Big Oil

Gulf of Mexico: from magnificent resource to industrial sacrifice zone

Fire and a vast oil spill, on top of one of the globe’s most productive fisheries. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard The Gulf of Mexico is a magnificent resource: a kind of natural engine for the production of wild, highly nutritious foodstuff. Here’s how the EPA describes it: Gulf fisheries are some of the most productive […]

Tom Philpott Climate & Energy

The story of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill [PHOTOS]

Photo: Transocean The Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by the Houston company Transocean, drilled the deepest oil well in history (35,050 feet) in September 2009 in the Gulf of Mexico. In January, the rig moved to a British Petroleum project 120 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Grist staff Technology

The politics of the Gulf oil spill

The ecological fallout of the Gulf oil spill continues as emergency teams plan to set fire to the surface slick in hopes of keeping it away from the coast. The political fallout continues as well: More bad news for the Senate climate and energy bill, as coastal-state senators with key votes voiced concerns about drilling […]

Jonathan Hiskes Politics

Engineers plan underwater dome to contain Gulf oil spill

They’re trying a dome because the robots didn’t work. No, really. Damage control for the oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is sounding like a bad science-fiction movie: Engineers are crafting a giant underwater dome to help to contain an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after attempts to shut off the leak […]

Jonathan Hiskes Climate & Energy

Oil rig leak and the week in fossil-fuel industry disasters

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill.Photo: NASA’s Earth ObservatoryThe oil and coal industries have been making themselves look so bad lately, it’s almost as if they want to help out their clean-energy competitors. It’s time for another damage report: About 42,000 gallons of oil a day are leaking into the Gulf of Mexico after an […]

Jonathan Hiskes Technology

Burning oil rig sinks into Gulf of Mexico

This is bad: The oil rig that has been burning in the Gulf of Mexico since an explosion on Tuesday has sunk, CNN reports. The human cost: 17 workers injured (3 critically) and 11 missing. The Coast Guard is searching for them. The ecological cost: Crude oil is leaking from at a rate of about […]

Jonathan Hiskes Climate & Energy

Offshore drilling most popular among Republicans, elderly, white, and wealthy

When President Obama announced recently that he’d open new coastal areas to offshore drilling, there was considerable speculation as to what the political fallout might be. Most progressive pundits were baffled by the decision, and the general consensus seemed to be that it was a political move designed to influence key decision makers. The immediate […]

Josh Nelson Politics

This week in comically evil corporate behavior

Updated It’s only Wednesday and we’ve already got way more than a week’s worth of comically evil behavior from the fossil-fuel sector. Item the first: A Chinese coal freighter tried to take a shortcut through Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and rammed into the world-reknowned ecological treasure. The stranded ship remains in danger of […]