation’s history, our President offers no solutions but to push through his progressive environmental agenda and tell us lies. Mr. President, you say you are in charge of this disaster. Since when?

[islandmonkey]

Why did Obama turn down offers of help?
Friday, 18th June 2010
Amazingly, it looks like Obama deliberately exacerbated the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster to push his ideological agenda. Seems he actually refused offers of help from other countries to fix the bust oil well, refusing to waive the trade union-inspired protectionist legislation which normally prohibits such assistance from being taken  -- but which was waived by President Bush over Hurricane Katrina, as  had been done by other Presidents in the past. Notes Hans Bader:

In April 2009, the Obama administration granted BP, a big supporter of Obama, a waiver of environmental regulations.  But after the oil spill, it blocked Louisiana from protecting its coastline against the oil spill by delaying rather than expediting regulatory approval of essential protective measures.  It has also chosen not to use what has been described as “the most effective method” of fighting the spill, a method successfully used in other oil spills.  Democratic strategist James Carville called Obama’s handling of the oil spill “lackadaisical” and “unbelievable” in its “stupidity.”

Obama is now using BP’s oil spill to push the global-warming legislation that BP had lobbied for.  Obama’s global warming legislation expands ethanol subsidies, which cause famine, starvation, and food riots in poor countries by shrinking the food supply.  Ethanol makes gasoline costlier and dirtier, increases ozone pollution, and increases the death toll from smog and air pollution.   Ethanol production also results in deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution. Subsidies for biofuels like ethanol are a big source of corporate welfare: “BP has lobbied for and profited from subsidies for biofuels . . . that cannot break even without government support.”
Sheesh. The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is exceeded only by the disaster in Pennsylvania Avenue...




http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6088220/why-did-obama-turn-down-offers-of-help.thtml

[islandmonkey]

Dealing With The Oil Spill The Liberal Way




Personally I am absolutely astonished that President Obama, the consummate leftist that he is, is allowing his public standing to be denigrated by not taking decisive action to solve the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico the way liberals deal with all issues presented to them. And by that I mean that I am amazed that he has not simply issued a piece of paper with his signature on it proclaiming the spill cleaned up and the crisis over. You know, just like liberals do with almost everything else.

Health insurance rates and coverage a problem? Nope! Just sign a law, unconstitutional as it may be, to fix it. Well, ok, not really fix it, but at least proclaim it fixed and hope everyone believes it. The economy faltering after years of bad policies that encouraged banks to make bad loans to bad candidates or have their businesses threatened? That's ok, just get a piece of paper promising billions of dollars for nebulous and ill defined things to create a few thousand very temporary jobs and deem the whole thing fixed.

But just because President Obama has not acted in the preferred method that liberals chose whenever a crisis, real or concocted, arises it dose not mean that he hasn’t dipped into the liberal bag of tricks with regards to the Gulf oil spill. After weeks of diddling, claiming that he and his administration were large and in charge, blaming BP for everything despite claiming that it was he and his administration that was in charge and finding every excuse in the world to get in the way of private companies and even foreign countries who had offered to help clean up the mess and even standing in the way of State governments trying desperately to deal with the problem President Obama finally decided to put his boot down.

He summoned BP to the White House and told them how things were going to be. This included getting BP to set up a $20 billion dollar fund to help sort out claims and costs of the clean up. Boy, that President of ours sure is swell huh? Now he is touting how he, and he alone, was able to make BP responsible financially for this mess. However, did you know that President Obama is not as all powerful as he wants you to believe?

The truth is that BP was already liable for the spill under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Under this act, passed before President Obama ever entered national office, BP was already liable fully for the containment and cleanup costs. Even so President Obama now wants America to believe that only by his grace is BP being held accountable. LOL~too bad the liberal sheeps don't get this.........BP should bear the cost of this disaster just incase any of you are thinking that I am going to defend that company and suggest that they should not be paying hand over fist the costs of the remediation and all legitimate claims of harm. But let us also remember that it was President Obama who refused to waive the Jones Act which prohibited foreign countries who offered help with advanced oil recovery technologies from sending vessels equipped to help the situation too. Then there is the fiasco over the fact that despite a 1994 plan requiring the government to use fire booms to contain and then burn the spill not a single such boom was in place to be used. This was all pre-approved but not done making everything worse. And then on top of that it took more than two weeks for approval to be granted for Louisiana to pile sand on the beaches to act as a barrier against the oil washing ashore. Two weeks! Why? Because bureaucrats needed to study the plan? My God, only a person with his head firmly up his posterior orifice would be doing so much to prevent further damage. Oh and let us not forget the Coast Guard mysteriously deciding that they had to inspect the skimmer barges and pull them out of service causing Governor Jindal to blow a gasket and get the story widely known that even more obstruction was occurring.

Meanwhile President Obama and his sycophants crow about how he is handling the situation and holding BP accountable. Yeah, the Great and Powerful Obama has spoken! His will be done! Even though the Oil Pollution Act, while it spells out BP’s liability, also directs the President to be helpful and not hinder efforts which this administration has clearly done. The law states:
“The President shall, in accordance with the National Contingency Plan and any appropriate Area Contingency Plan, ensure effective and immediate removal of a discharge, and mitigation or prevention of a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance ...” SO, WTF isn't he, and why is he making it as difficult as possible to contain the spill, it's his DUTY under the above referenced acts to contain the oil, and clean up-----then hold BP liable for the expenses. It's the damn law Mr. Obama, but I guess you snub your nose at laws that dis-favor the unions and don't hlep your agenda while we will have a dead zone in the Gulf due to not only the oil, but also the methane gas, we have prolly 100,000 out of work due to the spill who may never be able to go back to fishing, etc., and it's destroying the economy just to top it off, is it your position to make sure everyone is dependent on the Government for welfare etc so they will re-elect you to ensure they continue to rec'v welfare, unemployment etc???
But far from “ensuring effective and immediate removal of a discharge,” President Obama is getting the executive branch in the way. And when he is not getting in the way he is busy not doing pre-approved actions.

Now we are in a muddled mess because of this. BP is liable but the federal government has not been as helpful as it should have been, and is required to be by law, thus exasperating the situation causing damages to mount. President Obama summons the oil company to his left hand and coerces them into setting up a fund and exceeds his role as the Chief Executive of the federal government and acts like a Judge while assuming a role of the Judicial Branch by declaring BP’s liability to pay claims and how it shall be done.

We have actual courts for this and yes, while I realize that taking BP to court to recover damages is time consuming there is a reason for the process. That reason is so that by using the courts the awards are not arbitrary and based on claims that have not been vetted for their veracity. When mandates are made outside of the legal process invariably fraud and abuse skyrocket and money gets awarded where it should not be and for harms not real or at best exaggerated. Meanwhile that leaves less money to pay real claims. As individual citizens we certainly would not stand for our local Mayor deciding that we were liable for large sums of money to another resident of the same town simply because the claim that he was owed it from us was made would we? Heck no and we should not tolerate it from our President either.

The courts are there to make people whole from suffering when their rights are being trampled by the actions others. Circumventing that process violates a great deal of precepts of justice and puts America closer to a Latin American Banana Republic than a Constitutional one.

Meanwhile the oil still spills and States in the path of the slick fret about what is to come. My prediction as to what will be coming? More diddling, more finger pointing and more covering up for that diddling from the highest places within our government. We seem more worried about dragging BP up on a cross than letting them figure out how to plug the damn hole which continues to spew. We seem a lot more interested in obstructing efforts to clean the spill by any bureaucratic means possible. And we certainly don’t seem all that interested in getting to the bottom of how BP apparently received some very questionable waivers for activities under President Obama’s watch.
There will always be oil spills as long as we use oil. Some of them will be horrendous. And those companies responsible must pay to make those affected whole. But our government must not hinder efforts to contain the damage, make that damage worse and cost those companies more because of their own malfeasance. Because once they do they bear too much responsibility for additional costs and damages. And let's face it. We, the tax payers, cannot afford any more needless expenses.


http://www.webcommentary.com/php/ShowArticle.php?id=jacksonj&date=100619

[trimmonthelake]

http://vimeo.com/12673399

60 Days After Its Start UAB Biologists Reflect on Oil Spill Impacts
by uabnews plus
1 day ago 1 day ago: Fri, Jun 18, 2010 11:36am EST (Eastern Standard Time)

[theboyzmom]

The fact that Obama did not just issue a blanket waiver for any ship that could help makes me sick. Meanwhile he is using this disaster as a political game. How sick is that?  I personally think that that alone should make him impeachable.

[islandmonkey]

Jimmy Announces Free Gulf Concert
Jimmy Buffett announced a free concert on July 1, 2010 in Gulf Shores, AL to promote awareness and tourism in the Gulf area. Special guests will include Sonny Landreth, Zac Brown Band, Kenny Chesney, Jesse Winchester and Allen Toussaint. A special souvenir tee shirt will also be designed for the concert and sold onlne and at the show. More info coming soon!

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/06/21/bp-succeeds-pushing-demands/
BP Succeeds at Pushing Back Against U.S. Demands
Published June 21, 2010
| The Wall Street Journal
WASHINGTON
— BP PLC, despite being put under pressure by the U.S. government to pay for the oil-spill aftermath, has succeeded in pushing back on two White House proposals it considered unreasonable, even as it made big concessions, said officials familiar with the matter.

BP last week agreed to hand over $20 billion—to cover spill victims such as fishermen and hotel workers who lost wages, and to pay for the cleanup costs—a move some politicians dubbed a "shake down" by the White House. Others have portrayed it as a capitulation by an oil giant responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters in history. A more accurate picture falls somewhere between.

The fund is a big financial hit to BP. But behind the scenes, according to people on both sides of the negotiations, the company achieved victories that appear to have softened the blow.

BP successfully argued it shouldn't be liable for most of the broader economic distress caused by the president's six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. And it fended off demands to pay for restoration of the Gulf coast beyond its prespill conditions.
After the high-profile meeting
of administration and BP officials on Wednesday, it was in the interest of neither to discuss such details. BP wanted to look contrite and to make a grand gesture, and the White House wanted to look tough.
President Barack Obama came away touting how BP's money would be handed over quickly and impartially to those hurt by the spill. Not only did BP earmark the $20 billion fund but it promised an additional $100 million for Gulf workers idled by the drilling moratorium.

But BP didn't offer a blank check. The $100 million—0.5% of the total—won't come close to covering collateral damage from the White House's moratorium.

Slide Show  http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/world/2010/04/21/coast-guard-responds-oil-rig-explosion-lousiana-coast/#slide=3

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100620/NEWS02/6200341/Access-to-oil-spill-limited-for-media
Access to oil spill limited for media
Column by Sebastian Kitchen • June 20, 2010
BP and the federal government have claimed for weeks that they are opening cleanup efforts to the media on the coast after coming under fire for restricting access to the work, but the evidence does not support those claims.
Security and supervisors for BP contractors confronted Mont­gomery Advertiser photo editor Da­vid Bundy and me on at least two occasions during our brief trip to cover the effects of the oil spill on coastal Alabama. Our experience was similar to those of other re­porters who have been told to get off public property or who have been threatened.

Both incidents occurred on public property, once in a parking lot at the pavilion at Gulf State Park and the other was on a public beach in Orange Beach.

We did not encroach on the ability of the workers to do their work either time. In fact, the first time, I did not even make it out of my vehicle before a security guard, who later kindly helped me close my door, approached me.

While working on my story at the pavilion because of traffic re­lated to President Obama's visit to Orange Beach, Bundy and I heard supervisors talking to workers us­ing a public address system at the end of the parking lot. I walked over and listened to them. They talked to them about safety, pro­viding for their families and other issues before sending them onto the beaches to work.
The workers were wearing shirts with the logo of Plant Per­formance Services, or P2S.

After Bundy and I finished sending my story and his photos, he went to the beach to try to pho­tograph the cleanup work and I drove closer to where they origi­nally assembled.

The security officer approach­ed before I put the car into park and asked if he could help me. I told him I was a reporter and he told me I was not allowed there.

I informed him we were on pub­lic property and he said he would have to call the police or his super­visor if I did not leave. I asked if he could make a call to see if there was anybody I could talk to.

As we talked, another security officer approached the car.
continued here..    http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20100620/NEWS02/6200341/Access-to-oil-spill-limited-for-media

[islandmonkey]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Obama_s-thuggery-is-useless-in-fighting-spill-96684389.html


Obama's thuggery is useless in fighting spill
By: Michael Barone
Senior Political Analyst
June 20, 2010
 
President Barack Obama waves as he exits Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on Friday. (Cliff Owen/AP) 

 
Thuggery is unattractive. Ineffective thuggery even more so. Which may be one reason so many Americans have been reacting negatively to the response of Barack Obama and his administration to BP's Gulf oil spill.

Take Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's remark that he would keep his "boot on the neck" of BP, which brings to mind George Orwell's definition of totalitarianism as "a boot stamping on a human face -- forever." Except that Salazar's boot hasn't gotten much in the way of results yet.

Or consider Obama's undoubtedly carefully considered statement to Matt Lauer that he was consulting with experts "so I know whose ass to kick." Attacking others is a standard campaign tactic when you're in political trouble, and certainly BP, which appears to have taken unwise shortcuts in the Gulf, is an attractive target.

But you don't always win arguments that way. The Obama White House gleefully took on Dick Cheney on the issue of terrorist interrogations. It turned out that more Americans agreed with Cheney's stand, despite his low poll numbers, than Obama's.

Then there is Obama's decision to impose a six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf. This penalizes companies with better safety records than BP's and will result in many advanced drilling rigs being sent to offshore oil fields abroad.

The justification offered was an Interior Department report supposedly "peer reviewed" by "experts identified by the National Academy of Engineering." But it turned out the drafts the experts saw didn't include any recommendation for a moratorium. Eight of the cited experts have said they oppose the moratorium as more economically devastating than the oil spill and "counterproductive" to safety.

This was blatant dishonesty by the administration, on an Orwellian scale. In defense of a policy that has all the earmarks of mindless panic, that penalizes firms and individuals guilty of no wrongdoing and that will worsen rather than improve our energy situation. Ineffective thuggery.

And what about the decision not to waive the Jones Act, which bars foreign-flag vessels from coming to the aid of the Gulf cleanup? The Bush administration promptly waived it after Katrina in 2005. The Obama administration hasn't and claims unconvincingly that, gee, there aren't really any foreign vessels that could help.

The more plausible explanation is that this is a sop to the maritime unions, part of the union movement that gave Obama and other Democrats $400 million in the 2008 campaign cycle. It's the Chicago way: Dance with the girl that brung ya.

Or the decision to deny Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's proposal to deploy barges to skim oil from the Gulf's surface. Can't do that until we see if they've got enough life preservers and fire equipment. That inspired blogger Rand Simberg to write a blog post he dated June 1, 1940: "The evacuation of British and French troops from the besieged French city of Dunkirk was halted today, over concerns that many of the private vessels that had been deployed for the task were unsafe for troop transport."

Finally, the $20 billion escrow fund that Obama pried out of the BP treasury at the White House when he talked for the first time, 57 days after the rig exploded, with BP Chairman Tony Hayward. It's pleasing to think that those injured by BP will be paid off speedily, but House Republican Joe Barton had a point, though an impolitic one, when he called this a "shakedown."

For there already are laws in place that insure that BP will be held responsible for damages and the company has said it will comply. So what we have is government transferring property from one party, an admittedly unattractive one, to others, not based on pre-existing laws but on decisions by one man, pay czar Kenneth Feinberg.

Feinberg gets good reviews from everyone. But the Constitution does not command "no person . . . shall . . . be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law except by the decision of a person as wise and capable as Kenneth Feinberg." The Framers stopped at "due process of law."

Obama doesn't. "If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so," write the editors of the Economist, who then suggest that markets see Obama as "an American version of Vladimir Putin." Except that Putin is an effective thug.

[islandmonkey]

http://www.pnj.com/article/20100621/NEWS01/100621001

BP Gulf spill costs hit $2 billion, no end yet
 — BP has spent $2 billion in two months of fighting its Gulf of Mexico oil spill and compensating victims, with no end in sight to the disaster or the price tag.



The British oil giant released it's latest tally of response costs Monday, including $105 million paid out so far to 32,000 claimants. The figure does not include a $20 billion fund that BP PLC last week agreed to set up to continue compensating Gulf residents and businesses. There are also scores of lawsuits piling up against BP for the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and ensuing oil spill that has yet to be capped.


Also Monday, the man President Barack Obama picked to run the $20 billion damage fund said many people are in "desperate financial straits" and need immediate relief.

"Do not underestimate the emotionalism and the frustration and the anger of people in the Gulf uncertain of their financial future," Kenneth Feinberg told interviewers. "It's very pronounced. I witnessed it firsthand last week."


Feinberg, who ran the victims claim fund set up in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said he is determined to speed up payment of claims.


Shares of BP, which have lost about half their value since the rig Deepwater Horizon burned and sank off the Louisiana coast, were down nearly 5 percent Monday in London trading at $5.06. The rig was owned by Transocean Ltd. but run by BP.


BP also argued that its partners in the oil well project must share responsibility for the disaster costs. BP owned 65 percent of the well, while Anadarko Petroleum Corp. had 25 percent stake and a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan had a 10 percent stake.


Anadarko said Friday the joint operating agreement made BP responsible for any damage due to gross negligence or willful misconduct. BP shot back Monday that all the partners shared in liability for oil spill damages.


The best hope of ending the diasaster rests on teams drilling two relief wells meant to stop the seafloor oil gusher, a daunting task: Their drills have to hit a target roughly the size of a salad plate about three miles below the water's surface.


If the workers aboard Transocean's Development Driller II or its sister rig DDIII miss or move too slowly, oil will keep pouring into the sea. As much as 125 million gallons of oil has gushed into the Gulf.


No one on the rig has done this before because these deep sea interventions are so rare. But rig workers brushed off worries and the pressure to succeed.


"It's really not a tough thing to do," says Mickey Fruge, the wellsite leader aboard the DDII for BP, which was leasing the rig that blew up and is responsible for stopping the oil.


The relief wells are slowly grinding their drill bits 13,000 feet below the seafloor until they intersect the damaged well left by the Deepwater Horizon. A group of reporters that included The Associated Press had a rare chance to tour the rig Saturday.


Reporters flew by helicopter above the patchy wetlands along the Mississippi River Delta and past the floating boom and skimmers that have failed to protect the Gulf Coast.


About 40 miles from the coast, a fleet of ships becomes visible. They look like toys packed in a two-mile-square patch of dull water. The approaching drill rig is easy to spot with its 200-foot derrick.


After the Sikorsky chopper settles on its landing pad, the thwack of the rotors quiets down, and a rig worker steps into the helicopter cabin.


"OK, welcome to the DDII," he says.


Out in the distance, another drilling rig is siphoning off oil and natural gas from the undersea well and burning it in a multi-nozzled flare. It looks like the flames are radiating from an oversized showerhead. Other ships hose off that rig's deck to keep the heat from building.


Meanwhile, a boom attached to a drill ship called the Discoverer Enterprise flares off natural gas taken from a containment cap that is sucking up oil from the well head. The distant flames are a constant reminder that crude and gas are leaking beneath the feet of those aboard the DDII as they walk across the see-through grating on its floor.


The Enterprise sits where the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. Some of the DDII crew knew Transocean workers on that rig.
(3 of 3)



It's "always, always on our mind," said Wendell Guidry, Transocean's drilling superintendent on the rig.


BP has said a relief well should be ready by August, and the DDIII is farther along, having reached a depth of nearly 11,000 feet below the seafloor. Still, Guidry said, it's unclear which rig will hit the target first.

"Never know what will happen," he said. "You never know."


Work goes on around-the-clock on the DDII, which can hold 176 people. Eight thrusters on the rig keep it precisely positioned over the well it's drilling. The ship is so large that those aboard cannot feel it move on the water most of the time.


Once one of the two relief wells intersects the damaged line, BP plans to pump heavy drilling mud in to stop the oil flow and plug the blown-out well with cement.


It's a tricky task and not guaranteed to work. A pair of relief wells took months to stop an undersea gusher in Mexico that started in the summer of 1979.


Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the top federal official in the spill response, has said construction on the relief wells remains ahead of schedule. But setbacks are routine on a drilling rig.


"It's business as usual, man," said Eric Jackson, a rig worker. "Everybody tells us to be, 'Hey, don't let the pressure get to you.' This is what we do for a living, man. We drill wells. It's the same as any other day."

[islandmonkey]

http://www.pnj.com/article/20100621/NEWS01/6210309

Marine life may be fleeing oil spill
Animals gathering closer to shore, but no one's sure why
Kimberly Blair • kblair@pnj.com • June 21, 2010

Comments (16) Recommend (2) Print this page E-mail this article Share Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine Buzz up!
Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A Next Page1| 2Previous PageDeepwater amberjack are showing up in shallower water around the Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier.





A large school of juvenile amberjack is hanging out in about a foot of water under the pier. A small sea turtle has been swimming around the feet of waders in knee-deep water at Casino Beach.

Shark fishermen are reporting larger numbers of the predators tugging on their lines off the shores of Gulf Islands National Seashore's Fort Pickens beach and down the beach to Navarre.

And on Wednesday, Destin anglers noted cobia heading east instead of their usual migratory path west.

Related
Oil spill: Clear sand and clean hands

"Everything is coming in closer," said angler John Swieder, as he tossed lines into the Gulf from the Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier. "This is unusual."

Researchers have seen the same type of unusual behavior in Gulf Shores, Ala., where they say sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures are fleeing the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and clustering in cleaner water near the shore.

Opinions are mixed on why.

Pensacola marine biologist Heather Reed believes the sheen and oily blobs from the Deepwater Horizon oil gusher are impacting the natural behavior of sea life around Pensacola Beach.

"There is a huge disturbance in the Gulf. There is a lack of food and a loss of oxygen in the water," said Reed, an environmental adviser for the City of Gulf Breeze. "The fish that would be in deeper water would come in closer to forage for food.

"I'm confident that all fish are looking for food that's not in their normal territory."

On Friday, she received calls from two longtime local fishermen who said they're catching "larger-than-normal" snapper and grouper in Pensacola Bay, size normally seen in the Gulf and not the bay, she said.

Gulf Islands National Seashore biologist Mark Nicholas is not convinced that more offshore sea creatures are moving closer to shore.

He believes people are observing natural migratory patterns, especially when it comes to sharks and the hundreds of cow rays that have been patrolling the coast in recent weeks.
(2 of 2)


"I think a lot of people are finally noticing what's out there," he said of people going to the beach and scrutinizing the water more closely as they look for the effects of the oil spill.



But he said that shorebirds have been abandoning their nests in the national seashore, and there is a major decline in number of sea turtles nesting this year.

"As of last night, we had three nests," he said on Friday. "This time last year, we had eight. I don't know if that's because of the oil spill or because of the downward trend we've seen the past a few years."

'Weird' is the word
Pensacola Beach resident and angler Mick Long, 20, is puzzled by the lack of mackerel.



"That's weird," he said while fishing for what he noticed is an abundance of flounder off the pier.

Avid angler and fishing tournament organizer Joe Zwierzchowski of Gulf Breeze said the fact that there are reports of many animals exhibiting unusual behavior is striking and leads him to believe it is oil-related.

"Cobia should all be gone now, breeding off of Texas," he said, though he has heard from angler friends that cobia were swimming east in Destin.

Amberjack near the Pensacola Beach Gulf Pier are unusual, and the large school of juvenile amberjacks hanging in the shallows under the pier is "weird," he said.

The large group of barracuda hanging out under the pier typically hangs out farther offshore, he said.

"Them moving in tells me they're following bait," he said.

[islandmonkey]

OH CHIT!!!!!!!!!!

Not much will keep me off the beach or out of the water (I spent 6 hrs both days of the weekend in the water), sharks off shore~NO, rip currents~NO, tar balls~NO.............but sharks THIS CLOSE to the shore, he77 yeah-that will keep my arse on the beach if it happens here and I wouldn't be shocked, the dolphins are super close and Friday a sea turtle was only 15 ft maximum from shoreline. YIKES


http://www.breitbart.tv/lots-of-sharks-lots-of-oil-seen-off-alabama-coast/

[islandmonkey]

CMT News

Jimmy Buffett and CMT Present a Live Concert From the Gulf Coast
 
Free Tickets Available Wednesday (June 23) Via Ticketmaster

June 21, 2010; Written by CMT.com Staff

Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band will be joined by Kenny Chesney, Zac Brown, Allen Toussaint, Sonny Landreth, Jesse Winchester and additional special guests during a free concert in Gulf Shores, Ala. The event, titledCMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends Live From the Gulf Coast, will take place July 1.

Tickets will be available from Ticketmaster beginning Wednesday (June 23) at 10 a.m. CT. There is a four-ticket limit, and tickets are required for entry. Organizers expect to accommodate up to 35,000 people at the event on the beach.

The concert is being organized to demonstrate support for and solidarity with residents, businesses and the culture of the Gulf Coast. Gates will open at 3 p.m., and the concert will start at 5 p.m.

A portion of the show will air live on CMT from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ET/PT. Performances will be simulcast live on Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio and streamed live on CMT.com.

"There are always welcome breaks in every storm, but the unfortunate reality is that this disaster is not going away for a while," Buffett said. "But a few hours of fun, void of the constant reminders of the situation, is a good thing, and that is basically what I do."

"I thank Jimmy Buffett and these other great artists for coming to perform on Alabama's coast," said Alabama Gov. Bob Riley. "Their music will lift up spirits and help encourage visitors to come here and enjoy our world famous Southern hospitality."

"Music has healing powers, and who better than Jimmy and friends to summon them up?" said CMT president Brian Philips. "It is CMT's privilege to present this special. We send a message to the people of the Gulf Coast that our audience -- and the world -- stands beside them."

"Gulf Shores is at the center of the vast coastline affected by the oil spill, and we hope that people from all across this beautiful stretch of America will come down, support local businesses on the way and enjoy some great music to elevate an important cause," noted CMT senior vice president of music and talent John Hamlin.

CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends Live From the Gulf Coast is produced by the State of Alabama, the City of Gulf Shores, CMT, Live Nation and Land Shark Lager. Local promotional services are provided by Mobile-based Huka Entertainment.

CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends Live From The Gulf Coast will encore July 2 at 7 p.m., July 3 at 9:30 a.m., July 4 at 2 p.m. and July 5 at 11:30 a.m. Excerpts and artist interviews will be available at CMT.com.

[trimmonthelake]

http://blog.al.com/press-register-commentary/2010/06/editorial_ditch_the_self-serving_blather_and_pay_claims.html
Editorial: Ditch the self-serving blather and pay claims
Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 5:33 AM
IS IT really good news that BP has pumped $16 million into Alabama’s economy and another $9.5 million into Mississippi’s in the form of claims payments?

Hardly.
For BP to even suggest that it’s boosting the Gulf Coast economy with the claims it’s paying demonstrates a supreme arrogance. The response from the coastal states can be: The least you can do is turn claims around quickly to make up for the damage you’ve done.

Indeed, if more help doesn’t come soon, a slick of bankruptcy will start tracking the Deepwater Horizon oil sheen as it moves along the coast over the next few months. Already, seafood processing is crippled and tourism is gasping for air. And that’s not counting the full effects of the disaster, which may not be measurable for years.

Eventually, hope for a speedier process could come in the form of pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, who was appointed by President Obama to take over management of the $20 billion claims fund from BP. Mr. Feinberg might be the man for the job, seeing as how he chaired the government’s compensation fund for victims of the 9/11 attacks.

On Monday, he said he wants BP’s claims process stepped up and made more transparent. He is right, and the states’ elected officials can see that he makes good on this call to action.
So far, BP says it has made more than 32,000 payments, totaling more than $105 million, on the more than 65,000 claims that have been submitted. The last word, however, was that the individual payments were relatively small — estimated at less than $3,000 in mid-June.

The smaller claims can usually be paid quickly. Take the condo owner who got a check within a day. But larger, more complex claims, like those typically filed by businesses, are taking much longer.

BP can do better by streamlining the process now and erring on the side of claimants who are in dire straits. Some local business people, for instance, have been told that they could get advance payments on their summer losses. If that’s so, then this help has to come quickly if many are to survive. They may not have the luxury of waiting until the government takes over the claims process.

Gulf Coast governors, meantime, have to get involved and demand that BP pick up the pace on claims immediately. Mr. Feinberg has already met with the governors from Louisiana and Mississippi. He meets today with Alabama’s Gov. Bob Riley. There may be no better time to demonstrate statesmanship than now, by reaching across geographical and political boundaries to demand action.

In the meantime, what are businessmen like Jerry Forte of Pass Christian, Miss., to do? He told The Associated Press on Friday that he hadn’t seen a dime from the claim he filed a month ago. Now his seafood processing business is all but shuttered.

To the east, on Alabama’s Fort Morgan Peninsula, Greg and Susan Miller can’t rent the 70 condos they manage or the eight they own themselves. How are they going to pay the mortgages on their properties?
There is only one answer to give them and others who are suffering: BP’s claim checks have to start flowing faster.

[trimmonthelake]

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/06/oil_spill_forecast_to_return_t_1.html
Forecast: Oil spill to return to Alabama coast today; 17,000 claims filed
Published: Tuesday, June 22, 2010, 5:00 AM

Richard and Amanda Scott of Eight-Mile, Ala., look for tar balls as they walk along the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., Monday, June 21, 2010. Hay bales line the beach to defend against oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
<snipped>

[trimmonthelake]

IM,that was a good video!