Tag Archives: BP

Three years after BP’s Gulf oil spill, there is still more to know

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Boats try unsuccessfully to clean oil from the ocean, near the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And while I wish it was a distant memory, I’ve been thinking about it all too much lately.

The recent Exxon tar sands pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas has evoked vivid memories of the BP spill. Exxon is following BP’s playbook very closely, and like BP, is successfully controlling the entire response effort. Continue reading →

Seven Photos of Oil Spills You Need to See

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Exxon's oil pipeline leaked 12,000 barrels of oil and water in Mayflower, Arkansas on March 29 causing 22 homes to evacuate.

At least 22 Arkansas families can now tell you that oil pipelines leak. Unfortunately for those families, thousands of barrels of crude, black oil from an Exxon pipeline leaked all over their neighborhood.  The only good thing that could happen as a result of the latest disaster in the oil industry is a clean “No” to two major oil projects the United States is considering- the Keystone pipeline and Arctic drilling.

See seven more reasons below why we should say no to new oil projects. Take action and say “No to Keystone” and “No to Arctic drilling.” Continue reading →

Brrrrrrrr: Arctic ice loss responsible for our chilly spring

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Although it’s Cherry Blossom festival time in Washington D.C., Greenpeace’s United States headquarters, we’re still bundled in our winter gear. Turns out that the same warmer temperatures causing Arctic ice loss at record-breaking speeds are responsible for the extreme winter weather and cold temperatures experienced in much of Europe and North America. The ice loss in the Arctic broke a previous 2007 record shrinking 18 percent, according to data published by National Snow & Ice Data Center last fall. Continue reading →

Arctic sea ice larger than U.S. melted this year

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We all depend on the health of the Arctic. Oil companies such as Shell, BP or Exxon want to drill oil, fueling climate change and ice melting. The climate in the area can be severe and unpredictable making an oil spill likely and catastrophic. Over two million people have now signed our petition. Declare your support for a global sanctuary in the Arctic by signing on now.

Originally posted to CBS News.

DOHA, QATAR- An area of Arctic sea ice bigger than the United States melted this year, according the U.N. weather agency, which said the dramatic decline illustrates that climate change is happening “before our eyes.”

In a report released at U.N. climate talks in the Qatari capital of Doha, the World Meteorological Organization said the Arctic ice melt was one of a myriad of extreme and record-breaking weather events to hit the planet in 2012. Droughts devastated nearly two-thirds of the United States as well western Russia and southern Europe. Floods swamped West Africa and heat waves left much of the Northern Hemisphere sweltering. Continue reading →

It’s arithmetic: $4.5 billion is chump change for BP

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Let me apologize in advance for all the numbers that follow, but they’re important.

Eleven men died on Deepwater Horizon the night BP’s Macondo well blew out in April 2010.  It’s one number we shouldn’t forget and no number can be placed on the loss their families and communities suffered and continue to suffer.

The number announced today – $4 billion – represents BP’s criminal settlement with the US government and a victory for the giant oil corporation. Continue reading →

PHOTOS: BP oil pollutes Louisiana marshes after Hurricane Isaac

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Greenpeace researcher Jesse Coleman shows oil churned up by Hurricane Isaac that has polluted the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana, one of the areas hardest hit by the BP oil disaster, September 6, 2012

Oil from the 2010 BP disaster is polluting marshes and beaches in Louisiana, churned up by Hurricane Isaac more than two years after that spill devastated this area and other parts of the Gulf Coast. After documenting oil this week on a National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama and islands off the coast of Mississippi, Greenpeace and the Gulf Restoration Network investigated the marshes of southern Louisiana, and took samples of oil among the grass, water and soil. According to the New York Times, oil sampled from these Louisiana marshes this week by state wildlife officials has been fingerprinted as oil from the BP disaster.

Oil churned up by Hurricane Isaac pollutes the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana, one of the areas hardest hit by the BP oil disaster, September 6, 2012

In addition to the lasting impacts of the BP oil disaster, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Hurricane Isaac triggered at least 93 pollution incidents, revealing the oil, coal, and chemical industries’ lack of preparedness and the consequences of allowing these industries to police themselves. We documented one of these major incidents at the Kinder Morgan coal export terminal, which is pumping coal blackened water out of the facility into the surrounding environment.

A dead crab lies in oil churned up by Hurricane Isaac in the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana, September 6, 2012

Some of the oil we found in the Louisiana marshes is weathered tar balls, but much of it is viscous oil that is more toxic and difficult or impossible to remove. Despite BP’s advertising campaigns, there is a huge quantity of oil left in the marine environment from the disaster, as Garrett Graves, who oversees the ongoing BP cleanup for the state of Louisiana told CBS News, “BP has up to 1 million barrels of unaccounted oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and I think it will continue to manifest like this hurricane after hurricane for 10 to 20 years unless BP goes out and does a proactive cleanup effort.”

Oiled boom sits in the marshes of Barataria Bay, Louisiana after Hurricane Isaac churned up oil left in the Gulf of Mexico from the 2010 BP disaster, September 6, 2012

As Gulf Coast residents face years or decades of impacts from the BP oil disaster, this is a reminder of what happens when we let oil companies write this country’s energy plan and endanger our coastlines.

PHOTOS: Oil on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaac shows the risks of offshore oil drilling

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Oil washed up by Hurricane Isaac on West Ship Island, Mississippi, September 4, 2012

Oil is washing up along the Gulf Coast in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, churned up by Hurricane Isaac. After discovering hundreds of tar balls at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge in Alabama, a Greenpeace research team joined our allies at the Gulf Restoration Network to investigate the impacts on East and West Ship Island, off the coast of Mississippi. We found tar balls on East Ship Island and several heavily oiled areas on West Ship Island, which are both part of the Gulf National Seashore.

Oil and reeds washed up by Hurricane Isaac on West Ship Island, Mississippi, September 4, 2012

Meanwhile, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Louisiana is “closing a 12-mile section of Gulf coastline from Caminada Pass to Pass Fourchon after Hurricane Isaac washed up large areas of oil and tar balls at the location of one of the worst inundations of BP oil during the Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010… agency crews surveying damage from Isaac discovered large sections of viscous oil and tar balls floating along the coast.”

Greenpeace researcher Jesse Coleman takes samples of oil washed up by Hurricane Isaac on West Ship Island, Mississippi, September 4, 2012

Greenpeace documented oil on East Ship Island in October 2010, months after the BP oil disaster. Returning two years later to find so much oil pollution is a sad reminder that it’s impossible to clean up a major marine oil spill. Officials are concerned that up to one million barrels of oil are estimated to remain in the Gulf of Mexico, and are calling on EPA and NOAA to explain how they will address oil pollution remaining from the 2010 spill.

Oil washed up by Hurricane Isaac contaminates water on West Ship Island, Mississippi, September 4, 2012

It’s clear that the impacts will be felt for years on the Gulf Coast, and the risk of such a disaster exists wherever our coasts are open to offshore oil drilling.

PHOTOS: Oil washing up on the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Isaac

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Oil is washing up along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Isaac, confirming concerns that the storm could churn up oil in the Gulf of Mexico. A Greenpeace research team took samples from beaches along the Alabama coast on September 2, including from an area with hundreds of tar balls in the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge.

Hundreds of tar balls on the beach at Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Alabama on September 2, 2012

According to the US Coast Guard, oiled pelicans and other wildlife have been found in Louisiana marshes as well. As people struggle with flooding, wind damage, and power outages in the wake of the hurricane, officials have expressed concerns that on top of that disaster, Hurricane Isaac may stir up oil from the BP spill:

“This is another disaster on top of the hurricane that we’re going to have to deal with,” Garret Graves, chairman of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, told The Huffington Post. “The threat is not insignificant.” Continue reading →

Into the Arctic

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Sunrise near the Bering Strait this early morning. Photo by Sune Scheller / Greenpeace

We have now crossed the Polar Circle with the Esperanza and we are in the Arctic, and the Chukchi Sea. Here in this extremely fragile environment, Shell is planning to drill for oil. Home to bowhead whales, polar bears, walrus, numerous species of birds and other animals – this is no place for oil drilling!

Even though today is a fairly calm and peaceful day at sea this is an incredibly harsh environment. Intense gales, unpredictable ice and its extreme remoteness means an oil spill here would be catastrophic. A clean up here would be an exercise in the impossible; it would make the clean up after the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico look like a walk in the park.

We need your help to protect the Arctic. Not only from dangerous oil drilling but also from industrial trawl fishing companies waiting to get their hands on the spoil. We need you to take action and here is a place to start. Continue reading →

Shell Clarifies: It Can ‘Encounter’ 95 Percent Of An Arctic Oil Spill, Not Collect It

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(Cross-posted from ThinkProgress)

As Shell’s rigs head toward the Arctic to exploit melting sea ice to drill for more oil, the company took a small step this weekend toward clarifying what would happen in an oil spill during the company’s planned Arctic drilling operations this summer. Despite the oil industry’s spin, experts know it is impossible to recover more than a small fraction of a major marine oil spill, as retired Coast Guard Admiral Roger Rufe told NPR: “But once oil is in the water, it’s a mess. And we’ve never proven anywhere in the world — let alone in the ice — that we’re very good at picking up more than 3 or 5 or 10 percent of the oil once it’s in the water.”

Oiled boom lies across sea ice in Norway after a cargo ship ran aground and leaked heavy oil. Photo by Jon Terje Hellgren Hansen / Greenpeace, Feb 24, 2011.

Continue reading →