Before the Oil: One Last Sunday on Pensacola Beach

"Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures than from the convulsions of the elements."--Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-1788)

"I feel like a Roman trapped inside the walls, waiting, defenseless, for the Goths to sack my city." -- Friend on Pensacola Beach, Sunday, May 2

Gibbon was writing of the folly of war. Comparing the "mischievous effects of an earthquake or ... a hurricane or the eruption of a volcano," he observed that these bear "a very inconsiderable proportion to the ordinary calamities" caused by mankind's uglier passions for money, power, and violence.

Five of us gathered yesterday on Pensacola Beach, feeling much as one of our friends described -- like Roman citizens who are utterly powerless to stop the Gothic onslaught. We were standing in front of The Dock at Casino Beach, weirdly assailed by upbeat music from one side and Nature's pounding surf on the other.

Our small, glum group had come for what we believe may be the last time, for many years to come, when we can taste the best seafood the Gulf of Mexico has to offer, see the pure white sand and clean surf of Pensacola Beach, and commiserate with others feeling the same pain. As we wandered the beach we met a number of others from the Pensacola area who had made the same trek.

As more than one of them said, the mood was one of impending doom. Many of these fellow sufferers wept as they talked with us. We wept with them.

Monday BP Oil Gusher Update: No Go Fish

1. No Go-Fish.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) late yesterday banned commercial and recreational fishing "for a minimum of ten days in federal waters most affected by the BP oil spill, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Florida’s Pensacola Bay." Locally, that grounds fishing boats that put out to sea for fish warehouses and commercial sellers as well as charter fishing boats. According to NOAA:

[T]here are 3.2 million recreational fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico region who took 24 million fishing trips in 2008. Commercial fishermen in the Gulf harvested more than 1 billion pounds of finfish and shellfish in 2008.

All "finfish, crabs, oysters and shrimp" are included in the ban. NOAA scientists will continue evaluating the "evolving nature" of the spreading river of oil and will "re-evaluate closure areas" as "appropriate."

2. All of Florida May Be Affected.

Concerns are growing, as we mentioned yesterday, that the oil spill could spread from the Northwest corner of Florida all the way south to the Keys. Now, Duke University coastal biology expert Larry Crowder has weighed in:

"There's a real potential there, a big problem," he told Sarah Larimer of Associated Press. "The biggest concern I would say from a Florida perspective is that once the oil gets entrained on the Loop Current it will be on the East Coast of Florida in almost no time," Graber said. "I don't think we can prevent that. It's more of a question of when rather than if."

As Larimer explains:

The Gulf's waters come through the Yucatan Strait between Mexico and Cuba, then circulate in what's called the Loop Current, before sweeping south along Florida's west coast. There they head into the Florida Straits and pass along the string of islands that make up the Florida Keys eventually to form the Gulf Stream, the world's most powerful sustained ocean current. The force sweeps up the East Coast of the United States before ending in the North Atlantic.

3. Obama in Louisiana.

Sunday, President Obama flew to the Gulf Coast to state the obvious:

"The oil that is still leaking from the well could seriously damage the economy and the environment of our gulf states and it could extend for a long time,” Mr. Obama said. "It could jeopardize the livelihoods of thousands of Americans who call this place home."

One can't help wondering why he didn't foresee that obvious risk on April 1, when he shocked environmentalists and much of his political base by promising to open the Gulf to more drilling in future years.

To be sure, Obama was (sigh, once again) trying to triangulate a political compromise with Republican right-wing senators, including Lindsay Graham of South Carolina. But how much longer can he get away with treating Republican recusants more kindly than the Democratic faithful like Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)?

4. How Deep Is the Ocean?

That's the title of an old torch song by Irving Berling. It's also the lyric to new questions being raised right here in Pensacola.

Yesterday, Rick Outzen of Pensacola's Independent News reported that prominent Pensacola torts attorney Mike Papantonio claims BP's Deepwater Horizon well is deeper than the MMS permit allows:

Papantonio also said that the Deep Horizon well was only permitted to be 18,000-ft. deep, but BP was drilling the well to 25,000-ft. "This screwed up all the permutations on how to deal with this problem," says Papantonio. "The engineers were thinking the well was only at 18,000 ft."

It's not clear from Rick's report where Papantonio gets this information. The BP drilling application which we referenced Saturday explicitly mentions a "depth limit" for the exploratory well of "5,328 feet bml," or below the mud line. Perhaps the actual permit was more restrictive. Or, perhaps, something was lost in translation.

In any event, public scrutiny of every promise BP Corp. made to, and permission it received, from the governing Mineral Management Services agency is warranted. This is the same agency, after all, which during the Bush Administration years was having sex and drug parties with employees of the very energy companies they are supposed to regulate. When it comes to MMS, everything it has done bears thorough investigation.

5. Sans Safety Valve.

In the same interview, Outzen reports Papantonio and Bobby Kennedy, Jr. also complained that:

[T]he BP well not only didn’t have the acoustical, emergency valve that could have shut it off, but was also lacking a deep-hole valve that would have also been able to stop the leaking of 5,000 barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico.

“The acoustical valve is a device required all over the world,” says Papantonio. “In Norway, you can’t drill in the ocean without one.”

This has been more widely reported in the national press as, for example, last week by the Wall Street Journal ["Leaking Oil Well Lacked Safety Device"].

6. BP Bares Its Dark Soul.

In a companion article, Outzen also reports Papantonio saying, "BP... 'parachuted' a corporate team into the Gulf Coast area that is offering local fisherman $5,000 to use their boats." The contracts contain fine print that purports to "prevent the fisherman from suing BP."

That ugly display of BP's corporate ethics has been well established in the past twenty-four hours. Last night, the Mobile Register reported

BP had distributed a contract to fishermen it was hiring that waived their right to sue BP and required confidentiality and other items, sparking protests in Louisiana and elsewhere.

So, BP is running a "fine print" scam. Alabama Attorney General Troy King "has told representatives of BP that they should stop circulating settlement agreements among coastal Alabamians." A mere spokesman for BP by email told the Mobile Register the company "will not enforce any waivers that have been signed in connection with this activity."

Yeah, right. The fishermen now have word of a PR flack-catcher. That'll stand up in court about as long as the Marx Brothers' "Sanity Clause."

7. Unrepentant Scoundrels.

Über right-wing crazies Bill Kristol, Neil Cavuto, and the entire Fox News team in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster think oil companies now should be allowed to drill closer to the Gulf coast. Really, they do.

"I'm a drill, baby, drill person," Kristol says.

Sunday Morning BP Oil Spill Update

1. Oil River to Arrive in Florida This Week

Yesterday, officials were predicting the eastern edge of the BP oil spill would arrive in Florida tomorrow. Today, the News Journal reports that "Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole said Saturday that the slick will likely not hit Florida's coast until Tuesday or Wednesday." Or maybe not, the paper admits. "Those estimates could change depending on wind and currents in the Gulf of Mexico."

Is there any doubt no one knows when, how, or what is really going on?

2. New York Car Bomb Eclipses BP Oil Spill.

The big news today, of course, isn't about the Gulf Coast and the floating oil monster headed our way. It's about the car bomb that emptied Times Square last night.

This is a useful heads-up for coastal residents. The time is fast approaching when it won't be "Gone but not forgotten" but the reverse: "Forgotten but not gone."

That's what to expect in a week or two as what passes these days for the U.S. News Machine tires of the BP oil spill... all the dead fish and animals... the stinky air.... the foul water.... all the discouraged people... and just quietly slips out the door and moves on.

3. Early Warning.

Some of the more well informed reporting on the causes of the leak and the negligence of the oil company, however, is coming out of Great Britain. The London Times is reporting that BP was warned of rig fault 10 years ago":

BP faces fresh questions over the cause of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill after it emerged that problems with the type of equipment that led to the disaster were first reported a decade ago.

In June 2000, the oil giant issued a "notice of default" to Transocean, the operator of the rig that blew up last month. The dispute was over problems with a blowout preventer, a set of iron slabs that should close out-of-control wells. It failed on the Gulf of Mexico rig, triggering the explosion and oil spill.

Transocean acknowledged at the time that the preventer did "not work exactly right". The rig in question, the Discover Enterprise, was unable to operate for extended periods while the problem was fixed.

4. Lasting Effects.

The U.K. Guardian -- formerly known as the Manchester Guardian -- explains why the BP oil spill will live on... and on... and on, even as the corporate news cycle leaves us behind:

Crews have struggled for days without success to activate the well's underwater shut-off valve using remotely operated vehicles. They also are drilling a relief well in hopes of injecting mud and concrete to seal off the leak, but that could take three months.

The prospect of oil pouring into the gulf for such a period could have horrifying effects on wildlife, added [Liverpool University Prof. Chris] Frid. "That part of the gulf's coastline consists of a sedimentary shore with lots of muddy inlets. The oil will penetrate into the mud, and because it contains no oxygen the oil will not biodegrade. For generations, any disturbance of the sediment will bring oil back to the surface and that will happen over a very large area." [emphasis added]

5. The Stink of Oil.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has fired up a new web site dedicated to reporting air quality along the Gulf Coast. Chief concerns are "particulate matter" like smoke in the air, ozone levels, and what the scientists call "volatile organic compounds." That's what the rest of know as "really bad smells."

6. Prize Winner.

As we mentioned last night, Mineral Management Services, the U.S. Interior Department agency in charge of promoting approving and inspecting deep water oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, postponed this year's 'Safety Awards Luncheon' scheduled for Monday in Houston.

Turns out, last year's winner was BP Corp.'s chief executive officer Daryl Luoma. He couldn't be present this year, but he should'a been a shoe-in to repeat BP's triumph. Last year, MMS handed Luoma the award for his "innovative and visionary approach" to something called "extended-reach drilling technology."

How much more 'extended' can your drilling 'reach' be than sending an oil slick the size of France all the way to Pensacola Beach?

Oily Social Notes from the Gulf Coast

Washington, D.C.

Date: April 28, 2010

"The Department of Interior's Mineral Management Service (MMS) announced today that the 2010 Annual Industry SAFE awards Luncheon scheduled for May 3, 2010, at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, has been postponed." (Click here or on the graphic to see the original).