ENVIRONMENT — SCIENTISTS BEG FOR CHANCE TO TAKE BASIC MEASUREMENTS OF GULF OIL SPILL: Nearly three months after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are still struggling to obtain even basic measurements of the oil disaster’s magnitude. In response, “a group of independent scientists, frustrated and dumbfounded by the continued lack of the most basic data,” have released a report, detailing a project “intended to definitively measure how much oil has spilled and where and how it is spreading throughout the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.” Team leader Dr. Ira Leifer, a researcher at the Marine Science Institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara, stressed that accurate data would have prevented BP’s failed “top kill” and “top hat” plans, saying “effective containment systems available now, if we’d had the measurements.” Ideally, the team would “begin its experiments at the well site, capturing data and imagery with remotely-operated vehicles that would produce authoritative measurements of the flow,” thereafter focusing on the water column and current to understand “how the oil is interacting with the water.” Although Leifer’s group has the support of Rep. Edward Markey (D-MA), who successfully pressured BP to release live video of the oil leak, the scientists still require the approval and monetary support for their efforts from BP or the federal government. If the past is any indication, approval does not seem imminent — last month, BP rejected the help of thousands of volunteers, many with expert training and experience in handling offshore oil disasters and oil spill cleanup.
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From the Newsroom of Senator Maria Cantwell
As Senate Takes Up Oil Spill Response, Cantwell to Introduce Bill to Protect Puget Sound and U.S. Coast from Catastrophic Oil Spills
Before Senate action, Cantwell will chair hearing on oil spill prevention and response technology; legislation addresses industry failure to fully utilize best available methods
Tuesday, July 06,2010
SEATTLE, WA – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said she will introduce legislation to require the oil drilling industry to continually integrate the latest technologies into oil spill prevention and response plans. Speaking at a press conference on Seattle’s waterfront, Cantwell said the oil industry has failed to update its response plans with the best technology available because of weak regulations. Had the latest technologies been in place this spring, Cantwell said, the ongoing spill in the Gulf of Mexico might have been prevented, or its impact limited. After Congress reconvenes, Cantwell will chair a hearing of the Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard to address shortcomings and vulnerabilities in oil industry prevention and response technology.
“We have learned a painful lesson from the Deepwater Horizon disaster: America cannot rely on big oil companies and their CEOs to utilize the best available prevention and response technology,” Senator Cantwell said. “We’ve seen over the past 20 years that the industry will not do it on its own – from Exxon Valdez to Deepwater Horizon, Congress has had to intervene and respond. The sad truth is that if BP had the latest technologies in place this spring, the Deepwater Horizon disaster might not have occurred, or, if it did, a great deal of the damage could have been mitigated. These companies prepare fully for how to best extract resources and maximize their profits – they use technology to the fullest there. But because they refuse to prepare for these disasters, it is time for Congress to do what is necessary to bring this entire industry into the 21st century for spill prevention and response – not just extractions and profits.”
Cantwell pointed out that even areas where offshore drilling is prohibited, such as the Pacific Northwest, are vulnerable to spills because of the huge quantities of oil passing through often treacherous waters on tankers. Approximately 600 oil tankers and 3,000 oil barges travel through Puget Sound’s fragile ecosystem annually, carrying about 15 billion gallons of oil to Washington’s five refineries. Investigations in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon spill have shown that a lack of incentives and strong legal mandates has resulted in little action by the oil industry to research and develop improved spill prevention and response technologies.
While Cantwell’s latest efforts focus on developing and fielding the latest prevention and response technologies, Cantwell has been playing a key role in spill prevention and coastal protection legislation since long before the Deepwater Horizon spill. For more than three years, Cantwell has been working on a U.S. Coast Guard authorization bill that passed the Senate May 7 without opposition. The bill, which is awaiting final House-Senate approval, would significantly enhance oil spill response and prevention, improve offshore oil drilling safety, and protect coastal communities. The legislation expands federal oil spill response requirements west to Cape Flattery ensuring that Puget Sound and the entire Strait of Juan de Fuca have spill response teams and equipment in place. The bill further reduces traffic in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary; enhances spill prevention efforts on vessels transporting oil; and establishes a stronger role for tribes. Previously, Cantwell championed legislation requiring a year-round Neah Bay rescue tug near the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Cantwell has also introduced legislation that would permanently ban oil drilling off the Pacific Coast, and she has an amendment to the Outer Continental Shelf Reform Act of 2010 that significantly improves oversight and safety of offshore oil drilling rigs by filling a gap in current regulatory policy. Cantwell’s amendment would require by law a full, top-to-bottom third-party certification of drilling systems. Under current regulations, a full, top-to-bottom third-party certification of drilling systems is not mandated, meaning problems with critical drilling and safety technology such as blowout preventers are going undetected.
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Obama Sues Arizona
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The Department of Justice just filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona to challenge the racial profiling law that state is trying to implement. This lawsuit is a sign that the Obama Administration won’t let rogue states create laws from hatred and fear. It’s a good first step, and it paves the way to keep copycat laws off the books in other states. In President Obama’s speech on immigration reform last week, he said that he’s committed to fixing our broken system. This is a down payment on that promise, but there’s so much more we still need to do. Can you join me in faxing the President and tell him to keep it up? Send this fax to President Obama: The Justice Department’s actions are proof that the government isn’t going to stay on the sidelines and let states attack our basic human rights. Tell President Obama not to stop with Arizona! Thank you, p.s. I know that anti-immigrant forces are going to be trying to pressure the President to drop this lawsuit – we can’t let them overwhelm us! Send a fax, then tell five friends to do the same. |
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Let them Eat Cake
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They don’t get it — or don’t care.
Nearly 15 million Americans are unemployed, and nearly 7 million Americans have been out of work for over 6 months.
Yet, once again, a minority of Senators blocked help for millions of struggling families. Hold your Senators accountable for their actions by making a phone call today.
Providing unemployment benefits and other assistance to families and helping states and localities protect jobs and services aren’t just compassionate. They are the best ways to help a fragile economy.
While your Senators are home, they need to hear from you. We can’t let another week go by without giving families the support they need.
Tell your Senators that we need legislation that extends unemployment insurance benefits and emergency assistance for families in crisis. And it needs to include additional Medicaid funding for states, or else we’ll face further cuts to health care, education, emergency assistance and other vital services for children and families. That’s right, inaction means more pink slips.
We need your help. Contact your home offices and demand real help for families, states, and the economy.
Thank you for continuing to fight for women and families.
Sincerely,
National Women’s Law Center
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9.5% Unemployment
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The new unemployment figures came out on Friday and they’re bad. We lost 125,000 jobs and the unemployment rate is 9.5%.
But instead of helping those who are out of work, Congress just went on vacation without extending unemployment benefits. That means 2 million Americans are losing a desperately-needed source of support because of Congress’ continued failure to act.
Congress seems to think they’re doing the popular thing by pulling back support for the economy, but in fact, a recent poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans want benefits extended, even if it means temporarily increasing the deficit.
Thankfully, your senators, Sens. Murray and Cantwell did the right thing and voted to extend benefits. But there weren’t enough senators willing to stand with them. We need to keep up the pressure so every senator knows this urgent issue has to be dealt with right away. Click here to send a free fax to Sens. Murray and Cantwell with the results of the poll along with a demand that the Senate act.
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSWA_1.FSWA_2&cp_id=1395&id=21582-9640874-tSp8G8x&t=3
Friday’s unemployment numbers drive home the point that Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman made last week about the perils of government inaction. He goes so far as to say we may be heading for a depression.
Here are some key excerpts from Krugman’s op-ed:
We are now, I fear, in the early stages of a third depression. It will probably look more like the Long Depression than the much more severe Great Depression. But the cost—to the world economy and, above all, to the millions of lives blighted by the absence of jobs—will nonetheless be immense. And this third depression will be primarily a failure of policy. Around the world…governments are obsessing about inflation when the real threat is deflation, preaching the need for belt-tightening when the real problem is inadequate spending.
Unemployment—especially long-term unemployment—remains at levels that would have been considered catastrophic not long ago, and shows no sign of coming down rapidly.
In the face of this grim picture, you might have expected policy makers to realize that they haven’t yet done enough to promote recovery. But no: over the last few months there has been a stunning resurgence of hard-money and balanced-budget orthodoxy.
While long-term fiscal responsibility is important, slashing spending in the midst of a depression, which deepens that depression and paves the way for deflation, is actually self-defeating.
So I don’t think this is really about Greece, or indeed about any realistic appreciation of the tradeoffs between deficits and jobs. It is, instead, the victory of an orthodoxy that has little to do with rational analysis, whose main tenet is that imposing suffering on other people is how you show leadership in tough times.
You can read the whole thing and pass it on to your friends here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/28/opinion/28krugman.html
And click here to send Sens. Murray and Cantwell a fax to demand that the Senate does their part to get the economy growing again:
http://pol.moveon.org/fax?tg=FSWA_1.FSWA_2&cp_id=1395&id=21582-9640874-tSp8G8x&t=4
Thanks for all you do.
–Daniel, Laura, Nita, Duncan, and the rest of the team
Be a Seed for Change 
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