June 7th, 2010

Text and photos by DeeVon Quirolo dquirolo@gmail.com  www.reefrelieffounders.com

Key Westers braved the 90 degree noon day sun to take to the street–Duval Street–to join hands and wave handmade signs to express love for the ocean.  Some called for an end to offshore oil.   Residents, business people and even tourists all gathered along Duval Street to join hands at 12:15 am today in a relatively spontaneous event dubbed “Sea to Shining Sea”.   Duval Street runs from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.   

Realtor Joanne Tarantino stepped out of her office on Lower Duval to take part.  “We’ve all worked so hard to protect our coral reefs.  We paid extra to have the best waste treatment for Key West.  It’s just a shame that this oil spill happened,”  she noted.

Buco Pantelis ran the length of Duval Street capturing it all on video.  “It was really positive,” he noted.   “A good reaction from everyone.   People were shoulder to shoulder at the lower end of Duval and more spread out as you headed toward the other end;  I’d say at least a few hundred people were there.”

Sophia Skoglund, a sophomore at Key West High School, said she had written to President Obama.  Her letter included a special request:  “ I am asking you, as a teenager who should have been worrying about finals and summer plans of going to the beach, as a daughter much like your own, and as someone who wanted you in office to represent the people including myself, to do something about the oil spill. I am not unaware at your own frustration and anxiety in the matter. I feel the same. But I am only 15 and have little say in the world. But I do have a right to say how much I love our earth, and would do anything to protect the mangroves to the fish to the beaches that I am fortunate enough to call home.”

Here’s a letter from the daughter of a friend I met at the Sea to Shining Sea demonstration against offshore oil today on Duval Street in Key West.  Everyone joined hands from one end of Duval Street to the other to show support for protecting our gulf and ocean waters.  It was inspiring.   DV

June 7th, 2010

President Obama,
    My name is Sophia. I am going to be a sophomore in High School this upcoming year. When politics affect me specifically I care. I’ve grown up in Key West, FL. It’s an island surrounded by water.
    My entire life I have grown up in the water, I’ve spent so much of my life going to the beach, sailing, going out on the boat, snorking, diving and swimming in these waters. These waters are the home of the third largest reef in the entire world, and home to thousands of life that is not found anywhere other than here.
   I’m sure as a father, souly a father, you have great memories of your family and yourself spending days at the beach, and teaching your children how to swim, and feeling the sand squish between your toes. I am also aware that as a elected representative of our nations people, here to do what right and wanted by the people, you understand the predicament we are in due to the deep water horizon oil spill. It has been about 48 days in counting that the leak has not been stopped. From the views on effect on economy, to the recession, to our waters, to tourism, to the very politics of BP’s responsibility on this matter, we all know there is a major problem in our mitts.
     I am asking you, as a teenager who should have been worrying about finals and summer plans of going to the beach, as a daughter much like your own, and as someone who wanted you in office to represent the people including myself, to do something about the oil spill. I am not unaware at your own frustration and anxiety in the matter. I feel the same. But I am only 15 and have little say in the world. But I do have a right to say how much I love our earth, and would do anything to protect the mangroves to the fish to the beaches that I am fortunate enough to call home.
    BP has not done much about stopping/cleaning up the spill, and who knows when they will. Please, as our President, as a person, as someone who has more resources to do something about this that I, do something about the spill. Listen to the ideas suggested at it all, there are thousands. And we have only failed if we did not try at all.
Please don’t let our nation fail.
Please, I would like this to actually make it to the President’s own eyes. I am not just another person asking him to do something, I am asking him as a real person. A living breathing individual not to just be a face in the crowd.
Respects,
Sophia Skoglund

 http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2010/06/07/bp-captures-more-oil-spill-consequences-grow/

June 7, 2010, 9:42 AM GMT
By James Herron and Jeffrey Sparshott

BP has reported some success in capturing oil leaking from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, but the cost continues to escalate and political pressure mounts on all sides for the embattled company.

CONTAINMENT

BP said Monday that on June 5 the cap it has attached to the top of the leaking well captured 10,500 barrels of oil out of an estimated 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day gushing from the wellhead. Analysts hailed this as a long overdue success for the embattled company.

“At last BP is able to show some progress on tackling the leak and this will put it in a less damaged position in tackling the political pressure which still remains a threat,” said NCB Stockbrokers analyst Peter Hutton, who upgraded BP to hold from reduce on the news.

CLEANUP

More than 2,600 vessels, 2.2 million feet of containment boom and 2.4 million feet of sorbent boom have been deployed in the response effort. Approximately 368,000 barrels of oily liquid have been skimmed from the surface.

The containment success was providing little comfort to people already affected by oil contamination. In the resort of Gulf Shores, Ala., local officials lamented a flood of vacation cancellations and what they see as a second-rate clean-up operation since tar balls began hitting the white sands over the weekend.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal continued political pressure for the construction of 128 miles of sand barrier islands to protect delicate marshes. The Army Corps of Engineers has approved a scaled down version of the plan and BP said it has set aside $360 million to pay for it.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour struck a different note, telling Fox News Sunday that the media’s tendency to lump all of the Gulf coastlines and beaches together as victims of the spill was hurting the state’s tourism industry. “We have had virtually no oil,” he said.

COST AND CONSEQUENCES

The cost of cleanup and the efforts to cap the leaking well has now reached $1.25 billion, BP said Monday. [Read BP’s latest statement here.]

Estimates of the ultimate bill keep rising as the likelihood of significant compensation payouts and civil or criminal penalties increases. “Our model assumes $12 billion impact on operating costs from the clean-up and weaker ability to progress on cost savings,” said Hutton. “But the majority of assumed litigation costs are beyond 2011,” he added.

BP reassured investors Friday that it has the financial strength to meet this cost, but, “the political backdrop makes it difficult for BP to maintain its existing level of dividend even if the balance sheet does,” said Hutton

Congressional Democrats plan an aggressive legislative response to the oil disaster bringing much stricter regulations. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wants a “comprehensive clean-energy bill” on the Senate floor by July, aimed at pushing the economy to “kick the oil habit.”

Other initiatives likely to be considered are raising the cap on oil-spill liability to $10 billion, improvements in oil-worker safety, a toughening of environmental protections for offshore drilling and a further revamping of the Minerals Management Service. Republicans plan to counter with legislation targeting BP rather than the oil industry as a whole.

BP was one of the few companies to see its shares rise in London Monday morning, following the containment success. However, it remains at less than two-thirds its price before the disaster and analysts remain cautious about whether the company is a good investment.

WHAT’S NEXT?

BP plans to increase the efficiency of the containment cap and the volume of oil it is capturing by using hoses attached to the blowout preventer manifold to transport some of the leaking oil through a separate pipeline to the surface. This method is expected to be deployed mid-June, the company said.

BP plans by early July to have attached a more flexible hose linking the surface vessel storing the oil to the top of the pipeline coming from the cap on the well. This will allow, “greatest flexibility for operations during a hurricane,” BP said. The impact a hurricane could have on the containment operation has become a major concern.

BP also plans a new advertising campaign aimed at salvaging its image in the U.S. The $50 million campaign features Chief Executive Tony Hayward, who has come under severe and personal criticism in the U.S., apologizing and promising to pay the full bill for the spill. U.S. President Barack Obama has already criticized BP for spending on advertising while oil continues to leak.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/outdoors/blog/2010/06/obama_should_fire_ken_salazar.html
JUNE 4, 2010
It’s time for him to go.

We’ve seen enough of Ken Salazar.

President Obama should take his Interior secretary with him to the Gulf today and forget to bring him back.

He’s been useless, and never more so than right now. He casts no shadow.
The president has already admitted he screwed the pooch on the spill response. What’s one more mea culpa when the entire Gulf region is starting to smell like a gigantic Jiffy Lube?

It’s not as if Obama couldn’t find a replacement. Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva immediately comes to mind. How about Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, who has fought big oil and has a business background? Pick a Udall–Tom or Mark–both senators and both with a family history of caring for the environment.

Salazar, the former Colorado senator, has already proven he’s out of his league. Pressed last month by a Congressional panel about his response to the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, Salazar responded that he sent a top aide to the region “without a change of underwear.”

What a twofer: pitifully lacking in detail AND too much information.

Let’s review his tenure as a member of Obama’s cabinet.

He assumed the post in January 2009, knowing that during six of the last eight years, his department was run by Gale Norton, a political hack who fled to take a cushy job at Shell Oil.

Further, there’s a scathing 2007 report sitting on his desk that says the Minerals Mangement Service office in Denver is “a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere” that included some of your employees doing drugs and having sex with the very people they’re supposed to be keeping an eye on.

But instead of taking a blowtorch to the infected parts of the operation, he scooted about the country doing photo opportunities in front of really groovy places run by his National Park Service.

In March 2009, he called the controversy surrounding an 11th-hour Bush administration decision to allow people to carry concealed, loaded guns in national parks a “distraction” to Americans and his department.

The folks who know better–the ones who raise money for parks and former employees–disagreed. The National Parks Conservation Association and the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees filed suit, asking that the no loaded guns policy established under the Reagan administration be restored.

Salazar hired Sylvia Vaca, a former BP executive, to be deputy administrator for land and minerals management.

Meanwhile, the MMS allowed the operators of the BP Deepwater Horizon rig to cut corners.

And even with oil erupting into the Gulf, Salazar’s underlings approved other underwater drilling permits.

Last week, the Inspector General issued another MMS report that found employees in Louisiana took tickets to sports events, indulged in free lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies. Thirteen employees had porn on their government computers and others did drugs.

Salazar called the report, “deeply disturbing.”

Really? Is that the best he could do?

The secretary has a plan. He wants to replace MMS with a new bureaucracy to separate the enforcement function from the oil and gas revenue collection operation. In that way, there will be one hand out instead of two.

The name Minerals Management Service would be but a memory. Salazar should be in that category, too.

Cleaning up this mess should start at Interior and with Salazar, who wears a big cowboy hat, but can’t talk the talk or walk the walk.

Posted by Candus Thomson at 8:30 AM

www.1Sky.org

This is well worth reading through; an important summary of what’s going on to address the BP and climate change legislation.  DV

The Senate returns from recess today, and according to Majority Leader Reid (D-NV), discussing energy-related legislation is at the top of their agenda. The BP Spill has the potential to transform the energy debate in Congress. Leadership in the Senate and the White House have an opportunity to pivot off of the BP spill and drive our energy policy in a new direction.   Ironically, that process will begin with a vote on Senator Lisa Murkowski’s (R-AK) “Dirty Air Act,” which would roll back regulations on the oil industry, and make our nation more dependent on oil for years to come. 1Sky and others in the climate community are campaigning to defeat the Dirty Air Act, and sending a clear message to Senators that we need to pivot off of this disaster toward a comprehensive solution that will reduce our tragic dependence on oil and other dirty fossil fuels.
Senate Timeline:

6/7: Congress returns from Memorial Day recess
6/10: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) meets with relevant committee chairs to chart a path forward on “energy-related” legislation
6/10: Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act up for a vote, needs 51 votes to pass
6/15: Senate Majority Leader Reid meets with Democratic caucus on energy and climate legislation
7/3-7/11: Independence Day Recess
Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act Vote on Thursday

Senator Murkowski will bring her “Dirty Air Act” up for a vote on Thursday, June 10.
Murkowski’s “resolution of disapproval” (S.J.Res. 26), which would gut the Clean Air Act, currently has 41 co-sponsors, and only needs 51 votes to pass.
The vote will be extremely close and advocacy this week is critical. Winning as many votes as possible against Murkowski is a crucial show of support for Clean Air Act regulations that will reduce our dependence on dirty fossil fuels like oil and coal.  It will also embolden Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) in his efforts to move climate and energy reform before the mid-term elections (see below).  http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/05/25/25climatewire-sen-murkowskis-epa-resolution-on-greenhouse-23579.html
1Sky and other climate advocacy organizations will continue to mobilize in opposition to the Dirty Air Act throughout the next week http://www.1sky.org/calls  and http://www.1sky.org/murkowski  
For more information, check out USCAN’s Dirty Air Act page: http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/policy/dirty-air-act-amendment
Comprehensive Legislative Responses to the BP Oil Disaster

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Reid (D-NV) wrote a letter to Committee Chairs calling for comprehensive energy legislation and asking them to “provide any recommendations or report legislation, if desired, in your Committee’s jurisdiction, before the Fourth of July recess…” http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/101307-reid-pushes-to-move-energy-bill-in-july
The Hill published a story laying out a possible Democratic strategy for passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill that mirrors the strategy used for Wall St Reform:
A Senior Democratic Aide said “The reason we were successful on Wall Street reform is that we were able to show a sharp contrast. We had a foil – Wall Street – and we had an enabler – the Republicans.” To idea is to frame those who vote no as supporters of Big Oil, much like the Democrats used Wall Street to generate the votes for Financial Regulatory Reform. http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/100743-democrats-see-big-oil-as-foil-in-energy-and-climate-debate
The disaster that continues to unfold in the Gulf is increasing political pressure to address our dependence on oil. There are several pieces of legislation already being introduced in the House and Senate that address our oil dependence and the BP disaster.
Senator Dorgan (D-ND) and Senator Alexander (R-TN) introduced the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010 in the Senate. The same bill was introduced by a bi-partisan group in the House .  http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=325317
Senator Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Clean Coasts and Efficient Cars Act which would place a permanent moratorium on offshore drilling and boost fuel-economy standards from 35 mpg to 55 mpg by 2030.  http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=A90354DF-2892-4EF7-8BAF-F8899521CCA1
Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) has been blocked 3 times by Senate opposition to his moves to eliminate the $75 million dollar cap on oil companies’ liability. http://lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=325249&
Senator Merkley (D-OR) joined Senator Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Nelson (D-FL) to introduce the Close Big Oil Tax Loopholes Act, which would crack down on a series of loopholes that amount to over $20 billion for Big Oil.  http://merkley.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?id=F68FED0D-08C0-4DC4-9035-211E28DD9B7E
The EPA announced that their analysis of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act Discussion Draft will be finished this week and released to the Senate on Wednesday June 9 (See http://www.1sky.org/files/1Sky-Kerry-Lieberman-APA-Bill-Analysis-May-17-2010.pdf)
BP Oil Disaster Update

BP’s latest attempt to stop the oil leak, called the “cut-and-cap” is progressing according to plan. The “cut” has been successful, and a loosely-fitting “cap” is now in place. This plan is considered risky because slicing away a section of the pipe could increase the flow of oil by as much as 20 percent. Over the weekend, BP engineers captured more than 500,000 gallons of oil but oil continues to leak at an alarming rate.  Meanwhile, U.S. Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen warned that the spill could last well into the fall. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/us/07spill.html?hp
BP continues to claim that there are no sub-surface plumes of oil, while Good Morning America visits researchers with discovering proof of their existence. http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2010/06/02/lubchenco-doubts-plumes/
Workers cleaning up the oil are experiencing flu-like symptoms which they claim may be a resultant of the chemical dispersants used to dissipate the oil in the water, although BP and the U.S. Coast Guard continues to say that it is likely food poisoning or dehydration http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37489625/ns/disaster_in_the_gulf/
1Sky ally, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, reported on their trip over the Gulf of Mexico in this eye-opening blog: http://blog.cleanenergy.org/2010/05/28/sace-flies-over-gulf/
Less than 2 weeks after Obama’s “6-month ban on deepwater offshore drilling”, there is confusion, even in the media, on the extent of the Obama Administration’s drilling ban.
·         On Wednesday, the Obama Administration approved a new shallow water drilling permit 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana while thousands of barrels continued to pour into the ocean. http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/06/obama-admin-approves-new-drilling-gulf-disaster-continues

There is no moratorium on shallow water drilling according to an Interior Department spokeswoman.  However, the regional supervisor of field operations at the Minerals Management Service (“MMS”) “told a company seeking a permit that ‘until further notice’ no new drilling is being allowed in the Gulf no matter the water depth.”  The contradiction has yet to be clarified by the Obama Administration. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10818393
1Sky and our allies are working to pivot off of the BP Oil Disaster to end our addiction to dirty fossil fuels:
MoveOn.org is hosing vigils across the country on the 50th day since the oil rig explosion.  http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/create.html?action_id=213&id=&t=5
Seize BP is calling for a seizure of BP’s assets to pay for the environmental and economic impacts of the spill on the Gulf Coast.  http://www.seizebp.org
A broad coalition of groups is sponsoring an event called “Hands Across the Sand” on June 26, to call for the protection of our coastal economies and communities and a clean energy economy. http://www.handsacrossthesand.org/

President Obama Calls for Comprehensive Energy and Climate Legislation in Response to BP Disaster

President Obama spoke at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA on Wednesday and focused much of his speech the BP Oil Disaster and the need for clean energy legislation in the Senate.  1Sky and our allies nationwide are pushing President Obama hard for more engaged leadership in the debate.
Obama: “The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive energy and climate bill, and there is currently a plan in the Senate — a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans — that would achieve the same goal. And, Pittsburgh, I want you to know, the votes may not be there right now, but I intend to find them in the coming months. (Applause.) I will continue to make the case for a clean energy future wherever and whenever I can. (Applause.) I will work with anyone to get this done — and we will get it done.  The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a clean energy future…. And the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution. . . . But the only way the transition to clean energy will ultimately succeed is if the private sector is fully invested in this future — if capital comes off the sidelines and the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs is unleashed. And the only way to do that is by finally putting a price on carbon pollution.”http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-economy-carnegie-mellon-university
 
Gillian Caldwell
Campaign Director, 1Sky
T (301) 270-4550 x221  *  C (202) 446-8811
www.1sky.org  * gillian@1sky.org * www.twitter.com/gillian1Sky
 
1Sky: 1 Climate. 1 Future. 1 Chance.

Special thanks to Richard Charter