August Walter Jr., who was tasked with helping lead BP’s plan to cleanup an oil spill off the Gulf Coast, has filed a whistleblower lawsuit that accuses BP of falsifying data to make it look like Mississippi beaches were cleaner than they actually were. The plaintiff says he was fired from his job after telling federal authorities that BP’s $14 billion cleanup efforts had shirked responsibilities on oil debris that had drifted to the coast. The allegedly falsified data was used to convince an assessment team that certain beach areas had been sufficiently “cleaned.” A BP spokesperson says that Walter’s claims are without merit.
Obama outlines energy goals in State of the Union
In President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, a goal was set towards opening up 75% “of our potential offshore oil and gas resources.” At Treehugger, energy policy analyst Brian Merchant notes that the 75% figure may refer to the land that’s already scheduled for leasing to the oil and gas industries. Environmentalists seem more interested in Obama’s talk about exploring natural gas, which he noted could last America nearly 100 years and support more than 600,000 jobs. Not true, says Merchant, pointing to too rosy evidence given by a industry-sponsored study. President Obama also expressed commitment towards “safely” developing natural-gas production by requiring companies that drill to disclose the chemicals they use, as well as fostering “green” energy innovation, in part by ending subsidies for oil producers and passing along tax credits to where they are needed.
Climate change hits close to home for Republican presidential candidates
Elliot Negin at the Huffington Post has a must-read article that talks about the impact of climate change in the home states of the Republican presidential challengers. Sure, there’s been hardly any talk about this issue in the countless Republican debates, but Negin gets very specific why the Republicans shouldn’t ignore the consequences of climate change, and gives projections on the destruction of agriculture in Newt Gingrich’s home state of Georgia, problems of smog and allergies and commercial fishing and coastal erosion in Mitt Romney’s home state of Massachusetts, and a reshaping of the landscape and major cash crops in Rick Santorum’s home state of Pennsylvania.
Another climate change problem: Arsenic contamination
The effects of climate change are also being felt in the Laguna Region, Mexico’s largest milk-producing area. According to this story on AlertNet, draughts and the overexploitation of groundwater resources has led to arsenic contamination, which has boosted rates of cancer reports in the local population to two or three times the national average. Arsenic levels have been measured at more than three times the safe limits sets by Mexican law. “There are people here with amputated fingers, legs or arms,” says one local health worker.
What is this frog trying to tell us?
If the Animal Kingdom were to further evolve to deal with man-made threats to the environment, we image they might develop the capacity to scream. Which makes this video of a screaming frog in the Netherlands something to behold.
Article source: http://current.com/groups/news-blog/93633814_bp-whistle-blower-says-company-is-lying-about-clean-up.htm?xid=RSSfeed
