http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gIXWYBTpLtSayJtg41LKXpxSxVPAD9GDJBO84

By MATTHEW BROWN and RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI (AP) – 5 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS – It is an overlooked danger in oil spill crisis: The crude gushing from the well contains vast amounts of natural gas that could pose a serious threat to the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem.

The oil emanating from the seafloor contains about 40 percent methane, compared with about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits, said John Kessler, a Texas A&M University oceanographer who is studying the impact of methane from the spill.

That means huge quantities of methane have entered the Gulf, scientists say, potentially suffocating marine life and creating “dead zones” where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives.

“This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history,” Kessler said.
Methane is a colorless, odorless and flammable substance that is a major component in the natural gas used to heat people’s homes. Petroleum engineers typically burn off excess gas attached to crude before the oil is shipped off to the refinery. That’s exactly what BP has done as it has captured more than 7.5 million gallons of crude from the breached well.

A BP spokesman said the company was burning about 30 million cubic feet of natural gas daily from the source of the leak, adding up to about 450 million cubic feet since the containment effort started 15 days ago. That’s enough gas to heat about 450,000 homes for four days.

But that figure does not account for gas that eluded containment efforts and wound up in the water, leaving behind huge amounts of methane.

BP PLC said a containment cap sitting over the leaking well funneled about 619,500 gallons of oil to a drillship waiting on the ocean surface on Wednesday. Meanwhile, a specialized flare siphoning oil and gas from a stack of pipes on the seafloor burned roughly 161,700 gallons.

Thursday was focused on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers chastised BP CEO Tony Hayward.

Testifying as oil still surged into the Gulf at between 1.47 million and 2.52 million gallons a day, coating more coastal land and marshes, Hayward declared “I am so devastated with this accident,” “deeply sorry” and “so distraught.”

But he also said he was out of the loop on decisions at the well and disclaimed knowledge of any of the myriad problems on and under the Deepwater Horizon rig before the deadly explosion. BP was leasing the rig the Deepwater Horizon that exploded April 20, killing 11 workers and triggering the environmental disaster.

“BP blew it,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House investigations panel that held the hearing. “You cut corners to save money and time.”

As for the methane, scientists are still trying to measure how much has escaped into the water and how it may damage the Gulf and it creatures.

The dangerous gas has played an important role throughout the disaster and response. A bubble of methane is believed to have burst up from the seafloor and ignited the rig explosion. Methane crystals also clogged a four-story containment box that engineers earlier tried to place on top of the breached well.

Now it is being looked at as an environmental concern.

The small microbes that live in the sea have been feeding on the oil and natural gas in the water and are consuming larger quantities of oxygen, which they need to digest food. As they draw more oxygen from the water, it creates two problems. When oxygen levels drop low enough, the breakdown of oil grinds to a halt; and as it is depleted in the water, most life can’t be sustained.

The National Science Foundation funded research on methane in the Gulf amid concerns about the depths of the oil plume and questions what role natural gas was playing in keeping the oil below the surface, said David Garrison, a program director in the federal agency who specializes in biological oceanography.

“This has the potential to harm the ecosystem in ways that we don’t know,” Garrison said. “It’s a complex problem.”

In early June, a research team led by Samantha Joye of the Institute of Undersea Research and Technology at the University of Georgia investigated a 15-mile-long plume drifting southwest from the leak site. They said they found methane concentrations up to 10,000 times higher than normal, and oxygen levels depleted by 40 percent or more.

The scientists found that some parts of the plume had oxygen concentrations just shy of the level that tips ocean waters into the category of “dead zone” – a region uninhabitable to fish, crabs, shrimp and other marine creatures.

Kessler has encountered similar findings. Since he began his on-site research on Saturday, he said he has already found oxygen depletions of between 2 percent and 30 percent in waters 1,000 feet deep.

Shallow waters are normally more susceptible to oxygen depletion. Because it is being found in such deep waters, both Kessler and Joye do not know what is causing the depletion and what the impact could be in the long- or short-term.

In an e-mail, Joye called her findings “the most bizarre looking oxygen profiles I have ever seen anywhere.”

Representatives of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration acknowledged that so much methane in the water could draw down oxygen levels and slow the breakdown of oil in the Gulf, but cautioned that research was still under way to understand the ramifications.

“We haven’t seen any long-term changes or trends at this point,” said Robert Haddad, chief of the agency’s assessment and restoration division.

Haddad said early efforts to monitor the spill had focused largely on the more toxic components of oil. However, as new data comes in, he said NOAA and other federal agencies will get a more accurate read on methane concentrations and the effects.

“The question is what’s going on in the deeper, colder parts of the ocean,” he said. “Are the (methane) concentrations going to overcome the amount of available oxygen? We want to make sure we’re not overloading the system.”

BP spokesman Mark Proegler disputed Joye’s suggestion that the Gulf’s deep waters contain large amounts of methane, noting that water samples taken by BP and federal agencies have shown minimal underwater oil outside the spill’s vicinity.

“The gas that escapes, what we don’t flare, goes up to the surface and is gone,” he said.
Steven DiMarco, an oceanographer at Texas A&M University who has studied a long-known “dead zone” in the Gulf, said one example of marine life that could be affected by low oxygen levels in deeper waters would be giant squid – the food of choice for the endangered sperm whale population. Squid live primarily in deep water, and would be disrupted by lower oxygen levels, DiMarco said.

Brown reported from Billings, Mont.

special thanks to Richard Charter

view video on this topic at:
http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1660

 June 16th, 2010
A shrimp boat captain in Louisiana hired by BP was blocked from rescuing juvenile Kemp’s ridleys that were covered in oil in the Gulf waters. He was captured on video saying that the turtles are being collected in the clean-up efforts and burned up like so much ocean debris with other marine life gathering along tide lines where oil also congregates.

He witnessed BP workers burning turtles caught in the oil booms. Rescue efforts are being ended tomorrow.

STRP’s Gulf Director Carole Allen responded to the news by saying “The burning of boom and oil when even one sea turtle was seen in the water is a despicable crime.”

STRP’s Chris Pincetich has been in communication with both the reporter who shot the interview and the Captain who witnessed the illegal killing of sea turtles, and is making arrangements to ensure that sea turtle rescue efforts are not stopped, and can be performed in areas with boomed oil.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the “Death by Fire” June 17, click here to read the story.
Sea Turtle Restoration Project * PO Box 370 * Forest Knolls, CA 94933, USA
Phone: +1 415 663 8590 * Fax: +1 415 663 9534 * info@seaturtles.org
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Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/across-4938-rauschkolb-hands.html

Deborah Wheeler
2010-06-17 17:36:49

When restaurateur Dave Rauschkolb organized the first Hands Across the Sand silent protest in February, he was merely one man asking friends and neighbors to take a stand with him to send a message to the Florida Legislature that the people of Florida did not want oil drilling within 10 miles of our shores.

Rauschkolb warned any powers that be who would listen that a leak from oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico could ruin our beaches and thus the livelihood of residents living along the shore.

He was impressed with the response he got from like minds across the state, but many in the legislature seemed to think those fears were radical.

Then came the April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.

After two months of watching the very disaster he predicted creep up to his doorstep, Rauschkolb has organized a second Hands Across the Sand. This time, he has the world’s attention.

“This is an opportunity on a national and world-wide level to send a clear message to our leaders that it is time to declare our independence from oil,” said Rauschkolb from his Rosemary Beach home.

Rauschkolb has been working 17 hours a day. He has flown to Washington, D.C., and talked to people all over the world to accomplish his objective. The effort has paid off in support.

On June 26 at noon, at 417 sites in roughly 300 cities in 43 states across the U.S., and 11 countries outside the U.S., including Japan, India, New Zealand, and others – concerned people will stop what they are doing, go to their nearest beach and join hands in solidarity to take a stand against offshore oil drilling.

On the website www.handsacrossthesand.org, Rauschkolb provides the tools to create a Hands Across the Sand event at any site. The site is interactive and offers T-shirt designs, posters, logos, fliers, and sample press releases.

Through the site’s map, Net surfers can view cities where an event has already been planned, and find contact information for the organizer in that city.

“I am not raising money or selling anything. Each organizer takes responsibility for their event using our tools,” said Rauschkolb.

Rauschkolb feels all Americans would be remiss if, in the midst of the tragedy, they didn’t take this opportunity to demand those in power to steer the country toward clean energy options that don’t place marine wildlife at risk.

“The fact that our worst fears have come true has underscored the need to act on a much higher level,” he said. “Not only will this affect the Gulf Coast, but it could result in an economic disaster that could affect the entire U.S. economy. It goes on and on and on with an economic impact that is far reaching.”

Rauschkolb feels it is now clearly evident this kind of disaster can and will happen again and expanded offshore drilling could endanger other communities in America and around the globe.

“I initially started getting e-mails from the U.K., Japan and New Zealand. They heard about this event and it made me realize there are other countries of the world that want to stand in solidarity on this issue with us. People in coastal communities all over the world are fearful it could happen to them,” he said.

As for how government officials are doing in handling the oil spill debacle, Rauschckolb said he spent an hour with Gov. Crist last week and was pleased with everything he had to say regarding Florida’s future. Rauschkolb said Crist is calling a special session of the legislature to propose a ban to offshore oil drilling in Florida and to propose placing an amendment on the ballot in November that would take drilling out the hands of politicians and place it in the hands of Floridians.

“I support his efforts,” said Rauschkolb.

Rauschkolb also had nothing bad to say about the president.
“I think he is doing the best he can considering the epic proportions of the disaster, considering no president has ever had to deal with this type of disaster before,” he said.

Rauschkolb believes the blame for the disaster rests not only on BP’s shoulders but on the entire offshore oil-drilling industry.

“Clearly this disaster could have been caused by any of the companies,” he said.

Rauschkolb has not only been a business owner on the Gulf Coast for 24.5 years, he lives in South Walton full time.

“On a personal level Š it’s emotional,” began Rauschkolb as he tried to explain his investment of time and energy in the Hands Across the Sand project. His explanation was interrupted as he took time to compose himself. “I care deeply for our marine and wildlife and their environment, our way of life on the Gulf and the future of all our abilities to continue making a living on this beautiful coast. I have a 7-month-old daughter and she may never know the beauty of this place the way we have come to know it. I fear our status quo and businesses could be scattered to the windŠ We all depend on seasonal tourism dollars.”

The rest of the nation and world are in solidarity with us on this,” he concluded. “We will work together for change. This gathering of people at Hands Across the Sand is of the world. The support lets me know I am not alone.”

To learn more about Hands Across the Sand and to read Rauschkolb’s mission statement and how to become involved, visit www.handsacrossthesand.org and join the more than 15,000 fans of Hands Across the Sand on Facebook.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/18/heenahan.oil.spill.whales/index.html
By Heather Heenehan, Special to CNN
June 18, 2010 11:53 a.m. EDT

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
       *       Heather Heenehan: Sperm whales once hunted for their oil; now oil threatens their lives
*       Their deep water habitat in Gulf severely threatened by the BP oil spill, she writes
    *       Whales will breathe noxious fumes, she writes, and their food will be contaminated
      *       We all share blame for this disaster because of our huge oil consumption, she says

Editor’s note: Heather Heenehan is a master’s degree student in environmental management at Duke University and is working on a summer fellowship at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Woods Hole, Massachusetts (CNN) — Our need for oil almost wiped out the sperm whale once, and now our insatiable hunger for it threatens them again.

Sperm whales were hunted in the Gulf of Mexico in the 18th and 19th centuries for their oil, but were somewhat spared when petroleum replaced whale oil as an energy source. Now, instead of hunters, the same oil that helped to save the sperm whales from extinction threatens their survival in the Gulf.

Sperm whales, listed as endangered in 1970, are social animals. The young live with their mothers for years in stable groups, and the whales dive deep in search of food. Because they spend so much of their lives undersea, our knowledge of their behavior and community structure is limited. We have a lot to learn before we can say we truly know these animals.
We do know that sperm whales depend on the deep ocean habitat. And we know that habitat in the Gulf is severely threatened by the disastrous BP oil spill — particularly as the oil spreads through plumes that go deep into the water.
[On Tuesday, the decomposed body of a juvenile sperm whale was found 77 miles from the well, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Investigators are trying to determine whether oil played a role in its death; it was not found in oiled water.]

Routinely holding their breath for about 45 minutes, sperm whales can dive half a mile to hunt fish and squid. When they arrive at the surface, they spend about nine minutes breathing and preparing for their next dive.

About 1,665 sperm whales live in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, and reports say about 300 to 400 of them depend on deep waters near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Whalers, centuries ago, found that the Mississippi Canyon, off the Mississippi River Delta, was a hot spot for sperm whales.

A recent review of whalers’ logbooks shows that from 1788 to 1877, about 204 voyages spent at least one season whaling in the Gulf. Recent research indicates about 40 whales at any one time live around the Mississippi Canyon, and females and immature whales prefer this area.

BP’s undersea well gushing out oil is in this canyon.

The aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill offers a glimpse into what might be in store for the sperm whales of the Gulf. Many North Pacific killer whales died throughout the year after that 11 million gallon spill. Forty percent of the whales in the most exposed groups died, including all of the breeding females in one group. As more long-term studies emerge, we see that after 20 years, the killer whales still have not fully recovered.

Risk factors for the sperm whales of the Gulf are similar to those for the killer whales of coastal Alaska: They are swimming in oil; females and juveniles depend on critical habitat near the spill, and the population is already small and isolated.

Oil can damage and kill marine mammals in myriad ways.

The major threat to sperm whales is probably breathing in volatile organic compounds at the surface. The residents of New Orleans, Louisiana, may smell a bad odor from the spill, but imagine, after a 45-minute dive, surfacing into a noxious cloud of contaminated air.
Breathing these fumes can lead to pneumonia, damage to the brain, liver and other organs; unconsciousness and death. And the dispersants added to the oil are actually more volatile than crude.

Oil could also contaminate or kill the fish and squid that sperm whales eat. These creatures are highly sensitive to toxic compounds in oil. As the oil spreads, it will create a greater risk.

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission warned about oil and gas exploration in the Gulf. Considering the risk of a large oil spill to marine mammals, the commission said “such effects might result in the complete loss of a regional population and require three or more generations to recover.”

BP and its federal regulators ignored these warnings. But they were far from alone.
Every single person in the United States who uses oil has a personal connection to this spill. As I watch footage of the oil flowing into this deepwater habitat, I realize that I am partially responsible. If Americans didn’t use as much oil as we do, we wouldn’t have to drill as much — or at all.

It’s too soon to say what will become of the sperm whale in the Gulf of Mexico. But it is fair to say a new energy source won’t suddenly emerge to replace petroleum.
So, what can we do? We can support clean energy in every way possible, but we also must decrease our oil consumption. Maybe we will all be able to learn something from this disaster and adapt.

The opinions in this commentary are solely those of Heather Heenehan.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

June 19, 2010

   http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/19/us/politics/19donate.html
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: June 18, 2010

WASHINGTON  The outburst by Representative Joe L. Barton of Texas in support of BP underscored the potential peril for lawmakers forced to respond to crises involving industries vital to their regions, and whose bountiful donations finance their political campaigns.

Democrats continued to make use of Mr. Barton’s apology to BP, using it to portray Republicans as beholden to big oil. Mr. Barton, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, worked as a consultant to Atlantic Richfield Oil and Gas Company before being elected to Congress. He has long been one of the top beneficiaries of campaign donations from big energy companies, cornerstones of the Texas economy.

But in going after Republicans, the Democrats’ attacks gloss over a more complicated picture.

The largest beneficiary of campaign donations from BP in the 2008 election cycle, for instance, was President Obama, who took in $77,000 from company executives and its political action committee. This year, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas and chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee, leads all candidates with $286,000 in donations from oil and gas companies.

And while Democrats have pounced on Mr. Barton for accusing Mr. Obama of conducting a “shakedown” by demanding that BP set up a $20 billion fund for oil spill claims, a number of Democratic lawmakers  especially those from oil-producing Gulf states  have struggled to balance their criticism of BP with support for the industry.

Officials like Senator Mary L. Landrieu and Representative Charlie Melancon, both Democrats of Louisiana, have demanded accountability for BP and reparations for individuals and businesses who may face financial catastrophe. But they have also fought to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling imposed by the Obama administration after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, saying it is crippling the local economy.

“Fifty-seven days ago this country was using 20 million barrels of oil a day,” Ms. Landrieu said on the Senate floor this week, responding to a speech by Mr. Obama from the Oval Office. “Today, 57 days later, 11 lives lost, the rig at the bottom of the ocean, we are still using 20 million barrels a day. The president did not say to people last night to park their cars and walk to work.”

Ms. Landrieu continued, “We have to understand we have to continue to drill for oil and gas.”

Both Ms. Landrieu and Mr. Melancon, who is running for a Senate seat, receive substantial donations from the oil and gas industry, which is hardly surprising given the industry’s big presence in Louisiana. For her campaigns, Ms. Landrieu has taken in $751,000 since 1996, while Mr. Melancon has received $312,000 since 2004.

A day after infuriating even his own party’s leaders with his remarks, Mr. Barton would not agree to an interview. But a Barton spokeswoman said it was similarly no surprise that a representative from Texas with a senior job on the Energy and Commerce Committee would be the beneficiary of oil and gas companies.

“Joe Barton gets oil money and energy money, well, damn straight,” said the spokeswoman, Lisa Miller. “It probably doesn’t come as a shock to anybody that Texas congressmen, Democrats and Republicans, receive energy money. But how he feels about BP is not related obviously to his campaign contributions because he is extremely critical of BP.”

Ms. Miller pointed out that Mr. Barton had a big role in Congressional inquiries into a 2006 BP oil spill in Alaska and a 2005 explosion at a BP refinery in Texas that killed 15 workers. Ms. Miller said that hearings led by Mr. Barton contributed to the forced retirement of BP’s chief executive, John Browne. He was replaced by Tony Hayward, the C.E.O. Mr. Barton apologized to on Thursday.

Mr. Barton was also critical in obtaining major tax breaks for the oil industry in 2004. He has received $1.4 million since the 1990 cycle from individuals and political action committees in the oil and gas industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The nuances of big oil’s relationship to Washington was immaterial to Democrats who intensified the onslaught that began on Thursday after Mr. Barton’s apology, and his subsequent apology for the apology.

Besides painting Republicans as defenders of big oil, Democrats used Mr. Barton’s comments to deflect attention, if briefly, from the Obama administration’s difficulties in managing the response to the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“If the G.O.P. wins back the House, Barton is the guy who could be in charge of regulating the oil industry,” the Democratic National Committee wrote in a fund-raising pitch. “We’re whipping together an ad as fast as possible to make sure voters know exactly whose side Barton and the G.O.P. are on and to demand they stop apologizing to big oil, but we need your help to get it on the air.”

In a sign of the political sensitivity around the oil spill, Republicans joined in criticizing Mr. Barton. Representative Jo Bonner, Republican of Alabama, called on Mr. Barton to resign his committee post on Friday, joining Representative Jeff Miller, Republican of Florida.

The tightrope walk faced by elected officials from oil and gas states is similar to the New York delegation’s struggles when it comes to legislation to regulate Wall Street banks, or the New Jersey delegation’s sensitivity on legislation related to the pharmaceutical industry.

“You’ve got this conflict for these folks where they acknowledge the spill is a problem but, with the significant support they get from the industry, are a heck of a lot more reluctant to take aggressive legislative action against the company,” said Tyson Slocum, who runs the energy program at Public Citizen, a political research and advocacy group.

Besides Ms. Landrieu and Mr. Barton, lawmakers from big energy states include Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana; Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma; and Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska.

Ms. Murkowski, who has received $434,000 from the industry since 2002 and whose state economy is particularly linked to the industry, last month blocked the Senate from considering a measure that would raise the liability limit for an oil company’s legal exposure to $10 billion from $75 million, saying it could hurt smaller companies and produce “unintended consequences.”

For the last decade, the oil industry has been one of the most powerful lobbying constituencies in Washington. It has spent nearly a billion dollars on federal lobbying since 1998, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, making it the sixth-biggest industry in terms of expenditures.

In the current election cycle, the oil and gas industry has contributed $12.8 million to Congressional candidates, with 71 percent of it going to Republicans.

Special thanks to Richard Charter