Well, part of what we have to face is a never ending series of proposals/products/ideas for curing The Gulf.
Given that The Gulf is a terminal patient, humans ought to be willing to try anything, at any cost, that might help her. If we don't, she will have the last word, for sure.
Via McClatchy's Sacramento Bee comes hope that a entirely (Is there such a thing in the universe?) non-toxic product which floats and can soak up the oil.
/over the fold
The company, Mobius Technologies, grinds foam from desk chairs and car seats into a powder. Applied to oil, the powder – called micronized polyurethane powder – quickly absorbs the oil and forms a cake that floats on water indefinitely.
That is a lot of work for the unemployed spreading that stuff and scooping it up. Too bad their health will be forfeit even if they get the jobs.
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/...
True to form, Mobius cannot get through to BP to offer its product which is available immediately and could reach The Gulf in five days, so the widow of my former Representative Robert Matsui who now holds his seat, Doris Matsui, is trying to help get BP's attention.
Matsui, a member of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, has also reached out to high levels of the Coast Guard, scientists and local senators and representatives in the gulf region about the powder, said Matsui's legislative aide Mara Lee.
Matsui, by the way, was one of the really good guys who never had any competition for his seat because he was rightly unbeatable. Given my current cynicism about politicians, this is saying a lot.
Mobius manager Brian Hennessy went on Rosie O'Donnell's radio show yesterday and Fox News plans to do a segment today.
Two million pounds of the stuff will soak up one million gallons of oil or roughly 25,000 barrels.
Mobius can produce one million pounds of the stuff every 10 days.
The latest figures put the amount of oil gushing at between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels a day.
The Christian Science Monitor headline reads:
The latest revisions from four teams of scientists find that up to 1.76 million barrels from the BP oil spill had escaped into the Gulf of Mexico by June 3.
These four teams of scientists are working on separate estimates of the flow which will be compared. In addition, another group within the US Department of Energy is working on its own estimates of the amount of oil being captured and the amount still leaking.
The flow-rate technical group, which now involves four teams of federal and academic scientists, draws on several approaches for estimating the flow and "is still a work in progress," says Marcia McNutt, who heads the US Geological Survey and the overall group of researchers building the estimates.
Note:
A diary this week brought my attention to economic power of BP relative to the Federal Government.
BP is the fourth largest corporation in the world, coming in after
Wal-Mart
Exxon Mobile
Royal Dutch Shell
with $ 291,438 millions in revenue and $ 20,845 millions in profits
According to the IRS, the US Federal Government collects the following in personal and corporate income tax revenue:
Individual income tax: $ 1,425,990 millions
Corporation income tax: $ 354,316 millions
Clearly BP is 'bigger' than almost any country on the planet and knows that they can tell even the President of the United States what to do.
In my opinion, BP must be put into receivership, and the Obama Administration must be put directly into control of their entire US operation. All profits must be funneled into The Gulf permanently. BP can continue working under the direct control of our ineffectual Federal Government which can't do worse but at least is accountable, barely, to US citizens. As to the specifics of how BP will continue to cook its books and move money out of its US operations, I will leave the elucidation of those possibilities up to other Kossacks.
I understand that this will impact pensions of little people, especially in Britain. Well, Britain will need to figure that out for itself as we have no control over what they do to/with BP inside their country. If we can bail out AIG, Britain can bail out its pensioners. Maybe the Queen can sell some of her jewels. Barf. Barf.