Deepwater Horizon
Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, had a sharp response to growing sentiment in the press that the Obama Administration is not committed to domestic oil and gas production.
In its final report, the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling has found that negligible decisions made by BP (NYSE: BP) and its partners Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) and Transocean (NYSE: RIG) were the primary factors leading to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the ensuing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico last spring.
An independent panel of technical experts released its interim report today, finding that BP and its contractors ignored clear warning signs foretelling the disaster at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.
Less than seven months after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico, spewing millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf, oil companies in the United States remain reluctant to enact reforms that could help prevent another environmental disaster.
Although the Obama administration recently released details about its aggressive restoration plan for the Gulf Coast following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, they also indicated they will not wait for Congress to implement the vital components of the plan.
To anyone familiar with how modern-day politics works, it should come as no surprise to learn that big business spent big bucks to defeat the climate bills that became stalled in the U.S. Congress this past summer.
While the site of the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might have been declared legally dead less than a week ago, the fishing industry along the Gulf Coast is still struggling to survive.
Operations for the Static Kill of BP's leaking oil pipe in the Gulf of Mexico have commenced.
The procedure started at 4 PM EDT after results from injectivity tests performed earlier in the day were positive. The injectivity tests measured the oil well's pressure to see if the drilling mud would be able to pumped deep enough to plug the oil reservoir.
Apparently taking a page out of the Exxon handbook, BP has now begun buying up scientists from universities along the Gulf Coast in an attempt to prevent them from testifying in court about the dangers of their oil spill.
