While the world’s attention has been fixed on the nuclear crisis in Japan, we’re fast coming upon the one-year anniversary of another major environmental disaster: the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Though opinions are still divided on just how much damage the spill has caused—and may continue to cause—the Gulf community is …
Oil
Coming Attractions: BP Oil Spill Set to Hit the Big Screen
A guest post from TIME’s Tara Kelly:
With the one-year anniversary of BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil disaster nearly upon us, that can only mean one thing for filmmakers. The time is ripe for a Hollywood adaptation.
But forget corporate negligence or severe environmental damage. (Those don’t sell movies, they just grab headlines.) No, …
BP Doesn’t Want to Pay Full Price for Oil Spill Damages
You may remember, back when the oil was still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in June, that then BP-CEO Tony Hayward apologized for the oil spill and promised that the company would “make this right.” Actually, you don’t have to remember—they made a TV ad about it:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4PGBSptYCI]
Wait, sorry, …
Ecuador to Chevron: Pay Up. And Say You’re Sorry.
A judge in Ecuador handed down a landmark ruling against oil giant Chevron this week, ordering the company to pay $8.6 billion and another 10% of that sum in reparations to the Amazon Defense Coalition for oil pollution damages in a remote rainforest on the South American country’s northeast border.
The ruling – one of the largest …
Energy: WikiLeaks Says That Peak Oil Could Be Coming Soon. Is It?
It’s the sort of news that would spoil an oil executive’s breakfast. Last night the Guardian reported that a cache of WikiLeaks cables from American diplomats in Saudi Arabia indicated that the Mideast country’s oil reserves could be overstated by as much as 40%. If true, that would have major implications for oil prices because the …
Oil Spill: Kenneth Feinberg Sees a Quick Recovery for the Gulf—So Get Your Money Now
Back in early June, when the oil was just beginning to wash across the marshlands of southern Louisiana, then-BP CEO Tony Hayward made one of his several unfortunate PR moves. He appeared in a TV ad where he announced, with a background of fishermen and seabirds, that BP will “make this right.” At the time it seemed so absurd—the …
Oil Spill: Months Later, Questions Remain Over Chemical Dispersants
We’re only a couple of months shy of the one-year anniversary of the Gulf oil spill, but there’s still a great deal of uncertainty over just what happened—and what might be left over. As I’ve written before, recent studies seem to jibe with the government’s earlier reports suggesting that much of the oil in the Gulf has either …
Brits Ponder Fuel Rationing
The last time the British government instituted a substantial rationing program was 1940—the Nazis had spread out across Europe and the continent was mobilizing for all-out war. The rationing program, which lasted until 1954, had a profound effect on the collective consciousness of the British public, and is largely remembered not …
Oil Spill: After the Commission Report, Letting the Drillers Have Their Say
It won’t surprise readers of this blog that I agree with the BP Oil Spill Commission that there are serious safety problems with offshore drilling that need to be tackled to prevent another Deepwater Horizon. But the oil industry doesn’t quite see it that way. From the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) response to the commission’s …
Spill Report: Will the BP Disaster Reduce the Risk of Deepwater Drilling?
My time.com piece on the Gulf oil spill report—and the impact it will have on the deepwater drilling industry—is up on the main page. Check it out here.