Showing posts with label BP oil spill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BP oil spill. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

That's not "Texas tea," that's Cuban tea... U.S. & Cuba as 'Oil & Water': U.S. response to Cuban oil spill would be "limited"; U.S. Coast Guard's role

Beverly Hillbillies - Season One, Episode One: The Clampetts Strike Oil, Aired on CBS-TV, September 26, 1962
http://youtu.be/ZgRamBj5f_o

At 06:42, the first time we ever see the face of Big Oil in The Beverly Hillbillies in the form of Mr. Brewster (Frank Wilcox) of the OK Oil Company. But, of course, over time and lots of crazy adventures he finds himself in after indulging them, this city slicker from Tulsa finds the Clampetts charming and endearing, and comes to appreciate their genuine humanity and willingness to always help others without asking anything in return. That is, when Cousin Pearl isn't putting the moves on him.
That's not "Texas tea," that's Cuban tea... U.S. & Cuba as 'Oil & Water': U.S. response to Cuban oil spill would be "limited"; U.S. Coast Guard's role

Three informative pieces on the prospective role of the U.S. (and the U.S. coast Guard) in responding to any future Cuban oil spill (by foreign energy companies) and some of the political and practical problems that may arise due to the U.S.'s longstanding economic embargo against Cuba.


St. Petersburg Times
Oil spill from drilling in Cuban waters could have limited U.S. response
By Erika Bolstad, Miami Herald
October 19, 2011

WASHINGTON — As exploratory oil drilling is set to begin in December off the coast of Cuba, the U.S. government acknowledged Tuesday that because of chilly diplomatic relations, it could have a limited ability to control the response to an oil spill there, let alone one the magnitude of last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Read the rest of the article at:

See also:
Florida Politics blog
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Coast Guard braces for potential Cuban oil spill
By William Gibson
March 23, 2011 09:56 AM

and

Market News International
LatamEnergy: US Embargo on Cuba Hinders Response to Gulf Spill
By Heather Scott
October 28, 2011 - 11:15
https://mninews.deutsche-boerse.com/index.php/latamenergy-us-embargo-cuba-hinders-response-gulf-spill?q=content/latamenergy-us-embargo-cuba-hinders-response-gulf-spill

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Wash. Post's Juliet Eilperin corrects the record re BP spill: Gulf shrimpers, NOT oil, causing death of so many Kemp’s ridley sea turtles

Sea Turtles in NOAA's Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary

Dana Gattuso over at Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog, a conservative blog that's the official blog of the National Center for Public Policy Research, had a delicious bit of insight last Thursday into a powerful corrective piece by the Washington Post's Juliet Eilperin that while not actually on American journalism in the 21st Century, per se, says volumes about it by examining a recent huge story -last year's BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Going against the Mainstream Media grain re BP, Eilperin reports on environmental groups false claims and let's the facts speak for themselves. In this case, Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say.

To those paying close attention, t
he BP spill and the subsequent well-publicized clean-u
p has actually revealed the shockingly low level of honesty and forthrightness coming from many of the leading environmental groups that have been quoted as "experts " in the U.S. news media since last year. In many cases, it's fair to say that they're coasting on laurels earned by others many years ago.

I guess these interest groups know from past experience that despite the advent of so much wonderful technology to help journalists tell the story after letting facts speak for themselves -not the case here- they could still largely say whatever they wanted -that it's all BP's fault- with little concern that reporters would actually be
inclined to do their own research, check what was said with the actual facts, and then report back.

Gattuso closes by saying:
Makes one wonder how many more unsubstantiated—and harmful—claims these interest groups make on important environmental issues before considering the evidence…
It sure does.

Connect-the-dots for yourself here:

Washington Post Reports Oil Spill Not the Culprit in Turtle Deaths
by Dana Gattuso
May 27, 2011 at 7:52 AM

Washington Post
Shrimpers, not oil, causing hundreds of turtles’ deaths along Gulf of Mexico, scientists say
By Juliet Eilperin
May 25, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

TV4 Sweden's take on NASA's future after the shuttle program; models of future space vehicles you DIDN'T see on Miami TV newscasts -Orion

N%C3%A4sta%20steg%20f%C3%B6r%20USA:s%20rymdprogram

TV4.se Nyheterna newscast video: Nästa steg för USA:s rymdprogram.
TV4 Sweden's correspondent Elizabet Frerot discusses NASA's future after the space shuttle program with NASA astronauts and officials. May 16, 2011.
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As I was watching Endeavour take off this morning via TV, no doubt like many of you out there, I was wondering, after 30 years of the space shuttle, what's next for our amerikanska rymdfärjeprogram with President Obama and his successors?

Fortunately, while local Miami TV stations were pondering dollops of trivialities, TV4 correspondent Elizabet Frerot was in the right place to ask the right people -the Kennedy Space Center, where NASA astronaut Nicholas Patrick and official Allard Bentel reminisce and ponder NASA's next step into deeper outer space with Lockheed Martin's Orion.



Orion Pictures sure cranked-out some great films while it existed!
http://youtu.be/wm9sUIJo-rE

The best? Dances with Wolves


"Dances With Wolves" -1990 trailer (HQ)



ABC News video: Kevin Costner Dances With Oil Cleanup. The actor demonstrates a machine he funded that can separate oil from water. May 19, 2010.

For more information on the CINC Industries centrifuge mentioned above, see

Animation of how the mixing works:

And thus I have connected outer space, Sweden and Kevin Costner to the shores of the Sunshine State in four short moves.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

BP oil spill remediation funds: Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns. And South FL?

Entering Miami-Dade County sign on south-bound U.S.-1/Biscayne Blvd., Aventura, coming out of Hallandale Beach. Aventura Hospital on the right. November 16, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.


Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, little towns gotta spend money like crazy like... well, little towns...
Like many of you out there reading this post today, I'm really looking forward to finding out where the
BP remediation funds sent to Miami-Dade and Broward Counties -that saw no oil- actually wind-up being spent.


Given the long and well-chronicled tradition in South Florida of our elected officials and municipal/county leaders' outside-the-box thinking when it comes to ways of treating themselves (and their pals) like kings and queens, with money that's supposed to be spent in very specific ways -for instance, money for environmental code enforcement getting squandered by cocky and patronizing Miami-Dade cops on TVs, see below- I wait with baited breath to see which local print or TV reporters are first to expose how the money was spent down here in ways that only raise more questions about the character and caliber of the people making those decisions.


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St. Petersburg Times
BP buys Gulf Coast millions in gear

By Michael Kunzelman, Mike Schneider and Melinda Deslatte

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Tasers. Brand-new SUVs. A top-of-the-line iPad. A fully loaded laptop. In the year since the Gulf oil spill, officials along the coast have gone on a spending spree with BP money, dropping tens of millions of dollars on gadgets and other gear - much of which had little to do with the cleanup, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oil giant opened its checkbook while the crisis was still unfolding last spring and poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Gulf Coast communities with few strings attached.
Read the rest of the article at:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL_SPENDING_SPREE?SITE=FLPET&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Orlando Sentinel
Central Florida Politcal Pulse
blog

BP gives NW Fla $30 M

Posted by khaughney on April, 11 2011 11:54 AM

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2011/04/bp-gives-nw-fla-30-m.html

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Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/13/2015129/miami-dade-police-wont-repay-misspent.html

Miami-Dade police won't repay misspent environmental funds

By Matthew Haggman

January 13, 2011

The Miami-Dade Police Department is acknowledging it misspent funds meant to fight environmental crime on flat-screen TVs, SUVs and firearms.

"Clearly inappropriate,'' Police Director James Loftus says.

But putting the money back into the green funds, as the county's inspector general has requested? Not so fast.

"No, we are not,'' county police spokeswoman Nancy Perez said.

Miami-Dade Inspector General Christopher Mazzella said in a recent memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez that the police have adopted many of his recommended fixes, following a scathing IG audit that found the police used two environmental trust funds as a kitty for pricey purchases with little connection to environmental crime-fighting.

But the police department is flatly rebuffing two IG recommendations: that it stop using green-fund money to pay expenses such as monthly cellphone and aircard bills, and that it repay the misused public dollars.

"We continue to stand by our original recommendations that the Trust Funds be reimbursed,'' Mazzella said in a Dec. 21 memo to Alvarez.

The police department isn't obligated to follow the IG's recommendations, unless the mayor or the county commission act. And there's little push coming from the county executive's office.

Mayoral spokeswoman Victoria Mallette would only say in a statement that "administrative procedures have been strengthened.'' When pressed whether the mayor thinks county police should pay up, she referred questions to Loftus and hung up.

The standoff is the latest chapter in a scandal that erupted last year over county stewardship of funds that were meant to combat polluters. Instead, amid "overall chaotic administration,'' the funds were steered to "excessive, unreasonable, or unnecessary'' purchases, the IG audit found.

The IG's inquiry, following a Miami Herald series last year that detailed dubious spending, focused on nearly $6 million spent from 2000 to 2009 from two funds: the South Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund and Florida Environmental Task Force Trust Fund.

More than $1.1 million was spent on vehicle-related expenses, including the purchase of 23 SUVs and trucks that went to top brass rather than environmental investigators working in remote areas. Another $1.1 million went for cellphones used, in many cases, by officials in non-environmental departments.

Three Sharp 52-inch flat screen TVs were snapped up for about $6,000. Nearly $35,000 was spent on 30 Smith & Wesson M&P-15 rifles and holographic sights. Police justified the firearms on the grounds that an environmental investigator might encounter "a wildlife poacher armed with a high-powered rifle.''

Three Segways were bought for $25,000. One was used periodically to patrol MDPD's suburban headquarters, and two were found "sitting unused in a warehouse,'' auditors found.

The episode served as an embarrassment for embattled Mayor Alvarez, who is facing a recall vote on March 15.

Division Chief Frank Vecin, a close ally and supporter of Mayor Alvarez, was in charge of fund spending. At one point, Alvarez was ferried around in a Chevy Tahoe purchased with green-fund money. The county mayor later returned the automobile, saying he didn't know it was bought with funds meant to fight polluters.

The revelations of fund mismanagement prompted the retirement of Vecin.

"The IG believes the funds were managed improperly,'' said C. Michael Cornely, Vecin's attorney. "It was their opinion. To me, the IG justifies its existence by looking for things and making issues out of things that are not really an issue.''

The two environmental funds, created in 2000 by the county commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were established to help fight polluters in South Florida, which the county has called a "drum dump capital.'' Funding sources included fines and court judgments.

Police director Loftus -- named to the top job in February, after spending questions were already being raised -- now says new money will not be accepted into the two funds. The remaining balance in the accounts is $1.5 million.

In defending his position that the police department need not repay the misspent dollars, Loftus contends that over the life of the trust funds, the department paid some $27 million out of its general fund for the salaries and benefits of officers and directors working environmental investigations -- that, in sum, the contribution of personnel costs far offset the questioned expenses.

Mazzella responded that the trust fund money was "to augment, not replace'' general funds.

If they police were to repay for misspending, the precise amount isn't clear, though the August audit provides a road map.

"We left it to the police to determine what was justified, and repay what was not,'' said Mazzella.

Miami Herald staff writer Martha Brannigan contributed to this report.
In case you live outside of South Florida and are reading this and wondering if the sort of inappropriate behavior by law enforcement officials -described above in such great detail by Matthew Haggman- is common, and whether the cumulative effect of such moral and intellectual laxness was a factor in the successful recall from office of former M-D mayor Carlos Alvarez last month, the answer to both questions is YES.

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Not that you asked but the BP station in Aventura on Biscayne Blvd. & N.E. 211th Street, across from Aventura Hospital and near the Venezuelan Target, is my favorite service station in the area to use, as I've probably only used a different operator maybe five times in the past year. They are always clean, efficient and extremely well-lit at night, which is more than I can say for many other service stations in SE Broward/NE Miami-Dade.

Plus, they usually have copies of the NY Times available when other places are already out.