Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1216

The Exxon Valdez spill was in 1989, they still, 21 years later, have not paid the [full] amount awarded in court (a mere $500 million) to those affected and in fact over 8000 people have died while waiting for compensation. Exxon is still in appeals court

Back on April 30, CAP's Dan Weiss wrote, "BP should be required to place its first quarter profit of $5.6 billion in an escrow account" (see "Held up without a gun").  The money would cover claims by those whose livelihoods have been harmed by the disaster and would help pay for quicker action on cleanup.

Some in the UK now claim, "BP's escrow solution is a dangerous idea."  What's dangerous is expecting a major oil company to make timely payments.  CAP's Weiss and Susan Lyon explained...

The Exxon Valdez spill was in 1989, they still, 21 years later, have not paid the [full] amount awarded in court (a mere $500 million) to those affected and in fact over 8000 people have died while waiting for compensation. Exxon is still in appeals court

Back on April 30, CAP's Dan Weiss wrote, "BP should be required to place its first quarter profit of $5.6 billion in an escrow account" (see "Held up without a gun").  The money would cover claims by those whose livelihoods have been harmed by the disaster and would help pay for quicker action on cleanup.

Some in the UK now claim, "BP's escrow solution is a dangerous idea."  What's dangerous is expecting a major oil company to make timely payments.  CAP's Weiss and Susan Lyon explained...

The Exxon Valdez spill was in 1989, they still, 21 years later, have not paid the [full] amount awarded in court (a mere $500 million) to those affected and in fact over 8000 people have died while waiting for compensation. Exxon is still in appeals court

Back on April 30, CAP's Dan Weiss wrote, "BP should be required to place its first quarter profit of $5.6 billion in an escrow account" (see "Held up without a gun").  The money would cover claims by those whose livelihoods have been harmed by the disaster and would help pay for quicker action on cleanup.

Some in the UK now claim, "BP's escrow solution is a dangerous idea."  What's dangerous is expecting a major oil company to make timely payments.  CAP's Weiss and Susan Lyon explained...

E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a 'nightmare well' six days before explosion

Ruthless cost-cutting leads to corner-cutting leads to disaster.  TP has the latest on the cause of the BP oil disaster:

Today, the chief executives of the five big oil companies — including BP's Tony Hayward — are going to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to an e-mail released by that Committee yesterday, a BP drilling engineer warned that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a "nightmare well" that had caused the company problems in the past. The e-mail...

Exclusive interview: NCAR's Trenberth on the link between global warming and extreme deluges - New England, Tennessee, Oklahoma.... Who's next?

I find it systematically tends to get underplayed and it often gets underplayed by my fellow scientists. Because one of the opening statements, which I'm sure you've probably heard is "Well you can't attribute a single event to climate change." But there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It's about a 4% extra amount, it...

Operator at BP call center says "We're a diversion."

To demonstrate that it's responsibly taking care of the oil spill and listening to public complaints, BP has touted the fact that it has set up call centers to handle the response.

One of the operators at the BP Call Center in West Houston has revealed that she and the other 100 employees are just PR props.  BP isn't actually doing anything with the thousands of calls it receives, as TP reports:

"We take all your information and then we have nothing to give them, nothing to give...

Rand Paul: "I believe business should be left alone from government." - On mountaintop removal: "I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it's been flattened out.... I don't think anyone's going to be missing a hill or two here and th

Sure the WashPost mocked Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) as "the last flat-earther." But that was a purely metaphorical description of the pro-pollution right-winger.  Turns out U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's (R-KY) actually thinks a lot of Kentucky would be "quite desirable" if it were literally flattened by big coal.

The scientific reality is quite different — see Science bombshell explodes myth of clean coal: Mountaintop "mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of...

Rand Paul: "I believe business should be left alone from government." - On mountaintop removal: "I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it's been flattened out.... I don't think anyone's going to be missing a hill or two here and th

Sure the WashPost mocked Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) as "the last flat-earther." But that was a purely metaphorical description of the pro-pollution right-winger.  Turns out U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's (R-KY) actually thinks a lot of Kentucky would be "quite desirable" if it were literally flattened by big coal.

The scientific reality is quite different — see Science bombshell explodes myth of clean coal: Mountaintop "mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of...

Rand Paul: "I believe business should be left alone from government." - On mountaintop removal: "I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it's been flattened out.... I don't think anyone's going to be missing a hill or two here and th

Sure the WashPost mocked Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) as "the last flat-earther." But that was a purely metaphorical description of the pro-pollution right-winger.  Turns out U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's (R-KY) actually thinks a lot of Kentucky would be "quite desirable" if it were literally flattened by big coal.

The scientific reality is quite different — see Science bombshell explodes myth of clean coal: Mountaintop "mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of...

Rand Paul: "I believe business should be left alone from government." - On mountaintop removal: "I think a lot of the land apparently is quite desirable once it's been flattened out.... I don't think anyone's going to be missing a hill or two here and th

Sure the WashPost mocked Sen. James Inhofe (R-OIL) as "the last flat-earther." But that was a purely metaphorical description of the pro-pollution right-winger.  Turns out U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul's (R-KY) actually thinks a lot of Kentucky would be "quite desirable" if it were literally flattened by big coal.

The scientific reality is quite different — see Science bombshell explodes myth of clean coal: Mountaintop "mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of...