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An attack by Yemeni Houthi rebels on a Belize-flagged ship earlier this month caused an 18-mile (29-kilometer) oil slick, the U.S. military said Saturday. It also warned of the danger of a spill from the vessel’s cargo of fertilizer. The Rubymar, a British-registered, Lebanese-operated cargo vessel, was attacked on Feb. 18 while sailing through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait that connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, U.S. Central Command said. The missile attack forced the crew to abandon the vessel, which had been on its way to Bulgaria after leaving Khorfakkan in the United Arab Emirates. It was...

ABC actually beat them to the punch on this story, reporting yesterday that clean-up crews are having trouble even finding the spill (“experts say an astonishing amount has disappeared, reabsorbed into the environment”), but only now that the Times is on it will it really break big.It’s not that the oil’s all gone, of course. But a lot of it is. And the rest is … hiding. Scientists said the rapid dissipation of the surface oil was probably due to a combination of factors. The gulf has an immense natural capacity to break down oil, which leaks into it at...

Venice, Louisiana (CNN) -- On the 50th day since the beginning of the massive oil disaster, advocacy group MoveOn says it will hold nationwide vigils Tuesday night to call for stepped-up efforts to stop the spill. The group called for a "major public outcry" and created a section on its website for people to search for vigils in their area by typing in their ZIP codes. Meanwhile, the Obama administration -- reacting to criticism that it has not been aggressive enough -- continued to work on turning that perception. Obama delivered a blunt defense of his administration's response to the...

An interesting video short presenting a group of kittens telling the BP oil spill from “their” perspective. A great way to get creative and present a message based on current events at the same time.

BP reported Sunday that its containment cap is now collecting 420,000 gallons a day, saying that was a 'majority' of the oil. But the flow rate in the Gulf oil spill is still uncertain, and BP has failed to live up to its optimistic predictions in the past. Early reports suggest that BP is on the verge of its first significant success in the Gulf oil spill. BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward told the BBC Sunday that the cut-and-cap maneuver is now collecting 420,000 gallons of oil a day – 40 percent more than it was collecting Saturday. The improvement...

BP PLC on Friday said some oil was flowing up a pipe from a cap it placed on its broken Gulf of Mexico well, but crude still spewed and it was unclear how much could be captured. President Barack Obama was set to visit the Louisiana coast Friday, his second trip in a week and the third since the disaster unfolded following an April 20 oil rig explosion. The government's point man for the crisis, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said the cap's installation atop a severed pipe late Thursday was a positive development but it was too early to...

It seems hard to fathom, but Wall Street is staying bullish on British Petroleum (BP). Which raises the question: Are these analysts overly optimistic about how BP will survive the largest oil spill in U.S. history? Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey currently estimate the amount of oil pouring out of BP's damaged Gulf well at about 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day, much higher than the company's initial calculation of 5,000 barrels. This spill is already much worse than the Exxon Valdez's Alaska accident in 1989. Despite the rising tide of public anger and hostility toward BP -- and...

Here’s my question: Why are we drilling in 5,000 feet of water in the first place? Many reasons, but this one goes unmentioned: Environmental chic has driven us out there. As production from the shallower Gulf of Mexico wells declines, we go deep (1,000 feet and more) and ultra deep (5,000 feet and more), in part because environmentalists have succeeded in rendering the Pacific and nearly all the Atlantic coast off-limits to oil production. (President Obama’s tentative, selective opening of some Atlantic and offshore Alaska sites is now dead.) And of course, in the safest of all places, on land,...

Two workers injured when an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico told Congress on Thursday that the companies in charge of the doomed drilling operation cut corners and neglected maintenance in a race toward higher profits. Oil has been spewing since the Deepwater Horizon blew up off the coast of Louisiana April 20, killing 11 workers. More than 100 others escaped. "They gambled with our lives," laborer Stephen Stone told the House Judiciary Committee. He said the accident was "set in motion years ago by these companies needlessly rushing to make money faster, while cutting corners to save...

Over one month after the initial explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, crude oil continues to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, and oil slicks have slowly reached as far as 12 miles into Louisiana's marshes. According to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, more than 65 miles of Louisiana's shoreline has now been oiled.

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope. The scientists assert that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies have been slow to investigate the magnitude of the spill and the damage it is causing in the deep ocean.

WATCH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ91G3e0OBQ&feature=player_embedded

Off the charts, environmentalists nuts carry an oil slick over their heads on a beach in protest to the oil spill, this was today..(Video)

BP PLC could now be spending as much as $10 million a day on the clean up of its oil well leak in the Gulf of Mexico, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said in a report in the Sunday Telegraph. The amount is significantly higher than the original $6 million a day revealed last week. Hayward has also ordered a complete safety overhaul of all the oil giant's rigs after admitting that a cut-off valve known as the "blow out preventer" had fundamentally failed on its stricken Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, which was destroyed in an explosion last month. Hayward...

Last week the Walton County Sheriffs Office and Emergency Operations held townhall meeting to discuss the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. During that meeting, officials asked for any idea's for dealing with the oil should it come to our county. Wouldn't ya know, leave to good ole American ingenuity. No need for adding more chemicals into the Gulf. No need for booms that are 90% ineffective. And the solution is about as green as it gets. Answer, hay and bahia grass.

By some merciful force or just good luck, the giant BP oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday remained the greatest environmental disaster that hasn't happened. For more than three days, news reports have been filled with alarming tales of imminent disaster, but then the wind direction shifted and the worst failed to materialize. Maybe millions of gallons of oil will eventually crash onto the shores of the U.S. gulf states, creating untold damage to the environment and the lives of millions of people. Or maybe fate will push the oil on a course that will avoid an unprecedented...

It took futuristic technology to achieve one of the worst ecological disasters on record. Without such technology, after all, BP couldn’t have drilled the Deepwater Horizon well in the first place. Yet for those who remember their environmental history, the catastrophe in the gulf has a strangely old-fashioned feel, reminiscent of the events that led to the first Earth Day, four decades ago. And maybe, just maybe, the disaster will help reverse environmentalism’s long political slide — a slide largely caused by our very success in alleviating highly visible pollution. If so, there may be a small silver lining to...

Energy: As the administration loosens restrictions on domestic energy development and offshore drilling, a reviled company develops technology to unlock America's vast shale resources. Drill, baby, drill. We have been among President Obama's harshest critics when it comes to the administration's overly restrictive energy policy, so we were pleasantly surprised to see him announce on Wednesday some light at the end of the pipeline. Some light, for many restrictions will remain in an energy policy best termed schizophrenic. Speaking at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., Obama announced the welcome news that his administration will let lease sales go...

CJ Warren issues a call to conservatives to roll up their sleeves and fix the Gulf Oil spill - without waiting for Uncle Sam...er...Barry We Americans just know how to pitch in and get-r-done. I am calling on all of my fellow patriotic friends on the right, to do the right thing, right now. If you are a TeaParty, 912, Band of Mothers, Mommy Patriots, Militia, or any other group leader, call out the troops. I do not care what part of the country you live in. Let’s once again show the world what it is to be American. Let’s...