All Entries Tagged With: "corporate crime"

Wow — the Eyewear Industry Is an Incredible Ripoff, But There Are Alternatives | Economy | AlterNet

What makes glasses so expensive? Oblong plastic lenses? Plastic and metal frames? We’re getting screwed.

Those of us who need prescription eyewear need prescription eyewear. Are you wearing yours to read this? Imagine if you weren’t. Imagine life without your glasses for a year, a week, an hour. Yet many health insurance plans, especially for the unemployed or self-employed, don’t cover them.

Mine doesn’t.

Last year, I went shopping for no-line progressive bifocals in small oval metal frames. Name brands mean nothing to me. Price does. My high astigmatism and need for bifocals disqualify me from those buy-one-get-one-free deals, which almost always involve only single-vision specs.

In store after store, megachains and optical boutiques alike, small oval metal frames fitted with lenses matching my prescription started at $300. One popular shop quoted me $582 for the lenses alone.

Ful

l Story: Wow — the Eyewear Industry Is an Incredible Ripoff, But There Are Alternatives | Economy | AlterNet.

Houston, We Have A HUGE Problem ! ! !

Compelling Evidence Points To A Different Well Being Capped

What would the world say, if the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that gushed for 87 days, is not the same well location which BP identified to the world as the Gusher Of All Time?

BK Lim is a geohazards specialist who has dissected the entire “Macondo prospect gushing wells scenario” with the penetrating forensic analysis and well-honed investigative techniques. He has broken down so many facets of this apparent deception that one is left with only one conclusion.

When a foreign, multinational corporation perpetrates a deception in the marketplace, it is usually considered business as usual and life goes on without so much as a bleep on the radar screen.

Full Story: Houston, We Have A HUGE Problem ! ! ! (BP America is headquartered in Houston, TX) | Phoenix Rising from the Gulf.

How Obama Got Rolled by Wall Street

Why the 44th president is no FDR—and the economy is still in the doldrums.

Barack Obama was “incredulous” at what he was hearing, said one of his top economic advisers. The president had spent his first year in office overseeing the biggest government bailout of the financial industry in American history. Together with Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, he had kept Wall Street afloat on a trillion-dollar tide of taxpayer money. But the banks were barely lending, and the economy was still mired in high unemployment. And now, in December 2009, the holiday news had started to filter out of the canyons of lower Manhattan: Wall Street’s year-end bonuses would actually be larger in 2009 than they had been in 2007, the year prior to the catastrophe. “Wait, let me get this straight,” Obama said at a White House meeting that December. “These guys are reserving record bonuses because they’re profitable, and they’re profitable only because we rescued them.” It was as if nothing had changed. Even after a Depression-size crash, the banks were not altering their behavior. The president was being perceived, more and more, as a man on the wrong side of an incendiary issue.

Full Story: How Obama Got Rolled by Wall Street – Newsweek.

BEWARE: Banks Flooding Consumers With ‘Professional Cards’ That Aren’t Covered Under Reform

Amid all the junk mail pouring into your house in recent months, you might have noticed a solicitation or two for a “professional card,” otherwise known as a small-business or corporate credit card.

If so, watch out. While Capital One Financial Corp.’s World MasterCard, Citigroup Inc.’s Citibank CitiBusiness/AAdvantage Mastercard and the others might look like typical plastic, they are anything but.

Professional cards aren’t covered under the Credit Card Accountability and Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, or Card Act for short. Among other things, the law prohibits issuers from controversial billing practices such as hair-trigger interest rate increases, shortened payment cycles and inactivity fees—but it doesn’t apply to professional cards (see table).

Full Story: Beware That New Credit-Card Offer – WSJ.com.

Bank of America Must Defend Claims It Concealed Merrill Bonuses

Bank of America Corp. must defend lawsuit claims it concealed bonuses and losses at Merrill Lynch & Co after it agreed to acquire the brokerage firm, a judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel in Manhattan yesterday granted some of Bank of America’s requests to dismiss claims in the consolidated class-action securities-fraud and derivative lawsuits, while denying others.

Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank, acquired Merrill Jan. 1, 2009, in a deal criticized by lawmakers, regulators and investors over its cost and the U.S. bailout that followed. Castel yesterday rejected Bank of America’s argument that one claim in the case should be dismissed because the bank’s proxy materials didn’t misstate or omit Merrill’s intention to award employee bonuses made in December 2008.

Full Story: Bank of America Must Defend Claims It Concealed Merrill Bonuses – BusinessWeek.

Corporations scoff at workers’ rights–even the right to come home from work alive

Jim Hightower:

OSHA, the agency scorned by labor haters, has been meek and weak

Their names probably won’t mean mean anything to you, but these people ought to have some modicum of personal recognition: Jason Anderson, Aaron Dale “Bubba” Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Karl Kleppinger, Blair Manuel, Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto, and Adam Weise. These are the 11 workers who were killed when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico on April 20.

Four months after the disaster, national media outlets continue extensive coverage of BP’s calamitous well–as they should–showing us satellite pictures of the spreading plumes of pollution, footage of dead pelicans, estimates of the ecological horror on the ocean floor, analyses of the frantic efforts to stop the oil, commentaries on the astonishing arrogance of corporate executives, feature stories about the slick’s impact on Gulf tourism, interviews with lawmakers demanding much tougher environmental protections, etc…

But what about those people? Most of the 11 were in their twenties and thirties. They had families and futures. Yet, aside from an occasional off-handed reference to the general body count, their fate had pretty much been dropped from discussion about the cost of our country’s cavalier ethic of “drill, baby, drill.” And what about the 17 other rig workers who were injured in the Deepwater explosion, many of them badly burned and maimed. There’s barely been any media mention of the price they paid for the corporate rush to complete this well, much less any follow-up on their painful and costly ordeal.

Full Story: Hightower Lowdown | Corporations scoff at workers’ rights–even the right to come home from work alive.

Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis

Over the last two years of the housing bubble, Wall Street bankers perpetrated one of the greatest episodes of self-dealing in financial history.

Faced with increasing difficulty in selling the mortgage-backed securities that had been among their most lucrative products, the banks hit on a solution that preserved their quarterly earnings and huge bonuses:

They created fake demand.

A ProPublica analysis shows for the first time the extent to which banks — primarily Merrill Lynch, but also Citigroup, UBS and others — bought their own products and cranked up an assembly line that otherwise should have flagged.

The products they were buying and selling were at the heart of the 2008 meltdown — collections of mortgage bonds known as collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs.

Full Story: Banks’ Self-Dealing Super-Charged Financial Crisis – ProPublica.

Hamid Karzai: U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Private Contractors Engaging In Terrorist, Mafia-Like Activity

Afghanistan’s embattled president Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that U.S. taxpayers were indirectly funding “mafia-like groups” and terrorist activities with the American government’s support of private contractors inside his country.

In a rare U.S. media appearance, Karzai continued to press for the removal of the vast majority of U.S. private contractors by the end of this year. He argued that their continued presence inside Afghanistan was “an obstruction and impediment” to the country’s growth, a massive waste of money, and a catalyst for corruption among Afghan officials.

“The more we wait the more we lose,” Karzai said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “Therefore we have decided as an Afghan government to bring an end to the presence of these security companies… who are not only causing corruption in this country but who are looting and stealing from the Afghan people.

Full Story: Hamid Karzai: U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Private Contractors Engaging In Terrorist, Mafia-Like Activity.

WHO posts list of pandemic flu advisors with industry ties

After months of criticism that threatened its credibility, the World Health Organisation has released a list of the 15 international members of the Emergency Committee that advised the WHO on last year’s H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic alerts. Five of the expert advisers had received financial support from the pharmaceuticals industry, including for flu vaccine research. The WHO posted the list on its website for the first time on Wednesday.

Among those listed were Nancy Cox, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s Influenza Division, who disclosed financial support from the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), a pharmaceutical trade group. IFPMA funded flu vaccine and virus research in the Influenza Division, according to the disclosure list.

U.S. professor Arnold Monto declared current and past consultancies on pandemic or seasonal influenza research for GSK, Novartis, Roche, Baxter and Sanofi Pasteur. Monto’s research unit at the University of Michigan also declared a grant from Sanofi for a clinical trial comparing the efficacy of inactivated and live attenuated influenza vaccines.

Full Story: Flesh and Stone – WHO posts list of pandemic flu advisors with industry ties.

US Probes Corruption in Big Pharmaceuticals

GlaxoSmithKline [GSK-LN 1224.50 28.50 (+2.38%)], Pfizer [PFE 16.08 -0.12 (-0.74%) ], Bristol-Myers Squibb [BMY 26.32 -0.01 (-0.04%) ] and Eli Lilly [LLY 35.70 -0.90 (-2.46%) ], among others, have disclosed being contacted by the DoJ and Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the investigation. Merck [MRK 35.00 -0.04 (-0.11%) ], the US drugs group, announced last week that it had also been contacted and was co-operating with investigators.

An industry attorney familiar with the probe said that the DoJ was looking at whether pharma companies had ignored a “systematic risk” inherent in the global drugs business and ignored obligations under local and US anti-bribery law.

The highly regulated nature of the business, combined with the fact that healthcare officials in many non-US markets were government funded, made the industry a natural target for such a probe, the person added.

The investigation is at a relatively early stage but is considered a priority for the DoJ.

Full Story: Drug Makers – US Probes Corruption in Big Pharmaceuticals – CNBC.

Wells Fargo Overdraft Lawsuit: Bank Ordered To Pay $203 MILLION In Fees Over ‘Unfair’ Charges

A federal judge in California ordered Wells Fargo & Co. to change what he called “unfair and deceptive business practices” that led customers into paying multiple overdraft fees, and to pay $203 million back to customers.

In a decision handed down late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup accused Wells Fargo of “profiteering” by changing its policies to process checks, debit card transactions and bill payments from the highest dollar amount to the lowest, rather than in the order the transactions took place. That helped drain customer bank accounts faster and drive up overdraft fees, a policy Alsup referred to as “gouging and profiteering.”

The ruling detailed the experiences of two Wells Fargo customers who used their debit cards for multiple small purchases, and were then charged hundreds in overdraft fees because the order the purchases were cleared by the bank depended on the amounts. The judge found the customers, who were part of a class action, were not properly informed of the bank’s policies on processing payments and were unaware the bank would allow debit purchases to go through when their accounts were overdrawn.

Full Story: Wells Fargo Overdraft Lawsuit: Bank Ordered To Pay $203 MILLION In Fees Over ‘Unfair’ Charges.

BP oil spill evidence to be collected byBP Contractors

Key evidence on one of the world’s worst oil spills could soon be in the hands of the leading suspects as BP and partner contractors are set to start salvaging the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

The US government is leading what could become a criminal investigation into the disaster. But it does not have the technical expertise to gather evidence some 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Transocean, which leased the rig to BP, is expected to take charge of the salvage operations.

A spokesman contacted by AFP declined to say when that will begin or who is likely to be involved now that work to kill the runaway well is nearly complete.

BP also declined to answer questions about the salvage operations or the probe.

Full Story: BP oil spill evidence to be collected by suspects | Raw Story.

Leslie Margolin, Former Blue Cross President, Speaks Out Against Insurance Giant’s Plan To Spike Rates

Leslie Margolin, who recently resigned as president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, is speaking out against a plan put forth by the health insurance company earlier this year to increase the cost of individual coverage plans by as much as 39 percent.

Margolin claims she urged the insurance giant to reconsider its intention to spike its rates and to explore alternative solutions to lower the cost of care, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“I thought the rates were too high,” explained the former Blue Cross president. “I thought the impact on our membership was too significant.”

Full Story: Leslie Margolin, Former Blue Cross President, Speaks Out Against Insurance Giant’s Plan To Spike Rates.

Spill investigators want to find undersea evidence

Now that BP appears to have vanquished its ruptured well, authorities are turning their attention to gathering evidence from what could amount to a crime scene at the bottom of the sea.

The wreckage — including the failed blowout preventer and the blackened, twisted remnants of the drilling platform — may be Exhibit A in the effort to establish who is responsible for the biggest peacetime oil spill in history. And the very companies under investigation will be in charge of recovering the evidence.

Hundreds of investigators can’t wait to get their hands on evidence. The FBI is conducting a criminal investigation, the Coast Guard is seeking the cause of the blast, and lawyers are pursuing millions of dollars in damages for the families of the 11 workers killed, the dozens injured and the thousands whose livelihoods have been damaged.

“The items at the bottom of the sea are a big deal for everybody,” said Stephen Herman, a New Orleans lawyer for injured rig workers and others.

Full Story: Spill investigators want to find undersea evidence – Yahoo! News.

Wall Street’s Big Win

Matt Taibbi:

Cue the credits: the era of financial thuggery is officially over. Three hellish years of panic, all done and gone – the mass bankruptcies, midnight bailouts, shotgun mergers of dying megabanks, high-stakes SEC investigations, all capped by a legislative orgy in which industry lobbyists hurled more than $600 million at Congress. It all supposedly came to an end one Wednesday morning a few weeks back, when President Obama, flanked by hundreds of party flacks and congressional bigwigs, stepped up to the lectern at an extravagant ceremony to sign into law his sweeping new bill to clean up Wall Street.

Obama’s speech introducing the massive law brimmed with celebratory finality. He threw around lofty phrases like “never again” and “no more.” He proclaimed the end of unfair credit-card-rate hikes and issued a fatwa on abusive mortgage practices and the shady loans that helped fuel the debt bubble. The message was clear: The sheriff was padlocking the Wall Street casino, and the government was taking decisive steps to unfuck our hopelessly broken economy

Full Story: Wall Street’s Big Win | Rolling Stone Politics.

Thousands in Gulf Suffer from Misdiagnosed Skin Lesions

Lesions, like those featured [in photo] are being experienced

by adults and children in Louisiana.

Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana—Area residents have begun to show up at clinics and hospitals with mysterious scabs and pustules covering their extremities, as reported from residents to non-profit relief organizations in the Gulf.

One thirty-three year-old woman, who wished to remain anonymous, has disclosed to Project Gulf Impact that upon seeking medical advice at a clinic, she was told she had scabies. Hours later, she was told by an area hospital that she had a staph infection. The woman was treated with a shot of penicillin and Elimite cream, a topical agent for the treatment of scabies mite infestations, and an oral antibiotic. In addition to the lesions, the woman reported aching bones, weight loss, stomach pains, inflammation in her leg and sties developing in her eyes.

Full Story: Thousands in Gulf Suffer from Misdiagnosed Skin Lesions | Project Gulf Impact.

Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit

The package arrived at Cindy Lohman’s home in Great Mills, Maryland, just two weeks after she learned that her son, Ryan, a 24-year-old Army sergeant, had been killed by a bomb in Afghanistan. It was a thick, 9-inch-by- 12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial Inc., which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Inside was a letter from Prudential about Ryan’s $400,000 policy. And there was something else, which looked like a checkbook. The letter told Lohman that the full amount of her payout would be placed in a convenient interest-bearing account, allowing her time to decide how to use the benefit.

“You can hold the money in the account for safekeeping for as long as you like,” the letter said. In tiny print, in a disclaimer that Lohman says she didn’t notice, Prudential disclosed that what it called its Alliance Account was not guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its September issue.

Full Story: Fallen Soldiers’ Families Denied Cash as Insurers Profit – Bloomberg.

GOLDMAN’S GOLDEN DEAL

Jim Hightower:

That’ll teach ‘em, won’t it?

The SEC, Wall Street’s top regulator, has whacked the mighty Goldman Sachs with one of the largest penalties in financial history. The high-strutting banking conglomerate will pay more than half-a-billion bucks for selling a complex investment scheme that was designed to fail. “This settlement is a stark lesson to Wall Street firms,” a stern SEC official stated. They will pay “a heavy price,” he warned, if they violate “the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing.”

Atta boy – go get those self-serving, narcissistic banksters!

But, wait – on the day that SEC officials imposed this supposed “humbling” penalty, Goldman’s stock price went up by five percent. Far from being deterred by the penalty, high-rolling speculators saw it as a vindication of Wall Street’s casino ethic. “It looks like a big win for Goldman,” gloated one financial analyst, adding that SEC’s $550 million assessment “seems like a paltry sum.”

audio & transcript at link:

Full Story: Jim Hightower | GOLDMAN’S GOLDEN DEAL.

Goldman Sachs Gave Billions of Taxpayer Money to Foreign Companies

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. documents, released by Senator Chuck Grassley, show that the investment banking and securities firm paid out $4.3 billion of American taxpayer money to foreign companies.

The foreign companies received the money as a reimbursement from Goldman Sachs for losses on investments in credit default swaps. These swaps were initially sold by AIG to Goldman Sachs, who in turn sold them to customers including foreign banks and companies. When the government, to the tune of $182.5 billion, bailed out AIG, Goldman Sachs was the recipient of $12.9 billion of that money indirectly. Much of the bailout money “given” to AIG consisted of funds used to pay its obligations to its Wall Street trading partners on credit default swaps, with Goldman Sachs being the biggest recipient.

Well, what is a credit default swap? A credit default swap is a contract in which party A agrees to pay party B a series of payments, and in return party B gives insurance on the default of a credit instrument, whereby if the credit instrument (such as a loan) were to go into default, party B would pay party A the value of the loan.

Full Story: Goldman Sachs Gave Billions of Taxpayer Money to Foreign Companies | Economy In Crisis.

BP Tries To Block Release Of Oil Spill Research

Faced with hundreds of lawsuits and a deep need for experts, BP has been offering some Gulf Coast scientists lucrative consulting contracts that bar them from releasing their findings on the company’s massive oil spill for three years.

Some scientists say the contracts constrain academic freedom. A few signed the agreements, then changed their minds.

And others argue BP’s contract is standard, and with little federal funding available to study the spill’s impact, Gulf Coast researchers have few other options.

“I personally wouldn’t care to have my research limited, but if I wanted to do work on the spill and this was the only way I could get out there and get working on it, I don’t think there’s a lot of alternatives,” said Chris D’Elia, dean of the Louisiana State University School of the Coast and Environment.

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: BP Tries To Block Release Of Oil Spill Research.

BP fails to put money in promised escrow account.

In a deal negotiated last month, President Obama and BP officials agreed the company would pay $5 billion annually over the next four years into an escrow account for damage its oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico caused. Ken Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the escrow fund, has said he “hasn’t been able to start writing claims checks” because BP PLC has failed to deposit any money into the $20 billion fund it promised to create:

Feinberg, who was appointed to administer oil spill claims out of the fund, said he doesn’t have the authority to force BP to deposit the money, but his hands are tied until it does. “I don’t want the checks to bounce,” he said.

Full Story: Think Progress » BP fails to put money in promised escrow account..

Deepwater Horizon Alarm System Was Partly Disabled Prior To Explosion, Technician Tells Congress

An alarm system was partially shut down the day the ill-fated oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and setting off the massive spill, an electronics technician who was aboard told an investigative panel on Friday.

Later in Washington, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is investigating the spill, asked Transocean Ltd. for documents concerning safety and the condition of equipment on the rig. Transocean owned the rig, which was being leased by BP PLC. BP is responsible for cleaning up the millions of gallons of oil that have seeped into the Gulf.

Technician Mike Williams told the panel that the alarm system was turned on to monitor for fire, explosive gas and toxic gas but that its sound and light alarms had been disabled. The Marine Accident Investigation panel was meeting in Kenner. It is made up of Coast Guard members and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement – formerly the Minerals Management Service.

Full Story: Deepwater Horizon Alarm System Was Partly Disabled Prior To Explosion, Technician Tells Congress.

BP managers named ‘party in interest’ to rig probe

A BP executive and a company manager aboard the doomed oil rig Deepwater Horizon were designated “parties in interest” Thursday by the investigative board probing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The designation given to Pat O’Bryan, the company’s vice president for well drilling and completions, and site manager Robert Kaluza indicates their actions are under scrutiny by the joint Coast Guard-Interior Department investigation into the disaster. It also gives them the right to examine documents collected by the board and to have attorneys in the board’s hearings cross-examine witnesses on their behalf.

The news was announced by Capt. Hung Nguyen, the Coast Guard’s top representative on the board, at the end of another day of hearings into the disaster. The board has one more scheduled day of testimony in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, Louisiana

Full Story: BP managers named ‘party in interest’ to rig probe – CNN.com.

Big Banks Punish You For Having GOOD Credit

As credit card holders play it safe, issuers increase non-penalty service fees

After the recession forced credit card companies to purge their rosters of the riskiest loans, the industry is facing a new problem: customers who are too good.

Card issuers have long found their bread and butter in penalty fees and high interest rates paid by consumers who carry a balance. But that business model has been upended by the legions of consumers who were overwhelmed by debt when the recession hit, forcing the industry to write off billions of dollars in loans. In addition, new federal laws limit how much card companies can charge risky customers.

Now, frugal-minded consumers are charging less on their credit cards, paying down their balances and steering clear of penalty fees — steps that are financially responsible but have the industry scrambling to find new ways to make money.

Full Story: As credit card holders play it safe, issuers increase non-penalty service fees.

OPS: Another reason to: Move Your Money

Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns

“I’m petrified of dropping anything from heights not because I’m afraid of hurting anyone (the area is barriered off), but because I’m afraid of getting fired,” one worker wrote.

“The company is always using fear tactics,” another worker said. “All these games and your mind gets tired.”

Investigators also said “nearly everyone” among the workers they interviewed believed that Transocean’s system for tracking health and safety issues on the rig was “counter productive.”

Many workers entered fake data to try to circumvent the system, known as See, Think, Act, Reinforce, Track — or Start. As a result, the company’s perception of safety on the rig was distorted, the report concluded

Full Story: Workers on Doomed Rig Voiced Safety Concerns – NYTimes.com.

BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception

The latest curio in the ongoing exhibition of BP obfuscation comes via John Aravosis at AmericaBlog, who examined an image from BP’s website and determined it to be a fake. The image depicts BP’s “Command Center” in Houston, where ever-vigilant BP employees sit in a dark room, monitoring screens. BP’s website has been running a photo in which three men appear to be watching a ten-screen display of oil-spill footage. Here’s the thing: it’s a Photoshop job. And not just a poor one — a seemingly unnecessary one.

Here’s the one BP was running:

Full Story: BP’s Photoshopped Command Center Just The Latest In A Pattern Of Deception.

Papantonio: the Truth About BP’s Escrow Fund

BP has finally managed to successfully seal the oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Over the next few days, we’ll find out if their new cap is working or not. At the same time, the company is shopping around for buyers across the globe to help raise money to pay the thousands of claims they are facing from Gulf residents. Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC’s The Ed Show to talk about these issues, as well as other late developments in the BP oil spill disaster.

MSNBC July 15: Matt Simmons still says BP covering up MASSIVE HOLE miles away, cap test is “absurd”

Also mentions how they located the BOP with casing stuck through it.

You can learn more about the oil spill by visiting:

http://floridaoilspilllaw.com

Abandon ship! BP ‘accelerating’ asset sales (in anticipation of bankruptcy?)

British energy giant BP is speeding up the sale of up to 20 billion dollars (15.5 billion euros) of assets in a bid to boost funds after the Gulf oil spill, the Financial Times reported Friday.

The company is finalising details of the sales, including the disposal of American assets to Apache Corporation worth up to 12 billion dollars, said the paper, citing people close to the situation.

Announcements are expected in the next few weeks and an unnamed senior BP figure said the company could “easily” raise 20 billion dollars from the asset sales, according to the report.

This is double the amount the oil giant originally said it wanted to sell off when it announced plans to offload assets last month.

BP is seeking to build up a disaster fund of 20 billion dollars to cover the clean-up costs for the disastrous oil spill.

Full Story: Abandon ship! BP ‘accelerating’ asset sales (in anticipation of bankruptcy?) — Signs of the Times News.

OPS:  Two months ago Some of us were saying that Obama should freeze all BP assets

Wall Street Is Laundering Drug Money and Getting Away with It

Wall Street has been caught laundering massive amounts of drug money. So why isn’t anybody being punished?

Too-big-to-fail is a much bigger problem than you thought. We’ve all read damning accounts of the government saving banks from their risky subprime bets, but it turns out that the Wall Street privilege problem is far more deeply ingrained in the U.S. legal system than the simple bailouts witnessed in 2008. America’s largest banks can engage in flagrantly criminal activity on a massive scale and emerge almost completely unscathed. The latest sickening example comes from Wachovia Bank: Accused of laundering $380 billion in Mexican drug cartel money, the financial behemoth is expected to emerge with nothing more than a slap on the wrist thanks to an official government policy which protects megabanks from criminal charges.

Bloomberg’s Michael Smith has penned a devastating expose detailing Wachovia’s drug-money operations and the government’s twisted response. The bank was moving money behind literally tons of cocaine from violent drug cartels. It wasn’t an accident. Internal whistleblowers at Wachovia warned that the bank was laundering drug money, higher-ups at the bank actively looked the other way in order to score bigger profits, and the U.S. government is about to let everyone involved get off scott free. The bank will not be indicted, because it is official government policy not to prosecute megabanks. From Smith’s story:

Full Story: Wall Street Is Laundering Drug Money and Getting Away with It | Economy | AlterNet.

BP Spending Big To Acquire An Army Of Expert Witnesses

In the latest salvo of BP’s War On Everything, the company is deploying its deep pockets in an attempt to buy up every single scientist it can get its hands on, in order to create an army of expert witnesses to take up its side in court. I guess the legacy of George Steinbrenner lives on!

Ben Raines of Mobile, Alabama’s Press-Register captures it, in gobsmacking fashion:

BP PLC attempted to hire the entire marine sciences department at one Alabama university, according to scientists involved in discussions with the company’s lawyers. The university declined because of confidentiality restrictions that the company sought on any research.

Emphasis mine, because: wow! Fortunately, for a wide variety of reasons, some of the scientists BP is approaching are balking at the overtures. For example, the contracts that BP is offering place substantial restrictions on what research scientists under their employ can publish, share, or even discuss. Also: some of the scientists approached apparently have that thing you often hear people talk about… what is that called again? Oh, yeah! A moral compass.

Full Story: Oil Spill Lawsuits: BP Spending Big To Acquire An Army Of Expert Witnesses.

Expert suspects BP has ulterior motive behind oil well cap

Since a blowout preventer cap was placed over BP’s damaged oil well in the Gulf of Mexico last weekend, there have been repeated delays in the so-called “well integrity tests” to determine whether the cap can be effective in holding back the oil.

On Tuesday, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen delayed the tests for 24 hours out of fears that they would lead to “irreversible leakage” if it was found that the well bore had been damaged below the sea floor. After a White House review, BP was told on Wednesday that it could proceed with the test, but a leak in a line leading from the cap then forced an additional one-day delay for repairs.

Oil industry expert Bob Cavnar isn’t buying the official story. He told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the repeated missteps cast doubt on BP’s explanation for why the cap was necessary in the first place.

Full Story: Expert suspects BP has ulterior motive behind oil well cap | Raw Story.

HOW BROKERS BECAME BOOKIES: THE INSIDIOUS TRANSFORMATION OF MARKETS INTO CASINOS

“You all are the house, you’re the bookie. [Your clients] are booking their bets with you. I don’t know why we need to dress it up. It’s a bet.”

- Senator Claire McCaskill, Senate Subcommittee investigating Goldman Sachs (Washington Post, April 27, 2010)

Ellen Brown:

Ever since December 2008, the Federal Reserve has held short-term interest rates near zero. This was not only to try to stimulate the housing and credit markets but also to allow the federal government to increase its debt levels without increasing the interest tab picked up by the taxpayers. The total public U.S. debt increased by nearly 50% from 2006 to the end of 2009 (from about $8.5 trillion to $12.3 trillion), but the interest bill on the debt actually dropped (from $406 billion to $383 billion), because of this reduction in interest rates.

One of the dire unintended consequences of that maneuver, however, was that municipal governments across the country have been saddled with very costly bad derivatives bets. They were persuaded by their Wall Street advisers to buy credit default swaps to protect their loans against interest rates shooting up. Instead, rates proceeded to drop through the floor, a wholly unforeseeable and unnatural market condition caused by rate manipulations by the Fed. Instead of the banks bearing the losses in return for premiums paid by municipal governments, the governments have had to pay massive sums to the banks – to the point of bankrupting at least one city (Montgomery, Alabama).

Another unintended consequence of the plunge in interest rates has been that “savers” have been forced to become “speculators” or gamblers. When interest rates on safe corporate bonds were around 8%, a couple could aim for saving half a million dollars in their working careers and count on reaping $40,000 yearly in investment income, a sum that, along with social security, could make for a comfortable retirement. But very low interest rates on bonds have forced these once-prudent savers into the riskier and less predictable stock market, and the collapse of the stock market has forced them into even more speculative ventures in the form of derivatives, a glorified form of gambling. Pension funds, which have binding pension contracts entered into when interest was at much higher levels, need an 8% investment return to meet their commitments. In today’s market, they cannot make that sort of return without taking on higher risk, which means taking major losses when the risks materialize.

Full Story: HOW BROKERS BECAME BOOKIES: THE INSIDIOUS TRANSFORMATION OF MARKETS INTO CASINOS.

Burmese Junta Funded By Chevron, Total, And PTTEP

The Burmese junta are using massive gas revenues from Chevron (US), Total (France) and PTTEP (Thailand) to fund it’s fledgling nuclear weapons programme, according to a report published this week by the Paris-based human rights watchdog EarthRights International (ERI).

The report relies on recent photographic evidence and other top-secret material smuggled out of Burma by defecting army Major Sai Thein Win, a former deputy commander of a top-secret military facility, based deep inside Burma.

It seems that Burma’s nuclear program is at an early stage, with scientists experimenting with laser isotope separation and gas centrifuge technology for uranium enrichment. Despite the fact that the program is still years away from achieving weapons capability, the growing threat of this rogue state is now coming to the attention of the international community.

Full Story: Scoop: Burmese Junta Funded By Chevron, Total, And PTTEP.

Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate

In the fall of 1999, the drug giant SmithKline Beecham secretly began a study to find out if its diabetes medicine, Avandia, was safer for the heart than a competing pill, Actos, made by Takeda.

Avandia’s success was crucial to SmithKline, whose labs were otherwise all but barren of new products. But the study’s results, completed that same year, were disastrous. Not only was Avandia no better than Actos, but the study also provided clear signs that it was riskier to the heart.

But instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover them up, according to documents recently obtained by The New York Times. The company did not post the results on its Web site or submit them to federal drug regulators, as is required in most cases by law.

“This was done for the U.S. business, way under the radar,” Dr. Martin I. Freed, a SmithKline executive, wrote in an e-mail message dated March 29, 2001, about the study results that was obtained by The Times. “Per Sr. Mgmt request, these data should not see the light of day to anyone outside of GSK,” the corporate successor to SmithKline.

Full Story: Diabetes Drug Maker Hid Test Data, Files Indicate – NYTimes.com.

Bank of America Says $10.7 Billion of Trades Wrongly Classified

Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank by assets, said it wrongly classified as much as $10.7 billion of short-term repurchase and lending transactions as sales from 2007 to 2009 to reduce its end-of-quarter assets.

Bank of America said the inaccuracies aren’t material and “don’t stem from any intentional misstatement of the Corporation’s financial statements and was not related to any fraud or deliberate error,” according to a May 13 letter released yesterday from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“A $10.7 billion accounting error would be a material event for about 99.9 percent” of U.S. banks, said Cornelius Hurley, director of the Morin Center for Banking and Financial Law at Boston University School of Law. “It’s hard to see how the SEC can accept BofA’s rejoinder as being sufficient.”

Full Story: Bank of America Says $10.7 Billion of Trades Wrongly Classified – Bloomberg.

Gulf toxicologist: Shrimpers exposed to Corexit “bleeding from the rectum”

CNN, July 9. 2010: Rush Transcript Excerpt Susan Shaw, Marine Toxicologist: If I can tell you what happens — because i was in the oil — to people… Shrimpers throwing their nets into water… [then] water from the nets splashed on his skin. … [He experienced a] headache that lasted 3 weeks… heart palpitations… muscle spasms… bleeding from the rectum… And that’s what that Corexit does, it ruptures red blood cells, causes internal bleeding, and liver and kidney damage. … This stuff is so toxic combined… not the oil or dispersants alone. … Very, very toxic and goes right through skin.

BP Hiding Workers’ Blood Panels?

Today Michael Whitney has a story up about an OSHA official’s comment about clean up workers getting sick. What did they get sick from? “almost all have been heat related,” according to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Jordan Barab. As I read that my heart sank. I fell into “What’s the pointism” and threw the covers over my head. “What can I do?” I thought. “Experts have spoken! I’m just a brain in a box with pointy ears and a fedora.”

Then I got mad and posted a comment about the story (here).

The media have covered all aspects of this story. From the impact of regulatory capture to the mechanics of blind shear rams. But sometimes journalists get mislead by the same regulators that the industry captured. And when they do they fail the public.

And when the public is failed we need to respond. What to do? My first impulse was despair, then anger. Next I started researching, writing and then I’ll act.

“Almost all have been heat related” Really? My first question would be: “Could I please see your evidence and look at the medical information that you are relying on to tell you this?”

Full Story: BP Hiding Workers’ Blood Panels? | The Seminal.

Residents outraged: BP dumping oily waste in Gulf landfills

The Gulf area may have to live with oil long after the beaches have been cleaned. Some residents are outraged that BP has been dumping oily waste in landfills in their areas.

After BP crews scoop up the oil off Gulf beaches, the waste is transported to Mississippi’s Pecan Grove landfill. Even workers’ protective suits, gloves, shovels, rakes and anything else that touches oil is buried there.

The Board of Supervisors in Harrison, Mississippi passed a resolution saying they don’t want any BP waste in their community but there is little they can do. BP has cut deals with Waste Management, the owners of the landfill. They answer to the state instead of local county government.

Full Story: Residents outraged: BP dumping oily waste in Gulf landfills | Raw Story.

The real oil spill exposed.

Thom Hartmann talks with John Wathen

..”no one has ever tried to stop a flow like this once it’s started…”

What Happens If It Doesn’t Stop Gusher?

BP’s Relief Wells Might Not Stop Oil Gusher:

As engineers bore deeper into the seafloor toward the source of the oil still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP PLC is growing more confident that the relief well it expects to complete in August will succeed where all previous efforts to contain or kill the gusher have failed.

But what if it doesn’t work?

At the very least, oil would continue to spill while workers try something else.

That proposition would surely bring more misery for the people who live, work and play along the shores from Louisiana to Florida.

Full Story: BP Oil Spill Relief Well Scenarios: What Happens If It Doesn’t Stop Gusher?.

Fake Sand BP is Bringing Onto Beaches

You’ll have to see this one for yourself.

Gulf Coast Chefs File Class Action Suit Against BP

New Orleans chef Susan Spicer has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of local restaurant owners against BP for damages related to the oil spill. Guest host Jacki Lyden talks with Spicer and famed chef Jose Andres about the lasting effects on restaurants and the future of the Gulf Coast seafood industry.

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Jacki Lyden.

For the last 20 years, Chef Susan Spicer’s restaurant, Bayona, has been rated one of the best in New Orleans. But its reputation for delicious and inventive seafood dishes is being threatened by the lasting effects of the Gulf oil spill. Last week, Friday June the 25th, Chef Spicer filed a class-action suit seeking damages, not just for her business, but other New Orleans restaurants and seafood suppliers affected by oil spill.

Susan Spicer joins us from her restaurant, Bayona, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Welcome to the show.

Chef SUSAN SPICER (Owner, Bayona Restaurant): Thanks, Jacki. Im happy to be here today.

LYDEN: And also with us, famed Chef Jose Andreas and he joins us from his restaurant, Julio, in Bethesda, Maryland. Thanks for being with us once more.

Chef JOSE ANDREAS (Owner, Julio Restaurant): Thank you for inviting me.

Full Story: Gulf Coast Chefs File Class Action Suit Against BP : NPR.

US: Felony charges, big fines for reporting within Gulf oil spill zone

US: Felony charges, big fines for reporting within Gulf oil spill zone 03 Jul 2010 Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees – The Spill and Transparency – Aired July 1, 2010 (Transcript) COOPER: We’re talking about the government, a new a rule announced today backed by the force of law and the threat of fines and felony charges, a rule that will prevent reporters and photographers and anyone else from getting anywhere close to booms and oil-soaked wildlife and just about any place we need to be. By now, you’re probably familiar with cleanup crews stiff-arming the media, private security blocking cameras, ordinary workers clamming up, some not even saying who they’re working for because they’re afraid of losing their jobs… Well, the Coast Guard today announced new rules keeping photographers and reporters and anyone else from coming within 65 feet of any response vessel or booms out on the water or on beaches — 65 feet… Violators could face a fine of $40,000 and Class D felony charges. [Boy, George W. Bush has got to be the most frustrated individual on God's green Earth! Can you *imagine* the outrage -- and protests -- if Bush threatened reporters and photographers with felony charges and fines, as Barack Obama is doing in the Gulf of Mexico? It makes my head *spin* to think of how fast the left would be up in arms. But when Obama lays down and dies for his corporaterrorist paymasters day after day and suspends the First Amendment, the so-called 'left' remains silent. Oh. Not to mention, his thriving assassination squads, busy little CIA bees hunting down US citizens who allegedly support 'terrorism.' --LRP]

Full Story: US: Felony charges, big fines for reporting within Gulf oil spill zone | Citizens for Legitimate Government.

Oil Spills Boost Arsenic Levels in Ocean: Study

Oil Spills Up Arsenic Levels, Create ‘Toxic Ticking Time Bombs’

PARIS – Oil spills can boost levels of arsenic in seawater by suppressing a natural filter mechanism on the sea bed, according to a study published on Friday in a specialist journal.

The research was conducted in a laboratory before the BP oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but its authors say the findings highlight the worrying long-term impact from such disasters.

Scientists at Imperial College London found that sea floor sediment bonds with arsenic. The captured toxic element is then covered by subsequent layers of sediment, which helps explain why concentrations of arsenic in the ocean are low.

But, the researchers found, crude oil acts rather like a sticky blanket, clogging the sediment and preventing it from bonding to arsenic.

Full Story: Oil Spills Boost Arsenic Levels in Ocean: Study | CommonDreams.org.

Report: US banks laundering money for Mexican drug war

Wachovia admits at least $110 million laundered through its branches

US banks are playing a crucial role in the running of the Mexican drug trade, allowing their facilities to be used to launder money in a drug war that has taken the lives of more than 22,000 people in the past four years, a new investigative report reveals.

According to a report from the August, 2010, issue of Bloomberg Markets magazine, both Bank of America and Wachovia are implicated in drug-money laundering schemes to purchase jets to smuggle drugs.

Full Story: Report: US banks laundering money for Mexican drug war | Raw Story.

Formaldehyde-tainted trailers return to Gulf for spill cleanup workers

Given all the speculation that the Gulf oil spill would become (or is already) “Obama’s Katrina,” the last thing the embattled White House needs is a platoon of formaldehyde-contaminated trailers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Yet according to a front-page report in Thursday’s New York Times, the very same vehicles that came to symbolize the Bush administration’s bumbling response to Hurricane Katrina are now back in the Gulf region — this time as accommodations for oil cleanup workers.

As Ian Urbina reports, the 120,000 trailers designated to shelter Katrina victims “were discovered to have such high levels of formaldehyde that the government banned them from ever being used for long-term housing again.”

Full Story: Formaldehyde-tainted trailers return to Gulf for spill cleanup workers – Yahoo! News.

BP using dispersants so oil hits “beaches for 10 or 15 years”; To benefit from long-term amortization of costs

Dallas, Texas – Fred McCallister, an investment banker with Allegiance Capital Corporation, will testify tomorrow before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee in a hearing titled “The Deepwater Horizon Tragedy: Holding Industry Accountable”. For weeks, McCallister has labored to pierce the red tape involved in bringing oil skimmers and other equipment from Europe to the Gulf of Mexico to assist in cleanup efforts.

“We submitted proposals for oil skimming vessels to BP on Monday June 14th – 25 million gallons of oil ago – and were promised they would be reviewed on an expedited basis. To date we have received no meaningful response,” said McCallister.

On June 22, McCallister gained assistance from Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) in requesting a waiver from the Jones Act, which prevents foreign-flagged vessels from cleaning the BP oil spill and protecting the U.S. coastline from the onslaught of oil. To date, neither Senator Cornyn’s office nor Allegiance Capital has received a response regarding the waiver. McCallister’s first request for a waiver was sent to Admiral Thad Allen on June 16.

McCallister believes there may be an underlying issue affecting BP’s resistance to bringing all available oil skimming equipment to the Gulf.

Full Story: BP using dispersants so oil hits “beaches for 10 or 15 years”; To benefit from long-term amortization of costs — Signs of the Times News.

Financial Crisis Commission Turns Up Heat On Goldman Sachs: ‘Nobody Here Believes You’

The panel created to investigate the roots of the financial crisis escalated the government’s assault on Goldman Sachs on Thursday, criticizing the Wall Street firm for failing to turn over basic documents and accusing it nearly lying under oath.

For a second consecutive day, the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reiterated its request for additional data from Goldman, namely figures regarding the firm’s derivatives activities. And for a second consecutive day, Goldman’s top executives demurred.

“We generally do not have a derivatives business,” David Viniar, Goldman’s chief financial officer, told the panel Thursday under oath.

Full Story: Financial Crisis Commission Turns Up Heat On Goldman Sachs: ‘Nobody Here Believes You’.

How bad is the oil spill? Flight sheds light on magnitude of disaster

Author David Helvarg takes a flight from the shores of Alabama to the site of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion. What he finds is disturbing

Full Story: BP Slick.

Marine Toxicologist Susan Shaw Dives Into Gulf Spill, Talks Dispersants and Food Web Damage

When marine toxicologist Susan Shaw set out to investigate the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, she didn’t do it from behind a desk.

Late in May, a few miles offshore of Louisiana’s Pass a Loutre marshlands, Shaw donned a wetsuit, coated her exposed skin with a protective coat of petroleum jelly, and dove into the oil slick. “What I witnessed was a surreal, sickening scene beyond anything I could have imagined,” Shaw wrote a few days later in The New York Times:

There were patches of oil on the gulf’s surface. In some places, the oil has mixed with an orange-brown pudding-like material, some of the 700,000 gallons of a chemical dispersant called Corexit 9500 that BP has sprayed on the spreading oil…

[O]nly a few meters down, the nutrient-rich water became murky, but it was possible to make out tiny wisps of phytoplankton, zooplankton and shrimp enveloped in dark oily droplets. These are essential food sources for fish like the herring I could see feeding with gaping mouths on the oil and dispersant.

Full Story: Marine Toxicologist Susan Shaw Dives Into Gulf Spill, Talks Dispersants and Food Web Damage – OnEarth Magazine.

Oil Industry Lobbied Against Blow-Out Preventer

Len Hart,

Five hundred grand is chicken feed for the likes of BP/HALLIBURTON. That’s how much a blow-out preventer would have cost BP. But the U.S. oil industry ‘lobbied’ against laws mandating their use.

In psychotic denial, BP asserts its innocence; oil giants remain united against regulations of any type requiring that they be responsible, regulations that would in fact require them to pay damages as a result of incompetence, greed or indifference! This record is unconscionable and follows from a lie called “corporate personhood’ –an evil, pernicious doctrine recently espoused and ‘made law’ by the U.S. Supreme Court.

If ‘corporations’ were truly ‘persons’ as the ‘Supreme’ court has said they are, then BP and Halliburton would have already been arrested, charged, jailed and awaiting trial on numerous charges. Perhaps it is not too late to lock them all up –board chairman, members of the board, voting stockholders! Lock them all up!

Full Story: The Existentialist Cowboy: Oil Industry Lobbied Against Blow-Out Preventer.

Heartburn Drug Linked to Parkinsons’-like Disease

Mike Papantonio speaks with attorney Lea Morris about the dangers associated with the prescription drug Reglan, which is having some serious adverse effects on consumers. This is just the latest in a long line of dangerous pharmaceuticals that have made it to the market thanks to an FDA that was stuffed with political hacks for 8 years during the Bush administration.

Gulf Coast Attorneys File RICO Class Action Lawsuits Against BP

Gulf Coast law firms Levin Papantonio, Eastland Law and others have begun filing a series of civil RICO actions in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama to hold BP accountable for the false assurances it gave the American people that it could handle a worst-case scenario deepwater oil spill. The suits allege that BP committed mail fraud, wire fraud and potentially other RICO predicate act violations when the company sought permits from the federal government for deepwater offshore drilling, knowing that it did not possess the technical expertise or equipment necessary to respond to an emergency such as the ongoing Deepwater disaster.

This is the only RICO claim out of the more than 200 lawsuits filed so far against BP – and that doesn’t even count claims against Transocean, Halliburton and other associated defendants. All the other legal cases filed so far against BP are based on negligence associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, violations of various environmental statutes, and other legal angles.

By choosing the RICO approach, the Gulf Coast attorneys hope to provide an avenue for all Americans impacted by the disaster to stand up to the oil companies and prosecute them in civil court for their unlawful conduct.

Full Story: Brendan DeMelle: Gulf Coast Attorneys File RICO Class Action Lawsuits Against BP.

BP dumps gravel in Alaska sea; gets exempt from offshore drilling ban

BP’s “Liberty” project is exempted as regulators have granted it status as an “onshore” project even though it is about three miles off the coast in the Beaufort Sea. The reason: it sits on an artificial island — a 31-acre pile of gravel in about 22 feet of water — built by BP. Regulators and BP say likelihood of spill is very remote. [Sound familiar?] They also assert that BP’s spill response plan would be able to handle a worst case — which BP estimated as a spill of 20,000 barrels per day. [Again, sound familiar?]

The future of BP’s offshore oil operations in the Gulf of Mexico has been thrown into doubt by the recent drilling disaster and court wrangling over a moratorium.

But about three miles off the coast of Alaska, BP is moving ahead with a controversial and potentially record-setting project to drill two miles under the sea and then six to eight miles horizontally to reach what is believed to be a 100-million-barrel reservoir of oil under federal waters.

All other new projects in the Arctic have been halted by the Obama administration’s moratorium on offshore drilling, including more traditional projects like Shell Oil’s plans to drill three wells in the Chukchi Sea and two in the Beaufort.

Full Story: BP dumps gravel in Alaska sea; gets exempt from offshore drilling ban « COTO Report.

Kindra Arnesan – Quoted on PBS Newshour 6/23/2010

Confirmation of the local overview Venice LA – 6/19/10.. Quoted on PBS today in one sentence. Hear the horrors of the front lines and behind scenes workings of the BP Gulf Oil Spill Catastrophe. This Venice LA local has been granted security clearance to see it all.

Read the Internal Document that Contradicts BP’s Claims on Oil Flow

Rep. Ed Markey has been among BP’s toughest critics in Congress following the Deepwater Horizon blowout, accusing it, among other things, of lowballing its estimates of oil flow.

On Sunday, Markey was at it again. As you may have read, the Boston Democrat released an internal BP document that shows that early company estimates for worst-case oil flow scenarios were far higher than the company has ever acknowledged — up to 100,000 barrels per day if all containment mechanisms were to fail. Take a look at the document for yourself.

The document is not dated, but a statement from Rep. Markey that accompanied its release said that BP’s oil flow estimate at the time the document was made available to Congress was 5,000 barrels per day, and its worst-case scenario was 60,000 barrels per day, figures the company provided for much of the month of May.

The 100,000-barrels-per-day scenario contrasts sharply with the company’s public pronouncements at the time.

Full Story: On The Hill: Read the Internal Document that Contradicts BP’s Claims on Oil Flow.

The Leak cannot be stopped: Video

ROV films oil leak coming from rock cracks on seafloor.

Starts off slow – but gets NASTY! ROV films oil leak coming from cracks in a ROCK on the sea floor.

BP denies that oil or gas are leaking from cracks in the sea floor on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

This is just one of many videos that may prove otherwise.

The video here seems to skip frames so here are two slow motion clips that show that this is definitely not silt being kicked up by the ROV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6-fPw…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2J2yn…

If your still not convinced check out 2:47 in the video and watch the globs of oil float across the screen.

Follow this story here:

http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2010…

This video was recorded from the Viking Poseidon — ROV 1 on June 13th, 2010 at 2:58 AM EST.

Location of the sea floor crack leaking:

N:10431633.05

E: 1202852.27

Some things to point out:

After rewinding it a few times you can see the clear progression of oil coming from the rocks:

At 2:45 coagulated oil rises from the cracks pretty much confirming this is oil and not mud.

Toward the end of the video you see bubbles of gas and can clearly see this a rock formation on the sea floor.

My calculations indicate:

The ROV is 19.11 feet north and 55.75 feet west of the leak point.

The ROV is 58.93 feet away from the leak point.

BP’s plan: Raise $50 billion, sue business partners

BP is trying to raise 50 billion dollars to cover the cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill and is preparing to sue its partners in the oil field, British newspapers said on Sunday.

The Sunday Telegraph said BP is readying to take legal action against US firm Anadarko, its main partner in the field, for its share of the clean-up costs.

The broadsheet cited a “senior BP source” as saying Anadarko was “shirking its responsibilities”, not accepting its liabilities and that legal action in the United States is now likely to follow.

The Sunday Times said BP is working on a plan to raise 50 billion dollars to cover the cost of the oil spill, which would start next week with a bond sale to raise 10 billion dollars.

A further 20 billion dollars would come from bank loans, while the final slice is expected to come from asset sales over the next two years, the broadsheet said.

Full Story: BP’s plan: Raise $50 billion, sue business partners | Raw Story.

Methane is newest BP oil spill threat for Gulf of Mexico

All eyes have been on the continuous outflow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico but a new and less known threat has surfaced. Methane gas keeps being released in the gulf waters and threatens the natural habitat of sea creatures.

The “flow team” of the US Geological Survey estimates that 2,900 cubit feet of methane gas is being released into the gulf waters with every barrel of oil. The constant flow of 20,000 barrels of crude oil would place the total daily amount of methane at roughly 5.8 million cubic feet.

Methane gas depletes the natural oxygen levels found in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico which are crucial for the survival of plankton and other sea creatures in the natural food chain. The high concentration of methane is now threatening to suffocate the seafood population.

Full Story: Methane is newest BP oil spill threat for Gulf of Mexico | HULIQ.

Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate to 120,000 Barrels Per Day, Believes Oil Covers 40% of Gulf Beneath the Surface

Matt Simmons was on Bloomberg earlier, adding some additional perspective to his original appearance on the station, in which he initially endorsed the nuclear option as the only viable way to resolve the oil spill. Simmons refutes even the latest oil spill estimate of 45,000-60,000 barrels per day, and in quoting research by the Thomas Jefferson research vessel which was compiled late on Sunday, quantifies the leak at 120,000 bpd. What is scarier is that according to the Jefferson, the oil lake underneath the surface of the water could be covering up to 40% of the entire Gulf of Mexico. Simmons also says that as the leak has no casing, a relief well will not work, and the only possible resolution is, as he said previously, to use a small nuclear explosion to convert the rock to glass. Simmons concludes that as punishment for BP’s arrogance and stupidity the government “will take all their cash.” Now if only our own administration could tell us the truth about what is really happening in the gulf…

video at link

Full Story: Matt Simmons Revises Leak Estimate to 120,000 Barrels Per Day, Believes Oil Covers 40% of Gulf Beneath the Surface — Signs of the Times News.

BP Partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Blasts BP’s ‘Reckless Decisions And Actions’

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which owns a quarter of BP PLC’s blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, late Friday blasted BP “reckless decisions and actions” that led to the well’s explosion.

Anadarko Chairman and CEO Jim Hackett’s statement came after some elected officials said Anadarko should help pay for the massive cleanup and spill-related claims. Company spokesman John Christiansen said the comments were in response to “a week’s worth of testimony” and other information and data compiled on the disaster.

“The mounting evidence clearly demonstrates that this tragedy was preventable and the direct result of BP’s reckless decisions and actions,” said Hackett in the statement. “We recognize that ultimately we have obligations under federal law related to the oil spill, but will look to BP to continue to pay all legitimate claims as they have repeatedly stated that they will do.”

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: BP Partner Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Blasts BP’s ‘Reckless Decisions And Actions’.

BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Spill – video

A shrimp boat captain in Louisiana hired by BP was blocked from rescuing juvenile Kemp’s ridleys that were covered in oil in the Gulf waters. He was captured on video saying that the turtles are being collected in the clean-up efforts and burned up like so much ocean debris with other marine life gathering along tide lines where oil also congregates.

He witnessed BP workers burning turtles caught in the oil booms. Rescue efforts are being ended tomorrow.

STRP’s Gulf Director Carole Allen responded to the news by saying “The burning of boom and oil when even one sea turtle was seen in the water is a despicable crime.”

Full Story: Sea Turtle Restoration Project : BP Blocks Attempt to Save Endangered Sea Turtles from Oil Spill.

Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?

Scientific American:  “…massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico…”

It remains unclear what impact chemical dispersants will have on sea life–and only the massive, uncontrolled experiment being run in the Gulf of Mexico will tell

Roughly five million liters of dispersants have now been used to break up the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, making this the largest use of such chemicals in U.S. history. If it continues for 10 months, as long as Mexico’s Ixtoc 1 blowout in 1979 in the same region, the Macondo well disaster has a good chance of achieving the largest global use of these chemicals, surpassing 10 million liters.

And there is no doubt that dispersants are toxic: Both types of the dispersal compound COREXIT used in the Gulf so far are capable of killing or depressing the growth of a wide range of aquatic species, ranging from phytoplankton to fish. “It’s a trade-off decision to lessen the overall environmental impact,” explained marine biologist Jane Lubchenco, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), at a press conference on May 12. “When an oil spill occurs, there are no good outcomes.”

The trade-off in this case is the addition of toxic chemicals in a bid to protect the marshes of Louisiana and the beaches of Florida. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for one, has become concerned about the toxicity of the most-used dispersant at the Gulf of Mexico spill—COREXIT 9500—and ordered BP to look at alternatives. (COREXIT 9527 was used earlier during the spill, but it was discontinued because it was considered too toxic.)

Full Story: Is Using Dispersants on the BP Gulf Oil Spill Fighting Pollution with Pollution?: Scientific American.

BP’s Secret Army Of Oil Disaster Contractors

The true story of the BP disaster is how private contractors, not the government, are handling the response. Of the 25,000 people responding to the greatest environmental catastrophe in the history of the nation, 21,000 are under contract to the foreign oil giant BP. This private army includes workers shipped in from California making $10 an hour to clean the beaches, ex-military public relations experts, and submarine robotics companies. There are no contractors working directly for the government. The Center for American Progress — like many other outside observers — recommends that the government take over operational control from BP, to resolve conflicts of interest between the foreign corporation’s shareholders and public health and safety.

BP has been notoriously secretive about the network of companies working to run practically every aspect of the Deepwater Horizon response, including claims processing, hazardous material cleanup, boom deployment, scientific monitoring, and call centers. BP has ignored the state of Louisiana’s request on May 7 for a list of contractors and subcontractors.

On June 3, the Wonk Room called the Unified Command number and talked with USCG officer Rachel Polish, who told me that BP would have to answer my questions. Later that day, a BP subcontractor contacted this reporter, but would only identify himself as “Les.” On June 4, the Wonk Room asked National Incident Commander Thad Allen in the daily briefing for a list of contractors, which he promised to address. USCG officer J. R. Hoeft followed up by email to say he would start working on it.

Full Story: Wonk Room » BP’s Secret Army Of Oil Disaster Contractors.

EXCLUSIVE: BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than ‘Normal’ Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil

Shortly after BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the gulf, the New York Times spoke to Quenton Dokken, the executive director of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, about the environmental impact. “The sky is not falling,” Dokken told the paper, adding “it isn’t the end of the Gulf of Mexico.” ProPublica dug into the Gulf of Mexico Foundation, and reported that the Times had failed to disclose that Dokken and his group are funded by a consortium of oil companies with business in the gulf, including companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon rig, Transocean and Anadarko. Today, the Times reported that the Foundation has been downplaying effects of the spill, possibly because of its funding from oil companies.

ThinkProgress has obtained more documents and evidence that the Gulf of Mexico Foundation has operated as a front for the oil companies involved in the spill. In addition to Transocean and Anadarko, this 2008 “Guardians of the Gulf” award ceremony hosted by the Foundation shows that BP is also a “CEO council member” of the nonprofit. View a screenshot here:

Full Story: Think Progress » EXCLUSIVE: BP Funds Front Group Claiming Oil Spill Jobs Are Better Than ‘Normal’ Ones, Storm Will Clean Up Oil.

As Barton Apologizes, Senate GOP Continues To Block Measures To Hold BP Accountable

Republicans on Thursday once again blocked the Senate from voting on separate bills designed to hold energy giant BP accountable for the monster oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

The action in the Senate came on the same day a senior House Republican also came under fire for apologizing to the fourth-largest corporation on the planet for the federal government’s efforts to force it to take responsibility for disaster, which continues to drain oil into the waters off the Louisiana coast two months after the initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) sought to overcome what’s been a weeks-long filibuster of his Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act, once again casting the issue in a single question: “Whose side are you on?”

Full Story: On The Hill: As Barton Apologizes, Senate GOP Continues To Block Measures To Hold BP Accountable.

Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel

The Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling rig was registered in the Marshall Islands and its owners paid taxes in Switzerland — but when the rig blew up and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, who came to the rescue? And who is suffering the economic and environmental damages caused by the ongoing spill?

Those were among the combative question raised by members of a House committee on Thursday at a hearing about foreign-flagged vessels operating in the Gulf.

Mississippi Democratic Rep. Gene Taylor was particularly irritated. “I'm just curious, how long did it take the Marshall Islands Coast Guard to show up when that rig caught on fire?” he asked rhetorically.

Pointing out that the rig was built in Korea, he asked: “And how long did it take the Korean Coast Guard to show up?”

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Rig Owner’s Avoidance Of U.S. Jurisdiction Angers House Panel.

BP Executive To Gulf Residents: You Need Us, So Don’t ‘Shoot The Dog Who Is Trying To Bring Home The Bone’

Last night during an interview with BP executive Bob Dudley on Fox News, host Greta Van Susteren noted that the oil giant has been taking some heat because of its Gulf oil spill. “Your company has taken quite a beating,” she said. Dudley agreed but said his company’s critics should be careful because Gulf coast residents are dependent on BP:

DUDLEY: Well, Greta, I know that oil companies are not popular. It has been that way for sometime in the U.S. It’s a company made up of people, many of which live along the Gulf coast, that are integrated into the fabric of the communities there.

We have 23,000 people in the U.S., many of which are around the Gulf coast. I think — and everyone is devastated by what has happened today. I think I would look at some of the process today as just making sure that through that sentiment we don’t actually shoot the dog who is trying to bring home the bone and meet its obligations all across the Gulf, and we are going to be there a long time.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » BP Executive To Gulf Residents: You Need Us, So Don’t ‘Shoot The Dog Who Is Trying To Bring Home The Bone’.

Did the BP Oil Well Really Blow Out in February, Instead of April?

The Deepwater Horizon blew up on April 20th, and sank a couple of days later. BP has been criticized for failing to report on the seriousness of the blow out for several weeks.

However, as a whistleblower previously told 60 Minutes, there was an accident at the rig a month or more prior to the April 20th explosion:

[Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, and one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig] said they were told it would take 21 days; according to him, it actually took six weeks.

With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a faster pace.

“And he requested to the driller, ‘Hey, let’s bump it up. Let’s bump it up.’ And what he was talking about there is he’s bumping up the rate of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down,” Williams said.

Washington’s Blog.

BP Is a Corporate Criminal

Jim Hightower:

Gosh, how quickly things turn. One day, you’re a strutting peacock — the next day, you’re just another gasping, oil-covered bird.

In early April, BP was strutting about in full corporate splendor, showing off the $9 billion in profits that it had soaked up in just the first three months of this year. It was also basking in a corporate re-imaging campaign, depicting itself as a clean-energy pioneer and declaring that BP now stood for “Beyond Petroleum.”

Since its Gulf of Mexico well blew out on April 20, however, BP has proven to be beyond belief. The wider and deeper that this catastrophe spreads, the more we discover just how oily this giant is.

From the time it was known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and set out to grab and control the rich petroleum reserves owned by what is now Iran, BP has been a recidivist global criminal. In the past three decades, it grew huge by swallowing such competitors as Standard Oil of Ohio, Amoco and Arco. Along the way, it has been implicated in bribery, overthrowing governments, plunder and money laundering, plus having established one of the worst safety and environmental records in an industry that is notoriously reckless on both counts.

Full Story: BP Is a Corporate Criminal by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

Closing BP’s Escape Routes

Robert Weissman:

BP generates enough cash to absorb its liabilities from the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

But that doesn’t mean it will.

One of the benefits of the corporate form is that it gives giant corporations the ability to escape liability. BP may or may not choose to capitalize on such escapes, but it would be foolish to presume that it won’t. That’s why President Obama’s call for the company to establish a $20 billion escrow account is such a positive and needed — if still inadequate — step.

Consider first the liabilities that BP may face. No one really knows what the damage from the oil gusher or the overall costs to BP may ultimately be. Some analysts are now throwing around numbers of $70 billion on the upper end — but it’s not hard to see how the ultimate cost to BP could rise even higher.

Full Story: Closing BP’s Escape Routes | CommonDreams.org.

BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists

BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability and is actually disappearing oiled wildlife.

While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP’s spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP — not our president — controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, “Look at that!” The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

Full Story: BP Is Destroying Evidence and Censoring Journalists | Environment | AlterNet.

E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a ‘nightmare well’ six days before explosion.

Tomorrow, the chief executives of the five big oil companies — including BP’s Tony Hayward — are going to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to an e-mail released by that Committee today, a BP drilling engineer warned that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a “nightmare well” that had caused the company problems in the past. The e-mail came just six days before the well exploded:

Full Story: Think Progress » E-mail from BP engineer called Deepwater Horizon rig a ‘nightmare well’ six days before explosion..

“Lure People Into That Calm and Then Just Totally F–k ‘Em”: How All of Us Pay for the Derivatives Market

Derivatives are a hotbed of abuses and bailouts. So why are taxpayers footing the bill?

For the Wall Street reform package currently making its way through Congress to work, it has to accomplish two broad goals: It must take a huge bite out of banking profits and end the too-big-to-fail oligopoly that encourages megabanks to take megarisks and stick taxpayers with the tab. Neither of these goals can be accomplished without taking on derivatives — the wild, unregulated market that brought down AIG. Right now, the U.S. government pays big banks for operating derivatives casinos. If we’re going to clean up the derivatives mess, we have to move taxpayer money out of the market.

“The dirty little secret here is that the American government has been subsidizing the derivatives market through the Fed and other avenues since its inception,” says Adam White, director of research for White Knight Research and Trading. “That’s crazy.”

Full Story: “Lure People Into That Calm and Then Just Totally F–k ‘Em”: How All of Us Pay for the Derivatives Market | Economy | AlterNet.

Firm hired to handle BP claims boasts of “reducing payouts”

Publicly, BP has said it intends to be generous in compensating those affected by the Gulf oil spill: CEO Tony Hayward has pledged to pay all “legitimate” claims resulting from the disaster, even offering to waive the $75 million cap on liability for economic damages.

But to handle claims from the spill, BP has hired a risk-management company who advertises that a main benefit of its services is “reducing our clients’ loss dollar pay-outs” — a goal Gulf advocates say is in direct contradiction to Washington and BP’s promises to fully compensate coastal residents for mounting economic losses.

ESIS Inc. — part of the Swiss-based global insurance giant the ACE Group — is a risk-management firm whose mission is to “impact our clients’ business and reduce their total cost.”

One of ESIS’s many services for corporate clients is handling claims made against companies, which Darryl Willis, VP for Resources at BP America said in recent Congressional testimony [pdf] is the role they’re playing for BP in the wake of the spill:

Full Story: Daily Kos: State of the Nation.

How Blue Dog Boys kept Obama’s boot off neck of BP’s US partner

• 73 per cent of all Gulf incidents involve Transocean
• All bonuses banned after four died on firm’s oil rigs
• Obama desperate for support of politicians linked to Transocean lobbyist

The American owners of the drilling rig at the centre of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill have been involved in nearly three-quarters of all significant safety incidents on rigs in the region since 2008, according to new figures.

Transocean, the world’s largest rig operator, has so far avoided much of the fall-out from the environmental disaster heaped on BP by President Obama and members of Congress following the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

But an analysis of government data reveals it has a highly questionable safety record.

Full Story: Oil spill: How Blue Dog Boys kept Obama¿s boot off neck of BP¿s US partner | Mail Online.

Chevron Spills More Than 400 Barrels Of Oil In Utah, Just Days After Governor Called For More Domestic Production

Yesterday, Chevron discovered a leaking pipeline that was spewing 50 gallons of crude oil per minute into Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, UT. By the time crews capped the leak, more than 21,000 gallons — between 400-500 barrels — of oil had spilled out, “coating geese and ducks” and closing the city’s largest park. The Salt Lake City Tribune writes:

Chevron pledged to clean up the 6-mile mess, but the company could not quantify the damage. As of late Saturday, Chevron said the leak had been stopped. But company representatives could not say when it began, how much oil spilled into city waterways and why — despite pipeline monitors — it apparently took hours to learn of the accident. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Chevron Spills More Than 400 Barrels Of Oil In Utah, Just Days After Governor Called For More Domestic Production.

Why the United States Still Can’t Get BP to Do What’s Necessary

Robert Reich :

Here’s what Coast Guard Rear Adm. James A. Watson wrote to BP’s chief operating officer on Friday:

“Recognizing the complexity of this challenge, every effort must be expended to speed up the process.” BP’s plans don’t “go far enough to mobilize redundant resources” in the event of an equipment failure or another problem. “BP must identify in the next 48 hours additional leak containment capacity that could be operationalized and expedited to avoid the continued discharge of oil.”

Translated: You’re dragging your heels and aren’t even using all the equipment you have, damn it. You better, or I’ll … I’ll … .

BP spokesman Jon Pack said the company received Watson’s letter and would respond to it as soon as possible.

Translated: Too bad. Have a nice weekend.

The Administration has not used legal authority to order BP to do a thing, because it hasn’t asserted any legal authority.

Full Story: Robert Reich (Why the United States Still Can’t Get BP to Do What’s Necessary).

60 MINUTES — THE BLOWOUT

What really happened to cause the devastating oil leak in the gulf of Mexico? And what is BP doing to fix the problem?

For an answer to the first question, watch this 60 Minutes story. As for the answer to the second question, read my special report on the devastating choices made by BP to “clean up” the mess — choices that could WORSEN the environmental impact of the spill, rather than improve it.

The story of how the BP oil drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, “Deepwater Horizon”, was destroyed on April 20, 2010, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Part 1

Part 2

BP Official Admits to Damage BENEATH THE SEA FLOOR

As I noted Tuesday, there is growing evidence that BP’s oil well – technically called the “well casing” or “well bore” – has suffered damage beneath the level of the sea floor.

The evidence is growing stronger and stronger that there is substantial damage beneath the sea floor. Indeed, it appears that BP officials themselves have admitted to such damage. This has enormous impacts on both the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf, and the prospects for quickly stopping the leak this summer.

On May 31st, the Washington Post noted:

Sources at two companies involved with the well said that BP also discovered new damage inside the well below the seafloor and that, as a result, some of the drilling mud that was successfully forced into the well was going off to the side into rock formations.

“We discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface,” said a BP official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. He said that mud was making it “out to the side, into the formation.”

On June 2nd, Bloomberg pointed out:

Plugging the well is another challenge even after BP successfully intersects it, Robert Bea, a University of California Berkeley engineering professor, said. BP has said it believes the well bore to be damaged, which could hamper efforts to fill it with mud and set a concrete plug, Bea said.

Washington’s Blog.

BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence

While President Obama insists that the federal government is firmly in control of the response to BP’s spill in the Gulf, people in coastal communities where I visited last week in Louisiana and Alabama know an inconvenient truth: BP — not our president — controls the response. In fact, people on the ground say things are out of control in the gulf.

Even worse, as my latest week of adventures illustrate, BP is using federal agencies to shield itself from public accountability.

For example, while flying on a small plane from New Orleans to Orange Beach, the pilot suddenly exclaimed, “Look at that!” The thin red line marking the federal flight restrictions of 3,000 feet over the oiled Gulf region had just jumped to include the coastal barrier islands off Alabama.

Full Story: Riki Ott: From the Ground: BP Censoring Media, Destroying Evidence.

The Oil Spill Chemicals, Revealed (Updated)

Wanna know what’s in all that dispersant that’s being dumped into the Gulf of Mexico? So did Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and now we know.

This makes our head hurt, but, leaving out the registry numbers, the component chemicals are listed like this by the EPA:

1,2-Propanediol;

Ethanol 2-butoxy-;

Butanedioic acid, 2-sulfo-, 1,4-bis(2-ethylhexyl) ester, sodium salt (1:1);

Sorbitan, mono-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate;

Sorbitan, mono-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate, poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) derivs;

Sorbitan, tri-(9Z)-9-octadecenoate, poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl) derivs;

2-Propanol, 1-(2-butoxy-1-methylethoxy)-,

and distillates (petroleum), hydrotreated light

Is that equivalent of shampoo for oil slicks? Or is it a deadly toxin? We don’t know, but presumably occupational safety experts do, and can now tell workers encountering the stuff how to protect themselves.

Which is what Gillibrand was hoping for when she asked the EPA last week to release the information, considering the problems 9/11 responders have suffered after federal officials told them the air was safe.

“I commend the EPA for releasing this important information. This is a step in the right direction, but we still have more to do to protect the workers on the ground and ensure we are taking the correct steps to address this disaster properly,” said Gillibrand.

Of course, does anyone actually know what these chemicals do to people? The junior New York senator is not sure.

Full Story: The Oil Spill Chemicals, Revealed (Updated).

Rig Survivors: BP Ordered Shortcut on Day of Blast

The morning the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, a BP executive and a Transocean official argued over how to proceed with the drilling, rig survivors told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview.

The survivors’ account paints perhaps the most detailed picture yet of what happened on the deepwater rig — and the possible causes of the April 20 explosion.

The BP official wanted workers to replace heavy mud, used to keep the well’s pressure down, with lighter seawater to help speed a process that was costing an estimated $750,000 a day and was already running five weeks late, rig survivors told CNN

Full Story: Rig Survivors: BP Ordered Shortcut on Day of Blast | CommonDreams.org.

Exxon Valdez Lawyer: Louisianans, ‘To Use A Legal Term,’ Are ‘Just F–ked’

Long after oil stops spilling from the Gulf and the ecological catastrophe caused by the spill begins to be cleaned up, the process of determining the extent to which BP owes the afflicted will be litigated in the courts.

And while the case against the oil company seems fairly clear-cut (BP admits, after all, to being responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history), a lawyer with perhaps the most relevant experience on the matter at hand is painting a depressing picture about the litigation ahead.

“[I]f you were affected in Louisiana,” said Brian O’Neill, an attorney with the firm Faegre & Benson, “to use a legal term, you are just f–ked.”

Full Story: Exxon Valdez Lawyer: Louisianans, ‘To Use A Legal Term,’ Are ‘Just F–ked’.

BP To Go Ahead with $10 Billion Shareholder Payout — Signs of the Times News

Tony Hayward to defy calls from politicians to cancel dividend until Deepwater Horizon oil spill is resolved

Tony Hayward, BP’s embattled chief executive, will risk incurring further wrath in the US over the Gulf oil spill tomorrow by defying calls from politicians to halt more than $10bn (£6.8bn) worth of payouts due to shareholders this year.

He will hope to appease City investors by promising in a conference call with analysts to stick with BP’s dividend policy amid mounting concern about a plunging share price.

BP declined to comment on its strategy tonight but it is understood that Hayward will say he is confident the company can pay for liabilities resulting from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion – now estimated by analysts at $20bn to $60bn – as well as rewarding investors.

The move follows demands from senators Charles Schumer and Ron Wyden in a letter to Hayward all dividends be halted until the cost of the clean-up is known.

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: BP To Go Ahead with $10 Billion Shareholder Payout — Signs of the Times News.

BP well may be spewing 100,000 barrels a day, scientist says | McClatchy

BP’s runaway Deepwater Horizon well may be spewing what the company once-called its worst case scenario — 100,000 barrels a day, a member of the government panel tasked with determining the size of the spill told McClatchy Monday.

“In the data I’ve seen, there’s nothing inconsistent with BP’s worst case scenario,” Ira Leifer, an associate researcher at the Marine Science Institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a member of the government’s Flow Rate Technical Group, told McClatchy.

Leifer said that based on satellite data he’s examined, the rate of flow from the well has been increasing over time, especially since BP’s “top kill” effort failed last month to stanch the flow. The decision last week to sever the well’s damaged riser pipe from the its blowout preventer in order to install a “top hat” containment device has increased the flow still more _ far more, Leifer said, than the 20 percent that BP and the Obama administration predicted.

Full Story: BP well may be spewing 100,000 barrels a day, scientist says | McClatchy.

Bhopal tragedy: Victims furious over verdict

Victims and activists were furious that seven officials of Union Carbide were on Monday convicted only for criminal negligence, which is punishable with a maximum of two years in jail, despite the enormity of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

“Today’s verdict is a disaster… They’ve made it look like a traffic accident,” said Satinath Sarangi of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action, an NGO representing the survivors and an activist who has been involved with the victims since the 1984 disaster.

“The charges have been diluted. The victims are disappointed,” Sarangi said

Full Story: Bhopal tragedy: Victims furious over verdict.

What the Spill Will Kill

‘It’s The Things We Don’t See That Worry Me Most’

Giant plumes of crude oil mixed with methane are sweeping the ocean depths with devastating consequences. ‘I’m not too worried about oil on the surface,’ says one scientist. ‘It’s the things we don’t see that worry me the most.’

It was in mid-May that independent scientists—not any of the officials or researchers working for any of the government agencies on scene at the Deepwater Horizon disaster, let alone BP—first detected the vast underwater plumes of crude oil spreading like Medusa’s locks from the out-of-control gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. BP immediately dismissed the reports, and in late May CEO Tony Hayward flatly declared “there aren’t any plumes,” stopping just short of accusing the scientists of misconduct. Federal officials called the scientists’ claim “misleading, premature and, in some cases, inaccurate.” Moreover, continued a statement from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, any oxygen depletion in the surrounding waters due to plumes is not “a source of concern at this time,” and critics blaming dispersants for the plumes had “no information” to stand on. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, a respected oceanographer when President Obama tapped her to lead the agency, insists there are no plumes, only “anomalies”—though last week she acknowledged the possibility of oil beneath the surface.

Full Story: What the Spill Will Kill – Newsweek.com.

Fair Game – Banks Say No to Freddie and Fannie, but Taxpayers Can’t

FROM the earliest days of the credit crisis, the nation’s big financial institutions have been less than forthcoming about ballooning loan losses buried inside their books. To some degree this is understandable: denial is a powerful thing, after all, and writing off troubled loans during a period of severe stress is, for bankers, the equivalent of getting a root canal.

As profits rebound at many of these institutions, however, artful dodging becomes more disturbing. And when disguising problems winds up harming the taxpayer — the same folks who rode to the rescue of banks with billions of dollars — the denial is downright exasperating.

Among the more glaring bookkeeping fictions on big banks’ balance sheets today are the values they assign to all of the bounteous second mortgage loans. doled out during the mortgage bonanza. As any realist will attest, many of these loans are worth little, and yet there they sit, at fantasy levels, on banks’ ledgers.

Full Story: Fair Game – Banks Say No to Freddie and Fannie, but Taxpayers Can’t – NYTimes.com.

Another BP spill: 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals at Texas plant that killed 15 workers in 2005.

While BP touts the mild success of its most recent attempt to contain the massive gusher spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, they would probably rather people don’t notice the other spill they recently caused, this one of deadly benzene from a refinery in Texas City, TX. The refinery released more than 400 pounds a day of the chemical over a 40-day period, BP quietly informed the state environmental regulator yesterday. Over that period, the refinery released 500,000 pounds of benzene and other toxic chemicals into the air, the Galveston Daily News reports:

Refinery spokesman Michael Marr said in its follow up reporting with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, BP estimated 36,000 pounds of nitrogen oxides and 17,000 pounds of benzene were released in the 40 days. State law requires 10 pounds or more of benzene and 200 pounds or more of nitrogen oxide during a 24-hour period must be reported through the commission’s air emissions database.

The bulk of the emissions during that time included an estimated 189,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and 61,000 pounds of propane, according to the company’s report to the TCEQ.

Full Story: Think Progress » Another BP spill: 500,000 pounds of toxic chemicals at Texas plant that killed 15 workers in 2005..

BP buys oil-related search terms to make its official site show up first in search engines.

As BP’s oil disaster continues to ravage the Gulf Coast, the company is ramping up its public relations and legal operations to try to salvage its reputation and protect itself from lawsuits. Now, ABC News is reporting that one such tactic BP is using is purchasing search items that have the word “oil” in them on various search engines to ensure that the first results that appear link directly to BP’s official website:

BP, the very company responsible for the oil spill that is already the worst in U.S. history, has purchased several phrases on search engines such as Google and Yahoo so that the first result that shows up directs information seekers to the company’s official website.

A simple Google search of “oil spill” turns up several thousand news results, but the first link, highlighted at the very top of the page, is from BP. “Learn more about how BP is helping,” the link’s tagline reads. [...]

“We have bought search terms on search engines like Google to make it easier for people to find out more about our efforts in the Gulf and make it easier for people to find key links to information on filing claims, reporting oil on the beach and signing up to volunteer,” BP spokesman Toby Odone told ABC News.

Full Story: Think Progress » BP buys oil-related search terms to make its official site show up first in search engines..

Oil Spill Wrecking Gulf Coast Industries

Most of the Gulf coast relies on the bounty of the sea for its livelihood. Oysters, shrimp, and general fishing have always been the backbone of the region. Their fishing grounds have been contaminated with tens of millions of gallons of poisonous crude oil.

The seemingly never-ending oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is already perhaps one of the ten largest spills in human history. There is not doubt that it is already the largest spill in American history. There is no way around the catastrophic environmental impact that spill has had on the Gulf region. There is also no telling how long the disastrous effects will linger in the fragile marshes and beaches.

However, it now seems like the Deepwater Horizon spill could become one of the worst economic disasters in American history as well.

Most of the Gulf coast relies on the bounty of the sea for its livelihood. Oysters, shrimp, and general fishing have always been the backbone of the region. Their fishing grounds have been contaminated with tens of millions of gallons of poisonous crude oil. With the spill expected to continue for perhaps another two months the problems will only get worse before they get better.

Full Story: Oil Spill Wrecking Gulf Coast Industries | Economy In Crisis.

BP, feds could make millions from runaway well’s oil

BP’s runaway deepwater well could still become a moneymaker for the company, even as it tries to stem the gush of crude oil that’s fouling the Gulf of Mexico.

If the current containment effort works — and BP and the government say they’re optimistic that it will — the oil giant will salvage much of the oil that’s now spewing from the crumpled pipes on the ocean floor. That captured oil, McClatchy estimates, could generate more than $1.4 million in revenue for BP each day.

Once the oil is piped to the surface to the drill ship Discoverer Enterprise, it will be processed and sent by tanker to a refinery to be sold.

Full Story: BP, feds could make millions from runaway well’s oil | McClatchy.

BP And Halliburton Build Legal Teams, Attempt To Buy Off Government Officials

Facing possible jail time for their roles in the largest oil spill in American history, BP and Halliburton are building high-powered legal teams with “deep Department of Justice and White House ties.” But the companies are pursuing other means to defend themselves as well.

Halliburton’s campaign donations have spiked as it tries to curry favor with key members of Congress investigating the disaster. The company donated $17,000 in May, making it “the busiest donation month for Halliburton’s PAC since September 2008,” Politico reports. Thirteen of the 14 contributions from May went to Republicans, while seven went to members of Congress who are “on committees with oversight of the oil spill and its aftermath”:

About one week before executive Timothy Probert appeared before the House Energy and Commerce’s investigative subcommittee, Halliburton donated $1,500 to Ranking Republican Joe Barton’s reelection effort. It was Halliburton’s second-largest donation of the month — topped only by $2,500 to former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), who is running for the Senate.

Full Story: Think Progress » BP And Halliburton Build Legal Teams, Attempt To Buy Off Government Officials.

BP’s Spill Plan: What they knew and when they knew it

I have obtained a copy of the almost-600-page BP Regional Oil Spill Response Plan for the Gulf of Mexico as of June, 2009, thanks to an insider. Some material has been redacted, but these are the three main takeaways from an initial read. The name of the well has been redacted, but if it’s not Deepwater Horizon, then there’s another rig still out there pumping oil and aimed at Plaquemines Parish.

For crowdsourcing here’s the link, but it’s 29 mb so make sure you have the room to download:

http://www.neworleans.com/images/media/BP_Regional_OSRP_Redactedv2.pdf

1) In the worst case discharge scenario (on chart below), an oil leak was expected to come ashore with highest probability in Plaquemines Parish within 30 days (see map above from the Advance Response Plan). This makes it clear that BP could have stored adequate boom there before a rig failure like the Deepwater Horizon, and workers could have been mobilized to apply the boom in the 30 days that the response plan predicted oil would hit our wetlands.

Full Story: BP’s Spill Plan: What they knew and when they knew it.

Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil

The Coast Guard says a cap over the Gulf of Mexico oil leak has managed to collect about 252,000 gallons of oil in its first full 24 hours of use.

That’s still only a fraction of the oil being produced by the leak. But Adm. Thad Allen said Saturday that the goal is to gradually raise the amount being captured by the system.

The device’s capacity is 630,000 gallons a day.

The leak began after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20 and killed 11 workers. Six weeks later the government estimates the well has leaked nearly 50 million gallons of oil.

Full Story: Gulf Oil Spill: Cap Placed Over Leak Collecting Only Fraction Of The Oil.

Expert: If cap fails, oil in Gulf will triple

The worst fears of one conservationist may be coming true.

Admiral Thad Allen said Friday that the cap placed over the leaking well was only collecting oil at a rate of 42,000 gallons a day. Recent estimates put the leak’s flow at 500,000 to a million gallons a day.

That figure may have increased by 20 percent after the pipe at the top of the blowout preventer was cut off during BP’s latest attempt to staunch the flow.

Full Story: Expert: If cap fails, oil in Gulf will triple | Raw Story.

CEO: BP will make good on $10 billion in profit payouts to shareholders, despite spill

BP’s shareholders may receive more this year from the company’s coffers than those affected by the spill in the Gulf of Mexico will receive in their lifetime.

BP CEO Tony Hayward has indicated that he will go ahead with massive dividend payouts to shareholders in the aftermath of the worst oil spill in US history. $10 billion in payouts are scheduled for this year. The cost of the spill has been estimated in the tens of billions, but ExxonMobil only ended up paying a $507 million settlement for the 1994 Exxon Valdez spill after 20 years of appeals.

BP’s dividend ratio is now at 7.4 percent per year, more than twice the average payout of companies listed in the S&P 500. This means that US investors who hold BP stock effectively earn 7.4% interest on their shares — more when US tax law is taken into account — in addition to any gains or losses as a result of price shifts in the stock’s value.

Full Story: CEO: BP will make good on $10 billion in profit payouts to shareholders, despite spill | Raw Story.

Disaster in the Amazon

Bob Herbert:

BP’s calamitous behavior in the Gulf of Mexico is the big oil story of the moment. But for many years, indigenous people from a formerly pristine region of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador have been trying to get relief from an American company, Texaco (which later merged with Chevron), for what has been described as the largest oil-related environmental catastrophe ever.

“As horrible as the gulf spill has been, what happened in the Amazon was worse,” said Jonathan Abady, a New York lawyer who is part of the legal team that is suing Chevron on behalf of the rainforest inhabitants.

It has been a long and ugly legal fight and the outcome is uncertain. But what has happened in the rainforest is heartbreaking, although it has not gotten nearly the coverage that the BP spill has.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – Disaster in the Amazon – NYTimes.com.