BP settles with US for $4.5 billion in Gulf spill

BP said Thursday that it will pay $4.5 billion in a settlement with the U.S. government over the massive 2010 oil spill and will plead guilty to felony counts related to the deaths of 11 workers and lying to Congress.

The figure includes nearly $1.3 billion in criminal fines — the largest such penalty ever — along with payments to several government entities.

LINK (via:The LA Times)

Blown-out BP well in Gulf officially declared dead

Scott Adams

Ding dong the well is dead.  LINK (Via: MSNBC)

Massive fish kill reported in Louisiana

What you see above isn't a rural gravel road. It's a Louisiana waterway, its surface completely covered with dead sea life -- a mishmash of species of fish, crabs, stingray and eel. New Orleans CBS affiliate WWL-TV reports that even a whale was found dead in the area.

Fish kills are fairly common along the Gulf Coast, particularly during the summer in the area near the mouth of the Mississippi, the site of this kill. The area is rife with dead zones -- stretches where sudden oxygen depletion can cause widespread death. But those kills tend to be limited to a single species of fish, rather than the broad sort of die-off involved in this kill.

And therein lies the concern of Gulf residents, who suspect this may be yet another side effect of the catastrophic BP oil spill.

LINK ( Via Yahoo News)

Eau De Deepwater

When oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon well finally stops gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the decision about whether to reopen at least 81,000 square miles of waters to commercial fishing will rest with the trained noses and palates of a secret panel of nearly two dozen seafood sniffers. 

There are between 60 and 70 people in the U.S. trained as expert seafood sensory assessors, about 16 of those experts specialize in petroleum taint.

LINK (Via: NBC Field Notes)

Spill Baby Spill!

Meghan Clyne, who is a conservative journalist and former speechwriter for George W. and Laura Bush, tries to make the argument that Obama hasn't convinced Americans he truly understands the disaster in the Gulf because he's not a fisherman!

LINK (Via: The Wall St. Journal)

Only a true fisherman would make a statement like this.

The reason we're in this mess is because the Obama Administration kept in place the crooked environmental guidelines Ms. Clyne's former boss and his oil industry cronies implemented to favor the industry.

The inside story of how Obama failed to crack down on the corruption of the Bush years – and let the world's most dangerous oil company get away with murder

LINK (Via: Rolling Stone)

The WSJ has also been reporting on the lack of Bush era oversight.

The Wall Street Journal reported on May 3 that Bush MMS federal regulators learned in a 2004 study that a vital piece of oil-drilling safety equipment may not function in deep-water seas but did nothing to bolster industry requirements.

Wall Street Journal: In 2003, Bush MMS decided not to require last-resort shut-off device. "The industry argued against" mandating a remote-control shut-off switch that serves as "last-resort protection against underwater spills," and "by 2003, U.S. regulators decided remote-controlled safeguards needed more study.

I’m sorry I slept with your girlfriend, BP. I was drunk.

You Should Totally Apologize to BP.