Daily Kos: DK Environment

Oil spill leaking into Gulf of Mexico for 14 years creates enormous natural disaster

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday October 31, 2018 · 12:28 PM PDT

2018/10/31 · 12:28

AT SEA - OCTOBER 1: An oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico is shown in this aerial photograph October 1, 2004. Oil production off the coast of Louisiana has slowed down with several platforms damaged or evacuated by Hurricane Ivan which came ashore September 16. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

On Sept. 15, 2004, Hurricane Ivan, traveling through the Gulf of Mexico, toppled a Taylor Energy Company oil platform into the water. As columnist Fred Grimm notes in a piece in the South Florida Sun Sentinel, the results of the collapse included “nine ... holes belching oil and gas” that were “deemed too dangerous to plug.” Taylor Energy has spent the last 14 years telling everyone that just a little bit of oil has been spilling into the Gulf since then. It wasn’t until 2015 that reports filtered out via an investigation by the Associated Press that exposed the extent of the growing environmental disaster.

IN SPACE - SEPTEMBER 12: Hurricane Ivan is pictured over the Caribbean in this NOAA satellite image taken at 1:45 pm Eastern Daylight Time September 12, 2004. Ivan, a category 5 hurricane, is expected to hit Cuba on Monday according to forecasts. (Photo by NOAA via Getty Images) — Hurricane Ivan, 2004

An Associated Press investigation has revealed evidence that the spill is far worse than what Taylor -- or the government -- have publicly reported during their secretive, and costly, effort to halt the leak. Presented with AP's findings, that the sheen recently averaged about 91 gallons of oil per day across eight square miles, the Coast Guard provided a new leak estimate that is about 20 times greater than one recently touted by the company.

The world's wildlife population has declined 60 percent since 1970, new report finds

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday October 30, 2018 · 10:15 AM PDT

2018/10/30 · 10:15

TOPSHOT - Picture of two newborn white bengal tiger cubs in Yunnan Wildlife Zoo in Kunming, Southern China on October 12, 2018. - Three playful white Bengal tiger cubs are charming tourists as they clamber around the enclosure at a zoo, days into making their first public appearance. (Photo by FRED DUFOUR / AFP) (Photo credit should read FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images)

The Living Planet Report 2018, released on Monday by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), reports that since 1970, the earth has seen its wildlife populations decline, on average, by 60 percent. This includes mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. According to the report, the declines have been felt most drastically in South and Central America, where 89 percent of the wildlife has been wiped away. Also terrifying is the fact that freshwater ecosystems have seen an 83 percent reduction in their biodiversity during that time.

Is it all just because of fossil fuels? No. Is it all just because of chemical pollutants? No. Is it all just because of deforestation, pesticides, climate change, fresh-water and air pollution, plastics, or general human waste? No. No, it is all of those things. WWF argues that the biggest issues that need to be dealt with in order to slow down this decline are habitat loss and overexploitation.

Air Force lost jets worth around $6 billion due to Hurricane Michael and climate change denial

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Friday October 26, 2018 · 12:09 PM PDT

2018/10/26 · 12:09

PANAMA CITY, FL - OCTOBER 17: Debris litters Tyndall Air Force Base following Hurricane Michael on October 17, 2018 in Panama City, Florida. the base experienced extensive damage from the storm. Hurricane Michael slammed into the Florida Panhandle on October 10, as a category 4 storm causing massive damage and claiming nearly 30 lives. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida was hit hard by Hurricane Michael two weeks ago. Before the base was destroyed by the hurricane, the Air Force was able to get at least 33 planes, in a fleet of 55 F-22 stealth fighters threatened by the storm, to safety. However, with the short notice, and the nature of the sophisticated equipment, at least 22 military jets valued at around a third of a billion dollars apiece were possibly destroyed.

"Currently we do not know the extent of any damage to the F-22s left behind due to maintenance or safety reasons, but more information will be available once crews are able to access the hangars and assess the aircraft," said U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, whose district includes nearby Eglin Air Force Base.

Toxic coal ash, rancid hog waste, and fetid sewage spill across Carolinas in wake of Florence

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday September 19, 2018 · 2:31 PM PDT

2018/09/19 · 14:31

CONWAY, SC - SEPTEMBER 17: An official looks out a Blackhawk Helicopter at homes surrounded by flood waters due to Hurricane Florence on September 17, 2018, in Conway, South Carolina. Many rivers in the Carolinas are approaching record flood stages and their levels will continue to rise through the week. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Reports of the massive flooding going on in the wake of Hurricane Florence continue to filter in. How the Carolinas’ infrastructure holds up to this flooding is being watched closely by environmental groups, as many of the big business industries in the area have had a long and recent history of cutting safety corners and paying off officials to look the other way. For decades people have warned that Duke Energy and its coal ash ponds, the waste from their industrial plants, shouldn’t be housed near waterways. Lacking regulations and covering up the science of pollution from these waste sites have led to years of cascading lawsuits against the energy giant telling them to clean up their act. ABC News reports that Duke Energy says at least “2,000 cubic yards of ash were displaced at the L. V. Sutton Power Station outside Wilmington.”

The company has not yet determined whether the weir that drains the lake was open or if contamination may have flowed into the Cape Fear River. That's roughly enough ash to fill 180 dump trucks.

Oil and gas interests have a history of under-reporting their short-sighted infrastructural issues, so we will see how this plays out in the days to come as there are numerous coal ash ponds dealing with Florence’s rains. The good news is that this plant has been under clean-up for five years now.

The coal-fired Sutton plant was retired in 2013 and the company has been excavating millions of tons of ash from old waste pits and removing it to safer, lined landfills constructed on the property. The gray ash left behind when coal is burned contains toxic heavy metals, including arsenic, lead and mercury.

And after Duke Energy’s 2014 coal ash spill in the Dan River, they’ve been under the magnifying glass to get done what corrupt officials were turning a blind eye to.

At the same time, hog farmers in North Carolina have been using our country’s general white supremacist racism in order to spray their “hog waste” on nearby lower-income, predominantly black communities. But spraying pig shit all over the place doesn’t make it disappear, and Hurricane Florence has threatened the “manure lagoons” in the country.

Florida Governor Rick Scott rushes out back door from photo op as protestors shout 'Coward!'

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday September 18, 2018 · 9:19 AM PDT

2018/09/18 · 09:19

Florida Gov. Rick Scott, best known for impersonating a childhood nightmare and trying to have the term “climate change” struck from government correspondence during his tenure, is running for the Florida U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Bill Nelson. One of the many consequences of Scott’s policies and actions over the past few years is that anyone who knows anything about our environmental woes knows that Scott is not a friend to living things. Children have sued him over his environmental policies. Over the past couple of months, Scott’s team of nightmare-makers has been working hard to paint the anti-environment governor with a green brush. Floridians have responded with protests.

One of the Scott administration’s easiest failures to see and understand is the red-tide poisoning of parts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean surrounding Florida. A red tide is an overgrowth of algae, which can be made worse by human activity, including the poisonous run-off from sugar industry waste, with dangerous environmental and health impacts. Deregulation has combined with Scott’s cutting of over $700 million from the budget for agencies tasked with policing, curbing, and handling environmental issues, resulting in a worsening of events such as red tides. So when candidate Scott decided to go have a photo op at Mojo’s Real Cuban restaurant in Venice, Florida, protestors were there in force.

Protesters jammed the sidewalk and spilled into the street around Mojo’s Real Cuban, forcing Scott to enter the restaurant through the back door and leave the same way after just 10 minutes as members of the crowd shouted “coward.”

Harrison Ford’s emotional climate plea: ‘Stop giving power to people who don’t believe in science!’

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday September 13, 2018 · 2:24 PM PDT

2018/09/13 · 14:24

Screen_Shot_2018-09-13_at_1.40.27_PM.png

The three-day Global Climate Action Summit is taking place in San Francisco right now. There have been protests in the streets, letting the over 4,000 elected officials attending the summit know how people feel about our country’s market-based response to the changing climate and the poisoning of our lands.

Protesters crowded the intersection of Howard and Third Streets outside the Moscone Center, forcing summit delegates to climb over barriers or go around the protest. As the delegates walked past, a protester yelled out, “There’s more than just market-based solutions, folks! The market sucks, suit!” Another encouraged delegates to participate in the protest: “Join us! Join the community, not corporations!”

Many in the group were indigenous people who traveled from around the country to San Francisco for the summit. They highlighted environmental issues beyond carbon emissions alone. Many said they want to protect the lands they live on from being destroyed by pollution.

Actor Harrison Ford spoke at the summit Thursday, highlighting the need to protect our natural habitats, and not simply buy and sell our carbon emissions.

I beg of you, don’t forget nature. Because today, the destruction of nature accounts for more global emissions than all the cars and trucks in the world. We can put solar panels on every house, we can turn every car into an electric vehicle, but as long as Sumatra burns, we will have failed. So long as the Amazon’s great forests are slashed and burned, so long as the protected lands of tribal people, indigenous people are allowed to be encroached upon, so long as wetlands and bog peats are destroyed, our climate goals will remain out of reach, and we will be shit out of time.

Hurricane Florence could turn Southeast's coal ash piles into a toxic nightmare

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday September 13, 2018 · 12:20 PM PDT

2018/09/13 · 12:20

In 2016, thousands of gallons of polluted water poured out of Duke Energy's H.F. Lee Plant due to hurricane damage

As Hurricane Florence makes its way into the Carolinas, dozens of toxic coal ash piles are potentially in its path. Back in 2016, after the Category 1 Hurricane Matthew flooded many areas of North Carolina, Appalachian Voices reported on the results to the coal ash areas.

While the flood waters are still receding, we are learning about the impacts left in their wake. Flooding at Duke Energy’s H.F. Lee Plant, near Goldsboro, caused a breach in one of the plant’s cooling ponds. In a separate incident, one of the inactive coal ash basins was overrun, releasing an unknown amount of coal waste into the Neuse River.

It is critical to point out that the ash flowed out of an inactive pond. It underscores the notion that simply capping these sites and leaving them in place is not enough to keep detrimental impacts from occurring in the future. The only way to ensure these sites cause no future harm is to remove the ash from compromised locations, including flood prone areas and place it in either appropriate landfills, or even more promising, recycled into products for the concrete industry which wants and needs Duke Energy’s ash for its production facilities.

Trump EPA proposes rolling back rules for monitoring potent methane gas leaks

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday September 11, 2018 · 2:23 PM PDT

2018/09/11 · 14:23

On Tuesday, the Trump administration proposed a roll back of the rules that regulated “uncontrolled release” of the greenhouse gas methane. And while this change would only save oil and gas companies a little bit of money, it would definitely hurt human beings. Inside Climate News explains that the documents the government released in regard to the cost/benefits of this change conveniently obfuscate public health concerns.

The estimated costs (forgone benefits) include the monetized climate effects of the projected increase in methane emissions under the proposal. The EPA also expects there will be increases in VOC and HAP emissions under the proposal. While the EPA expects that the forgone VOC emission reductions may also degrade air quality and adversely affect health and welfare effects associated with exposure to ozone, PM2.5, and HAP, data limitations prevent the EPA from quantifying forgone VOC-related health benefits.

This is another move by Trump’s administration to undo some of the truly positive steps taken to slow our country’s egregious industrial pollution.

Trump adds climate change 'skeptic' to National Security Council who believes Earth needs more CO2

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Monday September 10, 2018 · 9:01 AM PDT

2018/09/10 · 09:01

Physicist William Happer arrives for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York, NY, USA on January 13, 2017. Credit: Albin Lohr-Jones / Pool via CNP - NO WIRE SERVICE - Photo by: Albin Lohr-Jones/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images — Looks like a guy that loves his CO2

William Happer is the retired Princeton physicist who was rumored to be in contention to become Donald Trump’s White House science adviser. The idea of Harper becoming the “science” anything was depressing and predictable coming from a Republican administration that not only ignores scientific data, but aggressively undermines and attacks it. According to National Security Council officials, Happer has gotten himself a new gig as the “senior director for emerging technologies.” Way back in February of 2017, Happer was interviewed in The Scientist and had this to say about his conversations with the newly-inaugurated Trump:

I said, ‘I’m sure you know my position that I think climate change has been tremendously exaggerated—its significance. Climate is important, always has been, but I think it’s become sort of a cult movement in the last five or 10 years.’ So in just a sentence or two, I said, ‘That’s my view of it.’ And he said, Well, I agree with you. But that’s all we discussed.

Happer worked in the Department of Energy during the first George Bush administration, so you know the kind of fossil fuel hack pedigree he comes from. Happer’s big thing is that we don’t know whether or not the increasing CO₂ in our atmosphere is really a bad thing. He says that researching how climate change could be super fantastic for everybody doesn’t get the “funding” that people with his stupid ideas need. If the government funded less climate change science, Happer—who is decidedly NOT a climate scientist—and his buddies could use those resources to to tell us what virtually all climate scientists already know: the build up of manmade CO₂ is not good for our changing climate when it comes to humanity.

Instead, Happer has told the public that CO₂ buildup isn’t a real problem facing the planet.

Republican Lt. Gov.-turned-oil-spokesman lies about BP oil spill not reaching 'shores of Florida'

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday August 28, 2018 · 2:10 PM PDT

2018/08/28 · 14:10

Corporate greed was one of the many things that led to the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster that registered as the largest marine oil spill in the history of the world. The fallout from the spill is still being felt today, because that’s what happens when you pollute the earth. However, conservatives want the world to move on. In fact, Former Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp wants you to believe that all of that terrible stuff that happened during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was mostly fake news. A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Kottkamp, now an oil industry spokesperson and co-chair of Explore Offshore Florida (which is exactly what it sounds like), told a group of reporters in Tallahassee that the 2010 oil spill “didn’t even reach the shores of Florida.” Which, besides not being true, is also a straight-up insane thing to say.

PENSACOLA, FL - JUNE 06: A worker collects small globs of oil that have washed up on Pensacola Beach from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on June 6, 2010 in Pensacola, Florida. Early reports indicate that BP's latest plan to stem the flow of oil from the site of the Deepwater Horizon incident may be having some sucess. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) — Some worker cleaning up “naturally occurring” tarballs, I guess.

After Kottcamp (sic) made the statement, a reporter asked about it again, and Kottcamp said “tarballs are naturally occurring.”

Oh, I’m sorry. “Tarballs are naturally occurring” is even more insane. The responses to the statement were justifiably sharp.

“Anyone who would say that the BP disaster did not reach Florida’s shores is either lying for personal profit reasons, or has no knowledge about the event at all,” said Linda Young, Executive Director of the Florida Clean Water Network and a resident of the Panhandle coastal community of Navarre Beach. “They should not be anyone’s spokesperson.”

Now, according to the Tampa Bay Times, Kottkamp is trying to walk back his statement by lying some more.

PENSACOLA, FL - MARCH 10: Workers clean oil leftover from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico March 10, 2011 at Perdido Key State Park in Pensacola, Florida. With Spring Break approaching, crews continued to work to remove leftover oil from beaches along the Gulf Coast. (Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images) — Florida decided to put huge vehicles on the beach to combat the fake oil spill … I guess.

"I guess I overstated it," said Kottkamp, now leading a group seeking to open the eastern Gulf of Mexico to oil exploration, said in an interview this week with the Tampa Bay Times.

[...]

"Obviously, yeah, we had some oil, but nothing like what was being reported," said Kottkamp, who was lieutenant governor at the time of the spill. "You would have thought that the entire state was covered in oil."

Texas's Big Oil asking for $12 billion in taxpayer money to protect them from climate change

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday August 23, 2018 · 9:21 AM PDT

2018/08/23 · 09:21

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 11: Former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of State, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee January 11, 2017 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Tillerson is expected to face tough questions regarding his ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — Remember me?

With our changing climate comes more powerful storms, rising sea levels, and the subsequent flooding from storm surges. What were once freak incidents and “natural disasters” are now going to be a more common occurrence and the result is that the U.S. needs to spend big bucks in order to protect our infrastructure. During this time, the fossil fuel industry and the politicians they pay off continue to drill and extract and exacerbate the rising temperatures that lead to the emergency need for strengthening our infrastructure. There is also no shortage of evidence that oil companies like Exxon Mobil full well knew, for decades, their business’s part in accelerating climate change via CO2 emissions—and instead of spending money to create a more environmentally friendly way of creating energy and profits, they spent that money on quackery in order to sow the seeds of doubt about the very nature of climate change.

The higher tides now expected in places like Texas’s Gulf Coast means that something’s gotta give. A new 60-mile, infrastructure project has been proposed. It would buttress and reinforce Texas’s seawalls, and include “floating gates,” and “steel levees.” The AP reports that it would cost “at least $12 billion for the full coastal spine, with nearly all of it coming from public funds.”

Here’s an interesting tidbit.

The plan is focused on a stretch of coastline that runs from the Louisiana border to industrial enclaves south of Houston that are home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities, including most of Texas’ 30 refineries, which represent 30 percent of the nation’s refining capacity.

As the sea levels rise, the general amount of flooding damage from storm surge increases not only because of big and terrible storms but because the general erosion to coastlines increases extraordinarily. The costs to the real estate industry will be in the tens of billions of dollars. And so far, Texas has already sent almost $4 billion of that money to protect “specifically” oil refineries. Meanwhile, within the last year, craven Republican Party officials have argued out of either sheer corruption or stupidity that the problems of rising sea levels have nothing to do with climate change, let alone manmade climate change. Now, oil companies want Americans to foot the bill for their shortsighted and greedy business model.

Fracking use of water has increased 770% over the last 5 years—and that's just the beginning

Walter Einenkel

Daily Kos Staff

Friday August 17, 2018 · 11:53 AM PDT

2018/08/17 · 11:53

With AFP Story by Veronique DUPONT: US-Energy-Gas-Environment.A Consol Energy Horizontal Gas Drilling Rig explores the Marcellus Shale outside the town of Waynesburg, PA on April 13, 2012. It is estimated that more than 500 trillion cubic feet of shale gas is contained in this stretch of rock that runs through parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio and West Virginia. Shale gas is natural gas stored deep underground in fine-grained sedimentary rocks. It can be extracted using a process known as hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" which involves drilling long horizontal wells in shale rocks more than a kilometre below the surface. Massive quantities of water, sand and chemicals are pumped into the wells at high pressure. This opens up fissures in the shale, which are held open by the sand, enabling the trapped gas to escape to the surface for collection. AFP PHOTO/MLADEN ANTONOV (Photo credit should read MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images)

A new study out of Duke University shows that fracking operations in the United States have boomed in their use of water over the past five years. The researchers found that between 2011 and 2016, the amount of water being used, per well, increased 770 percent. On top of that—during the same time—the amount of “brine-laden” wastewater generated by those wells increased 1,440 percent.

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