BP’s latest effort to contain the Gulf oil spill hit a snag Wednesday when a saw became stuck as it was cutting through a pipe along the busted well, NBC News reports.

BP is working to free the saw.  If nothing more goes wrong, they will resume the cut later in the day.

BP has been plagued with problems containing the oil for over a month.  The clock is ticking.  Every day the oil continues to gush, the worse it becomes for coastal regions of the Gulf.

This latest effort, if it succeeds, will only reduce the flow, not stop it completely.  If it fails, it will continue to compound the problems for residents and tourists along the Gulf.  A permanent fix isn’t expected to be ready until August.

Robots succeed, cut well pipe; oil gushes into Gulf

But there is some glimmer of hope that the end of the geyser may be near:

When the robot submarines cut into the undersea well’s riser pipe, a fresh spew of oil temporarily obscured the view of the mechanical arm. The cut was a first step toward placing a cap over the well that has spewed hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico every day since late April.

BP expects to make more cuts to the riser before bringing in a diamond saw to make a clean cut where the cap will be fitted. Doug Suttles, the company’s chief operating officer, told CNN’s “John King USA” that the procedure should collect the “vast majority” of the oil if it succeeds.

The video on this page shows what the cap will look like, and has a nice explanation of the cutting process and the “lower marine riser package”:

As oil slick spreads to other states, BP works to put cap over well

(shows the 23-ton hydraulic cutters, the diamond wire cutter able to cut the 21-inch riser 1 inch thick, as well as the drill shaft, the cap, etc.)

See also the graphics on this page and this page, which also contains this warning:

Government scientists are warning that the operation “could result in a temporary increase in oil flow by as much as 20 percent until the containment device is applied over the leak.” Of course, this assumes that the containment device will be successfully deployed. BP is already acknowledging that the new strategy will face the same set of obstacles have plagued the undersea response from the start:

“Systems such as the LMRP containment cap have never before been deployed at these depths and conditions, and their efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured.”

With so many unknowns, and with an obvious absence of any emergency plan or containment strategy in the event of a failure, one might reasonably wonder why BP was ever allowed to drill here in the first place.

PS – BP does seem to have a good art department: Technical briefing.

The description on this page is interesting:

This book provides a comprehensive description of riser systems, including riser pipe, riser connectors, termination spools, telescopic joints, auxiliary lines, handling tools, bouyant riser modules and the lower marine riser package (LMRP).

Also covered are diverters, riser tensioning systems, guideline tensionsers, subsea wellheads and casing.

The next major section of the manual covers subsea blowout preventer stack, including hydraulic connectors, ram preventers, annular preventers and subsea gas valves. It also describes choke manifolds and mud- and gas-handling equipment. It then discusses auxiliary surface equipment including drill pipe safety valves, inside BOPs, kelly cocks, float valves, standpipe manifolds, trip tanks, mud pump volume measuring devices, flow rate sensors, and top drive safety valves.

The book wraps up with a detailed discussion of hydraulic control systems, which includes not only straight hydraulic control systems, but also multiplex electronic control (MUX) systems.

Perhaps all of this technology created a delusion that everything was under control, right up to the moment when it wasn’t. This would argue that there needs to be a separate team – one not deluded by all the technology – that plans rigorously and responsibly for the day when all the technology fails.

See also:
- Oil Booming 101 -or- How BP’s Oil Booms in the Gulf of Mexico Don’t Work
- A very simple explanation of the oil spill crisis in the Gulf of Mexico
- A simple proposal to prevent future oil spills: Require oil companies to drill the relief wells first
- Latest News from the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is grim
- The oil spill in the Gulf is gigantic – here are two unconventional, surprising ways to soak up oil

Image courtesy of freakingnews.com

What to do when you are totally inept and in way over your heads? Call in Hollywood and turn a disaster into a disaster film! At least, that’s what our illustrious federal government does now, under the king of all things scripted and illusionary, President Obama.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse than Shakira interjecting herself in Arizona’s illegal immigration policy, the feds swoop in and do one better.  Sadly, this isn’t from The Onion. It’s for real:

Federal officials are hoping film director James Cameron can help them come up with ideas on how to stop the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The “Avatar” and “Titanic” director was among a group of scientists and other experts who met Tuesday with officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies for a brainstorming session on stopping the massive oil leak.

The Canadian-born Cameron is considered an expert on underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies.

“Avatar” and “Titanic” are the two highest-grossing films of all time.

Brainstorming. With James Cameron. Isn’t that an oxymoron? I wanted to title this “Obama, Starring in James Cameron’s The Oil Spill”, but the article doesn’t specify whether Obama was in attendance or not.  So, I somehow doubt that he was, it being a brainstorming session and all. That’s not his forte, as he’s made painfully apparent. Over and over.

I just hope Obama doesn’t start adding the soundtrack to The Titanic now or speaking in Na’vi, whenever talking about the spill and it’s progress. No one needs to be subjected to that; his own total fabrications and overwhelming smug are bad enough.

At least they didn’t call in Kevin Costner as well. That would just drag the leak on and on; never-ending with the added insult of a tedious narrative, to boot.

The EPA’s new slogan: WWJCD? (What Would James Cameron Do?)

(originally posted at NewsReal)

—–

Follow Lori  on Twitter and read more of her work at Snark and Boobs, iOwntheWorld , Right Wing News and Red State.

The United States is facing serious problems in many fronts and it appears that Obama administration showed no leadership and total incompetency in dealing with these problems. The competency of a president is judged by his ability to handle the 3 AM phone calls and how good he is in dealing with unexpected crisis.

But consider the following:

• Inept response from the U. S. on North Korea’s sinking of a South Korea battle ship;
• Inability to deal with North Korea’s hostile intention towards the South Korea;
• The rise of China’s military might: construction of air carriers and 5th generation of fighter jets;
• The eventuality of a nuclear Iran and the resulting unilateral preemptive military action from Israel;
• There is no end in sight on the military operation in Afghanistan;
• The sorry responses from the government on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico;
• The elusiveness of Arab-Israel conflicts;
• The worsening situation of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill;
• Sky-high unemployment situation;
• The mounting national debt and deficits;
• The sorry state of the financial institutions on Wall Street;

Obama said on June 8th that he’ll stop the sea level from rising. He’ll see our planet to heal.It made very good sound bite but did anyone take his word seriously? What did he do to make that happen? Anyone who believed Obama should look into the mirror and see if there is a dummy there.

From all the indications and his speech on Gulf of Mexico oil spill, he tried very hard to distance himself from the oil spill diaster saying that it is BP’s responsibility. What he was trying to say between the lines was that it wasn’t my problem.

It has become his problem now with the failure of the Top Kill.

You said it the other day and I think it is a fair question to ask you:  “Obama, have you plug that hole yet?”

You better soon because there are other crises to be dealt with.  Please consult my list to get an idea of what they are.

While the rest of the country barbequed, relaxed, vacationed and hung out with family and friends over the long weekend, the Gulf Coast received disappointing news that the top kill BP used to stop the oil spill didn’t work.  So now what!?

On Saturday, BP engineers said that the “top kill” technique had failed and, after consultation with government officials, they had decided to move on to another strategy.  The top kill was the latest of many failed attempts to stop the spill.  A technician who had been working on the project to stem the oil leak said that neither the top kill nor the “junk shot” came close to succeeding because the pressure of oil and gas escaping from the well was simply too powerful to overcome.  He added that engineers never had a complete enough understanding of the inner workings of drill pipe casing or blowout preventer mechanisms to make the efforts work.

Engineers will now try once again to solve the problem with a containment cap and it could take four to seven days for the device to be in place.

The whole thing feels so completely unpredictable and out of our control, and it’s difficult to be a helpless bystander.

BP has started work on two relief wells but officials have said that they will not be completed until August, which is a very scary thought.  It’s incomprehensible to think about the damage that could be done if this oil continues to gush into the Gulf for 3 more months. 

The latest failure will undoubtedly put more pressure on the federal government to take more control over the repair effort because the public is quickly losing faith in BP.

The Gulf Coast will be holding its breath in the days and weeks ahead.  And we hope to have the nation’s continued support, patience and prayers.

Oh and did I mention that today marks the beginning of hurricane season… yeah, let’s not go there.

This holiday weekend brought news of the failure of BP’s latest strategy for plugging the oil flow in the Gulf of Mexico – the ominously named “top kill.”  It now seems increasingly likely that oil will continue to foul the waters of the Gulf until ancillary wells are completed several months from now.  The scale of this disaster is hard for the human imagination to fathom.

Unfortunately your administration is deeply implicated in this, the worst environmental cataclysm in the nation and perhaps the planet’s history.  As has become widely know since the explosion on board the Deepwater Horizon rig, the Mineral Management Service completely failed in its mission to regulate the oil industry.  Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar patently abdicated his responsibility to clean up an agency that, according to a 2008 report by the Department of the Interior’s secretary general included brazen corruption (including the collection of $9 billion in oil and gas royalties in 2007) and a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” at the agency.

Worst still, your ill-advised decision to open up U.S. coastal waters to drilling came with false promises to Americans that technological advances had made such procedures fool proof.  As we found out only weeks after your announcement, in fact the major oil companies had absolutely no idea of how to deal with deepwater oil leaks.  Moreover, since the leak, your administration has handled BP with kid gloves, refusing to force them to reveal the extent of the spill and allowing them to pump massive quantities of toxic dispersants into the Gulf of Mexico in order to obscure the extent of the pollution.

In response to this ecological disaster, many are calling for a complete ban on offshore drilling, and for catastrophe-prone oil rigs such as the Atlantis (which continues to pump oil up from 7,000 feet below the surface) to be shut down.  This seems like the minimum step warranted by such a tragedy.  After all, offshore drilling only provides about 1% of the oil we use in the U.S. today.

We also need a major blue-ribbon investigation to determine how the calamity in the Gulf occurred.  In addition, the culture of corruption and nepotism that has been revealed at government agencies such as the Mineral Management Service and the Department of the Interior must be investigated with a special commission and culpable parties must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

But, as important as such steps are, they are not nearly enough.  In other parts of the world from which the U.S. gets its oil such as Nigeria and Ecuador, massive environmental pollution is a normal part of the oil business.  Protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska may simply mean moving the environmental and human rights violations to another, less zealously regulated part of the planet.

No, none of those moves are commensurate with what is clearly a turning point in history.  What the Gulf Oil Spill shows is that we need a new national energy policy based on a massive transition to truly sustainable technologies and social arrangements.  Your administration has recognized the threat to our nation that dependency on foreign oil represents; solutions you have embraced such as coastal drilling, “clean” coal (another Big Lie), and nuclear technology pander to powerful corporations and, as we now know, imperil American land, oceans, and people.  The U.S. can transform itself with amazing speed, as preparations to defend democracy before World War II showed.  Surely we are facing an even more dire planetary threat today.

There is no lack of proposals for a just transition to a sustainable national energy policy.  One particularly admirable plan comes from the Apollo Alliance.  They call for a New Apollo Program based on five key initiatives:

1. Rebuild America Clean and Green: We must generate cleaner power and use the power we generate more efficiently – particularly in the residential, commercial, industrial, and technological sectors that make up 70% of current energy use.  The Apollo Project is calling for a range of solutions that include special funds for upgrading energy efficiency in existing buildings; consistent long-term public support for (truly) clean energy projects such as wind and solar power; and “smart” grids to bring clean energy to market; and affordable and convenient mass public transit.
2. Make It In America: We need the new sustainable technologies to be produced locally; not only will this increase energy efficiency, but it will also help address the massive unemployment crisis that has swept the nation during the economic downturn and that continues to plague poor- and middle-class communities.  Wind turbines, solar panels, next-generation electric cars, efficient transmission lines, and green roofs – these and many other aspects of the new green economy need to be built in the U.S.
3. Restore the U.S.’s Technological Leadership: Research and development funds in renewable power technologies have been miniscule for the last several decades in comparison to the funds funneled to the fossil fuel industries by U.S. government.  As a result, the U.S. is being supplanted by the E.U. and upcoming nations such as China in development and implementation of the technologies for a new green economy.  The Apollo Project is calling for an aggressive energy innovation agenda to double the annual federal investment in energy research and development, and for the creation of a National Energy Innovation Fund to take the most promising new technologies to commercial scale.
4. Tap the Productivity of the American People: The dismantling of the industrial economy over the last generation in the U.S. has also seen a massive disinvestment in the American people.  We need to create green paths out of poverty by reinvesting in state and local green-collar worker training initiatives.  High-skill, high-wage jobs must be the wave of the future.  The Apollo Project is calling for worker training initiatives, higher education scholarships, and union apprenticeships, as well as a clean energy service program akin to the Works Progress Administration of the New Deal to allow ordinary citizens to get involved in transforming the nation.
5. Reinvest in America: The Apollo Project advocates a cap-and-invest mechanism to reduce carbon emissions, trade the allowances, and invest proceeds directly back into energy efficiency, renewable power, transit and transportation, and green workforce initiatives.  The project calls for the establishment of a Clean Energy Investment Corporation to invest these funds, to ensure accountability in the spending of public funds, and to help communities make the transition to a green economy.

Admirable as these Apollo Project initiatives are, they need to be supplemented by moves to ensure climate justice on a global scale.  Technological leadership within the U.S. must, for example, be supplemented by agreements for technology transfer to the developing nations of the world in order to insure that their path to development is, unlike ours, a sustainable one.  In many cases, the greening of the U.S. economy will have a worldwide impact, but such a transformation needs to take place as part of a global movement for climatic, economic, and political justice.

Earth Day was first observed just after forty years ago in reaction to a horrific oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California.  The modern environmental movement was born out of revulsion at the environmental devastation caused by the spill and out of anger at the state of political torpor that characterized Washington.  Today, our waters are once again fouled by massive quantities of oil, and our body politic is polluted by corporate corruption.  Today, the countdown towards irreversible, cascading climate change is nearing zero.

The catastrophic Gulf Oil Spill represents a terrible tragedy, but it may also offer the last opportunity your administration has to turn the political tide away from unsustainable corporate-influenced policies and towards a just transition to a green economy.  Weighty words like redemption shouldn’t be used frequently, but this is one instance in which your actions would more than justify righteous biblical language.

Click the link and buy a t-shirt like this to show your support!

Top Killed
That is a completely false title for this post, by the way. As far as I’m concerned, Facebook in no way shape or form would contribute to the stop of the ever present oil spill. And in case you haven’t heard, you can watch the leak live by pressing that link. Today, they’ve been working on “Plan D” or “Plan E” …I lost count. But if you are like me, you don’t have a good feeling about this and hate BP a little bit more each day. I almost want to throw rocks at the cars I see filling up at BP stations. But I won’t. Yet.

Meanwhile, businesses in the Gulf continue to suffer. My heart goes out to seafood places. I’m not crazy about fish, but I love me some shrimp. I’m not too excited with the possibility of having to pay more for my beloved shrimpies.

And how many people knew Top Kill would be a joke? I was hoping it would work, but I didn’t really think it would. Top Kill and Junk Shot sounded like fighting combos in a video game. To a few other friends, they also sounded like bad porno titles (is there really any good ones?) or drug terms.

Face out of the Book
In other news, today is Quit Facebook Day. To celebrate, people are either just finding out about it, or telling others about it. But actually quitting it? I doubt that. If the truth is told, I’ve already read a handful of my own Facebook friends declare they are deleting their accounts for one reason or another (usually saying they will “do it tomorrow”) and the short story is, they are still one of the millions of members Facebook has. I’m wondering if Quit Myspace Day would have better numbers. That is, of course, for those who still have a Myspace account.

Click to see more.

25 Cent
Rapper/actor 50 Cent lost a scary amount of weight for a movie he’s filming about a football player who has cancer. Is it just me, or do you think he’s trying to get an Oscar? Does techniques like this work to get the Academy’s attention? Or is this more like The Machinist? (I didn’t like that movie by the way, and Christian Bale looked creepy as stank.) I’ll keep a look out for any buzz, but for now it just seems scary. I don’t know if this counts like Tom Hanks vs. Cuba Gooding “never going full retard.” (Tropic Thunder)

It’s in his jeans
Look what Huggies is doing this summer:

Disturbing and hilarious. This had me LOLing in disbelief. Yet, with each viewing, it gains awesomeness. So it’s a commercial I had to share. TIME has the story.

Anyway, that’s all the news I have for now. Well, news I needed to share but didn’t want to bother everyone on Facebook and Twitter with every single musings I had on every subject I read. This way, you get it all in one single download. By the way, Happy Memorial Day. Continue to support the troops even if you don’t support the cause.

Officials from Jefferson Parish claim BP bused 400 cleanup workers into Grand Isle on Friday in time for a visit from President Barack Obama.

The extra workers were brought in for Friday only, at a rate of $12 an hour, officials told WDSU. They were mostly from Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes.

(Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris) Roberts said that since oil started coming ashore in Grand Isle last week, no more than a dozen workers hired by BP have been seen on the beaches in the area, until Friday when the president arrived.

Will Louisiana remain stranded after the president’s 3 hour tour? Is he now engaged and offering leadership, or was that a Friday only thing?

Such is the wealth of unusual terminology that it may seem as if the petroleum giant is spending all of its time dreaming up creative names for the same basic solution: stopping the oil flow.

And, funny as the lingo may be, the problem is anything but — the oil spill has already been called the worst in U.S. history, and, by some, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. However it’s described, a solution needs to be found — and fast.

Here, a rundown of what each term means, and its current status:

Top kill: An injection of “heavy drilling fluid,” followed by cement, into the leak.
Status: Pegged last Friday by BP as having a 60% to 70% chance of success, it’s now clear the ‘top kill’ has not, in fact, killed. Or even mildly injured.

Junk shot: Unfortunately, just what it sounds like: basically, shooting junk (bits of rubber tires, old golf balls — no, we’re not kidding) at the leak and hoping that enough sticks to plug it up, in process similar to “clogging up a toilet.” Scientific!
Status? See top kill.

Lower marine riser package, a.k.a. “saw and cap”: Using robots to cut (or saw) the broken pipe, or “riser” then placing a “containment device” — aka a “lower marine riser package” — or cap, over the spewing oil, which would then be sucked up to the surface into a waiting ship.
Status: Put into motion on Sunday, it may involve more oil, not less, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. “When you cut the riser, the kink may be holding some of the oil in and so we could see an increase, experts are saying, of as much as 20%,” Barack Obama environmental advisor Carol Browner said on Sunday. “Once the cap is on, the question is how snug is that fit? If it’s a snug fit then there could be very, very little oil; if they’re not able to get a snug fit then there could be more.”

Top hat: The smaller successor to BP’s original containment dome. The dome was just what it sounds like — a hulking, 100-ton hat. The dome failed after becoming plugged with ice crystals.
Status: The “top hat” has now become an even smaller “cap.”

Hot tap: Notable mainly for making Jon Stewart compare it with “top hat,” saying: “our solution to this is to come up with anagrams?” a hot tap would tap the leaking pipe, and attempt to divert the oil.
Status: Considered by engineers, but not put into practice.

Of course, if the current method fails, there’s always, as the Daily Beast points out, nuking the oil well, a method apparently used by the Soviet military.

With files from Reuters

[np-related]

Those following me from a while know that I usually don’t talk on other countries problems, just because on the other side, I don’t like when people talk on my countries things.

But I feel that gulf oil spill is a problem also of mine.

Maybe is the first case of a local problem so big to become of worldwide breadth.

What I feel is that we are facing something apocalyptic that should be prosecuted at full extent not only in the US, but on a transnational basis.

Either if this is my first feeling, I think that there’s a moment for reaction (closing the hole and stop oil spill) and a moment for putting BP under criminal investigation.

Now we are in first phase and energies should be adressed to this.

After I think BP should be judged, fairly but at full extent.

And at the end we should learn something from what happened.

This post as a comment also at
http://www.alternet.org/story/147045/why_isn’t_bp_under_criminal_investigation
 , at
http://www.fastcompany.com/top-kill-fail
 and at
http://gizmodo.com/5551175/bp-knew-of-deepwater-horizon-safety-risks-almost-a-year-ago

I was at a meeting last week talking about planning some sort of action in Anchorage about the spill and someone there had a copy of this show.  They had seen it at an oil spill conference in 1990 and asked the presenter if they could borrow the tape to make a copy.  Luckily the presenter said yes, and my friend held on to his old 2nd generation VHS copy for 20 years.  The show is only about 25 minutes, but I had to break it up into 4 pieces after having some technical difficulties with uploading.  So without further ado, sit back relax, remove breakable items from your reach (I really wanted to throw something at someone…cough cough Tony Hayward cough cough.. while watching this), and enjoy the show:

Sea Turtle Enjoying the BP Top Kill

SEE MORE >>> BP Oil Spill Graffiti set on flickr

^^^^^^^^^^

If this happens dont just ignore it, though if it happens alot then I wouldnt blame you. First never put in your information when someone else calls you about something like this. You will need to put your info in to check on the status of an ATM or Credit card, but you should only do it on a number that you yourself call in. When you do call in, make sure you type in what ever is needed to talk with a representative, its faster, and a lot more effective for both parties when dancing around a fraud case.

If you do business with a company that tries to limit your access to a live person, you have some options if you need to get in contact with one. The website Get Human is a fantastic resource. The site contains a working list of various companies that provide services and also utilize an automated phone service. They then walk you through step by step for each company on the list in how to reach someone to talk with, this includes dancing through menu prompts and all that fun stuff. That way you can check on your business quickly to make sure the call was fraud and nothing bad is going on.

When you are done verifying all of your cards/accounts and the like, there is one other thing that you can do. Most large companies like banks or credit card providers have a Fraud investigation branch. What you want to do is ask if you can report the number that called you, this way the proper authorities will be alerted and who ever is doing it arrested. They like this because it means less work shoring up a compromised account, and it proves to everyone else their up on their own security.

Other ways to verify a phone number/email:

-Google/Reverse look-up: If the number is an official system used by a company you do business with, it will automatically come up as such. If its unknown or something strange, its bad. So do your checks.

-*69: This is similar to the first method, it simply does it via the phone. You can also call your local information service, but thats no-longer free like it once was.

Foxconn just cant stay out of the media lately. If you don’t know who/what that is then ill do a brief rundown. Foxconn is the High-output factory in China that does a lot of the manufacturing for companies like Apple and some others dealing in mobile technology. Using the latest in Chinese state of the art sweatshop technology, they employ deplorable conditions and staggering work-loads to motivate their staff. And because of this recently a number of their employees committed suicide by jumping off the roof, something like 12-17 killed themselves.

The response from the company management was to have everyone sign a new contract. This more or less said “If you could go ahead and not kill yourself that would be awesome. However if you still feel the need, could you agree to not sue us?”. This was followed by a pay raise of about 20% to try and encourage better moral rather than just being creepy with a contract and risk more bad press.

So far as I know due to the increase in interest in how they operate they have vastly improved the conditions that outsiders are able to see, but thats pretty much how most of China’s rolls so I couldnt really say one way or the other.

The very most recent news is the factory caught on fire, I guess someone still wasn’t happy, but at least nobody was killed.

The Oil Spill clean-up and containment continues as ever to aggravate and disappoint. The Top-Kill Method was a failure, and the next plan I didnt hear before I went outside today to get more yard work done. But suffice it to say we are pretty much screwed for the long term damage its going to deal to the eco-system. To add horrendous insult to injury the evidence against BP and those they work with is growing by the day (So the hill is now a mountain). Including ignoring safety risks, warning signs, etc. They are also trying to get all court cases against them run past a judge whose in bed with them, which I hope never happens. They need to get their pants sued off, its just the only way the oil industry is going to get the message and quit screwing around. And most agree in general. Kinda want to see that limited liability thing go away, I see no need to make the Tax paying public pay for their obvious cut-corners business practices. Its just pathetic at this point.

Lets hope we get that well capped off and fixed sometime soon. I dont live anywhere near there, but still, its just bad.

I suggested to the top management of our company

that we immediately start an operation “Top Kill” ourselves.

Where we kill all the top management.

(Like they should perhaps do at BP.)

The top management looked at me.

Then they looked at each other.

Then they looked back at me.

At first I thought Satan was among them,

but it was worse than that…it was some guy from BP.

He said everything was fine and under control.

Then the very top guy opened his mouth.

And oil came spewing out uncontrollably.