August | 2010 | The Price of Oil

Posts in August 2010

Follow the Money
Steve Kretzmann
Aug10
As Congress begins August recess, those of us who care about America’s addiction to oil, climate change, and a clean energy future have been scratching our heads, wondering why, after historic levels of pressure we can’t even pass an oil spill response bill, not to mention a real clean energy or climate bill. When in…
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“Of particular concern is the ability to stop a blowout once it has begun.”
Andy Rowell
Aug10
When Time magazine compiled a list of its “Dirty Dozen” people it held responsible for BP’s oil spill it is hardly surprising that BP’s two recent CEOs John Browne and Tony Hayward topped the list. Number three on the list, though, was a name most people had never heard of: Chris Oynes. Oynes was the…
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“Trillions” to defend oil supply
Steve Kretzmann
Aug09
Since the 1973 Arab oil embargo, successive US administrations have equated national security with access to, and control of, oil – particularly in the Persian Gulf, which holds two-thirds of global oil reserves. In other words, as long as we need oil, we need the Persian Gulf. Faced with this unpleasant fact, every President since…
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The Special Relationship Stops at the Pump
Andy Rowell
Aug09
Maybe it’s just the media, but Britain is obsessed over the strength of the so-called special relationship between the US and UK. In times of war and peace, through different Presidents and Prime Ministers, the bond is deemed to be strong. But what about that bond and oil spills?
Scientists Attack White House Spin
Andy Rowell
Aug06
The fall-out continues from the US government report saying that 75 per cent of the spilled oil from BP’s macondo well has gone. Scientists say it is “just not true” that the vast majority of oil from the BP spill has gone and in fact the opposite is true – that up to 75 per…
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“Its too early to make any conclusions about the true scale of the damage.”
Andy Rowell
Aug05
Yesterday the reporting on this issue went like this: BP has successfully plugged the well, and the US government said that 75 per cent of the oil had been cleaned up. This means the Gulf disaster was exaggerated, Tony Hayward was right after all about a small drop in a large ocean and, hey presto…
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The Good News, the Bad and the Ugly
Andy Rowell
Aug04
First the good news. BP says its “static kill” on its Macondo well has succeeded so far, describing the moment as a “significant milestone”. The “static kill”, which started yesterday, involved pumping heavy drilling mud from the top of the well slowly down, pushing the oil back down into the reservoir. The oil was stopped…
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BP: The Biggest Polluter as spill confirmed as “world’s worst”
Andy Rowell
Aug03
Whatever happens today when BP begins to finally cap its Macondo well with a “static kill”, latest estimates are that the spill is the world’s biggest accidental oil leak. An estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil gushed from the well before it was capped last month. When the spill first occurred back in April, people…
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“Carpet bombed” dispersants act as a “delivery system” for oil
Andy Rowell
Aug02
As BP prepared over the next few days to permanently seal its Macondo well, there is growing evidence that its use of dispersants is going to have severe political, ecological and legal ramifications. The political fall-out from their use intensified last week. Ed Markey, the Chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce wrote to…
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