Gulf of Mexico oil spill
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60 Percent of U.S. Tidal Marshes Threatened By BP Oil Slick
New data released by NOAA shows that the massive BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico is already contaminating one major protected North American Marine Ecoregion, containing more than 60 percent of America’s tidal marshes. The slick also threatens to impact at least two more Ecoregions in the near future. The site of the […]
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Republican infighting overshadows the Tony Hayward show
CSPANBP America CEO Tony McGaffeypants Hayward made his first appearance before Congress today, facing questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee. What did it accomplish? What new information did it unearth? Ha, ha. Maybe you haven’t seen a Congressional hearing before. Hayward had little to say beyond a chorus of “I don’t know”s in […]
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Behind Obama's Speech: a stale strategy and a value vacuum
If in the wake of the President’s flaccid oval office speech there are still any doubts lingering in anyone’s mind about whether the administration is planning to use the spill as a chance to unleash a game-changing energy policy strategy, a recent DNC oil-spill messaging briefing should put them to rest. The report, compiled by […]
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Kick ass or buy gas?
The Pentagon — BP’s best friend?Photo courtesy of Wikipedia commons This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Residents of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida are livid with BP in the wake of the massive, never-ending oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — and Barack Obama says they […]
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What we need here is a little R&D
Thank God for the small people. Or at least allusions to them. BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s gaffe gave Barack Obama a brief reprieve from the pundit pummeling that mostly dismissed his first Oval Office speech as more slick than oil. But some columnists, Grist’s David Roberts for one, did spot a glint of promise in […]
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Republican Joe Barton to BP: ‘I apologize’ for the White House ‘shakedown’
Cross-posted from Think Progress. During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this morning, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) “apologize[d]” to BP CEO Tony Hayward, accusing the White House of an illegal “shakedown” of the foreign oil giant to secure a $20 billion escrow fund for Gulf Coast damages. Barton repeated the Republican attack […]
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Demand No More Coal, No More Oil This Independence Day
No surprise here, on the heels of President Obama’s Tuesday night speech, the coal industry front group — American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — released a statement saying they agree with his call for a clean energy future: “The president also renewed his call for bolder action to create a clean energy future. We […]
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Taking Stock of BP
As happens with stock charts, this one is likely to be out of date even before I get this post published. But here’s Google Finance’s chart comparing the stock price of British Petroleum (in red), an energy-stock index fund (in blue) and an S&P 500 index fund (in yellow). Since the oil spill in the […]
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Will Any Republicans Join Democrats in Holding BP Accountable?
Steve Benen and Greg Sargent have been making an important point lately that hasn’t yet received the attention it deserves: to the extent that Republicans intend to oppose efforts to hold BP accountable this summer and fall, they are extremely vulnerable politically. Here’s Benen first, commenting on Republican confusion over just what lengths they should […]
