The Biggest Oil Spill in History

New Government estimates now place BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill as the largest in American History. "Even using the most conservative estimate, that means nearly 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked." This kind of makes the Exxon Valdez look like chump change with it's 11 million gallons.

Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Puget Sound

Sightline has a good article that puts the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill into a local perspective. Imagine every inch of every beach that you have been to around Puget Sound covered with oil. Unfortunately there is a lot more than that, about 222 times the size of Lake Washington! This leads to another article which you can see the oil spill on an interactive map. Informative and sad.

98 Ton Cement Dome Failure

Unfortunately it sounds like BP's 98 Ton Cement Dome that was intended to act as a funnel to control the main oil spill in the Gulf has failed, so they are going to have to try something new to stop the leak.

The good news is that we could put the 98 Ton Dome to work right here in South Seattle! BP could drop that very same dome on top of their AMPM store at 5620 MLK to control the amount of trash that spews out onto the streets from their property! Unlike the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico I'm almost 100% sure that the the dome would be effective here!

BP's trail of Shame Shame Shame

How often do I quote a Republican in an environmental blog? According to a great article in today's Seattle Times "Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, told BP executives during a heated September 2006 hearing. "I'm even more concerned about BP's corporate culture of seeming indifference to safety and environmental issues. And this comes from a company that prides itself in their ads on protecting the environment. Shame. Shame. Shame."

There are too many great anti-BP articles out there to even read right now, let alone re-post for you. But are you listening South Seattle? What BP is doing in the gulf coast they have been dumping directly on us in a much smaller way for years.

BP is Slick with their Green Washing Campaign

Mother Jones has a good article about BP's greenwashing campaign. As expected BP is trying to deflect blame from themselves and onto the offshore drilling contractor. Hmmm...why does this sound so familiar?

Could it be because this is EXACTLY the tactic that they have been using here in Columbia City for the last five years? Trying to blame their inability to pick up trash around their store on an obviously oblivious franchise owner despite the fact that BP is the actual property owner? It's nice to see that BP is at least very predictable and that their problems seem to stem from their uncaring and irresponsible corporate culture.

BP Oil Spill Updates

The EPA has launched a website to track the BP oil spill http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/

I wish they would launch a website to track all of the trash not being picked up around BP's AMPM store here in south Seattle, but I guess that is asking too much?

Bloomberg is also reporting that "BP’s Response to Oil Spill Lacking, Officials Say". I got a good laugh out of that one. BP must have an entire department dedicated to avoiding responsibility, it will be interesting to watch them squirm out of this one.