Related: Boston Sunday Globe Censorship: Oil Spill Omission
That's what some would call it, especially since we had another one:
"Another gulf oil rig accident raises anxiety; No injuries, no leaks reported; panel to probe platform fire" by Campbell Robertson, New York Times | September 3, 2010
NEW ORLEANS — An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire yesterday, forcing its 13 crew members overboard and sending waves of anxiety along a coast that has just begun to recover from the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
By early evening, the workers had been rescued with no serious injuries reported and the fire had been put out. Coast Guard officials said no oil could be seen on the water near the platform, contradicting an earlier report....
Does the news media seriously expect us to believe their continuing cover-ups?
In another year, the mishap may not have garnered much attention and been seen as one of the scores of fires and explosions that occur on offshore platforms in the gulf every year.
Yeah, nothing to see here. Move along.
But coming so soon after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig in April, which killed 11 workers and set off the largest marine oil spill in US history, it took on much larger significance.
Environmental groups quickly issued news releases, arguing that the fire proved the wisdom of the federal moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling (although the platform was not drilling, nor was it in deep water)....
They don't do their cause any good with opportunism.
Federal records show that there have been at least four accidents at that well in the past decade. At least one of them led to a serious injury, and another led to a hospitalization.
Mariner Energy itself has been forced to pay at least $85,000 in civil penalties for safety violations over the same period.
The fire reinvigorated the debate about the federal moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling, which has been criticized by industry officials and residents of coastal states. The moratorium is scheduled to expire Nov. 30. But Michael R. Bromwich, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, is reviewing safety policies and records of deepwater drilling companies to determine whether the suspension could be modified or lifted sooner.
Do environmentalists really think government is on their side?
See: Globe Gets Back to Business on Oil Spill
--more--"
WASHINGTON — The Deepwater Horizon blast had contradicted promises from President Obama and the oil industry that offshore drilling was safe. Thursday’s fire threatens to undermine confidence that most drilling is safe, outside of the hard-to-plug wells in deep water....
The oil industry has blasted the moratorium as economically crushing. On Wednesday, the oil lobby held a jobs rally in Houston. Among those in attendance, according to a Financial Times report, was Mariner official Barbara Dianne Hagood.
“I have been in the oil and gas industry for 40 years, and this administration is trying to break us,’’ she said, according to the Financial Times....
--more--"
Btw, the BP well never stopped leaking. You have just been lied to about it.
NEW ORLEANS — Yesterday, engineers removed a temporary cap that had stopped oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from
The cap was removed as a prelude to raising the massive piece of equipment underneath it that had failed to prevent the worst offshore spill in US history.
The government wants to replace the failed blowout preventer to deal with any pressure that may be caused when a relief well that BP has been drilling finally intersects the blown-out well.
Once that intersection occurs sometime after Labor Day, BP is expected to use mud and cement to plug the blown-out well for good from the bottom.
The April 20 rig explosion killed 11 workers and led to an estimated 206 million gallons of oil spewing from BP’s well.
As the cap was slowly removed at 4:25 p.m. Central Daylight Time, there was no sign of anything spewing into the water.
As if I would believe the lying government and MSM at this point.
Undersea video feeds showed the cap suspended in the water. BP planned to place the cap nearby on the seafloor.
With the cap gone, the old blowout preventer can be removed and a new one put in place before engineers try to seal the well underground.
Once the blowout preventer is removed, a lot will be riding on the stability of a plug that was created when mud and cement were pumped into the well from the top.
But Rice University engineering professor George Hirasaki said there is still uncertainty about whether the cement settled everywhere it needed to in order to keep oil and gas from finding its way up.
“Just because it didn’t flow when they tested it doesn’t mean the cement displaced all of the oil and gas,’’ Hirasaki said.
That’s why many people have felt that finishing a relief well and pumping mud and cement in through the bottom would be the ultimate solution to the crisis, said Hirasaki.
The government still plans on ordering BP PLC, the majority owner of the well, to do the so-called bottom kill operation. But it believes the wisest course is to install a new blowout preventer first to deal with any pressure that is caused when the relief well intersects the blown-out well.--more--"
Related: Failed oil valve removed at BP site
BP says cost of spill response has hit $8b
