Shell Gulf Oil Spill 2016 – No News Coverage!
June 17, 2016 Christopher Kemmett

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If I told you there was another major oil leak that just happened from another pipe in the Gulf of Mexico, again, how many of you actually heard about it? I certainly didn’t until just a few days ago and everyone I have talked to since had no idea as well.

Oil began leaking from a Royal Dutch Shell pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico on May 11th, but it has received a surprisingly low amount of coverage. This is what it looks like.


http://youtu.be/PkBrcNbFLVk

The spill in question started more than a month ago. As has been reported, to date, the oil spill released “90,000 gallons of oil coming from a Shell flow line and taking up over 13 miles of of ocean off of Louisiana” – that they can actually track. Get this, “the leak was first noticed by a helicopter on May 12” and as recently as just two weeks ago, “not yet fully been contained.”

In statements about the matter, Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director, the company responsible for the leaks said that oil spills are “par for the course” in this line of work – thus to be expected. He was also quoted as expressing his disregard for care in the matter saying that “we have allowed the region to be perpetually treated as a sacrifice zone.” Profits to him, like many, outweigh any damage they are doing to the environment.

This is the second biggest spill to happen since the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. And although all has somehow been weirdly forgiven and forgotten when it comes to that debacle, scientists released a report on Monday that shows how the effects of that spill might be worse than we originally thought. Add this month’s 90,000 gallons and we’re talking a whole lot of oil and contaminants to clean up. Much like a toddler’s playroom, the Gulf of Mexico might not ever be “clean.” There’s a “water column” where debris, confirmed to be attached to the Deepwater Horizon spill, have drifted. Like, all the way down. The scientists described it like an underwater blizzard. It’s terrible.

It’s not just the ecosystems all the way at the bottom of the ocean that are affected by spills either. According to ThinkProgress, if this spill, like 2010’s spill, isn’t taken care of, populations along the Gulf that rely on the shore for sustenance are going to have a big problem on their hands, if they don’t already. It’s enough to make you want to throw a temper tantrum.

https://therealstrategy.com/shell-gulf-oil-spill-2016-no-news-coverage/

Fuckin' environmentalist as bad as the capitalists. TO THE WALL WITH ALL OF THEM.

Fuckin' environmentalist as bad as the capitalists. TO THE WALL WITH ALL OF THEM.

This is too fucking bizarre! No media coverage, at all!? Not a mention!? The Sierra Club guy called the Gulf a "sacrifice zone"? What the fuck is that!? I think I just discovered what the phrase "gob smacked" means.

This is too fucking bizarre! No media coverage, at all!? Not a mention!? The Sierra Club guy called the Gulf a "sacrifice zone"? What the fuck is that!? I think I just discovered what the phrase "gob smacked" means.

Here's at least part of the answer:

Damage from Shell oil spill in Gulf of Mexico still unclear; U.S. considers more offshore leases
· MAY 25, 2016

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Shell's Perdido platform is the deepest floating oil platform in the world at a water depth of about 2450 meters (8000 feet) operated by the Shell Oil Company in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo Credit: . Shell via Flickr Creative Commons)Shell's Perdido platform is the deepest floating oil platform in the world at a water depth of about 2450 meters (8000 feet) operated by the Shell Oil Company in the Gulf of Mexico. (Photo Credit: . Shell via Flickr Creative Commons)
Wetlands specialists say it’s still unclear how the nearly 90,000 gallons of oil spilled earlier this month in the Gulf of Mexico has affected the marine environment and wildlife. The leak from the Shell Oil deep water pipeline came as government officials hold a series of public meetings on new offshore leases. FSRNs Sean Kinane has more.

The leak happened about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast, and was stopped after wells that flow into the pipeline were sealed. But Scott Eustis, a coastal wetlands specialist with Gulf Restoration Network, thinks 88,000 gallons might be an underestimate and the environmental impact still is unknown. He says only three of the seven available skimmer vessels were even deployed to vacuum the oil off the surface.

“Although the Coast Guard says there’s no environmental impact, we know from the BP disaster, and all the studies done on the effects of oil in the deep environment, and the surface of the Gulf in the springtime, that there are a lot of impacts: the corals in the deep, dolphins, whales, tuna, whale sharks,” Eustis explains. “So, even though the Coast Guard says that, they don’t have biologists so they shouldn’t be making that kind of statement.”

Eustis said that during flights above the skimmer vessels, environmentalists didn’t see spraying of dispersants as was done six years ago during the BP oil disaster. Storms in the gulf dispersed much of the oil from the surface, so the giant slick can no longer be seen.

The spill came during a public comment period on the Obama administration’s plan to add 10 new offshore leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The proposal would encompass some 70 million acres, as part of a five-year fossil fuel development program that would begin in 2017. Protests have followed public meetings, where many groups are calling for a moratorium on new oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Although we know from this and many other events that there’s not enough clean-up, there’s not appropriate technologies to take care of the Gulf as a natural resource that belongs to all of us here, and all of us in the United States,” says Eustis. “So, we’re calling for no new leasing until the government and industry can show that they can take care of our natural resources.”

Public comment on the new offshore leases continues until June 6th.

https://fsrn.org/2016/05/damage-from-shell-oil-spill-in-gulf-of-mexico-still-unclear-u-s-considers-more-offshore-leases/

Bolding added. It's stale news now......

It's stale news now......

And the public comment deadline passed two weeks ago. Fucking bastards...

Obama quietly approves hundreds of offshore fracking drills in Gulf of Mexico
Published time: 30 Jun, 2016 02:12
Edited time: 30 Jun, 2016 03:55

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© Sean Gardner / Reuters

The Obama administration has granted hundreds of offshore fracking permits in the Gulf of Mexico, allowing dangerous fracking chemicals to pollute the Gulf, documents reveal.

Truthout reports the Center for Biological Diversity uncovered documents that reveal the administration approved over 1,200 offshore fracking applications between 2010 and 2014, which took place in hundreds of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, including within the habitat of loggerhead turtles. The administration allowed oil companies to dump over 76 billion gallons of wastewater into the Gulf waters in 2014 alone, the CBD’s press release states.

“The Obama administration is essentially letting oil companies frack at will in Gulf ecosystems and dump billions of gallons of oil waste into coastal waters,” said Kristen Monsell, a CBD lawyer. “Every offshore frack increases the risk to wildlife and coastal communities, yet federal officials have been just rubber-stamping this toxic practice in the Gulf of Mexico for years.”

Truthout reports that the documents also show offshore fracking is being permitted without conducting analysis of the risk to the environment. Over 300 exclusions were issued to exempt drilling plans from environmental reviews, echoing the 2010 revelations that BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig received such exemptions in the lead up to the worst oil spill in US history.

Fracking is a drilling technique that extracts oil and gas from the ground by blasting powerful, high-pressure water, sand and chemicals into shale rock, fracturing it and allowing oil and gas to be accessed.

While the chemicals used in fracking water are largely secret, hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid are used to break up rock under the sea. Hydrofluoric acid is corrosive and “forms a poisonous vapor cloud when heated,” according to Truthout.

While the effects from fracking are hotly debated, the lack of details that are known about the process is an issue in of itself.

“Nobody can say how much of any type of waste is being produced, what it is, and where it’s ending up,”said Nadia Steinzor of the group Earthworks, which is involved in a lawsuit that seeks to compel the US Environmental Protection Agency to take a larger role in tracking and regulating hazardous drilling waste.

In addition, fracking has a reputation for poisoning drinking water. For example, in a small Wisconsin town, it was discovered that the wastewater from a nearby fracking site had contaminated underground sources of drinking water, making it unsafe to use.

The site that poisoned the water in Pavillion, Wisconsin was located on solid ground. How an offshore fracking site would affect the Gulf Coast is open to speculation.

The CBD accessed the documents after challenging the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) failure to produce documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request with a lawsuit.

Both BSEE and BOEM were set up by Obama in the wake of the BP oil spill. The Government Accountability Office recently found BSEE had failed to complete “a policy outlining investigative responsibilities or updated procedures for investigating incidents.”

There are more documents still to be released.

“The federal government certainly has no right to give the oil industry free rein to frack our oceans — or to keep coastal communities in the dark about this toxic industrial activity,” Monsell said.

https://www.rt.com/usa/348947-obama-fracking-gulf-mexico/