I Don’t Get It
The Local Puppy Trainer has an article on a science conference at Baton Rouge:
“We’re certain it’s oil,” said Ernst B. Peebles, a USF biological oceanographer and chief scientist aboard the college’s Weatherbird II research vessel, the ship that did the sampling. “We’ve done the analysis.”
Peebles said laboratory tests were performed on water drawn from two layers of oil, a 98-foot thick layer found about 1,300 feet down and a second, even thicker layer found at a depth of about 3,200 feet.
The tests were performed on water brought up by collection bottles and passed through filter pads, a web of glass fibers that trap tiny particles in water.
…Chris D’Elia, the dean of LSU’s School of Energy, Coast and Environment, said NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco told scientists in Baton Rouge on Thursday that the oil under the water “did not look like they were in great concentrations.”
What is with Dr. Lubchenco? She has been downplaying things since she started commenting on the spill, and has seemingly been restricting information about what is going on under the water. This is her field, and she should be outraged by the damage this is causing in the Gulf. If she were a climate specialist, I might understand it, but oceans are her area.
4 comments
And this makes it even more… curious (as we used to say in the Biz!) 😉
Lubchenco Concedes ‘Circumstantial Evidence’ Means Oil Plumes Are ‘Quite Possible’
So… Has she bought an expensive new car, or clothes, or renovations, or holiday recently? 😉 😛 Maybe she was looking for a new job next year, like the one Condi had before Politics. 😆
Kryten, the problem is that this isn’t an isolated event. The Bush err Obama administration’s whole mindset since day one has been to minimize and cover up on behalf of BP. If someone got paid off, you need to look at the top, methinks. Just sayin’.
– Badtux the Bribery Penguin
Kryten, “circumstantial evidence” is a term in criminal law, not in scientific fact finding, and, in fact, the results of the sampling are “direct”, not “circumstantial” evidence of the oil plume. Finding oil in the water at specific depths in specific locations pretty much “directly” proves there is oil in the water there.
These people have seen too many bad cop shows.
I don’t know about direct payments, Badtux, but if the White House was unhappy with Lubchenco’s statements, they would have said something by now.
Duff, everyone is being investigated, and not just by the justice department, which you would know if you had been tracking the issue, but when BP people invoke their right against self-incrimination to refuse to testify at the Coast Guard accident investigation into the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon, and no one else does, it makes people a bit suspicious. Every other company involved in the drilling of that well showed up, but only one Houston-based BP engineer gave testimony.
BP bought Amoco’s assets which is why the Amoco name disappeared, but BP didn’t. BP has always been British Petroleum since it changed its name from Anglo-Iranian Oil after getting booted out of Iran. Claiming that it doesn’t mean British Petroleum is frankly silly.
BP has not been very forthcoming in its responses, nor very successful in its efforts, which is why so many people on the Gulf Coast are angry. If you claim to be in the oil business and don’t know how to cut a pipe properly, people get more than a little annoyed.
What I don’t understand is why some people in the UK think there is some sort of anti-British feeling down here. There isn’t. People know that the problem is BP, not Britain. Tony Hayward is getting pummeled because he’s an incompetent git who keeps making incredibly stupid remarks. He doesn’t know what is actually occurring and doesn’t have the sense to just shut-up.
BP signed paperwork attesting to their ability to deal with problems like the blowout, and it is fairly obvious that they can’t. There were no statements about official anger and criminal prosecution until governments at all levels got fed up with BP ignoring requests for information needed to protect people and property. BP has stonewalled their way into almost all of the trouble they are now facing.
The BP people were “pleading the 5th” weeks before there was any mention of a criminal investigation. They did it at the Coast Guard hearing on the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon.
The criminal investigation is a result of BP’s unwillingness to be forthcoming with information, its attempts to “gag” everyone who goes to work for them, its violation of state laws by attempting to get preemptive waivers from people, i.e. they set this off by acting guilty as hell about something, so now local, state, and Federal officials are investigating to discover what BP is hiding.
The criminal probe was also triggered by BP’s failure to perform as required when the oil started gushing into the Gulf.
Eleven people have died. The government is required to find out why. People who interfere with the investigation are obstructing justice. Whether they did anything wrong or not, Transocean will be arranging a settlement with the survivors of those who died, because that is the way things are done, and that would happen whether the deaths were adjudged accidental or criminal.
BP is responsible for this mess because they own the lease, and the well was being drilled for them, to their specifications.
Obama doesn’t know enough about foreign policy to like or dislike any nation. If he didn’t support Israel, the US would just abstain at the UN, instead of blocking efforts to rein in the murderous regime. Israel has insulted the US in multiple ways since Obama came into office, and we should cut off all aid and pull out our embassy. The US derives no benefit from Israel.