With workers struggling to contain the growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, the White House has the declared the situation a disaster of "national significance." The designation paves the way for an all-out federal response to the potential environmental disaster. Yesterday, top officials were dispatched to the region to help coordinate defences against the leak. Meanwhile, the......read more
With bad weather hampering efforts to hold back the massive oil slick growing off the Gulf Coast, U.S. President Barack Obama called the situation a "massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster," promising that his administration will do everything it can to stop it and clean it up. President Obama made his remarks from Venice, La., where he arrived yesterday to survey......read more
Even though expanded drilling operations off the Santa Barbara coastline could have created $100 million dollars in California revenue, Governor Schwarzenegger has switched positions and no longer supports drilling expansion. This is one of the more positive responses to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is shaping up to be the worst in American history. If a Republican......read more
In the wake of last week's catastrophic oil spill, still growing in the Gulf of Mexico, many people are feeling helpless as to what they can do in their personal lives to stop supporting offshore oil drilling and the use of oil in general. Fortunately, our everyday lifestyle and purchasing decisions matter. We as individuals have the power to help reduce our country's reliance on oil,......read more
As the first slicks of oil have officially made landfall, British Petroleum is lowering a four story box over the leak, and using pipes to channel the oil up to a processing ship. This operation is extremely difficult due to the fact that the oil is leaking from about a mile underneath the surface. If it is successful, it will greatly reduce the approximated 200,000 gallons a day that are......read more
In Washington on Tuesday, executives from BP and its drilling partners were grilled by Senators about their companies' involvement in the Gulf Coast oil disaster. The Senate energy and environmental committees set out to figure out how it happened, and who is responsible. BP, Transocean, and Halliburton executives were taken to account by lawmakers for the "cascade of failures"......read more
In Louisiana, mixed news from the frontline of the catastophic oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Marine scientists have found a giant plumes of oil coagulating deep under the surface of the water, raising concerns that the spill might be a lot larger than originally estimated. There are three or four plumes, including one reported by the New York Times to be "as large as 10 miles long, 3......read more
Concentrated globs of oil are washing up the shores of the Florida Keys, an ominous sign that the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will be carried to the Eastern U.S. seaboard by the so-called "loop current," a powerful underwater current moving up the Atlantic coast from the gulf. Meanwhile, in its efforts to disperse the spill, authorities are using a controversial chemical......read more
Just how big is the Gulf Coast oil spill? Estimates suggest anywhere from 20 to 45 million gallons of raw crude have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico to date. And things may get worse before they get better. With figures that big, it's hard to wrap your head around the scale of the disaster. What does that much oil look like? This interactive mapping tool provides an enlightening – and......read more
President Obama vowed to pursue criminal inquiries into the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, a few hours before Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that federal authorities have opened criminal and civil investigations. Shares of BP PLC plunged 13 percent after it was revealed that the latest attempt to fix the leaking well failed. The selloff knocked $18 billion off BP's market......read more