06-01-10 by dugan Many of us recall stories early in BP’s Gulf spill about how catastrophe would probably have been prevented if PB had shelled out $500,000 for an acoustic cutoff switch that would…
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Which Is Worse, BP or MMS?
05-26-10 by dugan Big day today in learning about ways to demean and devalue safety. 1. A BP internal document (see it on Daily Beast) used a dismissive "Three Little Pigs" analogy in deciding…
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Silence of Big Oil in Gulf
5-25-10 by dugan Here’s the "bingo" quote from a Tuesday Washington Post story by Karen Tumulty, explaining why the rest of the Big Oil companies are pretty much hiding in a hole as BP…
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BP’s Agency Ties Long + Complex
BP’s Ties to Agency Are Long and Complex By Helene Cooper + John M. Broder, THE NEW YORK TIMES May 25, 2010 WASHINGTON — Three years ago, the national laboratory then headed by Steven Chu…
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Culture of Safety-Be-Damned
5-18-10 by dugan We know that federal regulators excused BP from filing a legally required detailed disaster plan on its ill-fated Gulf of Mexico oil rig. We know that BP’s assertions that it had…
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BP’s Butt-Covering Ignorance
5-17-10 by dugan So how much oil is really spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s exploded and sunk oil platform? 5,000 barrels a day (210,000 gallons) is the mainstream figure, issued by…
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Dread on the Gulf Coast
5-6-10 by dugan (Fort Walton Beach, Florida)–In the northern Gulf of Mexico, along a sparkling coast from Louisana to Florida, everyone is used to hurricanes. You can prepare, and afterward repair, no matter how…
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The Price of Cheap Coal
04-7-10 by dugan It’s not just mountaintops blown to smithereens and drinking water polluted. Cheap coal’s price is also the the 25 miners known dead, plus four more feared dead, in Monday’s West Virginia…
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Oil Prices Tipping the Economy. Again.
04-5-2010 by dugan Flash back to two years ago. Oil prices were nearing $120 a barrel and jamming up the price of food, gasoline, travel, almost everything we buy. In April 2008, energy analysts…
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‘Drill, Baby’ Doesn’t Cut Oil Price
3-31-10 by dugan After President Obama announced Wendnesday that he’s opening large swath of U.S. coastline to oil and gas drilling, and the government announced that domestic oil supplies had risen, the price of…
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‘Clean’ Coal PR, Dirty Reality
3-29-10 by dugan Just as the oxymoronic American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity launched a new campaign telling us that coal is sooo much cheaper than natural gas (coal’s chief, and cleaner, competitor), the admirable…
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Blaming Big Oil
Blaming Big Oil Critics see price-gouging as refinery capacity is cut; the industry says it’s just business. By Editorial, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES March 15, 2010 A few years ago, when SUVs still ruled American…
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Oil Co’s Look At Refinery Cuts
Oil Companies Look At Permanent Refinery Cutbacks The response to slumping gasoline use would likely mean higher prices for drivers. Consumer advocates want regulators to examine the firms’ plans. By Ronald D. White, THE LOS…