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A new computer model of the Gulf of Mexico in the period after the 2010 oil spill provides insights into how underwater currents may have primed marine microorganisms to degrade the oil. "It is called dynamic auto-inoculation. Parcels of water move over the ruptured well, picking up hydrocarbons. When these parcels come back around and cross back over the well, the bacteria have already been activated, are more abundant than before, and degrade hydrocarbons far more quickly," says David Valentine of the University of California, Santa Barbara, ... Valentine has been studying microbial communities and the fate of chemicals 4000...

One year later, Obama’s energy plan is ‘Brazil or bust’Today, on the one-year anniversary, Americans don’t have to travel to the Gulf to witness the lingering effect of the the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It’s right there in the numbers on their gas receipts every time they fill up at the pump. As hurtful as the disaster has been to the economic fortunes of the Gulf region, the impact of the Obama administration’s response to the spill has been far worse on the nation’s economy. On April 20, 2010, the day of the tragic oil-rig blowout that killed 11...

Last August, just two days into a research cruise to study methane gas spewed into the Gulf of Mexico by the Deepwater Horizon gusher, Texas A&M University oceanographer John Kessler turned to one of his colleagues and said, "Well, it looks like it might be gone. What do you think?" The huge wallop of methane burped up from deep inside the earth was, in fact, missing. Kessler and his colleagues now report in Science that a huge swarm of gas-gobbling bacteria swelled to consume nearly all of the estimated 200,000 tons of methane dumped into the gulf. ..... Besides providing...

NEW ORLEANS, (AP) -- The Coast Guard admiral overseeing cleanup of the BP oil spill says extensive sampling of the Gulf of Mexico seafloor has found oil in quantities too small to merit collection. The Coast Guard's findings — to be released in a report Friday — are in contrast to reports from independent scientists who say oil has extensively damaged the seafloor. "We are not finding any recoverable amounts of oil," Rear Adm. Paul Zukunft told The Associated Press. "We are finding traces of oil."

Energy czar Carol Browner needs to go the way of disgraced green-jobs czar Van Jones: under the bus and stripped of her unbridled power to destroy jobs and lives in the name of saving the planet. ASAP. One of the Beltway's most entrenched and unaccountable left-wing radicals, Browner has now been called out twice by President Obama's own federal BP oil-spill commission and Interior Department inspector general. How many strikes should she get? Pushing the question should be a top priority of the new House GOP majority. Not least of all because Washington insiders are still buzzing about possible White...

When the Obama White House announced its moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP-Deepwater Horizon catastrophe in April, the administration insisted that they followed the recommendations of its panel of experts. This story blew up when the panel of experts insisted that they had not recommended any kind of blanket moratorium, and that one simply wasn’t necessary to address the deficiencies at MMS that contributed to the catastrophic fire and spill. A new report from the Inspector General probing the White House response accuses the administration of rewriting key sections of the report in order to...

Seaswarm, an autonomous, solar-powered skimmer, may be the answer to less expensive and more efficient methods for cleaning up future oil spills. The robot prototype promises to absorb 20 times its weight in oil. Created by researchers at MIT’s Senseable City Lab, Seaswarm employs a conveyor belt of absorbent, nanowire mesh. The specially deigned mesh can suck up oil on the water’s surface and then process and dispose of the oil it’s collected. The Seaswarm can continue to absorb more of the spill while the robot autonomously navigates and cleans the ocean for weeks on end. Researchers claim that 5,000...

"In the chaotic aftermath of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, a poorly orchestrated effort to knock down the towering blaze may have inadvertently led to the sinking of the platform, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and shared with ABC News. As part of an ongoing government investigation, Coast Guard officials are trying to reconstruct the initial response to the rig explosion that unleashed one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history. One concern surrounds the use of briny seawater instead of fire-retardant foam to drench the rig. The Coast...

Like green manna from heaven, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill may give Democrats yet new fodder to push cap-and-trade -- legislation setting a national limit to carbon emissions and giving the federal government the authority to parcel out "carbon credits." Never mind that the climate has absolutely no connection to the spill, or even help mitigate future possibilities of disaster, but that's not the point - there'd be few things more shocking than if Team Obama didn't somehow exploit a "good crisis." So what is the point? Well to understand, one must first understand progressives: while most people view...

NEW ORLEANS — BP allayed last-minute government fears of making the disaster worse and began testing the new, tighter-fitting cap Wednesday that could finally choke off the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the disaster, said the government gave the go-ahead after carefully reviewing the risks. "What we didn't want to do is compound that problem by making an irreversible mistake," he said at the end of a 24-hour roller-coaster of hopes raised, hopes dashed and hopes raised again along the Gulf Coast. The cap - a...

American white pelicans, blue-winged teal and long-billed curlews are enjoying the Montana summer, but their wintering grounds are threatened by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Wildlife managers on the Gulf Coast are already scrambling to prepare for the arrival of millions of birds that will start leaving their northern breeding grounds as early as this month. They include Montana species like the piping plover and sandpipers, followed by scaups and blue-winged teal in August. Since the undersea well blew out April 22, 130 miles southeast of New Orleans, oil has been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico at between 35,000...

U.S. Citizens must do for ourselves, while we are being mushroom managed by the Obama administration and their accomplices in globalist mega-racketeering (Link-1 Link2). This is especially essential at the Gulf. Here are two important examples on video, of citizens at work. The first reports what may be very serious contamination of the waters, as far eastward as Florida. 6/24 video, Brietbart TV: "Surf at Pensacola Beach Bubbling like Acid" "As far as EPA, OSHA, NOAA, BP, and the 'Federal' Government... every one of them is in collaboration with each other. That comes from someone at the top of NOAA."...

Mitt Romney attacks Obama's leadership on Oil Spill Has it come to this again? The president is meeting with his oil spill experts, he crudely tells us, so that he knows "whose @ss to kick." We have become accustomed to his management style — target a scapegoat, assign blame and go on the attack. To win health care legislation, he vilified insurance executives; to escape bankruptcy law for General Motors, he demonized senior lenders; to take the focus from the excesses of government, he castigated business meetings in Las Vegas; and to deflect responsibility for the deepening and lengthening downturn,...

The calamity in the Gulf has the markings of the disaster that led to the demise of the Soviet Union. Our federal government led by our god-like president, an omnipotent structure in the starry eyes of many, shows itself to be an incompetent, uncoordinated monster, capable only of interfering with productive efforts to salvage our coastlines and livelihoods. The once-Olympian Obama is reduced to a sniveling nebbish bemoaning his inability to suck it all up with a straw. The whole spectacle is too familiar to anyone who's ever tried to develop a productive enterprise. Such people see the same bureaucratic...

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in New Orleans has blocked a six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects that was imposed in response to the massive Gulf oil spill. Several companies that ferry people and supplies and provide other services to offshore drilling rigs had asked U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans to overturn the moratorium. President Barack Obama's administration has halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 exploratory wells in the Gulf. Feldman says in his ruling that the Interior Department failed to provide adequate reasoning for the...

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which owns a quarter of BP's blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, on Friday blasted BP for "reckless decisions and actions" that it said led to the well's explosion. Joining in the torrent of criticism of the British oil giant as it seeks to escape the huge financial liability, Anadarko said that BP's behavior before the blowout likely represented "gross negligence or willful misconduct." "We will be looking at our contractual remedies based on the information that we have already received about the behaviors and practices on the well in the finishing days," Anadarko Chief...

Machines that separate oil from water—even allowing the oil to be refined later—can be on-site in the Gulf of Mexico within days, Jean-Michel Cousteau, president and founder of the Ocean Futures Society, told CBNC Thursday. Cousteau, who is backing the use of the machines, or units, is on the advisory board of Ecosphere Technologies, which makes them. Cousteau, the son of legendary sea explorer and ecologist, Jacques Cousteau, said there are 24 to 26 units that are ready to go and in the region. The units are mobile water treatment plants, which use a nonchemical oxidation process, Michael Vinick, chairman...

Guess Mike could always get a gig with the Vienna Boys Choir . . . If MSNBC libs like Olbermann and Matthews were surprisingly critical of Pres. Obama's speech last night, PBO can apparently count on one defender at the network: Mika Brzezinski. So fiercely did Brzezinski go after Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe today for his criticism of the speech, that the panel agreed poor Mike had been "emasculated." Joe Scarborough took it a graphic step further, saying Mika had "castrated" the former Boston Globe columnist. View video here.

On May 27, 2010 I posted that the Gulf Oil spill was president Soetoro’s 9/11. Well apparently, the president agrees with me because on June 13, 2010 the Politico reported that the President believes that the Gulf Oil Spill is his 9/11. (see article) Now I have no proof that the president actually read my blog…maybe he was briefed on it. (Lol) But it goes to show while all the other Bloggers and Media were in their echo chamber comparing the Gulf Oil spill with hurricane Katrina, your favorite blogger was the only one that had the insight to recognize...

The administration has decreed a six-month moratorium on exploratory drilling in the Gulf, based on a report that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar wrote for President Obama. Salazar claimed that a panel of seven experts selected by the National Academy of Engineering had peer reviewed his report. It turns out, though, that the seven experts never saw the recommendation for a moratorium, and in fact oppose it:The seven experts who advised President Obama on how to deal with offshore drilling safety after the Deepwater Horizon explosion are accusing his administration of misrepresenting their views to make it appear that they supported...