“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” – Edmund Burke (1729-1797), statesmen, writer and philosopher In the past month, commentators and especially offshore-drilling proponents have used the word ‘unprecedented’ when trying to do damage control for the still-unfolding tragedy in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. How soon we [...]
Yesterday I flew with SACE board member Enid Sisskin and former board member Michael O’Donovan, a professional photographer. Both are Gulf coast residents with a long history of fighting offshore drilling. We flew out of Gulf Shores, Alabama over the beautiful Gulf of Mexico to the site of this tragic oil disaster, where BP’s drill rig Deepwater [...]
It took BP one month, miles of devastated coastline and communities, hundreds of dead wildlife, repeated requests from NOAA, Senators Bill Nelson (FL) and Barbara Boxer (CA) and finally a demand from Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) to hand-over high-quality video of the oil gushing out of the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to the demands [...]
Since the Gulf oil disaster began on April 20, the ever-increasing damage to local wildlife, ecosystems and local economies confirms just how deadly our addiction to oil and other dirty fossil fuels has become. In March, SACE critiqued President Obama’s short-sighted plan to lift a 20-year old ban on offshore drilling and then in April [...]
After five long years of presentations, deliberation, and multiple extensions, the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change (otherwise known as the NC LCGCC or “Climate Commission”) finally closed its doors on Thursday, May 6, 2010 in Raleigh with majority approval of a 189-page final report. SACE’s Executive Director, Stephen Smith, was appointed as [...]
In response to public pressure, BP has agreed to live stream BP notes: “Please be aware, this is a live stream and may freeze or be unavailable from time to time. Throughout the extended top kill procedure – which may take up to two days to complete – very significant changes in the appearance of [...]
Sixty-page report points to record of almost 40 deepwater blowouts, and culture of dangerous risk exposure by David Sassoon, solveclimate.com – May 24th, 2010 A sixty-page memorandum addressed to Renee Orr, the chief of the leasing division of the Minerals Management Service (MMS), was sent in September 2009 by an environmental investigator, warning of potential [...]
Today marks the one month anniversary of what will undoubtedly be known as the nation’s worst environmental disaster: the sinking and uncontrollable leak of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil well. Remarkably, no one can yet offer a firm estimate for how much oil is gushing out of the broken well – the still ‘official’ estimate [...]
Dramatic new video of gushing oil was released yesterday after repeated requests by Sens. Boxer and Nelson. httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ybE8jZAxdc The four newly-released videos were taken at different dates looking at the two known major leaks gushing from the sunken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. One leak is in the broken riser pipe, a second leak seen for [...]
In 2008, Southeastern utilities spent six times more on coal from Colombia (yes, the country in South America) than they did helping their customers cut energy waste at home. In fact, the Southeast spent over $10 billion in 2008 to import coal from other states and countries to fuel power plants, according to a report [...]
