That's what happens when you have been lied to and insulted.
ORANGE BEACH, Ala. — Before the BP oil spill, the Gulf Coast was a place of abundant shrimping, tourist-filled beaches, and a happy if humble lifestyle. Now, it’s home to depression, worry, and sadness for many....
People just aren’t as happy as they used to be despite palm trees and warm weather...
the spill’s emotional toll lingers even if most of the oil has vanished from view....
Sigh. It's still washing up everyday, sigh.
The oil spill followed waves of hard luck for the Gulf region, including hurricanes and recession. Specialists say it’s impossible to determine how much of the current mental health downturn could have roots in problems other than crude washing into marshes and beaches, damaging the seafood and tourist industries....
The level of mental illness was similar to that seen six months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the coast five years ago, and experts aren’t yet seeing any improvement in mental health five months after the oil crisis began....
Which implies that it continues. No wonder people are still depressed down there.
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And after a while it SURE DOES SEEM like an OIL INDUSTRY PAPER!
"Engineers question BP gulf oil spill report; Lack of evidence hindered initial inquiry, firm says" by Dina Cappiello, Associated Press | September 27, 2010
WASHINGTON — Engineers looking into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill exposed shortfalls in BP’s internal investigation as the company was questioned yesterday for the first time publicly about its findings....
Your kidding!
FLASHBACK:
"BP report on oil disaster spreads blame, defends design; Company says no single factor caused spill" by Steven Mufson and Joel Achenbach, Washington Post | September 9, 2010
WASHINGTON — BP released a long-awaited report yesterday on an internal investigation into the causes of its Gulf of Mexico oil well blowout, blaming multiple failures by BP and other firms but absolving its much-criticized well design.
The BP report stressed that “no single factor’’ caused the April 20 blowout that killed 11 workers, sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, and led to the largest oil spill in US history.
Instead, with lawsuits and a Justice Department criminal investigation in progress, BP spread the blame widely, declaring the disaster a “shared responsibility.’’
*********
Other oil company executives have said BP used a well design that was cheaper and easier to implement instead of a safer but more expensive design....
The decision to send an unusually large amount of spacer fluid down the well was apparently motivated by an exemption in Environmental Protection Agency rules stating that certain fluids used in a well can be dumped directly into the Gulf of Mexico rather than shipped at great expense to a hazardous waste facility on land....
Critics of BP called the report self-serving....
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Just doing the same thing as government and newspapers.
BP’s testimony, and the questioning, lasted more than three hours yesterday. It was the first time BP’s six-person investigation team was questioned publicly about its findings.
Took a real grilling, huh?
Today and tomorrow, investigators in Washington will turn their attention to the government’s response to the spill and its impact on the economy and environment at a hearing of the national spill commission set up by President Obama.
BP’s study found eight separate failures led to the oil rig accident. The report blamed BP and other companies, including Transocean, the rig’s owner, and Halliburton Co., which was hired to do the cement work.
It's called pointing fingers.
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s repeated low estimates of the BP oil spill undermined public confidence in the government’s entire cleanup effort, leaders of a White House-appointed commission declared at an investigatory hearing yesterday.
It hasn't just undermined it; it has totally destroyed it beyond retrieval.
One likened the mistakes to Custer’s disastrous decisions at Little Big Horn.
I think Chernobyl is a better analogy. This government and its mouthpiece media are never to be believed again.
Federal officials botched the government’s response, a local official and government and university scientists contended....
Mistakes in the information that was being given out sapped confidence in the government on the issue, panel cochairman Bob Graham, a former Florida senator and governor, and cochairman William Reilly said at a news conference.
And when you consider the lies over wars, economy, and environment the question must be asked: do they ever tell the truth about anything?
Reilly described “repeated wrong numbers’’ on the amount of oil that was spilling.
We call it LYING around here!
Bill Lehr, a senior government scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that once his agency realized the spill was much larger than estimated, things changed tremendously. Vacations were canceled, retirees were called in, and oil-response staff was “given a blank check,’’ he said.
Florida State University’s Ian MacDonald said it took eight attempts by the government to arrive at the correct estimate. He said BP’s estimate of 210,000 gallons a day was about 100 times less than federal guidelines said it should have been, based on the thickness and color of the oil....
Retired admiral Thad Allen acknowledged that the public and even political leaders were confused about who was in charge. He blamed a 20-year-old law that he said may need to be changed to allow a third party from the oil industry to coordinate cleanup.
By law, BP had a major role in responding and cleaning up — and paying for it. But it also remains responsible to its shareholders not to spend too much, Allen said....
What is REALLY IMPORTANT, readers.
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But government will still make a show of it!
NEW ORLEANS — President Obama endorsed a plan yesterday to rehabilitate the Gulf of Mexico with some of the billions of dollars in water pollution fines expected from the companies responsible for the worst offshore oil spill in US history.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, the government’s point person on Gulf Coast restoration, also said some of the money could be used to repair sections of the gulf ravaged by events other than the spill....
BP could face civil fines under the Clean Water Act of between $5.4 billion and $21.1 billion.
The government will have to check with BP.
I think that's how they came up with the spill numbers. What can BP afford?
At a news conference in New Orleans to unveil the plan, Mabus said he envisions some of the money from the fines being spent on repairing wetlands damaged over the years by the construction of canals to serve coastal oilfields. With the equipment and manpower already in the gulf repairing damage from the oil spill, Mabus said it would be cheaper and more efficient to also repair the coastline from other damage it has suffered over the years....
Yeah, government excels at that!
A Justice Department official said that no settlement talks are taking place between the Obama administration and BP over fines for the spill, contradicting a congressman’s suggestion earlier that such talks were taking place. The Justice Department official spoke on condition of anonymity because criminal and civil investigations of BP are continuing.
Translation: the talks are taking place, and you were not meant to know that.
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Related:
"Earlier this week, a senior executive from another major oil company, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his business relationships, criticized BP for its lack of accountability. He said that “it is shocking to see the way BP is playing this out.’’
Not to me; when it comes to greed, oil companies have few peers.
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"Contractor testifies that BP interfered after blast; Says company delayed efforts to quell oil spill" by Harry R. Weber, Associated Press | October 5, 2010
METAIRIE, La. — BP interfered with critical efforts to lower an undersea robot to try to close the device that failed to stop the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill because of concerns over heat buildup from the burning rig, a salvage firm executive said yesterday.
The testimony came from Doug Martin, president of Smit Salvage Americas, which was hired to help try to save the Deepwater Horizon rig after it exploded. He told a federal investigative panel that in the hours after the April 20 disaster, he thought it was important to get the robot into the water as quickly as possible so engineers could choke off the oil.
But, Martin said, BP officials discussed calculating how the heat from the fire would affect the boat that was to launch the robot. He said he believed that it was a waste of time and that BP was interfering.
“When they wanted to calculate the heat load on the boat, I said, ‘How do you know how hot the fire is?’ ’’ Martin told the joint US Coast Guard-Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement investigative panel. “I had a hard time believing there was data available at that time to do that. That’s why I felt it was better just to keep the boat cool and use common-sense tools to get the [remotely operated vehicle] in the water.’’
Martin said several hours went by before the undersea robot was lowered into the water.
Engineers were unable to close the so-called blowout preventer that failed to stop the spill, and the rig eventually sank. Eleven workers were killed in the rig explosion, and some 206 million gallons of oil spewed from BP PLC’s undersea well, according to government estimates.
A BP spokesman said in a e-mailed statement that the company “performed critical safety calculations before deploying the ROV to ensure that this operation did not put workers in harm’s way.’’
The federal panel meeting this week at a hotel near New Orleans is trying to determine the cause of the blast and massive oil spill that followed.
Besides figuring out a cause, the panel, which is holding its fifth series of hearings, is examining how to improve safety and oversight.
In other words, it' a 9/11 whitewash type of thing. Make it seem like government is investigating as they decide what to cover up.
At least one more series of hearings is expected before the panel members begin collaborating on their report.
Also at the hearings yesterday, a US Coast Guard official testified that the fact that 115 people on the 126-member crew escaped the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion is a sign the evacuation effort went fairly well.
I fail to anything good about industry and government negligence and criminality.
But oil industry partners, because of their expertise, are needed to help the government during such a disaster, the official said.
Captain James Hanzalik, chief of incident response for the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, told the investigative panel there was nothing more his agency could have done to prevent the rig from sinking.
Hanzalik also said the Coast Guard relies on oil industry partners for help in rescuing so many people....
Yeah, government and industry are just great!
Among the witnesses scheduled to testify later this week are key workers for BP and Transocean, a specialist on mobile offshore drilling units, a specialist on maritime alarm systems, and a deep-water well equipment specialist.
Perhaps the most critical testimony is expected to come from two BP officials who were familiar with the company’s decision to use only six centralizers during the cementing of the well that blew out. Halliburton had recommended the use of 21 centralizers, which are devices that make sure the casing is running down the center of the well bore. If the casing is cemented off-center, there is a risk of an imperfect seal that could allow oil and gas to escape.
BP cutting corners?
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Related:
"One issue in a federal panel’s investigation of the rig explosion and massive oil spill that followed is whether BP cut corners to reduce costs. The well project was nearly $60 million over budget at the time the centralizer warning was raised....
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Yup. That is why BP was in a rush!
METAIRIE, La. — Members of a federal panel investigating the cause of the Gulf of Mexico rig explosion and oil spill and how to improve safety and oversight accused rig owner Transocean yesterday of thwarting their efforts to get to critical documents and a witness.
The cochairman of the panel, US Coast Guard Captain Hung Nguyen, told a packed hearing room in a New Orleans suburb that members have been trying for two months to get Transocean to turn over materials related to its compliance with international safety management codes.
Nguyen said the panel also has been unable to get a specific Transocean manager to testify about safety.
Transocean lawyers said the document request is too cumbersome. They said whether the witness testifies isn’t within their control.
Nguyen said one of the key elements the panel has been trying to analyze is the safety culture at the companies involved in the April 20 disaster, including Transocean.
How can you analyze something that doesn't exist?
He said the panel will have to make conclusions and recommendations whether or not Transocean supplies the information, so he encouraged them to comply.
Isn't it amazing how government power isn't enough against some people?
“We did issue two subpoenas for the same thing. Each time we were told it was irrelevant and burdensome,’’ Nguyen said....
Transocean lawyer Ned Kohnke said the company has acted in good faith and produced everything it believes it should. He said the panel has the right to go to court to enforce the subpoena if it wants....
Does that look like good faith to you?
Kohnke accused the board of making improper conclusions, not following its own rules of procedure, and not asking questions properly of other witnesses who have testified.
Well, it is a GOVERNMENT panel!
The joint US Coast Guard-Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement investigative panel is holding its fifth series of hearings this week.
Earlier yesterday, a Transocean official testified that water poured onto the burning rig after the explosion was meant to keep the vessel cool so it could be stabilized, not to put out the fire.
Robert McKechnie, a director in Transocean’s engineering and technical support group, told the panel that he believes there was no way to put out the fire with water alone, so the goal was to maintain the integrity of the structure to give officials the best chance of bringing the ruptured undersea oil well under control.
You see how well that worked out (the thing tumbled into the sea).
Eleven workers were killed, and 206 million gallons of oil spewed from the well before it was capped three months later, according to federal estimates.
There is your conventional myth of a cover story as supplied by the mouthpiece media!
In other developments, President Obama signed an executive order establishing a Gulf Coast Restoration Task Force.
Like Bush?
The panel, which was recommended by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in the restoration plan he released last week, will be led by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson.
Oh, that soothes any worries.
Obama’s order asks the task force to issue a strategy within a year that will provide a road map for restoration efforts.
They gave one to Israel and the Palestinians are still waiting.
Meanwhile, the administrator of BP PLC’s $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the spill said the fund has been inundated with inflated or unsupported claims and in some cases, outright fraud — all slowing down the process of getting money to people who need and deserve it.
Kenneth Feinberg said more than a third of the roughly 104,000 applicants need to do more to back up their claims, and thousands of claims have no documentation at all. He added that the amount sought in some cases bears no resemblance to actual losses, such as a fisherman’s claim for $10 million “on what was obviously a legitimate claim of a few thousand dollars.’’
Just doing the job BP hired him to do.
Also see: Louisiana Still Covered in Oil Slick
At the same time, hundreds of claims that were initially denied have been accepted as Feinberg adjusts rules for compensation, such as whether people need to be physically close to the spill to get paid.
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Of course, your government would never lie to you, AmeriKa!
WASHINGTON --The Obama administration blocked efforts by government scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could become and committed other missteps that raised questions about its competence and candor during the crisis, according to a commission appointed by the president to investigate the disaster.
It didn't raise questions; it shattered any illusions and pretense that this administration is any different than the last one.
In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff describes "not an incidental public relations problem" by the White House in the wake of the April 20 accident.
Among other things, the report says, the administration made erroneous early estimates of the spill's size, and President Barack Obama's senior energy adviser went on national TV and mischaracterized a government analysis by saying it showed most of the oil was "gone." The analysis actually said it could still be there.
"By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem," the report says.
They are not about anything.
The administration disputed the commission findings, saying senior government officials "were clear with the public what the worst-case flow rate could be."
They are still lying.
******************
For the first time, the documents -- which are preliminary findings by the panel's staff -- show that the White House was directly involved in controlling the message as it struggled to convey that it, not BP, was in charge of responding to what eventually became the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history....
The report shows "the political process was in charge and science really does not have the role that was touted," said Christopher D'Elia, dean of environmental studies at Louisiana State University.
This from the same GOVERNMENT SCREAMING about CLIMATE CHANGE!
The White House budget office has traditionally been a clearinghouse for administration domestic policy. Why exactly the administration didn't want to emphasize the worst-case scenario is not made clear in the report.
Now watch them point fingers!!
However, Kenneth Baer, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the budget office had concerns about the reliability of the NOAA estimates.
I would have them to.
Related: NOAA RETRACTION
Also see: Climategate: NOAA and NASA Complicit in Data Manipulation
Just one more agenda-pushing liar.
"The issue was the modeling, the science and the assumptions they were using to come up with their analysis. Not public relations or presentation," he said. "We offered NOAA suggestions of ways to improve their analysis, and they happily accepted it."
Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office's ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., scientific conference on the oil spill that he didn't think the budget office censored NOAA.
"I would very much doubt that anyone would put restrictions on NOAA's ability to articulate factual information," Miller said.
NOAA and factual information? Ha-ha-ha-ha!
The explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, spewed 206 million gallons of oil from the damaged oil well, and sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
BP's drilling permit for the well originally estimated the worst-case scenario to be a leak of 6.8 million gallons per day. In late April, just after the spill began, the Coast Guard and NOAA received an updated worst-case estimate of 2.7 million to 4.6 million gallons per day.
While those figures were used as the basis for the government's response to the spill -- they appeared on an internal Coast Guard situation report and on a dry-erase board in NOAA's Seattle war room -- they were never announced to the public, according to the report....
Everything is a damn war when it comes to government and its newspapers.
So much for TRANSPARENCY and HONESTY from this "change" government!
And that was where my printed article ended.
However, they were, in fact, announced, as news stories from May 2 to May 5 show, though the figures received little attention at the time.
For more than a month after the explosion, government officials were telling the public that the well was releasing 210,000 gallons per day. In early August, in its final estimate of the spill's flow, the government said it was gushing 2.6 million gallons per day -- close to the worst-case predictions.
The documents also criticize Carol Browner, director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, saying that during a series of morning-show appearances on Aug. 4, she misrepresented the findings of a federal analysis of where the oil went and incorrectly portrayed it as a scientific assessment that was peer-reviewed by inside and outside experts.
"I think it's also important to note that our scientists have done an initial assessment, and more than three-quarters of the oil is gone," Browner said on NBC's "Today" show.
Well, we now where we can file anything Browner says (flush)!
But the analysis never said it was gone, according to the commission. It said it was dispersed, dissolved or evaporated -- meaning it could still be there.
Actually, it is AT the BOTTOM of the GULF!
And while NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco was more cautious in her remarks at a news conference at the White House later that day, the commission staff accuses the two senior officials of contributing to the perception that the government's findings were more exact than they actually were.
It is called LYING!!!
Florida State University professor Ian MacDonald, who has repeatedly clashed with NOAA and the Coast Guard over the size of the spill, the existence of underwater plumes and oil in the sea floor, said he felt gratified by the report.
From the beginning, there was "a contradiction between discoveries and concerns by academic scientists and statements by NOAA," MacDonald said in an interview with the AP at the oil spill conference.
And he said it is still going on. MacDonald and Georgia Tech scientist Joseph Montoya said NOAA is at it again with statements saying there is no oil in ocean floor sediments. A University of Georgia science cruise, which Montoya was on, found ample evidence of oil on the Gulf floor.
I can SEE WHY THAT TOOK the CUT!
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Related: Panel catalogs many White House missteps on gulf oil spill (By Steven Mufson, Washington Post)
FLASHBACK:
"Oil found on gulf floor may be from BP spill; Scientists’ findings contradict report crude is dissipated" by Cain Burdeau and Seth Borenstein, Associated Press | September 14, 2010
NEW ORLEANS — Scientists have found a thick layer of oil in the canyons of the Gulf of Mexico, a University of Georgia researcher said yesterday, linking the finding to BP’s busted well.
Oil at least 2 inches thick was found Sunday night and yesterday morning about a mile beneath the surface. Under it was a layer of dead shrimp and other small animals, researcher Samantha Joye said from the helm of a research vessel in the gulf.
Related: Woods Hole Was Wrong About Gulf Gusher
Globe Endorses Government on Evaporated Oil From Gulf Gusher
I guess you can't believe any one of them anymore, American.
I'm sorry to report that, but that's the way it is.
The latest findings cast doubt on the initial assertion by the federal government that much of the spilled oil is gone.
Related: US scientist retracts assurances over success of cleanup
I must be naive because at this point I'm truly stunned that the Globe has chosen to ignore the federal retraction.
At these depths, the ocean is a cold and dark world. Yet scientists say that even though it may be out of sight, oil found there could do significant harm to the strange creatures that dwell in the depths — tube worms, tiny crustaceans and mollusks, single-cell organisms, and unique fish with bulging eyes and skeletal frames.
“I expected to find oil on the sea floor,’’ Joye said in a ship-to-shore phone interview. “I did not expect to find this much. I didn’t expect to find layers 2 inches thick. It’s weird the stuff we found last night. Some of it was really dense and thick.’’
Maybe we could make some highways out it?
You know, build back that infrastructure.
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“It’s kind of like having a blizzard where the snow comes in and covers everything,’’ Joye said.
The look of the oil, its state of degradation, and the way it settled on freshly dead animals all made it unlikely that the crude was from the millions of gallons of oil that naturally seep into the Gulf of Mexico from the sea bottom each year, she said. Later this week, the oil will be tested for the chemical fingerprints that would conclusively link it to the BP spill.
“It has to be a recent event,’’ Joye said. “There’s still pieces of warm bodies there.’’
But the seafood is safe -- says the government.
Since the well was capped July 15 after about 200 million gallons spurted into the gulf, there have been signs of resilience on the surface and the shore. Sheens have disappeared, while some marshlands have shoots of green.
I'm losing mine when it comes to the paper, sigh.
This recovery is probably a result of massive amounts of chemical dispersants, warm waters, and a gulf that is used to degrading massive amounts of oil, scientists say....
Yeah, it SUNK the STUFF!!
Not all scientists agree with this assessment.
Ed Overton, a Louisiana State University chemist who has analyzed the spill for NOAA, doubted much oil was resting on the bottom. He said the heavier components in oil — the asphalts — make up only about 1 percent of the oil that was spilled.
NOAA is a liar and NOAA is done as an authority, sorry.
And so is the REST of the GOVERNMENT for THIS is what they are SPENDING YOUR TAX DOLLAR ON, my dear fellow citizens.
Also yesterday, it was revealed that the federal government hired a New Orleans man for $18,000 to appraise whether news stories about its actions in the oil disaster were positive or negative for the Obama administration, which was keenly sensitive to comparisons between its response and former President George W. Bush’s much-maligned reaction to Hurricane Katrina.
Well, FINDING THIS OUT doesn't help at all, and THIS DISASTER was WAY WORSE! This OIL THING DESTROYED an ECO SYSTEM! HURRICANES have COME THROUGH for CENTURIES and LIFE SURVIVED!!
The Coast Guard paid $9,000 per month for two months to John Brooks Rice of New Orleans, an on-call worker for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under a no-bid contract to monitor media coverage from late May through July.
So WHO did he KNOW?
Maybe the $18,000 should have went to a GULF FAMILY that has had its LIVELIHOOD DESTROYED!!
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WASHINGTON — The Interior Department imposed new rules yesterday to make offshore drilling safer but declined to lift a temporary ban on deep-water drilling....
Lee Hunt, chief executive of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, said the new rules could make offshore drilling safer, but would add layers to the regulatory process. The government has approved just a handful of shallow-water drilling permits during the past few months, and oil companies are growing frustrated with the wait....
Then government is right on it!
A spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute said the oil industry group will review the rules....
And pass along their approval or suggestions.
“We cannot have an approval process that creates unpredictable delays that could place at risk the flow of domestic energy in our country,’’ said Erik Milito, a lobbyist for the group.
Besides, we need the stuff to keep the war machine moving forward.
Extended delays in permit approvals are likely to discourage investment in new projects — hampering job creation and restricting energy production, he said.
Richard Charter, senior policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, cheered the new rules. It’s hard to tell if they will make the gulf safer, he said, but at least “it shows they’re not sweeping this under the rug. The era of ‘drill baby drill’ is over.’’
So is the era of self-delusion.
Related: Obama Says Drill, Baby, Drill!
Government regulators have long been criticized for a cozy relationship with the oil and gas industry — a situation Salazar and other Obama administration officials have vowed to fix.
They are in bed with them!
Even after the temporary ban on exploratory drilling is lifted, new drilling is unlikely to resume quickly....
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Update: White House lifts ban on offshore drilling
At least the price of gas will go down, right?
"Gasoline hits 2-month high, then falls" by Associated Press | October 5, 2010
NEW YORK — Retail gasoline prices rose yesterday and oil prices rallied to the highest level in two months before falling back to settle lower....
After we were told they would fall!
See: Gas, Gold, and Garbage
At the pump, the national average for a gallon of regular rose to $2.732, according to the Energy Information Administration. That’s 3.8 cents higher than a week ago and 26.4 cents above a year ago.
Which means supply-and-demand no longer works and your dollar is declining because demand is down, America.
Pump prices in major cities range from around $3 a gallon in Los Angeles and San Francisco to about $2.81 in Miami, $2.65 in Boston, and $2.53 in Houston.
Oil prices rose recently on a strong Chinese manufacturing report and continued pledges by the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low. There also were reports over the weekend that the Houston Ship Channel will remain closed due to a damaged electrical tower. That could crimp supplies.
Don't you LOVE all the EXCUSES they give to cover their MANIPULATION of MONEY and PRICES?
While gasoline demand perked up in September, it’s still not strong enough to support rising prices in the final three months of the year, said Tom Kloza, publisher and chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
That is what you guys said LAST MONTH!!
So WHY are they going up!?!!
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Expect the return of gas lines soon, AmeriKa.
Another type of gas line:
"Public is kept in the dark on gas line crisis plans" by Sharon Theimer, Associated Press | October 7, 2010
WASHINGTON — The emergency plans for companies operating natural gas pipelines such as the one that exploded in San Bruno, Calif., killing eight people and destroying a neighborhood, are effectively off-limits to the public and industry watchdogs because the federal pipeline safety agency does not have copies.
Related: San Bruno Suffers Indigestion
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration policy means companies can keep their emergency plans hidden from people who might live near natural gas transmission lines. Because the government does not have copies, the public can’t use the nation’s open records law to request the plans....
And THAT, my dear readers, is FASCISM!!
The federal pipeline safety administration has long been criticized for a cozy relationship with the companies it is supposed to regulate.
It is the SAME ACROSS the ENTIRE U.S. REGULATORY APPARATUS!!
Its on-site-only review of natural gas pipeline emergency plans puts it at odds with other federal agencies such as the Interior Department, which publicly disclosed copies of BP’s plan for the Gulf of Mexico and the Deepwater Horizon rig after the gulf oil spill in April. Those plans, approved by the government last year before BP drilled its doomed well, contained errors and showed that BP was unprepared to handle quickly a spill of the gulf disaster’s magnitude.
The pipeline agency’s policy for natural gas pipelines is also at odds with its handling of spill plans prepared by oil pipeline operators. Federal law requires the agency to periodically obtain and keep copies of those plans. The agency’s administrator, Cynthia Quarterman, told Congress last month that her agency would make the oil spill response plans public....
Backfilling isn't getting it done, sorry.
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Once you have been lied to nothing is ever the same.
:-(
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: FDA's Gulf Coast Feast
That should take you right into supper.
