Joseph J. Romm's Blog, page 1219

Zakaria on the media's double standard on oil disasters - "Conservatives who have long urged limits on the federal government are now suddenly discovering their inner FDRs."

I agree with virtually everyone out there who's complaining on camera and in print that our response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been just terrible. Except that by "our" I don't mean the government's or the country's but ours—the media's….

To read and watch the coverage of the Exxon Valdez is to be transported back to a different time. There was no effort to implicate Bush in the accident, few calls for him to emote more, no great clamor that he magically "do something"...

Chevron spills over 21,000 gallons of oil in Utah days after Governor called for more domestic production

Yesterday, Chevron discovered a leaking pipeline that was spewing 50 gallons of crude oil per minute into Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City. By the time crews capped the leak, more than 21,000 gallons — between 400-500 barrels — of oil had spilled out, "coating geese and ducks" and closing the city's largest park.  TP's Amanda Terkel has the story.

The Salt Lake City Tribune writes:

Chevron pledged to clean up the 6-mile mess, but the company could not quantify the damage. As of late...

New York Times public editor files final report, never mentions the paper's dreadful global warming coverage

The New York Times has been widely criticized for its terrible climate coverage in the past three years.  But you would never know that from, "A Final Report From Internal Affairs," the last column of Clark Hoyt, the public editor.

Hoyt was supposed to represent an objective, independent perspective that represents the public's concerns — in order "to help this newspaper live up to its own high journalistic standards," as he put it.  But he has nary a word to say about the one area where the N...

New York Times public editor files final story, never mentions the paper's dreadful global warming coverage

The New York Times has been widely criticized for its terrible climate coverage in the past three years.  But you would never know that from, "A Final Report From Internal Affairs," the last column of Clark Hoyt, the public editor.

Hoyt was supposed to represent an objective, independent perspective that represents the public's concerns — in order "to help this newspaper live up to its own high journalistic standards," as he put it.  But he has nary a word to say about the one area where the N...

Scott Brown defends vote to block EPA from regulating carbon by calling it 'a non-governmental agency'

They don't make 'moderate' Republicans  the way they used to, as this TP repost makes clear.

Thursday, the Senate voted 53-47 to block Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK) resolution that would have stripped the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its power to regulate carbon emissions. Murkowski's resolution was aimed at overturning the EPA's scientific finding, mandated by the Supreme Court, that manmade greenhouse gases endanger the American public.

Though he's considered a potential...

Despite finding 200 violations in Gulf drilling operations over the past five years, MMS collected only 16 fines.

BP and the other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster face a host of potential fines under various environmental and safety laws, but a recent Houston Chronicle investigation found that few fines are ever actually collected after drilling accidents.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) — the troubled federal agency which is supposed to regulate the oil and gas industry — collected only 16 fines out of the 400 investigations it conducted into Gulf of Mexico drilling incidents i...

After taking $96K from oil and gas firms, Toomey pushes for more offshore drilling.

Despite the massive devastation caused by BP's oil gusher, a growing number of Republicans have called for an immediate increase in offshore drilling, opposing President Obama's moratorium on new wells until an investigation of the Deepwater Horizon disaster is complete. Pennsylvania Republican Senate nominee Pat Toomey joined the club Friday.  TP has the story in this repost.

Toomey told WHYY in Philadelphia that Obama went too far in stopping new drilling:

Republican Senate candidate Pat...

Will BP go bankrupt?

Matt Simmons told Fortune this week BP has "about a month before they declare Chapter 11."  He is a smart guy –  a peakist who has run a successful boutique energy investment bank for three decades.

On the other hand, the oil giant has very, very, very deep pockets.  The PBS Newshour had a good show on this yesterday:

JUDY WOODRUFF: Byron King, back to BP itself. What is its ability to handle claims? How far can it go? How deep are its pockets?

BYRON KING: Well, just getting to the dividend...

BP humor: Best video yet

BP responds to a coffee spill:

More BP humor:

Best BP Oil Disaster cartoon so far?
What could possibly go wrong?

Boycott BP? Reckless oil giant faces backlash by gas consumers and even a minor league baseball team

Are you boycotting BP gas?   Is it a good idea?

As oil keeps pouring into the Gulf, more and more people are protesting BP, especially at their gas stations.  As it turns out, though, the vast majority of the 10,000 BP stations in the country are independently owned and operated, so a boycott primarily hits the owner.  In this repost, TP examines the issue and some of the recent protests.

Across the Gulf Coast, anti-BP signs and calls for help are popping up. On June 4, people gathered at...