Taylor Energy benefitted from lax regulation, now claims it can’t stop—or clean up—ongoing spill I didn’t know this was even possible. Did you know that an oil company can drill in the Gulf of Mexico and, when things go horribly wrong—as in “multiple wellheads pumping oil into the seawater for 14 years” type of wrong—the […]
It’s really something when—in this era of hotter weather every year—you hear meteorologists talk about “abnormally hot” anything. How warm did the Gulf Coast waters that fueled Hurricane Michael have to be for weather experts to call them “abnormal”? It’s not a word that scientists bandy about freely. But it’s in line with what climatologists […]
Government ready to roll back regulations even as scientists continue assessment of long-term destruction Shortly after the deadly catastrophes at BP’s Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, several government agencies began examining the chain of failures that allowed and caused it to happen. The disaster of the Deepwater Horizon platform explosion and wellhead blowout, […]
One need only look at the record books to find the most dangerous era: today Nine “Intensity” categories. Six different all-time records for intensity were set between 2006 and 2016. Hurricanes and typhoons have intensified over the past decade. That is a plain fact. Two costliness categories. Three all-time records for costliness: two in 2017 […]
Last week we again found our country in unnerving physical condition: raging infernos in the West and all-but-hopeless, deadly floods in the East. You’d be hard pressed to find a reliable, independent person in America who doesn’t attribute the unprecedented firestorms, windstorms, and flooding in large part to global warming. Also, few reasonable parties would […]
Last time, at bayou’s edge, Port Fourchon, Louisiana: Having seen way more than they bargained for, and having retreated from the scene of Select Oil Company’s staging area, Port Fourchon PD put a call in to the United States Coast Guard. Wondering if there was “a full moon out or something,” USCG Sector New Orleans […]
Public relations experts pull wool over eyes of the world as they simultaneously scorch, flood Earth Some of you might be old enough to remember the old Chrysler television commercials starring company president Lee Iacocca himself. It’s the advertising strategy of attaching the face of the successful businessman to the brand. Remington electric shavers put […]
Maybe executives at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to pause and take a break from their doubtlessly busy day. Carefully, taking their time, they should read the name of the agency that employs them. If letterhead isn’t readily available, they ought to walk out the front door and read the sign on the building: […]
Through no real virtue of its own, the continental United States is shielded from the brunt of many tropical storms (up to and including major hurricanes) by the Caribbean islands. West of Africa’s Cape Verde, where most Atlantic hurricanes form, sit hundreds of islands which—as history shows—absorb much of the destructive energy from cyclones which […]
Petroleum hits us coming and going: inbound spills and outbound greenhouse gases It’s time to have a look at year-to-date petroleum disasters worldwide. Not the everyday disasters of burning fossil fuels; the ones that lead Earth closer to extinction. Not the everyday spills that wreak havoc on ecosystems large and small. No, the petroleum industry […]