And still a great excuse to get silly! http://insidethecostumebox.blogspot.com/2010/12/rocky-horror-picture-show-still-… added by: Costume_Box
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A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. EP estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day. ====== report =================== By Michelle Castillo, TechLand, on December 15, 2010 Many of our electronic devices are made up of minerals like tantalum, used to make the capacitors in most cell phones, and tin, which makes up the inside lining of some cell phones and is used to solder circuit boards. Unfortunately, many of these materials come from conflict-ridden areas of the Congo, where increasing profits from electronic sales help fund the inhumane treatment of people who live and work in the country. The Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on ending genocide and crimes against humanity, estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day. According to Raise Hope for Congo, more than 5.4 million people have died from the continuous wars that ravage the country. The organization urges people to tell companies that they want conflict free products. Congo's minerals are especially attractive to electronic manufacturers because of unregulated mining practices and cheap labor. Minerals from the African nation cost half or a third as much the same materials from other countries, according to the Washington Post. Though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act requires manufacturers to identify and get rid of conflict minerals in their products and similar legislation will be mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2011, Congolese mines are often controlled by armed groups and militias. These groups smuggle the minerals out of the country to smelting companies on other continents, which means the origin of the minerals can often be masked even from the company commissioning the product. Even though Congo's president announced a ban on all artisanal mining in eastern Congo last August, the ruling has not been enforced by the country's national military and has even negatively affected the citizens who work in the mines as a main source of income. A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. Leading the pack was HP with an over 30 percent improvement. The company has endorsed anti-conflict mineral legislation and advocates for strong US regulations for all manufacturers. Apple, who uses tantalum not only in their smartphones but in iPods as well, were given a yellow score, which means there is much room for improvement. (Though several of their top executives have spoken out against conflict mineral mining in the Congo, they did not weigh in on key US conflict mineral legislation.) Toshiba received the worst score of the bunch; they have barely made any changes at all according to the study. Enough Project knows it may be hard for the average consumer to tell whether or not they are helping fund a war over natural resources just by looking at a product. Still, the group hopes that especially this holiday season when people are out shopping for the latest gadgets that by being little more knowledgeable about which companies are taking a stand against genocide and human rights abuses, shoppers can judge for themselves whether or not to support these crimes against humanity. ##### ARTICLE HERE ################## Is Your Mobile Device or Laptop Funding Conflict Mineral Wars? By Michelle Castillo on December 15, 2010 http://techland.time.com/2010/12/15/is-your-mobile-device-or-laptop-funding-conf… added by: twohawks
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Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another incident reported in August… estimates indicate many thousands of women and girls are brutalized each year on a gross scale …for the creature comforts of civilized society. Efforts to combat illicit mining of coltan and other minerals are gaining traction, as politicians in Canada and other Western governments look to establish tough penalties against the practice. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with about 7 million dead, the clich
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Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another incident reported in August… estimates indicate many thousands of women and girls are brutalized each year on a gross scale …for the creature comforts of civilized society. Efforts to combat illicit mining of coltan and other minerals are gaining traction, as politicians in Canada and other Western governments look to establish tough penalties against the practice. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with about 7 million dead, the clich
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Investigative Report: How the BP Oil Rig Blowout Happened Three Mile Island, Challenger, Chernobyl—and now, Deepwater Horizon. Like those earlier disasters, the destruction of the drilling rig was an accident waiting to happen. Here, engineers in the growing science of failure analysis identify seven fatal flaws that led to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and draw lessons on how to prevent future catastrophes. By: Carl Hoffman PART ONE… April 20 was a triumphant evening for British Petroleum and the crew of Transocean's Deepwater Horizon. Floating 52 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 5000 feet of water, the oil rig was close to completing a well 13,000 feet beneath the ocean floor—an operation so complex it's often compared to flying to the moon. Now, after 74 days of drilling, BP was preparing to cap the Macondo Prospect well until a production rig was brought in to start harvesting oil and gas. Around 10:30 in the morning, a helicopter flew in four senior executives—two from BP and two from Transocean, to celebrate the well's completion and the rig's seven years without a serious accident. What unfolded over the next few hours could almost have been written as a treatise in the science of industrial accidents. As with the Three Mile Island nuclear plant partial core meltdown in 1979, the chemical leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984, the space shuttle Challenger disintegration in 1986 and the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosions and fi re that same year, there is never one mistake or one malfunctioning piece of hardware to blame. Instead, the Horizon disaster resulted from many human and technical failings in a risk-taking corporation that operated in an industry with ineffective regulatory oversight. By the time the blowout came, it was almost inevitable. “It's clear that the problem is not technology, but people,” says Robert Bea, an engineering professor at the university of California–Berkeley. “It was a chain of important errors made by people in critical situations involving complex technological and organization systems.” Bea and other engineers subject catastrophes like Deepwater Horizon to the science of failure analysis for good reason: Studying industrial disasters can lead to understanding the root causes behind every accident, which is the critical first step toward improving safety and preventing future big bangs. If we learn from mistakes, failure can drive innovation, both technical and organizational. “A lot of intelligence came out of Three Mile Island,” says Larry Foulke, former president of the American Nuclear Society and an adjunct professor at the university of Pittsburgh, knowledge that led to improvements like better control-room ergonomics and the standardization and accreditation of industry-wide training programs.Since Three Mile Island, there has not been another major accident in the U.S. nuclear industry. The following lessons drawn from forensic engineering should spur changes in the oil industry and government agencies that will lead to better risk assessment, more useful regulatory oversight, safer operating procedures and rapid crisis response. The blowout was a punishing lesson: 11 workers were killed and 17 injured in the accident itself. The resulting oil spill damaged the economy and environment of the entire Gulf Coast. But out of this calamity can come changes that will reduce the chances of such a tragedy occurring again, not just in deepwater drilling but in other high tech, high-risk industries as well. Success Breeds Complacency A simple but counterintuitive fact led to the Horizon disaster: wells, even ones drilled in deep water, had worked most of the time, just as the space shuttle and chemical and nuclear plants had functioned successfully, in some cases for decades. Although underwater drilling is complex and challenging, there are 3423 active wells in the Gulf of Mexico, 25 in water deeper than 1000 feet. Seven months before the blowout and about 250 miles southeast of Houston, the Horizon had drilled the world's deepest well—an astounding 35,055 feet. What was impossible just a few years earlier had become seemingly routine as BP and Transocean banged out record firsts on the farthest frontiers of technology and geography. The same offshore techniques and equipment that worked in shallow hydrocarbon formations seemed to function fine at ever greater depths and higher pressures. The offshore rush was on, and nothing was going to stop it. “when you think you've got a robust system,” says Henry Petroski, a professor of civil engineering at Duke university, “you tend to relax.” Other industries have lapsed into the same sense of false security. “By the time of Three Mile Island,” Foulke says, “the nuclear industry had not had a major mishap in 25 years. when you get an attitude that nothing bad happens, it leads you to believe that nothing ever will. ” It's called hubris, and it set the stage for the Deepwater disaster. “In the event of an unanticipated blowout resulting in an oil spill,” read the exploration plan that BP submitted on March 10, 2009, to the u.S. Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), which then managed and regulated offshore drilling, “it is unlikely to have an impact based on the industry-wide standards for using proven equipment and technology for such responses . . . ” That was nonsense. Although offshore blowouts occur frequently—there were 173 in the Gulf of Mexico alone from 1980 to 2008—there had never been one in deep water. In fact, neither BP nor any of its competitors had “proven equipment or technology” or any backup plan for a catastrophic failure at great depth. “The industry has not developed an oil spill plan for the low probability, high- consequence event when everything fails,” says Greg McCormack, director of the Petroleum Extension Service at the university of Texas. CONTINUED… added by: EthicalVegan
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Workers rescued after oil platform fire in Gulf of Mexico http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/louisiana.oil.platform.explosion/index.html?hpt… Oil platform fire reported in Gulf of Mexico By the CNN Wire Staff September 2, 2010 4:58 p.m. EDT 13 survivors of the oil and gas production platform fire await rescue on Thursday. STORY HIGHLIGHTS * Louisiana governor says one worker is injured * Coast Guard reports a “sheen” from platform that produced oil and gas * The incident did not cause a spill, says company that owns rig * Thirteen people are accounted for after the fire, the Coast Guard says (CNN) — A well connected to an oil and gas production platform caught on fire in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, engulfing the vessel in flames about 100 miles off the central coast of Louisiana and forcing 13 people overboard, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said. All 13 people have been accounted for, said Petty Officer Bill Colclough of the Coast Guard. They were found floating in the Gulf, officials said. Mariner Energy, which owns the Vermilion Oil Rig 380, said none of the crew members was hurt in the incident, despite earlier reports of a single injured worker. But Jindal said one worker was injured. Jindal said the 13 were transported to Terrebonne General Hospital for evaluation. Also, Mariner indicated that the fire — which was first reported to the Coast Guard by workers on a nearby rig around 9:20 a.m. (10:20 a.m. ET) — was not sparked by an explosion. It started at one of the platform's seven active wells, the company said, though its cause is under investigation. The cause is not yet known, Jindal said Thursday afternoon. The company said an initial flyover of the site indicated “no hydrocarbon spill.” However, Coast Guard Petty Officer Elizabeth Bordelon said there is a sheen on the water at the site of the platform, measuring about 100 feet wide and stretching for one mile. Jindal said the sheen can't be confirmed. The fire at the platform is not out yet, but it has been contained, Bordelon said. “Mariner Energy recently told us that they shut in the production platform, I want to stress that neither the state nor the U.S. Coast Guard have verified that information at this time,” said Jindal. “We are working with the Coast Guard to ensure that the platform is indeed shut in and not leaking anything into the water.” Jindal said that Mariner has told him that all seven wells have been closed off and that what is burning now is from fuel in storage, and not from an active leak. During the last week of August, production from the platform averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas a day and 1,400 barrels (58,800 gallons) of oil, the company said. David Reed, a paramedic on board a nearby oil rig, said he suddenly saw “a bunch of smoke” from the direction of the Vermilion platform, and radios in his rig's control room started “lighting up like a Christmas tree” soon after. The first report of the fire came from Rotorcraft Leasing, a company that provides helicopter services for the industry, the Coast Guard said. The incident comes nearly five months after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 people and causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. That oil rig, contracted by BP, had 126 workers. It burned for three days before finally sinking. Thursday's incident took place aboard a production platform, which is built after a well is drilled and remains in place for years. Oil rigs drill the wells. The platforms pump pressure down the hole to keep the well flowing, and sometimes collect the oil or gas, or both. U.S. agencies and BP capped the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well July 15, stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf. The effects of the huge spill could hurt the region for years. The failure of the well's blowout preventer triggered the April 20 explosion, and crews are expected to remove the equipment from the well since it may hold valuable forensic evidence as to why it failed. The Obama administration tried to impose a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the wake of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon in April, but the ban is in legal limbo. A group of companies that provide boats and equipment to the deepwater drilling industry sued to overturn the ban and won in June. The government tried again in July, imposing a new moratorium and asking for the suit to be thrown out. A federal judge refused this week to dismiss it. The Vermilion platform did not violate the moratorium, said Melissa Schwartz, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, which replaced the Minerals Management Service. “This was an oil and gas production platform in approximately 340 feet of water, 102 miles offshore Louisiana (80 nautical miles),” she said. “This platform was authorized to produce oil and gas at this water depth. The current suspension involves drilling rigs in water depths greater than 500 feet,” she said. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that the federal government has “assets ready” to respond to any environmental problems resulting from the fire on the Vermilion structure. Mariner Energy describes itself as one of the leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said it had interests in about 350 federal offshore leases last year, with more than 110 of the 350 in development. The company has about 300 employees. Its most recent quarterly net income was $1.7 million. Shares of Mariner Energy fell 60 cents to $22.75 on Thursday. The company is in the process of a planned merger with a larger company, Apache Corp. The merger is about four to six weeks away from completion, an Apache spokesman said. CNN's Vivian Kuo, Sarah Edwards, Mike Ahlers and Steve Hargreaves contributed to this report. added by: EthicalVegan
Oil sheen spreading from Gulf platform explosion In this Aug. 3, 2010 photo, a boat motors near oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico, between the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill site and the Louisiana coast. Watch video from the Associated Press. Click here: http://video.ap.org/?f=GASTA&pid=BTiSyFq45YGehjSjPnZTjNg7Vp54ptzR By ALAN SAYRE The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS, La. – Another oil rig exploded and caught fire Thursday off the Louisiana coast, spreading a mile-long oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico west of the site of BP's massive spill. All 13 crew members were rescued. Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Coklough said the sheen, about 100 feet wide, was spotted near the platform. Firefighting vessels were battling the flames. The company that owns the rig, Houston-based Mariner Energy, did not know what caused the blast, which was reported by a helicopter flying over the area. Crew members were found floating in the water, huddled together in survival outfits called “gumby suits.” “These guys had the presence of mind, used their training to get into those gumby suits before they entered the water. It speaks volumes to safety training and the importance of it because, beyond getting off the rig, there's all the hazards of the water such as hypothermia,” Coast Guard spokesman Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said. The crew was being flown to a hospital in Houma. Coast Guard Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau said one person was injured, but the company said there were no injuries. Seven Coast Guard helicopters, two airplanes and three cutters were dispatched to the scene. The platform is in about 340 feet of water and about 100 miles south of Louisiana's Vermilion Bay. It's location is considered shallow water, much less than the approximately 5,000 feet where BP's well spewed oil and gas for three months after the April rig explosion. Responding to any oil spill in shallow water would be much easier than in deep water, where crews depend on remote-operated vehicles access equipment on the sea floor. The rig is a fixed platform that was in production at the time of the fire, according to a homeland security operational update obtained by The Associated Press. The update said the platform was producing 58,800 gallons of oil and 900,000 cubic feet of gas per day. The platform can store 4,200 gallons of oil. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said Mariner Energy officials told him there were seven active production wells on the platform, and they were shut down shortly after the fire broke out. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said President Barack Obama was in a national security meeting at the time of the accident. “We obviously have response assets ready for deployment should we receive reports of pollution in the water,” Gibbs said. The platform is about 200 miles west of BP's blown-out well. A company report said the well was drilled in the third quarter of 2008. Federal authorities have cited Mariner Energy and related entities for 10 accidents in the Gulf of Mexico over the last four years, according to safety records from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement. The accidents range from platform fires to pollution spills and a blowout, according to accident-investigation reports from the agency formerly known as the Minerals Management Service. In 2007, welding sparks falling onto an oil storage tank caused a flash fire that slightly burned a contract worker. The Minerals Management Service issued a $35,000 fine. Mariner Energy Inc. focuses on oil and gas exploration and production in the Gulf. In April, Apache Corp., another independent oil company, announced plans to buy Mariner in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $3.9 billion, including the assumption of about $1.2 billion of Mariner's debt. That deal is pending. On Friday, BP was expected to begin the process of removing the cap and failed blowout preventer, another step toward completion of a relief well that would put a final seal on the well. The Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 people and setting off a three-month leak that totaled 206 million gallons of oil. added by: EthicalVegan
Don’t be surprised if you open up the June 24 USA Today and find pom poms in the ‘Money’ section. Reporters-turned-cheerleaders Paul Wiseman, Jayne O’Donnell and Christine Dugas wrote a glowing 38-paragraph story about the proposed Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP). The story even included a section called “keys to a new agency’s success” with quotes from “experts” at a wide variety of government agencies from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Food and Drug Administration. USA Today’s story began by praising the creation of the EPA in 1970 and the way it hit the ground running by ordered city mayors to clean up their water. They included 10 “expert” voices in favor of government agencies (proposed or current) many of whom were former regulators, against only three voices of opposition – all politicians. “It’s exciting to think about building an agency that could make a real contribution, a real difference in the lives of millions of families,’ Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren told USA Today. Warren “proposed the consumer financial regulator in 2007 and is considered a top candidate to be the agency’s first director,” according to the story. The paper barely mentioned Warren’s pro-regulation history which included compensation limits for large corporations. Warren also chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel that babysits companies bailed out by TARP funds. Only three paragraphs were devoted to opposition to the new government agency. Critics were labeled by USA Today as “Republican” or “financial industry lobbyists.” No economists or academics who oppose additional regulation were consulted. Some of the “keys to success” USA Today offered were “hiring motivated career staffers with diverse talents who will outlast political appointees at the top of the organization” and “making a big splash early on to establish your credibility.” However, William Galston of the liberal Brookings Institute feared that the BCFP would “get their knuckles rapped” if they go to far. “If they make a mistake, it will more likely be on the side of excess. They will go too far and get their knuckles rapped, but I don’t expect them to be asleep at the switch like (BP regulator Minerals Management Service) was,” Galston said. Of course the article failed to mention the past ineffectiveness of government regulators and didn’t mention any details of the Democrat-sponsored “Restoring American Financial Stability Act” other than the proposed BCFP. John Berlau, director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Business & Media Institute the entire bill will have more negative effects on consumers than positive ones. “It will set up a nanny state with unintended consequences,” Berlau said. “You’re punishing the many because of a few stupid people and the costs will just be passed on to consumers.” Brian Johnson, federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, also criticized the proposal telling BMI that the bill is “one of the first steps towards nationalizing the banking system.” “The BCFP is one of the worst things in this bill,” Johnson said. “They’re operating with a fat budget and can monitor personal transactions and map out grids with purchasing patterns.” This isn’t the first time the media has pulled out its pom poms for liberal reforms or increased financial regulation . Perhaps next time the reporters will save their act for a football halftime show as opposed to a major newspaper. Like this article? Sign up for “The Balance Sheet,” BMI’s weekly e-mail newsletter.
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USA Today Cheers Proposed Financial Protection Agency
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PART ONE… http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/us/06rig.html?hp June 5, 2010 Before Oil Spill, It Was Unclear Who Was in Charge of Rig By IAN URBINA NEW ORLEANS — Over six days in May, far from the familiar choreography of Washington hearings, federal investigators grilled workers involved in the Deepwater Horizon disaster in a chilly, sterile conference room at a hotel near the airport here. The six-member panel of Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service officials pressed for answers about what occurred on the rig on April 20 before it exploded. They wanted to know who was in charge, and heard conflicting answers. They pushed for more insight into an argument on the rig that day between a manager for BP, the well’s owner, and one for Transocean, the rig’s owner, and asked Curt R. Kuchta, the rig’s captain, how the crew knew who was in charge. “It’s pretty well understood amongst the crew who’s in charge,” he said. “How do they know that?” a Coast Guard investigator asked. “I guess, I don’t know,” Captain Kuchta said. “But it’s pretty well — everyone knows.” Looking annoyed, Capt. Hung Nguyen of the Coast Guard, one of the chief federal investigators, shook his head. The exchange confirmed an observation he had made earlier in the day at the hearing. “A lot of activities seem not very tightly coordinated in the way that would make me comfortable,” he said. “Maybe that’s just the way of business out there.” Investigators have focused on the minute-to-minute decisions and breakdowns to understand what led to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, killing 11 people and setting off the largest oil spill in United States history and an environmental disaster. But the lack of coordination was not limited to the day of the explosion. New government and BP documents, interviews with experts and testimony by witnesses provide the clearest indication to date that a hodgepodge of oversight agencies granted exceptions to rules, allowed risks to accumulate and made a disaster more likely on the rig, particularly with a mix of different companies operating on the Deepwater whose interests were not always in sync. And in the aftermath, arguments about who is in charge of the cleanup — often a signal that no one is in charge — have led to delays, distractions and disagreements over how to cap the well and defend the coastline. As a result, with oil continuing to gush a mile below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, the laws of physics are largely in control, creating the daunting challenge of trying to plug a hole at depths where equipment is straining under more than a ton of pressure per square inch. Tad W. Patzek, chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas, Austin, has analyzed reports of what led to the explosion. “It’s a very complex operation in which the human element has not been aligned with the complexity of the system,” he said in an interview last week. His conclusion could also apply to what occurred long before the disaster. CONTINUED… added by: EthicalVegan
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http://environment.change.org/blog/view/the_daily_spill_diamond_saw_fail_and_bp_… The Daily Spill serves you up the latest developments as oil continues to coat the Gulf. Forget Plan B, C or D. With how fast their schemes are failing, BP may be soon require the Greek alphabet. So, remember that diamond-tipped saw intended to cut through that troublesome well pipe in order to cap it? Yeah, that got stuck. Most of yesterday went by before it was freed. Now, I kid you not, the company has turned to giant “garden” shears, though it’s unclear when that will begin. Don’t hold your breath. Oh, but just in case you were worried, federal officials assured us that nuclear weapons are not on the table. Nothing would surprise me at this point. Back on the East Coast, President Obama gave a serious and politically important speech yesterday at Carnegie Mellon University. He finally spelled out the obvious: the Gulf disaster should be a catalyst to pass a climate bill with a price on carbon, and also said he wants to roll back billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks – something he had tried to do in past budget proposals. He also vowed to personally whip votes for a climate bill “in coming months,” which climate advocates have urging for awhile. While Obama talked policy, other politicians did what they do best (for better or worse): made demands. Alabama Republican state senator Ben Brooks explained that “there’s nothing inherently contradictory” with a small government advocate, such as himself, demanding the very same wimpy government protect public safety. Um, sure, no comment. Democrats, meanwhile, made some more sensible demands: Sens. Chuck Schumer and Ron Wyden rightly told BP it was “unfathomable” that the company is considering pay shareholder dividends before total cleanup costs are known (the latest estimates rise to nearly $40 billion). Florida Sen. Ben Nelson, in a letter, formally asked that the military take charge, and others said BP CEO Tony Hayward’s head should roll. Some news on this should play out when Hayward addresses his investors tomorrow. Speaking of – the man of the hour has been busy backpedaling, said he was “appalled” by his own “I’d like my life back” remark and admitting to The Financial Times that criticisms of BP’s spill preparedness are “entirely fair.” As for BP’s response since, Vice President Joe Biden seems to believe the company is doing the best it can. BP and Halliburton are certainly experts at getting politicians to favor their interests. The former hired at least 27 former government insiders to be their lobbyists in the first three months of this year alone, reports the Huffington Post, and is a company with incomparable influence. In a busy donation month, the latter gave $17,000 to candidates this November, Politico reports, several of whom are on committees investigating the oil spill. And so much for a respite from new offshore drilling. Yesterday, the Minerals Management Service approved the first new shallow oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico since President Obama put a short moratorium in place. The site is a mere stone’s throw from a Louisiana state wildlife refuge. Drilling in deeper waters, for the record, is still frozen, but I’m not sure I get why drilling closer to the shore is better. At the very least, Interior has taken steps to demand more in drilling applications and, as The Hill reports, is asking approved permit holders to resubmit plans if they’d used a loophole that exempted them from environmental review. And lastly, sometimes being funny pays. Or at least being friends with funny people. The anonymous tweeter behind BPGlobalPR’s fake feed donated $10,000 to the Gulf Restoration Network yesterday. added by: captainplanet71
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