Take All the Crazy Oil Drilling Risks You Want

If you do trigger an oil disaster, no problem - just direct your staff to destroy the evidence. As long as you work for Halliburton, you'll only get a tap on the wrist from the judge, who’ll then praise you.

Privatized Oil Profit and Socialized Risk, As Explained by Pipeline Safety Official

Want to know why oil companies can turn billion dollar profits and leave taxpayers at risk of oil spills? Listen to what Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) official Bill Lowery told DeSmogBlog's Julie Dermansky, keeping in mind he's supposed to be one of the good guys:

At a Public Safety Trust conference on Nov. 21, Lowery was asked, "Knowing what you know about the problems in the Keystone XL's construction, what would you do if your house was in its path?"

His answer: "Here is what I did when I bought my house — I looked on all the maps, I looked for all the well holes. I found there is nothing around me but dry holes and no pipelines. And it's not because I'm afraid of pipelines, it's not because I think something will happen. It's because something could happen. ... You're always better off, if you have a choice...."

He trailed off before finishing his sentence, but added that, "If I was building a house, I wouldn't build it on a refinery, ... I wouldn't build it on a pipeline, because they're all industrial facilities. That's just the reality."

Again, this is a federal pipeline safety official saying he wouldn't let his family live next to an industrial oil facility - yet the agency he works for permits those same facilities near residential areas like an over-eager third base coach waving runners home. This is how the deck gets stacked in favor of Big Oil and against the average citizen.

As I often ask, where's the Tea Party outrage? If the Tea Party is really about looking out for the little guy against Big Government Tyranny, shouldn't they be furious that pipeline safety agencies are letting oil companies build facilities in our communities that they wouldn't accept in their own backyard?

Not One But Two Oil Spills Fouled New Bedford Harbor Today

I've covered oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and in Arkansas, but today the oil came to me.

This morning a local journalist alerted me to reports of an oil spill right down the street from me in New Bedford Harbor. I headed down and found hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel (dyed red for tax purposes) coating the water off Pier 3. Some television crews were filming the spill, so I talked to WJAR and WLNE generally about the potential impacts of oil spills - concern for the people who make their living off the water, the fish who swim in it, and the seabirds who land in it.

As soon as I finished, a Coast Guard staffer angrily told me, "You shouldn't be talking to the press. We should be presenting a united front."

"I work for the National Wildlife Federation, not a federal agency," I said. "I'd be happy to work together on this - just tell me what's going on."

She stared at me and said nothing.

"OK, well so much for a united front," I shrugged.

Coincidentally, the Energy Exodus march was passing through New Bedford at the exact same time as the oil spill. The climate activists are marching all the way from Somerset's Brayton Point coal-fired power plant to Hyannis in support of Cape Wind.

In less of a coincidence, the moment the Coast Guard staffers saw the dozens of Energy Exodus folks arriving, they threw up yellow caution tape and ordered all civilians away from the oil spill.

As it turns out, this was the first of two oil spills in New Bedford Harbor today. I understand tracking down the culprits is hard, but do the local authorities have to sound so fatalistic already? Welp, lotsa boats, they all look alike, whaddya gonna do?

Southeastern New England faces a choice - move aggressively towards a clean energy future, or face more oil spills.

Exxon: Now Delivering Oil Right to Your Driveway

Back From America's Newest Flammable Marsh

Apologies for a lack of posts this week, was traveling to Arkansas for the National Wildlife Federation to monitor impacts of the Exxon Mobil tar sands pipeline spill. Read about my trip at the NWF blog.

BP Wants Sweetheart Oil Spill Settlement

I spent weeks covering the Gulf oil disaster for the National Wildlife Federation, so to hear that BP thinks it can bully the Justice Department into giving it a sweetheart settlement deal? What's the word I'm looking for?

Malarkey.

I recently moved from the DC area to New Bedford, MA, whose waters have been fouled by not one but two major oil spills in the last 40 years - the Florida barge spill in 1969 and the Bouchard No. 120 spill in 2003. You may not have heard much about either of those spills because New Bedford ain't exactly Miami Beach, but fishermen and wildlife lovers can still tell you plenty about the reduced catches and silent marshes.

Gulf Coast residents can stop me if this sounds familiar: The companies responsible wrote their checks, the government cleaned up what it could & moved on, but the oil from both spills isn't hard to find.

Tell U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to hold BP fully accountable.

BP Oil Spill 2-Year Mark: Talking to Thom Hartmann

DC Oil Spill: Petroleum Product Spotted in Anacostia River

Reports WUSA9:

DC Fire's Hazardous Materials Unit is searching for the source of a petroleum-based product on the Anacostia River.

The product is said to stretch from the 11th Street Bridge to Benning Road.

DC Fire and EMS Spokesperson Pete Piringer said hazmat has not identified the product yet but he said it's a low level flammable, like oil.

UPDATE 8/16: The Coast Guard doesn't seem to be able to find much oil. They're going to keep an eye on things but there doesn't seem to be much threat to the river at this point.