Posted on 07/26/2010 3:08:04 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Matthew Simmons has made a lot of big claims about the oil spill (see videos below).
Because of his background, Simmons has been interviewed repeatedly in television, newspaper and radio media. Simmons was an energy adviser to President George W. Bush, is an adviser to the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, and is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations, and is former chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, an investment bank catering to oil companies.
People have become polarized around Simmons as a lightning rod. For example, people who believe all of Simmons' claims believe that anyone who questions any of Simmons's claims is working for BP. On the other extreme, people who think Simmons has gone senile or is simply talking his book (he's short BP) tar and feather anyone who questions BP's version of the Gulf narrative as being a crazy Simmons follower.
So let's assess Simmons' claims one-by-one. And - more importantly - let's refocus the discussion away from one person and towards the Gulf itself (Simmons himself will either be vindicated, proven off-base, or something in between. But that is his personal concern, not ours).
BP's stock Will Go to Zero
Simmons predicts that BP's stock will go to zero. he might be right. Fines under the Clean Water Act are $4,300 per barrel of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. And civil and criminal damages could be substantial.
But BP has been doing everything in its power to lowball the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf (and see this), even though it easily could have easily quantified
how much oil is spilling.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Ping to my post # 20...
I know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. Any dolphins or whales that were killed died from ingesting large quantities of oil, not Corexit. I'm a chemist, and I've taken the time to actually look up the toxicology of the compounds that make up the Corexit 9500. None of them are particularly hazardous.
Corexit 9527 does contain one hazardous compound, 2-butoxyethanol, which is why BP chose NOT to use it.
Balderdash. Your “references” are totally inadequate. Go to the EPA spill response website. There are links there to REAL science and toxicological data that can be traced back to peer-reviewed science.
You’re wrong, the Obama administration is not colluding with BP, just the opposite. The Obama administration is doing everything possible to make the situation a bad a possible, but interfering with and slowing down the clean up operations and frustrating the Coast Guard which is tasked with the clean up operations.
Corexit is, of course, an unknown when used is such massive amounts. The total effects won’t be known for years. But, there is no conspiracy to to cover up anything and certainly no collusion, not that it wouldn’t be beyond the capabliities or outside the M.O. of BP execs to collude with government.
This is an unprecedented disaster and no one has any sure answers, but all involved believe that they have to give BP a chance to handle the situation their way. They are close and it won’t be long before we know if BP’s solution will work work.
The Obama administration has been trying to hype the rage against BP and slow down the clean up by standing in the way of every rational effort to lessen the effects of the oil. BP’s MO was to cut corners on safety, they got caught. They are in no way cutting any corners on the clean up. They are spending money like water. If you have any rage about the clean up, it should be directed at the Obama administration who hopes to use the rage against BP to take over the oil industry, like he did the auto industry, health care industry and banking. Don’t be fooled.
The spill accomplished what it was supposed to do.
Shut down all drilling in the US.
boats getting sick,,,
Many have rectal bleeding,,,
That is covered in the first link I posted back upthread,,,
Take a look what's in this krap,,,
Down a the bottom :
ANALYSIS FOR HEAVY METALS, CYANIDE, AND CHLORINATED HYDROCARBONS
Sounds like Agent Orange...
No, it wasn’t the spill that was supposed to shut down drilling, it was the enormous amount of environmental damage that was supposed to shut down the drilling, the environmental damage that was exacerbated by Obama.
Eva, please see 1counter-Morter-68’s information in post #20 on corexit.
1CM68, thanks so much for laying out the health data on corexit. I hope everyone will see it and stay out of the water and avoid untested sea food. I think spraying that stuff was a crime against humanity because both the government and BP know it is toxic as heck.
Check out post #20 for more information on Corexit.
It’s not the corexit, itself that is toxic, it’s the oil that combines with corexit and goes into suspension, creating a giant toxic cloud of oil in the water. Yes, it could be a huge disaster, but we won’t know the extent of the damage for years. We could have a huge toxic sea in the Gulf. We just don’t know.
It wasn’t the corexit that caused though symptoms, it was the oil. Those symptoms are all symptoms of benezene poisoning. Way too many of those who worked closely with the oil in the EXXON spill have died of cancers related to benezene poisoning.
If your search > Corexit < there is much more info there,,,
Seems like nasty stuff to me,,,
Too late now I guess,,,
Then there’s this :
Seems right to me.
Stop digging the hole, Eva. Corexit is a very dangerous application to oil.
The EPA has been testing air and water for compounds from both types of Corexit that were purportedly used in the spill (certainly Corexit 9500 was used, but there is some question whether the 9527 was used).
Said EPA data shows "ND" for all tests (ND standing for "Not Detected"). You can find the values for those compounds in water tests at the following URL.
http://www.epa.gov/BPSpill/data/water_dispersants.pdf
The other inconvenient fact for your doomsday scenario is that both types of Corexit are NOT STABLE once put into aqueous solution. They decompose with a half-life of around 10-20 days. So much of the Corexit put in the Gulf is simply GONE.
Actually, we DO know. The highest concentration of oil I have seen quoted in the subsurface "plumes" is 5ppm.
Since the CoRexit was used in much lesser amounts than the oil released, the Corexit will be present at much lower levels. Taking the worst-case scenarios (from the Corexit standpoint) you have 2 million gallons of Corexit added to 120 million gallons of oil, so the concentration of Corexit IN THE PLUMES can be no higher than 100 ppb. So obviously any specific compound in the Corexit will be even lower than that.
That may be high enough to affect some fish larva in the plumes, but not enough to kill adult fish. And certainly no air-breathing species.
And that is in the plumes. By the time the Corexit gets to where some humans might be exposed, it will be diluted even more.
The EPA has been testing both air and water at multiple sites across the Gulf Coast for compounds present in both types of Corexit. Bottom line......none found.
The Corexit is just another "green scare" that the more gullible sorts are falling for. Remember the ALAR fiasco??
Well damn...how are we going to keep the Gulf toxic with that half-life?
It's gonna be tough, I agree. No more oil spilling. Spilled oil rapidly disappearing. No Corexit detected anywhere. Nobody dead yet from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. The possibilities for scary doomsday scenarios are shrinking fast.
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