\ncontinue to gush out of the Gulf and Washington at volumes difficult to
\nestimate. BP initiated its risky “top kill” maneuver Wednesday and the
\nCoast Guard reported cautiously this morning that the oil stream has
\nabated. If the effort works, BP will begin to plug<\/a> the well with concrete in the next day or so. President Barack Obama
\nheld his first press conference in 308 days this afternoon. He placed a
\nmoratorium on new deepwater drilling permits for six months and ordered
\nthe Interior Department to expedite its reforms of the key oil-industry
\nregulatory office.<\/p>\n
Blame has lapped up on the shores of the Potomac as crude sullies the
\n Gulf coast, destroying livelihoods and wildlife. Obama spoke today
\nafter a week when scrutiny of the disaster led directly to the
\nDepartment of Interior’s Minerals Management. A report from Interior’s
\ninspector general accuses officials there of gross conflicts of interest
\n and misconduct prior to 2007 (The report was commissioned before the
\naccident but accelerated after).<\/p>\n
Acting IG Mary Kendall writes to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar [PDF<\/a>], “Of greatest U.S. Geological Survey scientists have concluded<\/a> that the Nicholas Institute colleagues, led by Director Tim Profeta, held a Let the investigations begin:<\/strong> A BP official Some journalists in the Gulf report heavy-handed treatment from BP Renewable renewable forecasting:<\/strong> A month ‘Every day I see this The narrative in the legacy Before tempers elevated to the point where Obama called his first What will the future of renewable energy look like? Michael Levi of Meanwhile, back in low gear…: <\/strong>The Developed nations have chipped<\/a> in $4 billion to slow deforestation, a half billion dollars more than <\/strong><\/p>\n Greenland moving up in the world:<\/strong> Scientists continue to study ice loss in Greenland, a much-watched field The 2010 hurricane season begins June 1. The National Oceanic and The oil spill lays bare the difficulty at the heart of communicating So … with the spill looking like it might be capped, we expect to Related Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n Michigan: Where U.S. clean energy, emissions, efficiency policy really counts<\/a><\/p>\n Obama preaches green tech gospel to California choir<\/a><\/p>\n The Climate Post: BP Oil Spill Washes up Potomac<\/a><\/p>\n
\nconcern to me is the environment in which these inspectors
\noperate-particularly the ease with which they move between industry and
\ngovernment. While not included in our report, we discovered that the
\nindividuals involved in the fraternizing and gift exchange-both
\ngovernment and industry-have often known one another since childhood.
\nTheir relationships were formed well before they took their jobs with
\nindustry or government.” The report catalogs gifts, drug use,
\npornography, and fraternizing between the regulators and the regulated,
\nincluding an incident when an MMS official interviewed for a job while
\non an inspection. The official found no violations and later got the
\njob. Earlier today MMS chief Elizabeth Birnbaum was fired or quit—the president wasn’t sure-knocking one question off this list<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\ndisaster has unleashed between 17 and 39 million gallons of oil into the
\n Gulf, making it far larger than the Exxon Valdez, previously the worst
\nspill in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
\nwide-ranging panel on the oil spill, the state of energy legislation,
\nand other issues in climate policy. View the second Nicholas Institute
\nEnLIST webinar here<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n argued<\/a> with oil rig engineers 11 hours before the April 20 explosion, about
\nwhether or not to drain drilling mud that protected the riser where the
\nwell meets the rig. The BP official, Donald Vidrine, was supposed to
\nappear today at hearings conducted by MMS and the Coast Guard but called
\n in sick. Earlier hearings revealed that BP was a month and a half
\nbehind operations on the rig it was paying $533,000 a day to use. Check
\nout MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in a report<\/a> on how little safety questions and technology have changed in a
\ngeneration.<\/p>\n
\nstaff and the local and federal officials who are working with them. BP
\nand civic employees have restricted<\/a> or prevented access to contaminated beaches and interfered with
\nflyovers. A Mother Jones<\/em> reporter, Mac McClelland, explains<\/a> how tightly BP reins in local law enforcement personnel, and a CBS News
\n crew was threatened with arrest.<\/p>\n
\nbefore the 2008 election, the New York Observer<\/em> depicted<\/a> presidential candidates McCain and Obama respectively as the original Star
\n Trek<\/em>‘s impetuous hot-head Captain James T. Kirk and cool
\ndeliberator Mr. Spock. That caricature of the now-president is probably a
\n good starting point to Christopher Beam’s questions<\/a> to Slate<\/em> readers this week: Why aren’t Democrats exploiting the spill
\nemotionally? Shouldn’t the oil spill “make comprehensive energy
\nlegislation more<\/em> likely, if not inevitable” rather than less
\nlikely? He writes, “There would come a point, you’d think, when the oil
\nspill was such an unmitigated disaster, environmentally and politically,
\n that Republicans would set aside their ultimatums about drilling,
\nDemocrats would set aside their paranoia about it, and members of both
\nparties would support alternative energy legislation. Not all of them.
\nJust a handful would be enough.” As for Obama, the New York Times<\/em>’ Jeff Zeleny describes his demeanor this way:<\/p>\n
\nleak continue I am angry and frustrated as well,’ Mr. Obama said, his
\nwords not rising with volume or intensity.<\/p>\n
\nmedia appears to suggest that the downside to having a president that
\ndoesn’t lose is cool is that he doesn’t lose his cool.<\/p>\n
\npress conference, public management of the crisis took the president to
\nSilicon Valley, where he visited thin-film solar panel maker Solyndra.
\nIn requisite remarks about clean energy, he also mentioned Tesla Motors’
\n $465 million loan from the Department of Energy and its work with
\nToyota to build electric cars. The San Jose Mercury News<\/em> dangles this line into its piece about Obama’s Solyndra visit without
\nelaboration: “The visit, Obama’s second to the Bay Area since becoming
\npresident, shone a spotlight on Solyndra, a Silicon Valley company that
\nhas tried to avoid publicity as it prepares for its initial public
\noffering of stock.” Now, if you wanted to avoid publicity, would you
\ninvite the president over?<\/p>\n
\nthe Council of Foreign Relations picks up a World Bank paper that analyzes<\/a> 116 projections for renewable energy growth conducted over 36 years.
\nThe trend: No discernible trend<\/a>?<\/p>\n
\ninternational climate conversation remains in a holding pattern. China reduced<\/a> expectations, such as they are, for some kind of formal agreement in
\nCancun later this year, striving instead for a “positive result.”
\n(Cleaning up before the guests come? Cancun mayor arrested<\/a> for drug trafficking and money laundering.) Outgoing U.N. climate chief
\nYvo de Boer said that international talks in Bonn next week will try to graft<\/a> parts of the December Copenhagen Accord into the formal U.N. process.
\nEurope, left out of the key meeting between the U.S. and developing
\npowers in Copenhagen, unilaterally upped<\/a> its greenhouse gas emissions goals from 20 percent to 30 percent below
\n1990 levels by 2020. The E.U.‘s chief climate official is under fire for failing<\/a> to crack down on fraud in the continent’s carbon market.<\/p>\n
\nthey agreed to at the Copenhagen climate negotiations in December. By
\n2030, U.S. farmers could see more than $200 billion in gains as avoided
\ndeforestation removes<\/a> unfair competition from the global market.<\/p>\n
\n of research. A new paper in Nature Geoscience<\/em> reports that
\nterritory’s land itself (call it Greenlandland) is rising<\/a> an inch per year as the ice above it recedes.<\/p>\n
\nAtmospheric Administration predicts<\/a> a very active hurricane season: “If the 2010 activity reaches the upper
\n end of our predicted ranges, it will be one of the most active seasons
\non record.”<\/p>\n
\nclimate change risk: There’s no single company or administration to
\ndenounce and no poisonous gunk killing fisheries and suffocating
\necosystems. Nations of the world would have addressed the problem long
\nago if greenhouse gas pollution rained back down as tar balls. One mile
\nof highway driving spews a pound of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
\nImagine if all drivers threw a pound of trash out their windows every
\nmile they drove. The trash would pile up. (Climate Post<\/em> Trivial
\n Pursuit!: Whose analogy is this? Can’t remember or find it.)<\/p>\n
\nreturn you soon to your regular invisible, odorless, slow-acting, and
\nglobally dispersed pollution concerns.<\/p>\n
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