You’re reading Smorgasbord from Food & Water Watch.
If you’d like to send us a note about a blog entry or anything else, please use this contact form. To get involved, sign up to volunteer or follow the take action link above.
While many Gulf residents are struggling to pay bills and stay in business, Omega Protein Corporation — who received $18.7 million from an emergency fund — posted a $160 million profit.
More disturbing news arises from the Gulf every day. In one of the more sickening examples of injustice we’ve seen lately, one of the largest industrial producers of fish oil and fish meal, Omega Protein Corporation, just posted an increase in 2010 revenue due in large part to “emergency” payments it received from a fund (created by BP and the government) to aid Gulf coast residents post-oil spill.
Omega Protein plunders the ocean, catching millions of tons of wild fish a year through environmentally damaging industrial fishing methods. The corporation predominantly catches small fish like menhaden – a species that would otherwise serve as a primary food source for marine mammals and other larger fish.
In 2009, the company was already making over $160 million. So why in the world did they need $18.7 million in “emergency payments”? Read the full article…
Yesterday, in a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) took the Bureau of Ocean Energy “Management,” “Regulation,” and “Enforcement” head Michael Bromwich to task for his agency’s notorious failure to ensure that BP’s Atlantis platform is operating safely. His words resonated with us because they echoed questions that we too are eager to have answered. Particularly, why is it that, even after a former BP contractor-turned whistleblower and 36 members of Congress called into question the facility’s unsafe operation, the government is taking so long to investigate these claims?
Rep. Dennis Kucinich to Mr. Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement: "We’ve got to find out whether BP has certified-as-built drawings on file."
Last week, A Community Voice Louisiana — a New Orleans nonprofit — met with Representative Joseph Cao (R-LA) to ask him to shut down BP Atlantis. He refused to take action, leaving other concerned community leaders wondering why their representative is not joining others in Congress who have urgent questions about safety on the rig. Read the full article…
[Originally posted on Huffingtonpost.com on July 11, 2010]
The Administration this week demanded that BP present them with detailed plans surrounding their newest Gulf oil cleanup strategy, including information on the company’s plans for limiting dispersant usage. While this is a timely order, especially in light of BP’s announcement that many Gulf responders were exposed to a now-discontinued version of Corexit (a controversial dispersant linked to chronic health problems that BP used in cleanup efforts despite orders to stop), it’s unlikely that BP’s response will answer another, more critical question:
Why should BP provide information on their dispersant usage when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stopped demanding this information, and until now, BP has willfully and without consequence defied much of what the EPA has demanded they do? Read the full article…
Given our work on BP’s Atlantis, last week was a somber reminder of the dangers we face if we don’t handle our search for more energy responsibly. In the midst of Earth Day 2010, we were surprised by the tragic news of another oil rig catastrophe – British Petroleum’s (BP’s) Deepwater Horizon platform, which exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster has left 26 workers injured and 11 missing. According to The New York Times, the sunken oil rig has been leaking 5,000 barrels or 210,000 gallons of oil per day into the ocean. Read the full article…
I dont think any oil company deserves to have an environmental rating, but when I saw that Greenopia rates British Petroleum (BP) as #1, I was really outraged. I guess a huge PR budget and pretending to be post-petroleum works.
BP is no more beyond petroleum, than McDonalds is beyond burgers.
As an oil company, BP comes close to being criminal. It has repeatedly skirted the law, most recently in developing the Atlantis project, which has the potential to cause a catastrophic accident that could shut down the oil, fishing and tourism industry in the Gulf of Mexico. The deepest moored semi-submersible oil and gas platform in the world is precariously positioned in “hurricane alley,” 150 miles of the coast of New Orleans. Under the management of Minerals Management Service, lapdog of the oil industry, BP has been allowed to get away with what may end up being murder. Not only is most of the required documentation proving the platform is safe to operate missing, there is evidence that if a hurricane hits the area, an accident bigger than the Exxon Valdez could be the result. But, it shouldnt be a surprise that BP cuts corners. Read the full article…
It’s time for the government to take action to prevent one of the world’s largest oil and gas platforms from causing a catastrophic accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Atlantis, owned by British Petroleum (BP), lacks many required certification documents and poses a dire threat to the Gulf’s communities.
Located about 150 miles off the coast of New Orleans, Atlantis runs 7000 feet deep and produces 8.4 million gallons of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas every day. Without engineer-approved documentation for 85% of its piping, instrument and safety shutdown systems, there is concern that Atlantis may have serious design problems. These deficiencies could increase the risk of devastating operator errors and would cause harm to platform workers, the marine environment, and local fishing communities. Read the full article…
It’s time for the government to take action to prevent one of the world’s largest oil and gas platforms from causing a catastrophic accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Atlantis, owned by British Petroleum (BP), lacks many required certification documents and poses a dire threat to the Gulf’s communities.