I live on the Gulf Coast. My every waking moment for more than three weeks now has been dedicated to learning what went wrong, why it went wrong and just how wrong it has gone. It has been clear to me that the estimates of 5K barrels a day was ridiculously low and now there is proof to that effect that is being ignored.
As the long red tentacles of oil reach closer and closer to our beautiful Gulf Coast the apologists and shills come out in full force. Trying to minimize this disaster to assuage their guilt for having shilled shamelessly for their Masters. Just today Representative Joe Barton (R) Texas, told a bald faced lie that the Valdez was a much worse disaster because it had released 11 million barrels. That was a lie. It was 11 million gallons, which is a HUGE difference. Is he stupid, a liar or both?
Barton tried to put that in context with other infamous spills, including the 1989 release of 11 million barrels of crude oil when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground in Prince William Sound near Alaska. The 1979 blowout of an exploratory well off Ciudad del Carmen, in the Gulf of Mexico released an estimated 3 million barrels of oil before it was contained.
He isn't alone in his lunacy as the usual suspects such as Rush Limbaugh try to tell us how "natural" oil is and how overblown this disaster is. Never seeming to question why it was we were not seeing video of the actual oil gushing from pipes. I think we all suspected they were covering up just how bad it really is. Yesterday, many here examined the video released by BP and gave estimates of 20,000 - 100,000 barrels per day. Today they were joined by several scientists confirming those estimates.
But sophisticated scientific analysis of sea floor video made available Wednesday by the oil company BP shows that the true figure is closer to 70,000 barrels a day, NPR's Richard Harris reports.
That means the oil spilling into the Gulf has already far exceeded the equivalent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska, which spilled at least 250,000 barrels of oil.
The analysis was conducted by Steve Werely, an associate professor at Purdue University, using a technique called particle image velocimetry. Harris tells Michele Norris that the method is accurate to about 20 percent. That means the flow could range between 56,000 barrels a day and 84,000 barrels a day.
Another analysis by Eugene Chiang, a professor of astrophysics at the University of California Berkeley, calculated the rate of flow to be between 20,000 barrels a day and 100,000 barrels a day — both higher than the Coast Guard's estimate.
I suggest from here on out we use these revised numbers as they are much more closely tied to reality than BPs wishful numbers. The dispersants are hiding much of the oil beneath the surface and it is feared to be getting caught in the underwater currents and dragged who knows where. It is high time we had some damn truthfulness in reporting and it is painfully evident we will need to do that ourselves.
Update
I just found this tidbit.
Saucier said the agency prepared but never completed regulations in 2001, the first year of George W. Bush's presidency, that would have required secondary control systems for blowout preventers.
"As far as I know, they're still at headquarters," Saucier said.
The devices have been at the heart of the inquiry into what caused the explosion that killed 11 and continues to spew oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The House committee also will be examining the agency's ties to the oil industry and whether a cozy relationship kept it from enacting tougher regulations. McClatchy reported last week that nearly 100 standards set by the American Petroleum Institute are included in the MMS' offshore operating regulations.
The chairman of the committee, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., asked the MMS on Thursday to provide all documents related to regulations that it proposed but never finalized. He also asked the agency to turn over inspection reports from the oil rig, and a list that details potential noncompliance with MMS regulations.