A string of dangerous accidents in Alaska sends BP reeling, emails show – “We must change now; we must have a reset”

By Zahra Hirji and Jason Leopold 20 October 2017 (BuzzFeed News) – At least 27 accidents happened at BP’s oil and gas operations in Alaska this year, including five that risked the lives of dozens of workers, BuzzFeed News has learned. Now BP’s top officials are scrambling to “reset” the company’s safety culture before one […]

First tanker crosses Arctic sea route without ice breaker

By Matt McGrath 24 August 2017 (BBC News) – A commercial LNG tanker has sailed across the colder, northern route from Europe to Asia without the protection of an ice-breaker for the first time.The specially-built ship completed the crossing in just six-and-a-half days setting a new record, according to the tanker’s Russian owners.The 300-metre-long Sovcomflot […]

Oil spills perturb entire ocean food webs – Gulf of Mexico ecosystem may never recover

Heidelberg, New York, 10 July 2017 (Springer Nature) – Oil spills not only have a direct impact on species and habitats, but may also set off a cascade of perturbations that affect the entire food web. These are the findings of new research published in an article in the special issue on Ocean Spills and […]

State of emergency declared for Louisiana coast by Gov. John Bel Edwards – Order requests Trump to “recognize and declare the coastal crisis”

BY Tristan Baurick 20 April 2017 (The Times-Picayune) – Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday (April 19) officially declared Louisiana’s coastal land loss an emergency, a move he hopes will expedite a host of restoration projects mired in federal permitting. “The Louisiana coast is in a state of crisis that demands immediate and urgent action […]

EPA dismisses members of scientific review board – “This is part of a multifaceted effort to get science out of the way of a deregulation agenda”

By Coral Davenport7 May 2017 WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has dismissed at least five members of a major scientific review board, the latest signal of what critics call a campaign by the Trump administration to shrink the agency’s regulatory reach by reducing the role of academic research. A spokesman for the E.P.A. administrator, […]

Trump signs executive order on offshore drilling and marine sanctuaries

By Nathan Rott and Merrit Kennedy27 April 2017 (NPR) – President Trump signed an executive order Friday that aims to expand offshore drilling for oil and gas, in a move welcomed by the oil and gas industry and greeted with alarm by environmental groups. “Renewed offshore energy production will reduce the cost of energy, create […]

Photo gallery: Native Americans protest the Dakota Access Pipeline project at the White House

11 March 2017 (White Wolf Pack) – Thousands of Native American demonstrators and their supporters marched to the White House to voice outrage at the Dakota Access Pipeline project. The protest follows months of demonstrations in a remote part of North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Sioux tribe demonstrated in an attempt to stop the […]

Fish affected by Deepwater Horizon oil spill give clues to air pollution and human heart disease

16 February 2017 (The University of Manchester) – A study by Manchester and Stanford scientists into the effects on fish of a 2010 oil disaster could shed new light on how air pollution affects humans’ hearts. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster resulted in a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, an area of […]

Uncharted waters: Mega-cruise ships sail the Arctic

[cf. As the world burns, the rich cruise in luxury through a melting Arctic] By Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Toby Chopra 10 October 2016 SVALBARD, Norway (Reuters) – A surge in Arctic tourism is bringing ever bigger cruise ships to the formerly isolated, ice-bound region, prompting calls for a clamp-down to prevent Titanic-style accidents and […]

Texas oil company announces big offshore Alaska discovery – ‘It has the size and scale to play a meaningful role in sustaining the Alaskan oil business over the next three or four decades’

By Dan Joling 5 October 2016 ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Associated Press) – A Texas petroleum drilling company announced Tuesday it has made a large-scale oil discovery off Alaska’s North Slope. Dallas-based Caelus Energy Alaska LLC announced a find of 6 billion barrels of light oil on its state leases in the Arctic Ocean waters of Smith […]

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