Oceans
Will the BP Oil Spill Change Public Policy?
The oil spill catastrophe now engulfing the Gulf Coast brings home in incredibly vivid detail the ways in which human activity can damage the earth. This is in stark contrast to climate change, for example, where the changes caused by accumulating greenhouse gas emissions are hard to see and where actions today will only affect the …
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CONTINUE READINGDeepwater Horizon and the Dark Side of the Stevens Legacy
If John Paul Stevens was the architect of modern environmental law, the Deepwater Horizon disaster shows the effects of one of his worst building projects.
CONTINUE READINGA Brief History of the Deepwater Horizon Blowout
2001. Manufacture of the BOP (Blowout Preventer), a huge block of steel and valves that that holds the well pipe.The BOP has the ability to slice through the pipe and seal the well. The BOP used by the Deepwater Horizon remains with the rig for the next nine years. April 19, 2010. Halliburton completes pumping …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Odds of Failure
First, “human error” is a cop-out when you’re dealing with major technology. . . . Second, it’s probably true that this was a very unlikely way for any particular oil rig to go wrong, but that doesn’t mean much because there are a lot of rigs out there in the Gulf.
CONTINUE READINGMoby Slick
Knowing that the area of the Gulf of Mexico covered by the BP oil slick is important habitat for sperm whales, I’d been wondering about effects of the oil spill on those whales and on marine mammals generally. Sperm whales were long hunted (Moby Dick is the most famous specimen) and are listed as endangered …
CONTINUE READINGGulf oil spill update
The Deepwater Horizon oil rig rig explosion was bound to put some pressure on the Obama administration to renounce the plan it announced just three weeks earlier to open new areas to offshore drilling. Today, the President ordered Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to report on how to reduce the risk of oil spills from offshore …
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CONTINUE READINGA good time to think about off-shore energy
Rick recently pointed out the ironic timing of the tragic Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The news from the Gulf in the wake of that explosion just gets worse. The first report was that the well had sealed. Offshore wells have “blowout preventer” valves which are supposed to shut in the event of an emergency …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Offshore Oil Drilling Debate–Revisited (Again)
Earlier this month, the Sacramento Bee published an interesting point-counterpoint debate over the wisdom of re-commencing offshore oil drilling in the U.S., with a particular focus on California and the West Coast. Arguing in favor of the proposition was U.C. Santa Barbara Professor of Political Science and Environmental Studies Eric R.A.N. Smith, who maintained that …
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CONTINUE READING20-year whaling moratorium on the chopping block
You wouldn’t know it from the headline of this week’s NYT article (“US Leads New Bid to Phase Out Whale Hunting,”) but the worldwide commercial-whaling moratorium that has been in place since 1986 is under seige. Countries are meeting this week to work out details of a deal in which the world’s three leading whaling …
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CONTINUE READINGObama, Offshore Drilling, and Aikido
Concerning Obama’s new offshore drilling policv, it’s hard to disagree with the sentiment expressed by Matt Yglesias, Steve Benen, and Kevin Drum: why give a concession without getting anything in return? House Minority Leader John Boehner responded with a typically reality- and lithium-deprived statement. saying that “the Obama Administration continues to defy the will of …
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