Environment -- Oil's Toxic Reach

June 11, 2010

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Zaid Jilani, Brad Johnson, Alex Seitz-Wald, Tanya Somanader

ENVIRONMENT

Oil's Toxic Reach

The politics of oil dominated the halls of Washington yesterday, as oil money-dependent politicians tried to prevent the Obama administration from reining in the fossil fuel's toxic pollution. Fighting Obama's attempts to clean up the catastrophic mess of the oil-soaked Bush-Cheney era, members of Congress with ties to Big Oil lashed out at Obama's moratorium on deepwater drilling and held a vote to block the regulation of greenhouse gas pollution. These political maneuvers came even as the harsh effects of oil-driven global warming and of BP's Gulf of Mexico disaster grow by the day. Yesterday, the federal government recognized that the oil gusher has been flowing at a rate of "840,000 to 1.7 million gallons a day," the estimate first made by independent scientists in April. This latest estimate -- double what the government admitted last week -- applies only to the time "before a kinked riser pipe was lopped off on June 3, a move that inevitably increased the flow, although to what extent remains unclear." Meanwhile, "fishermen, businesses and property owners who have filed damage claims with the company angrily complained of delays, excessive paperwork, and skimpy payments that have put them on the verge of going under." "BP could fire all their contractors," Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser testified Thursday, "because they are doing absolutely nothing but destroying our marsh." Just as the Gulf Coast is under siege from growing invisible clouds of oil under the sea, the entire planet is being cooked by the invisible carbon pollution in the atmosphere. "As Senators debate climate change on Capitol Hill," the World Wildlife Fund's Nick Sundt wrote yesterday, "NASA reports that global surface temperatures this spring rose to record levels." Glacier loss in Asia "threatens the food security of millions of people," and "the current extent of Arctic ice is at its lowest point for at least the last few thousand years." After hours of debate, Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-AK, $433,989 in lifetime contributions from the oil and gas industry) resolution to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's scientific finding that oil's greenhouse gases endanger the American public was rejected yesterday by a vote of 53-47.

'EVASION IN THE FACE OF HARD EVIDENCE': The oil industry and its backers are trying every means to cover up the harsh evidence of oil's destruction. Alabama fire officials report that BP is "purposely keeping trained local officials away from the spill response." Numerous press reports indicate that BP is blocking the media from reporting on the Gulf oil disaster. Last month, Fox News anchor Brit Hume scoffed at the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, wondering, "Where's the oil?" The company has even hired Anne Womack-Kolton, a former top aide to Vice President Cheney, to be its new spokesperson. Joining Womack-Kolton in attempting to repair BP's image is former chief of staff to President Bush, Josh Bolten. After BP's stock hit a 14-year low, the company announced it "is not aware of any reason which justifies this share price movement." BP's "evasion in the face of hard evidence" is reminiscent, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann noted Wednesday, of "another infamous flack" — the Saddam Hussein official known popularly as "Baghdad Bob," notorious "for his optimistic, if fanciful, statements about Iraq's triumph over the American infidels." The Senate debate on the Murkowski resolution drew from the same playbook: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT, $246,979) said, "Warming is not a big deal and is not a bad thing." Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ, $332,332) claimed the resolution "is not about the science of climate change." Opponents of the Murkowski resolution called out these lies. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) said that voting for the resolution is "to assert that there is no climate change or global warming going on, and to dismiss scientific facts that already exist." "What are we going to do next, repeal the laws of gravity?" Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) asked. The Murkowski resolution and BP's public relations blitz mean that, liberal blogger Digby writes, "we are beginning to see the oil industry really pushing back hard."

OIL'S CORRUPT REACH: The oil industry came out in force for Murkowski's Big-Oil bailout, which would have blocked new fuel economy standards for vehicles and new pollution controls for oil refineries and producers. Americans for Prosperity, the front group founded and funded by the oil conglomerate Koch Industries, hosted an event to urge the passage the resolution, attended by Republican lawmakers like Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK, $1,228,223) and first-term congressman Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA, $90,535). Multimillionaire Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI), the ranking member of the House Global Warming and Energy Independence Committee "who owns thousands of shares of BP stock, has no plans to recuse himself from a congressional investigation related to the Gulf oil spill." Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA, $751,744) "is reiterating her call to end the Obama administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling, saying it will cause economic hardship in the region." Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY, $174,250) called the moratorium "a second assault on the Gulf." The American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil industry trade association that "plays a crucial role in writing the safety and environmental rules for offshore drilling," "expressed disappointment with the Senate's defeat of the Murkowski resolution," saying it hopes "the Senate will quickly take up Senator Jay Rockefeller's resolution to delay EPA rules by two years." API also opposes the deepwater drilling moratorium, lifting the cap on oil spill liability, boycotts against BP, and any climate legislation that does not "recognize the importance of domestic oil and natural gas development to the nation's economy."

TAKING CHARGE: These oil disasters show the terrible dangers of decades of deregulation, during which oil money-dependent Washington has trusted polluters to police themselves. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) -- the troubled federal agency which is supposed to regulate the oil and gas industry collected only 16 fines out of the 400 investigations it conducted into Gulf of Mexico drilling incidents in the past five years. "Federal and state governments in the gulf must take greater charge of containing the onshore ecological impacts," Center for American Progress experts write. "The National Guard's next big mission -- along with other branches of the military -- ought to be taking charge of cleaning up the BP oil disaster." "President Barack Obama and Congress should dramatically cut our oil dependence," writes CAP president John Podesta and senior fellow Daniel J. Weiss, "by adopting administrative and legislation measures that increase vehicle efficiency, raise revenue to invest in cleaner alternative fuels and transit, provide additional environmental safeguards for oil and gas production, and enforce real accountability for bad actors." Next week -- nearly two months into the BP oil disaster -- the industry will be called to answer for its crimes. Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) will hold a hearing with the CEOs of the top five oil companies on America's energy future on June 15. The Obama administration has ordered top BP officials to come to the White House on June 16 to discuss how "to ensure that all individuals and communities impacted by the spill are made whole." CAP recommends that the president compel BP to put at least $5 billion -- its 2010 first quarter profits -- into escrow to speed payment of cleanup costs and damage claims.

BUSINESS -- ALABAMA FIRE CHIEFS: BP IS PREVENTING US FROM ASSISTING IN SPILL RESPONSE: A group of fire chiefs from Baldwin County, AL, which is located along the state's coastline, are alleging that the BP is complicating the fight against the company's massive oil spill by "purposely keeping trained local officials away from the spill response." The 36-member Baldwin County Fire Chiefs Association complained about BP's alleged obstruction in a letter sent Wednesday to the Deepwater Horizon unified command and to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R). In the letter they wrote, "Interestingly our services are free or at most cost reimbursable. [Y]ou have chosen to use commercial operations at exorbitant costs. ... To be kept totally out of the loop in this disaster makes no sense. Our citizens have come to expect a high level of response from us. With us having no information for them we are not meeting their needs. They deserve better than they are getting." Local Alabama news station WKRG reports that the fire chiefs had planned to meet with the BP last week to relay their concerns, but "company officials canceled the meeting at the last minute." The chiefs say "their experience in hazardous material situations and knowledge of the region could be beneficial in the cleanup. But so far, BP has done a terrible job of communicating with local agencies." BP Spokesperson Ashley Babb denies that the company ever agreed to meet with the fire chiefs. "Since Day 1, we've tried to contact these people to say we're available. We're here," Gib Hixon, president of the Baldwin County Fire Chiefs Association, told the Mobile Press-Register. "We've offered our facilities for logistics, staging, training. They have totally ignored us."

"Whites are on the verge of becoming a minority among newborn children in the U.S." The Census Bureau reported yesterday "that nonwhite minorities accounted for 48.6 percent of the children born in the U.S. between July 2008 and July 2009, gaining ground from 46.8 percent two years earlier." "Minorities made up 35 percent of the U.S. population between July 2008 and July 2009, up from 31 percent in 2000."

Congress went on a four-day break "after failing again to extend jobless benefits for an estimated 325,000 people, fund summer jobs for at-risk youths or help newly laid-off people pay for health care." Money for extended unemployment benefits expired on June 2. The House voted to continue them until Nov. 30, but the Senate failed to act.

The House-Senate conference to finalize the Wall Street reform bill opened yesterday with "sharp attacks" between Democrats and Republicans. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) warned against a "lobbying blitz" during the committee's negotiations, while Republicans claimed they were being sidelined. Democrats vowed to wrap up the process by the July 4 recess.

"A government panel on Thursday essentially doubled its estimate of how much oil has been spewing" from BP's oil gusher into the Gulf. The new estimate is "25,000 to 30,000 barrels of oil a day," up from the 12,000 to 19,000 barrels originally estimated.

The Senate defeated a Republican-led effort yesterday to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from setting new limits on greenhouse gas emissions. In a nearly party-line 53-47 vote, the Senate rejected the bill proposed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) that would have stopped the EPA from carrying out its 2009 endangerment finding, which determined that the gases are a pollutant.

British intelligence officers foiled a Taliban plot to kill Prime Minister David Cameron in Afghanistan yesterday. Officials diverted Cameron's helicopter after tapped telephone calls revealed that Taliban members were close to where it was set to land. The Prime Minister "was less than ten minutes of flying time from where the Taliban forces were apparently lying in wait."

An Army Inspector General investigation has found that at least 211 graves at Arlington National Cemetery "were mismarked, missing headstones or burial cards, or were not recorded at all." There were also "at least four burial urns that had been unearthed and dumped in an area where excess grave dirt is kept." Army Secretary John McHugh apologized to veterans and disciplined the cemetery's top officials.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor wants "to rebrand the GOP as 'a party that gets it' and would focus on spending -- not ideology -- if Republicans win a House majority in November." "People are receptive to a message of responsible leadership," Cantor told Politico. "They're just pissed, and they're not going to take it anymore."

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) is calling for a federal investigation into the candidacy of Alvin Greene, who surprisingly won the South Carolina Democratic Party nomination for the U.S. Senate Race. "There were some real shenanigans going on in the South Carolina primary," said Clyburn during a radio interview.

And finally: BP spills coffee.

Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) climate change meandering.

David Brooks engages in magical thinking on debt, the deficit, and the economy.

Macroeconomic advisers are optimistic that a double-dip recession won't happen.

Ted Olson says it's ironic that supporters of Proposition 8 spent $40 million to pass it, but didn't want to defend it under cross-examination in a court of law.

The conservative nanny state strikes again.

Fox News' Chris Wallace once again suggests his network is conservative.

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) falsely claims the Bush tax cuts led to jobs and growth, not deficits.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates' backpeddling on Kandahar.

"On January 1st, 2011...[t]he dividend tax rate's going from 15 to 39.6."
-- Fox News guest Art Laffer, 6/10/10

VERSUS

"For families earning at least $250,000, capital gains and dividend tax rates would rise to 20% from 15%."
-- The Wall Street Journal, 1/31/10

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