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It's nice to see this getting some attention in the media again instead of being drowned out completely by nonsense. We're going to be dealing with this disaster for years to come. From Mike Papantonio's blog at Ring of Fire.

Papantonio: Cenk and Pap Go After BP:

The oil just won’t go away. NOAA was forced to admit that they were wrong about 75% of the oil being gone from the Gulf, and they now say that 75% is still in the Gulf. On top of that, BP is attempting to settle claims quickly by forcing those in need of money to sign documents agreeing to not sue the oil giant. Mike Papantonio discusses all this and more on MSNBC’s The Ed Show.

It's amazing how people change their story once you get them under oath isn't it? BP oil spill: US scientist retracts assurances over success of cleanup:

NOAA's Bill Lehr says three-quarters of the oil that gushed from the Deepwater Horizon rig is still in the Gulf environment while scientists identify 22-mile plume in ocean depths

White House claims that the worst of the BP oil spill was over were undermined yesterday when a senior government scientist said three-quarters of the oil was still in the Gulf environment and a research study detected a 22-mile plume of oil in the ocean depths.

Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) departed from an official report from two weeks ago which suggested the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down.

"I would say most of that is still in the environment," Lehr, the lead author of the report, told the house energy and commerce committee.

The growing evidence that the White House painted an overly optimistic picture when officials claimed two weeks ago the remaining oil in the Gulf was rapidly breaking down fuelled a sense of outrage in the scientific community that government agencies are hiding data and spinning the science of the oil spill. No new oil has entered the Gulf since 15 July, but officials said yesterday the well is unlikely to be sealed for good until mid-September.

Under questioning from the committee chair, Ed Markey, Lehr revised down the amount of oil that went into the Gulf to 4.1m barrels, from an earlier estimate of 4.9m, noting that 800,000 barrels were siphoned off directly from the well. Read on...

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This is really just disgusting. There's no way in hell all of those millions of gallons of oil and dispersants that poured in to the Gulf are just gone. Billy Nungesser, President of Plaquemines Parish, LA is at the end of his rope here and I don't blame him. BP is saying that they can't find any oil and are pulling assets out of the gulf for cleanup and the Coast Guard is letting them do it.

Digby has more on this latest dog and pony show from our media -- Dismissing The Gusher:

I posted yesterday about the emerging meme that the BP disaster was not big deal and today Brad Johnson at Grist puts that meme in perspective. Read on...

As the AC360 segment notes, Billy Nungesser isn't buying this either. They went out there and saw for themselves how much oil is still on the water.

UPDATE: Here's an example of what the residents in Grand Isle are dealing with. The Asphalt Beach in Louisiana (Photos)

KAYE: Retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the federal response, said today the nearly constant flights that check for surface oil on the water from the air are barely detecting any oil, beyond thin sheens -- this as BP's incoming CEO, Bob Dudley, said it's time to start scaling back cleanup efforts.

At the same time, he said BP will not abandon Gulf residents once the well is permanently sealed.

But not everyone is buying that promise.

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser joins me now.

And Billy, I want to play for you exactly what Bob Dudley said today, and then we will get your response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DUDLEY: In terms of the effort, no, it's not too soon for a scale-back.

We haven't permanently, finally killed the well. I don't think we will see any more oil going into the beaches.

And where there's no oil on the beaches, you probably don't need people walking up and down with hazmat suits. So, you will see that kind of a pullback, but commitment, absolutely no pullback.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, is it time, in your opinion, to scale back on the cleanup efforts?

BILLY NUNGESSER: Absolutely not.

You know, he might be talking about the beaches in Florida. Louisiana is getting slammed. For the last two days, we have oil out there all over, same places and other places we didn't have oil.

Continue reading »

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I've just got to wonder if it's possible to find a bigger political hack than Louisiana Senator David Vitter. Mr. Drill-baby-drill Diaper-boy apparently thinks that unless the President just did a few more photo ops down in Louisiana and caused who knows what kind of problems for anyone within ten miles or more of him with the security involved when a President of the United States goes anywhere, the media isn't going to cover what's going on.

That or the more likely scenario which is that he's just taking a cheap shot for political purposes and trying to put President Obama in the same box as George Bush who couldn't be interrupted from his vacation to even bother watching news coverage during Hurricane Katrina.

I've got a ton of criticisms for how this disaster has been managed. How many photo ops the President has done in Louisiana isn't one of them. If David Vitter is worried about this story being moved off of the front page, he's got ample opportunity to make sure it doesn't himself as he did here.

I'd prefer Vitter be asked if he thinks the industry that's he's taking that campaign cash from was regulated properly so something like this doesn't happen again rather than listening to Chris Wallace give him a chance to just play politics with this disaster.

WALLACE: Senator Vitter, let's get to this question of the cleanup, because both of you are exactly right.

VITTER: Sure.

WALLACE: Even if not a drop more oil is spilled into the gulf, according to some estimates...

VITTER: Right.

WALLACE: ... as much as 200 million gallons of oil are already in the water.

Senator Vitter, how long will it...

VITTER: Right.

WALLACE: ... take to clean that up? And how long will it take to restore your state's coastline and especially, as we're seeing here on the screen, that very fragile marsh land?

VITTER: Well, ultimately, it will take years, Chris, and I hope everyone in the nation realizes that so we just don't forget about this story once the flow is stopped.

I also hope President Obama realizes that. He hasn't been to Louisiana since June 4th. I'm afraid he's decided to deal with this issue at least politically by not coming back here and trying to move it off of the front page rather than dealing with the situation forcefully.

Again, even if this flow is stopped permanently, we have major challenges ahead, number one in terms of cleanup, number two in terms of economic devastation, including the drilling moratorium.

WALLACE: But let me just follow up with you there, Senator Vitter.

VITTER: Sure.

WALLACE: Why do you -- why do you say that he's moving it off? I know you were very critical -- and we'll get to Mr. Nungesser in a second -- initially in how the Obama administration is handling this. Are you saying they're trying to sweep it under the rug now?

VITTER: I get the impression that is the president's political motivation, his way of dealing with this. He was coming here on a pretty regular basis trying to deal with the issues personally. He hasn't done that in Louisiana since June 4th. That's personally disappointing to me.

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Keith Olbermann talked to John Wathen from The Waterkeeper Alliance who has been photographing the disastrous environmental impact of the oil spill in the Gulf. His blog is at http://bpoilslick.blogspot.com/. I've been watching some of the video from his site for a while now and was glad to see Keith finally give their work some attention.

OLBERMANN: Some of the most devastating pictures yet of the extent of the damage being caused by this oil disaster is coming from an Alabama conservationist named John Wathen, who has been flying over the spill whenever he can to document independently exactly what is taking place. Footage shot last week posted on YouTube, this gentleman revealed that the devastation is worse than BP has been telling us and it possible that it is more extensive than many of us had feared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WATHEN, ALABAMA CONSERVATIONIST: The further we got in the Gulf and the more consistent it came, at 17 miles out, it was obvious that the entire Gulf was covered at this point.

At 23 miles out, we encountered the heaviest sheen yet. The water was a deep purple, maroon, blue. It looked almost like a rainbow. The scope of this is beyond belief. It will take years at this rate to gather up even a portion of the oil that‘s on the surface today.

Some of it looks more like bruised internal organs of the human body than the surface of the ocean. And yet that‘s what it is.

The first time I came out, I saw a fire, there was only one. Today, when we got here, there were four. Within a couple of passes, there were seven.

From the size of these fires, it seems as though we‘re not only trying to kill everything in the Gulf of Mexico but everything that flies over it as well. This toxic environment can‘t be good for the birds that fly over the Gulf. And certainly nothing can live in these rainbows of death that cover the entire horizon.

As we look closer, we saw this pod of dolphins, obviously struggling just to breathe.

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Rachel's right. It looks like BP is just making it up as they go along with the response to this disaster in the Gulf. Turns out BP has made billions in profit and then spent zero dollars for researching how to drill safely and spill clean up. They outsourced their spill clean up research to a company called Marine Spill Response Corp and as Rachel and this USA article noted, they have no money in their budget for research.

Despite previous spills, oil cleanup research falls short:

But the basic equipment and tactics being used: boom, dispersants, burns and use of skimmer boats to pick up the oil haven't changed much in the two decades since the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska ratcheted up calls in Congress for greater defenses against the ravages of oil spills, spill experts and environmentalists say.

That lack of attention, research and investment by government and industry may seriously handicap efforts to clean up a spill that now threatens Gulf of Mexico shores and waters from Louisiana to Florida given that, in most spills, far less than half of the spilled oil is ever recovered.

"We failed at preventing the spill. Now, we're failing in the response simply because we'd never gotten ready," says Richard Charter, oil spill expert for conservation group Defenders of Wildlife. "Nobody has invested in these technologies."

Federal funding for oil spill research was cut in half between 1993 and 2008, falling to just $7.7 million in fiscal year 2008, data from the Congressional Research Service show. Federal legislation introduced last year to bolster oil spill research has yet to pass. And oil companies have invested "little to no" money on spill response technologies, concentrating instead on oil exploration and spill prevention, says Robert Peterson, a consultant to the oil and gas industry at Charles River Associates.

Last year, Douglas Helton of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration testified at a congressional hearing that oil spill research in the private and public sectors had declined, in part, because larger spills had become less frequent.

But Helton also said research goals envisioned after the Exxon Valdez spill had not been achieved.

"We're in the dark ages in terms of the technology to prevent a disaster ... and ways to clean it up," says Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., who co-sponsored 2009 legislation to coordinate federal research of oil spills and to provide grants to researchers to improve technologies.

"We need science and research to tell us how to do it better," Woolsey says.

British energy giant BP, which owns the well and has said it'll pay for the cleanup, doesn't "specifically research" oil spill response technologies itself, says spokesman Robert Wine. Instead, it supports industry resources, including organizations set up to respond to oil spills, such as Virginia-based Marine Spill Response.

Marine Spill, funded by a non-profit that's funded by oil, shipping and other companies, is the largest oil spill response organization nationwide, says spokeswoman Judith Roos.

The spill responders operate like fire departments, she says, stationing equipment in areas where oil spills are likely and rushing to scenes as needed.

But while Marine Spill stations oil spill equipment at 78 locations and has an annual budget of about $80 million, it has no budget for research, Roos says. Most of its equipment was bought more than 10 years ago, although its fleet includes some newer, 47-foot fast-response vessels, Roos says. Read on...

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Well this is one of the more encouraging things I've heard in a while about what's going to be done about this disaster in the Gulf. When I hear they're doing more to contain and capture the oil that's already out there I'll believe the administration is finally handling this in a manner that's actually going to do some good.

Douglas Brinkley talked to Anderson Cooper about what the Obama administration is going to do to attempt to restore the Gulf coast after years and years of neglect. Even "Be the daddy" James Carville sounded impressed. I'm holding my applause until after I see some action and not talk because it's already absolutely inexcusable that they've allowed all the dispersants to be poured into the water and not done more to contain and collect the oil so far while these BP executives are allowed to go on the air and continue denying that the huge oil plumes in the Gulf even exist.

Holding BP accountable later (which I'll believe when I see it) doesn't mean much to the people whose lives have been devastated and the dead animals in the Gulf where the environment has already been destroyed.

COOPER: Doug, what do you make of -- of the way the Obama White House is -- and federal response by the Coast Guard is -- is going?

BRINKLEY: Well, I mean, there are three things, I mean, I think, big baskets, going on.

One is close that well, get the -- capture as much oil as you can, keep the pressure on BP on the relief wells. Second is immediate cleanup. And I think more can be done by the Obama administration. And I -- and but I think the big third piece is coming, when President Obama comes to Florida and Alabama and Mississippi, and that is holding BP responsible for the Natural Resource Damage Act, for the Oil Spill Response Act. And, by that, I mean BP is going to end up paying somewhere from $10 billion to $15 billion, maybe even $20 billion, because they're going -- one of the only ways to save the Louisiana wetlands is going to be -- you know, the Mississippi River has been channelized for navigation.

Well, now the Mississippi River has to be redirected. It's going to have to be flooded and sediment pumped into these marshlands to save it. I think the Obama administration...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: So, no, wait. No, wait. Doug, is this just a hope on your part?

BRINKLEY: No.

COOPER: Or -- I mean, I know you have been talking to sources. Do you believe this is actually going to happen?

BRINKLEY: Yes. Yes.

And it's one of the reasons why the president is not talking to Tony Hayward. And they are going to come out with a large Gulf recovery act, because the oil and gas industry has been dredging. We have disappearing barrier islands. For 40 years down there, it's abused the wetlands.

This is a turning point. There is an appetite on Capitol Hill for Gulf recovery act. The Mississippi River is going to have to be redirected into the marshlands. And BP and Transocean and other, you know, operations, Cameron, other companies are going to have to pay up to $10 billion and $15 billion for breaking national acts.

(CROSSTALK)

BRINKLEY: In addition, for offshore drilling in the Gulf, Anderson, there will be a conservation excise tax that, yes, there will be offshore drilling, but Louisianians will start getting some of the revenue to stay in state.

CARVILLE: If -- if the president does that, I will be the biggest supporter in the world. He will be beloved in Louisiana.

If he -- if he has a restoration act and the kind of things that Doug Brinkley is talking about, who Doug, by the way, lived here. His wife is from here. He knows exactly what he is talking about. If there is that kind of action from the White House and this president, he will go down, in my opinion, as one of the great presidents in history.

And I have not hesitated to criticize him. But if that kind of action is -- that -- that kind of thing starts to happen, that's going to be a very encouraging sign for South Louisiana, and for the country, too.

COOPER: Doug, I mean, what percent -- I mean, you -- you -- you're saying this based on people you have talked to?

BRINKLEY: Yes.

And what is -- one of the reasons there's a frustration, because of the legalities of calling Tony Hayward and all, the -- the Obama administration has heard what's happening loud and clear. And you are going to have the full power of the administration going on the culpable parties.

All of these little articles start building up, the -- the one we talked about on the AP with the phony report about a -- they had their wildlife expert in 2009 for BP had actually died in 2005. Or, you know, it's just crazy stuff. It's all -- Markey and others are accumulating it.

Congress is going to go after BP, and they have now broken, as I said, National Resource Damage Act, Oil Spill Response Act. And in order to save the wetlands, which BP is responsible to, it's going to be -- the Army Corps of Engineers has directed -- if you fly over, it's like a bird's foot. There are three channels.

We're now going to have to redirect Mississippi River sediment and flood the marshlands to try to save them. That will occur after this -- the well gets capped, the relief wells are built. But, in the next year or two, this will be, for President Obama administration, I think something a Tennessee Valley Authority or a Saint Lawrence Seaway under Dwight Eisenhower, a major public works act, with BP...

(CROSSTALK)

BRINKLEY: ... the bill.

SNL whacked BP, Transocean and Halliburton for their failed attempts to stop the volcano of oil pouring into the Gulf. It would be funny if it weren't so sadly accurate.