In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, 71 percent of Americans say President Obama and Congress should make developing clean sources of energy a high priority, an 11 percent increase since January, according to a new poll. The poll, conducted by Yale University and George Mason University, also revealed that 77 percent of Americans support regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant.

On Thursday, the U.S. Senate will vote on a resolution by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would block (more…)

The oil industry’s decommissioning costs will dwarf those of nuclear power. The money being made now should be put aside to meet them.

Has BP ever made a profit? The question looks daft. The oil company posted profits of $26 billion last year. There’s no doubt that BP has been pumping money into the pockets of its shareholders. The question is whether this money is what the company says it is. BP calls it profit. I call it the provision the firm should be making against future liabilities. (more…)

At present there is a large oil release in the Gulf of Mexico. It is not the first of its kind. Obviously one must try to confine it and then clean it up but what it is the right and effective way? What is a waste of time and resources and what works?

Ixtoc I was an exploratory oil well being drilled in the Bay of Campeche of the Gulf of Mexico, about 62 northwest of Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche in waters 160 feet deep. On 3 June 1979, the well suffered a blowout resulting in the third largest oil spill and the second largest accidental spill in history. What was effective then? (more…)

Lessons from the Deep: If the unstoppable hose at the bottom of the Gulf has taught us anything, it’s that we don’t know much about the ocean. Don’t know how to stop a leak, don’t know whether deepwater oil floats or sinks — and know even less than we thought about the oceans’ role in global warming. This week Yale Environment 360 reported that the last Ice Age may have ended when a giant belch of carbon dioxide erupted from seabed. Add similar revelations about the world’s bajillions of microbes, and it seems we know almost nothing at all. (more…)

The horror emerging from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico continues to lay its nightmare before a nation – and a world – of stunned witnesses. With the tragedy of native waterfowl now being found smothered in petroleum along the marshes of Louisiana comes continued reports that the American people have been prevented by BP officials from seeing images of the slaughter. According to reports by photojournalists, television producers and others (more…)

(Reuters) – BP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp, with a combined 90 percent stake in a ruptured Gulf of Mexico oil well, could handle up to $35 billion in costs from the spill, independent research service CreditSights said on Wednesday.

Assuming costs come in under $35 billion, stocks and bonds of the companies are attractive for long-term investors willing to take on significant risk, CreditSights analysts Brian Gibbons Jr and Jake Leiby said in a report. (more…)

Three groups of researchers are now reporting evidence of large plumes of oil far below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. This growing proof that an unknown quantity of oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon rig is now accumulating in deeper waters of the gulf comes after BP chief executive Tony Hayward said his company found “no evidence” of such plumes. Hayward also maintained that oil is lighter than water and thus will float to the top of the gulf. (more…)

Comprehensive federal environmental regulation does not come easily. First, there is the difficulty of crafting scientific regulations. Then there are the entrenched interests to be combated, both in the private sector, and with the states and local governments who may have had authority prior to federal regulation. Compounding these issues is the high cost of regulation and enforcement itself. Criticisms abound from the right–too much regulation–and the left–too little. (more…)

The word from MSNBC and The AP is that Elizabeth Birnbaum, director of the offshore drilling regulator Minerals Management Service, has been fired.

Birnbaum has only been head of the agency since July 2009—that’s less time than her boss, Ken Salazar, has been at his post as Secretary of the Department of Interior, which oversees MMS. We’ve put in a call to MMS to confirm these reports.

It’s also worth pointing out that just yesterday, The New York Times ran a profile on Birnbaum, calling her “the oil spill’s invisible woman.” The Times noted that her background is mostly with environmental organizations, and when she took the MMS’ top job, she “had virtually no experience with the oil and gas industry, but that was seen as a plus.”

News of Birnbaum’s departure from MMS follows the resignation of MMS associate director Chris Oynes, announced earlier this month.

(more…)

(Reuters) – The Obama administration plans to announce on Thursday a suspension of offshore oil drilling in the Arctic until 2011 as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, an Alaska senator said.

Democratic Senator Mark Begich said he had been told by the Interior Department that the Obama administration will announce that consideration of any applications for exploratory drilling in the Arctic is suspended until 2011.

The suspension is part of measures President Barack Obama plans to order in response to the runaway oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (more…)