http://www.nbc-2.com/Global/story.asp?S=13089511
Posted: Sep 02, 2010 11:38 AM EDT
Updated: Sep 02, 2010 1:48 PM EDT
GRAND ISLE, La.: The Coast Guard says no one was killed when an offshore petroleum platform exploded and began burning in the Gulf of Mexico, about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast.
The explosion is about 200 miles west of the site where BP’s undersea well spilled after a rig explosion.
The Coast Guard says the blast was spotted by a commercial helicopter flying over the area this morning.
All 13 people aboard the rig have been accounted for, with one injury.
A Coast Guard spokeswoman says some of those from the rig were spotted in emergency flotation devices.
The Department of Homeland Security says the platform was owned by Mariner Energy of Houston. DHS said it was not producing oil and gas.
Special thanks to Richard Charter
Oh how nice. And the lies are already gushing out. “The platform wasn’t producing”. “The platform was processing oil from seven wells”. “There’s an oil slick”. “There’s no oil slick”. The above aren’t word-for-word quotes, but are paraphrased from the news stories I’ve read in the past hour.
But it doesn’t matter, right? Whatever oil ends up in the Gulf… 75% of it will magically disappear or turn into lemonade or orange-blossom honey, or whatever it is we’re supposed to believe happened to it.
Not to worry. Offshore oil drilling is perfectly safe, as BP kept telling us even as their catastrophe increased exponentially (as the truth leaked out). And in shallow water, as this one is, it’s even more than perfectly safe, right?
Of course this time, since we’re dealing with a Texas company, we’ll get nothing but the truth, right?
Sorry, I can’t help being cynical.
Sure didn’t take long for the oil company to get the Coast Guard in line about that mile-long oil sheen they reported earlier. So did the CG just imagine they saw an oil sheen? Maybe the oil company hired Thad Allen to be their spokesman the same way he worked for BP. Though retired, his rank would give him plenty of pull with the Coast Guard, so as to get everyone telling the same story. Shame on the Coast Guard for seeing that oil.
That’s not all Dennis–check out the story about BP “discouraging” hospitals and doctors from treating anyone on the Gulf who has the ill effects of exposure to dispersants and oil. And its not just the workers hired to be out there, either, it’s people who live on the coast and have no where to go.