Gulf Oil Spill Myths Debunked (PHOTOS)

From Dan Shapley, Senior Editor of The Daily Green.com:

Since the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig April 20 killed 11 oil rig workers, the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to claim the lives of wildlife, like birds and sea turtles, compromise the fishing and tourism industries, and threaten the culture of the Gulf coast. That, and it's spawned an awful lot of misconceptions.

Here's a look at a few Gulf oil spill myths that The Daily Green has been watching:

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1. Obama Put a Moratorium on Offshore Oil Drilling in the Gulf of Mexico

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Myth. President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium on new oil deepwater drilling permits, and shut down 33 exploratory deepwater wells on May 6. (A similar moratorium on new shallow water drilling lifted three weeks later. "Shallow" in this context means up to 499 feet deep.) Both orders, however, were vague and left 3,600 existing offshore oil wells active in Gulf waters. Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted. Even the six-month deepwater moratorium was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge June 22, leaving it void if not overturned on appeal or reinstated on different legal grounds. (Nevermind that the judge has invested in Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded, Halliburton, which handled the faulty cementing of the well, and about a dozen other companies involved in offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.) And Obama has always been a supporter of offshore oil, though some of his environmentalist supporters seem to have forgotten that; he made good on a campaign promise shortly before the BP oil spill started and proposed opening additional offshore waters to oil and gas exploration – in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast and off Alaska. (Permits to start drilling in those new waters have been suspended temporarily.) More Oil Spill Facts from The Daily Green 16 Birds Threatened by the BP Gulf Oil Spill

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Myth. President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a moratorium on new oil deepwater drilling permits, and shut down 33 exploratory deepwater wells on May 6. (A similar moratorium on new shallow water drilling lifted three weeks later. "Shallow" in this context means up to 499 feet deep.) Both orders, however, were vague and left 3,600 existing offshore oil wells active in Gulf waters. Since the spill, 17 new offshore oil drilling projects have been permitted. Even the six-month deepwater moratorium was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge June 22, leaving it void if not overturned on appeal or reinstated on different legal grounds. (Nevermind that the judge has invested in Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded, Halliburton, which handled the faulty cementing of the well, and about a dozen other companies involved in offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.) And Obama has always been a supporter of offshore oil, though some of his environmentalist supporters seem to have forgotten that; he made good on a campaign promise shortly before the BP oil spill started and proposed opening additional offshore waters to oil and gas exploration – in the Gulf of Mexico, along the Atlantic coast and off Alaska. (Permits to start drilling in those new waters have been suspended temporarily.)

More Oil Spill Facts from The Daily Green
16 Birds Threatened by the BP Gulf Oil Spill

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Martin Musetsky said on 30 Wednesday 2010 pm30 2:06 pm: New videos from the Gulf: "Historic Aerial Footage Reveals the Scope of the BP Gulf Oil Disaster" - http://history.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/shocking-aerial-footage-reveals-scope.html "Sharks Gather at Oily Shore To Escape Oxygen Dead Zone in Gulf" - http://science.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/sharks-and-sea-life-gather-near-shore.html It's the same site that has the feed from twelve cameras on the floor of the Gulf (may load slowly): http://climate.the-environmentalist.org/2010/06/live-video-feeds-of-gulf-oil-disaster.html

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This Oil Spill Myth

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Top 5 Oil Spill Myths

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See all 15 Gulf oil spill myths

More Oil Spill Facts from The Daily Green
> 16 Birds Threatened by the BP Gulf Oil Spill
> 5 of the World's 7 Sea Turtles are At Risk from the Gulf Oil Spill
> Who Named the Gulf Oil Spill?
> BP Named Greenest Oil Company? FAIL
> 7 Shocking Ways to Visualize the Gulf Oil Spill

Comments

[jerry Bujarski]

05:04 PM on 07/04/2010

ITS IRONIC THAT A SIMPLE CONE SHAPED TUBE SLID INTO THE OPENING WITH HOLLOW CORE WILL ALLOW THE PIPE TO SLIDE INTO THE GUSHER WHICH CAN BE GRADUALLY SEALED BY SLIDING LOCK BOLTS MOUNTED INSIDE ALONG THE OUTER EDGE OF THE CYLINDER AND ONCE INSIDE TO USE PRESSURE TO PUSH THE BOLTS OUT INTO THE INTERIOR PIPE WALL TO HOLD IN PLACE THEN ONCE THE CYLINDER HAS BEEN LOCKED INTO PLACE THEN A LARGE TUBULAR KEVLAR LIKE USED TO MOVE LARGE BARGES OFF THE SHORE AFTER STORMS AND ONCE DRIVEN INTO THE CENTER OF THE CYLINDER FILLED UP WITH THE PRESSURE AND WATER OR EVEN USING THE SAME CRUDE OIL THAT IS GUSHING FORTH FROM THE WELLHEAD THIS WILL WORK BUT ARE BP BRAVE ENOUGHT TO TAKE ENGINEERING ADVICE FROM A DISABLED VETERAN I AM TRYING TO SAVE THE OCEAN SURE ITS WOULD BE NICE TO BE PAID FOR AN IDEA THAT COULD SAVE THE OCEANS BUT SAVE THE OCEANS IS VITALLY IMPORTANT I HOPE THEY LOOK AT THIS IDEA ITS REALLY SIMMPLE A CYLINDER WITH ONCE OF THE LONG KEVLAR INFLATABLE TUBES SLID THRU THE CENTER AND ONCE IN PLACE THE TUBE IS INFLATED AND GRADUALLY PUSH THE BOLTS INTO THE EXTERIOR WALL AND LOCK IT INTO PLACE THIS WOULD WORK WITHOUT A DOUBT SO BP TAKE MY ADVICE GET A CONE SHAPED CYLINDER THAT WILL JUST FIT INTO THE WELL HEAD AND PLACE A HUGE KEVLAR BUB INTO THE CENTER ONCE ITS PUSHED INTO THE WELLHEAD THEN INFLATE

[jerry Bujarski]

04:55 PM on 07/04/2010

ITS SAD THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED AND THE LIES AND DECEPTIONS OF TRILLION DOLLARS FOSSIL FUEL AGENCYS COMPANYS WHO SEEM MORE INTERESTED IN CATCHING AND CASHING IN ON THE OIL THAT IS FLOODING INTO THE GULF I HAVE CREATED A SOLUTION BUT SINCE IM NOT AN ENGINEER I AM DOUBTFUL THAT THEY WILL LISTEN BUT IM SURE IF THEY DID THIS FLOOD COULD BE DONE IN A FEW DAYS WITH READILY AVAILABLE TODAY. TO SOLVE THIS WE NEED TO BUILD A CUSTOM CONE SHAPED FUNNEL THAT CAN BE SLID INTO THE MOUTH OF THE RUPTURED PIPE AND AS IT ENTERS IT WILL GRADUALLY FILL THE DIMENSIONS OF THE PIPE ONCE DONE USING PRESSURE VALVES TO PUSH PINS LOCATED IN THE CONE INTO THE SIDES OF THE PIPE WALL AND THEN KEVLAR INFLATABLES USED TO INFLATE AND FULL THE BALANCE OF THE HOLE USING KEVLAR FOR STRENGTH I GUESS IF THEY WANT MY SPECS THEY CAN CONTACT ME I AM JUST FED UP WITH HUGE OIL CORPS WHO CAN NOT PUT A CUP IN A SINK WITHOUT A CORP OVERRIDE BOARD MEETING BUT THAT IS FOSSIL FUEL

[convit]

04:03 AM on 07/03/2010

I'm fairly certain that that 3-cent difference in the price of gas by 2030, as predicted by the Energy Information Administration if we go full-steam ahead with new offshore drilling, is not a 3-cent drop from the current price. Rather, it would be a 3-cent difference in what the price would OTHERWISE be without such drilling.

This point should really be made clear. Because at current rates of consumption -- compounded by the global ACCELERATION of such rates; compounded by the global decline in discoveries of new oil reserves; compounded by the increased difficulties, risks and costs of exploiting newer, more remote oil reserves -- any prediction of an absolute price for gas 20 years hence is a fool's errand.

[General Public]

03:51 AM on 07/03/2010

Let me look at the same source this article uses on so-called Myth #10:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=e01&recipdetail=A&sortorder=U&cycle=All
Money spent on Democrats in Congress by the Oil & Gas industry since 1990: $38,395,021
Money spent in Republicans in Congress by the Oil & Gas industry since 1990: $106,031,540
So Republicans got almost 3 times as much as Democrats over all those years and yet the article states "when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it's more or less a tie." YOU LIE! Epic fail at basic arithmetic.
Also look at this chart:
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/totals.php?cycle=All&ind=e01
That chart shows that the Republicans got much more than the Democrats from the Oil & Gas industry every single year there was an election. To claim otherwise is laughable. HA HA HA!

[David Altschul]

02:07 AM on 07/03/2010

You omitted the biggest myth: That the Obama administration wants to get the disaster cleaned up and wants the damage to the Gulf, sea life, the economy, and the domestic oil injury to end. Thirteen nations have offered to bring in oil-cleaning ships that would suck up the spill in its entirety. Obama has daily refused to suspend the Jones Act, a 1920s piece of protectionism, to allow the problem to be solved. How is Obama different from Bush? After Hurricane Katrina, it took W only TWO DAYS to suspend the Jones Act, because for Bush serving his country was a higher priority than serving his ideologies.

[-swift]

07:03 AM on 07/03/2010

That's great. It took two days for President Bush to suspend the Jones Act. People still haven't recovered from Hurricane Katrina. It took only a few days for the Bush administration to do lots of things in New Orleans. They privatized the schools before they had the electricity back. Now Education Secretary Arne Duncan is saying that the best thing to happen to New Orleans schools was Hurricane Katrina. Maybe decades from now, some knucklehead will say the BP oil spill was the best thing to happen to the gulf region, too.

As for the Jones Act itself ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Marine_Act_of_1920 ), it looks like Senator McCain's call to repeal it is yet another "free market" cry. Saying it will help "families", but really it will help increase profits for the corporations while costing American jobs and our country's ship building capability.

[jayemjay]

03:06 PM on 07/03/2010

Seattle Times headlined 7/2/2010 that GOP's talking point that the Jones Act crimps cleanup is FALSE. The act requires that goods transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S. flagged, built and owned ships crewed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Vessels operating outside state waters (3 miles) are not affected, and according to Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen he has received no requests for Jones Act waivers from foreign vessels. 24 foreign vessels and 9 foreign countries have already been helping with the clean-up.

This is an excuse by the "free market" GOP to undermine American jobs even more. The Jones act doesn't affect any clean-up effort.

[GeeDeeJay]

11:14 PM on 07/02/2010

I'm watching the coverage of the governments response, or rather lack of response & I'm appalled at the total disconnect between the EPA, Pres. Obama (Oblivious?) & the folks on the Gulf Coast. It seems the only thing the feds are interested in is "process". EPA approval for this, testing for that, Environmental Impact studies, are they in compliance with the Jones Act? Blah blah blah-----Is this government at its absolute worst? What the hell are we paying for? Send every federal employee remotely associated with this oversight down to the coast with a rake & shovel-------or send em home-----permanently. I know I will in Nov.

[thehumanityprj]

09:20 PM on 07/02/2010

We need to support the local residents effected by th Gulf of Mexico disaster as well as educate the public about how this is effecting the people and wildlife in the area.
http://www.indiegogo.com/The-Humanity-Project
http://thehumanityproject.org

[kgj08]

08:33 PM on 07/02/2010

Even if boycotting BP gas stations did harm BP immediately and directly, why would you want to harm the company? Don't we realize that they still have to PAY to stop the leak and then to clean up the area. How do we expect them do to that when we're holding our money back from them?? There is already great concern that BP will run out of money before it can solve this crisis. If boycotting BP did actually harm the company, in the end it would just harm the US taxpayer when we have to foot the bill for what BP couldn't afford.

[berrycooda]

08:28 PM on 07/02/2010

Go green with all that oil....

Throw in some vinegar and a lot of lettuce....
Works for a salad.

[Frank N Blunt]

06:36 PM on 07/02/2010

The reality is that all oil goes to global market. Cheap leases & taxes (if any) to obtain our resources for exorbitant private profit. Sure, employment & income taxes are provided but how much is compromised by subsidization/grants awa government contracts? BP isn't missing anything or suffering any damage much less providing restitution, the citizens are still burdened with expenses & costs along with environment disaster. Their PR, while preventing objective studies & journalists from reporting, is just as shameful & wasteful when it's better used toward remediation.
Just like financials/speculators/insurers/gamblers have been provided support/opportunities via bailouts/TARP/Treasury access via the Federal Reserve to obtain $bil/tril at 0% interest while hoarding/offshoring $/still conducting unregulated speculative schemes/charging exorbitant interest to use public money via usury schemes that exploit & indenture citizens; the most absurd twist is allowing the purchase Treasury securities/government bonds to literally be paid to get our money. How are we even allowing this to happen?!?! Supporting an incompetent oligarchy & irresponsible legacy of entitlement in such obscene & egregious manners by allowing access to pillage & pilfer public revenues shows how much they have taken our nation for granted (not much different than the disparity occurring between citizens & all governments from states to local municipalities that are showing how self-interested bureacracies have become by abusing power without representation or care for the public good). This is much worse than what motivated the Revolutionary & Civil Wars but why are people so apathetic?

[kelisawood]

09:35 PM on 07/02/2010

why the apathy? i can think of 2 reasons off hand:

1) The people are afraid of marshal law. A civil war would bring the iron fist of the US military squarely down on US citizens on US soil
2) The people would miss this week's episode of Dancing With The Stars

[ChuckDarwin]

03:05 PM on 07/02/2010

Hmmm, 3 cents per gallon from ALL offshore oil drilling combined, OR destroy the Gulf coast fishery for a generation, and tourism for at least a few years....Wow, tough choice.

Close them ALL down.

[SpikeC]

10:19 PM on 07/02/2010

I do not believe that the fishery will be damaged for a generation. It will be much longer than that. Much much longer.

[GeeDeeJay]

11:21 PM on 07/02/2010

The Ixtoc I spill in 1979 was roughly the same size as this spill-----virtually nothing was done by the Mexican run oil company Pemex to clean it up. In a few years fishing was back to pre spill levels, the birds & turtles returned & there are few if any remnants of the spill to be found. The earth is a lot tougher & more resilient than you give it credit for.

[Allison Good]

12:02 AM on 07/04/2010

It does not matter how long the fishing industry will be damaged for, because Gulf fishermen will leave their way of life and never look back. This is the most devastating thing that could possibly happen to them.

[maxfax]

02:14 PM on 07/02/2010

Offshore drilling could make the US energy independent? BS

[Floridawhitebeaches]

01:44 AM on 07/02/2010

The Gulf of Mexico used to be food producing waters.

Save, & add rotating banner to your MySpace, & Facebook pages.

http://gickr.com/results4/anim_3750dea1-6dbd-b684-7df1-adaa17fb9c2a.gif

[JerryAguy]

04:38 PM on 07/01/2010

Wouldn't a boycott be counter productive? They are responsible to clean up and pay, if they have no money to do that they just let BP of N. America go bankrupt? It could have been any company and I don't want to see the people get burned worse than they are, I don't even know if they can sue BP since the Gov. made their deal, anybody know? I'd hate to think that's the case.

[murphthesurf3]

09:52 AM on 07/01/2010

Myth. Republicans may scream "drill, baby, drill" louder, but when it comes to political money being spent to influence government, it's more or less a tie.

CORRECT THAT IS A MYTH. I WISH THE ARTICLE WERE CLEARER. SO LET'S BE CLEAR.

The article goes on to list the top donors to each party.
GOP totals: $3,428,208
DEM totals: $547,358

That's SIX TIMES AS MUCH TO THE GOP AS THE DEMS.....DUH!

AND those ratios remain pretty much the same across the entire Senate and House.
Add to this that indirect contributions through the support of lobbying group and special interest associations is heavily pro GOP it is clear that the Republicans are ties much more closely to Big Oil than Democrats.

AND since oil states tend to be GOP states, the ties between the local economy and BIG OIL is huge.

It all adds up to a lot of influence from those who want open leasing and permitting, lax standards, and little supervision when it comes to petroleum acquisition.

[fscottnm]

06:35 PM on 07/01/2010

Thank you!!! My thoughts exactly. Why are so many people incapable of simple arithmetic? (Oh yeah, underfunding of public schools.)

[Bike Commuter]

01:45 PM on 07/02/2010

The myth is that the money cited is really coming from the industry.

The numbers cited are from Open Secrets. The numbers include all contributions from anyone working in an industy, and they use the information that a donor gives when they make their donation. I see these types of numbers tossed around on both sides for everything including healtcare, banking, insurance, pharmaceuticaIs, agriculture, and so on.

It is ridicuIous to imply that it is problematic to accept a donation from an individual who identifies as being a worker in a particular industry.

There is also a problem with your math on this particular issue. The GOP numbers include McCain's money from the Presidential election. Of course, the numbers cited in the story above are also a selective choosing of numbers since only the top 5 recipients are shown. The top 20 numbers show that there are more Republicans on the list. At the same time, that is to be expected since oil producing states are more often red. You can play the back and forth arguments endlessly.

What is left is a big number soup that means NOTHING.

[SpikeC]

10:23 PM on 07/02/2010

And you spew the biggest NOTHING of all. No matter how you would like the spin it, the R's are the problem.