OIL STILL GUSHING AS OF MAY 28,10

POISONED WATERS

REVELATION 8:8-11
8 And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;
9 And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.10 And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;
11 And the name of the star is called Wormwood:(bitter,Poisoned) and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.(poisoned)

REVELATION 16:3-7
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.(enviromentalists won't like this result)
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they(False World Church and Dictator) have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

LIVE BP OIL FEED
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/26/bp-oil-spill-live-feed-vi_n_590635.html
http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/globalbp/globalbp_uk_english/
homepage/STAGING/local_assets/bp_homepage/html/rov_stream.html

ON MAY 26,10 JINDAL SAYS 100 MILES HAVE BEEN CONTAMINATED IN THIS OIL SPILL.D-BILL NELSON SAYS THE ARMY SHOULD COME IN AND TAKE CONTROL OF THE OIL SPILL IF THIS CAPING FAILS.IF THIS CAPING DOES NOT WORK IT COULD BE A FULL BLOWN GUSH OUT OF OIL.NELSON SAYS SOETORO-0BAMA BETTER GET A PERSON INVOLVED AS THE LEADER OF THE PROJECT INSTEAD OF WHO KNOWS WHOS IN CHARGE.EVEN GODLESS D-JAMES CARVILLE IS HOPIN MAD AT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FOR SITTING ON THEIR HANDS FOR 36 DAYS.

THE PRESSURE IS FINALLY STARTING TO MOUNT ON OBAMA.IF OBAMA WILL NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT OIL HE CAN SEE,HOW CAN HE CAP INVISIBLE GAS(CLIMATE CHANGE-CAP AND TRADE)WHAT HE CAN NOT SEE......CAN YOU SAY-SCAM,MONEY HUNGRY,ENVIROMENTAL CULT WORSHIP.

ITS 4:50PM MAY 27,10 I HEARD ON FOX NEWS THAT BY SHOVING MUD DOWN THE OIL SPOUT IT COULD CAUSE AN EXPLOSION TO OCCUR.IF IT WOULD CAUSE A BIG ENOUGH EXPLOSION I HAVE A FEELING IT COULD CAUSE A GIGANTIC TSUNAMI WHICH COULD THEN DESTROY 1/3RD OF THE SHIPS ON THE GULF LIKE THE PROPHECY SAYS WLL HAPPEN.THIS COULD TURN INTO AN INTERESTING SITUATION I WILL BE WATCHING VERY CLOSELY FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS.THIS COULD GET A LOT WORSE THEN JUST A GIGANTIC OIL SPILL.

ITS MAY 28,10 AND SEE WHAT HAPPENDS IN THE SPILL SITE TODAY.I HAVE A FEELING THAT THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS SETTING UP A TRILLION DOLLAR BAILOUT TO BP TO COVER THE LOSES THAT THEY WILL BE PAYING OUT....JUST WAIT AND SEE.THIS IS SOME KIND OF SCAM TO GIVE BP TOTAL CONTROL OF THE OIL INDUSTRY YOU CAN BET AND ENDING UP BEING CONTROLLED BY THE CHICAGO THUG OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.WE WILL SEE IF MY HUNCH ON THIS IS CORRECT. IN YESTERDAYS OBAMA OIL SPILL CONFERENCE ALL HE DONE WAS DECIEVE AND LIE ABOUT EVERYTHNG...HOW CAN ANYONE BELIEVE A THING OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION SAY,I SURE DON'T..HE DOES NOT PULL THE WOOL OVER MY EYES LIKE THE DUMBDOWN THAT GET DECIEVED BY A SMOOTH TALKER LIKE THIS LIAR OBAMA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQhH9srELA&feature=player_embedded (LIE)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/27/gulf-oil-spill-exxon-valdez_n_591840.html
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4216379/obama-addresses-oil-spill?playlist_id=86918

THIS IS DAY 39 OF THE SPILL.AMERICAS WORSE EVER SPILL.29 MILLION GALLONS IN THE GULF,ESTIMATED COST SO FAR $1.6 BILLION.EXXON SPILT 11 MILLION GALLONS IN THE WATER AND THAT WAS SUCH A SCANDLE.THIS SPILL IS 29 MILLION AND COUNTING SECOND BY SECOND.

ITS 3:30PM MAY 28,10 EVEN GODLESS CNN IS ADMITTING OBAMA AND THAD ALLEN LIED YESTERDAY WHILE SAYING BP WAS PUTTING MUD IN THE OIL TRAP.MEANWHLE THEY STOPPED FOR 16 HOURS BUT LEAD EVERYONE ON THAT THEY WERE MUDDING THE LEAK.RICK SANCHES IS SAYING WHILE OBAMA WAS DOING HIS OIL SPEECH PRESS CONFERENCE AND WHILE THAD ALLEN WAS DOING HIS SAYING THE MUD WAS BEING INSERTED.GUESS WHAT NO MUD WAS BEING INSERTED...I TOLD YOU THIS IS JUST A LIE AFTER LIE AFTER LIES GOING ON HERE.

ITS 4:45PM MAY 28 AND THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION CONTACTED CNN AND SAID THE MUD MAY NOT HAVE BEEN GOING BUT THE PLUGGING HAD NOT STOPPED.THIS ADMINISTRATION IS IN PARIL AS OBAMA HAD TO GET DEFENCIVE QUICK ON THIS OIL SPILL TO WATER THE TRUTH DOWN OVIOUSLY.SEE WHAT ELSE THESE CRIMINAL,LIERS COME UP WITH TONIGHT.

WE MAY HAVE A MOTIVE FOR OBAMA GETTING ON THIS SO QUICK.BLITZER SAID BP'S STOCK IS DROPPING QUICK DUE TO THIS SPILL NOW.THIS WOULD MEAN I WAS CORRECT AND OBAMA WOULD HAVE TO BAILOUT AND TAKE OVER BP IF THE BP STOCKS BOMB OUT.GREAT TIP I MUST ADMIT BLITZER.

MAY 28,10 6:45PM NOW CAROL COSTELLO INFORMS US ON CNN THAT WE MAY HAVE PEOPLE FLOWN IN FOR A PHOTO OP POTRAYING THE ADMINISTRATION AS BRINGING PEOPLE IN TO HELP CLEANUP.THIS GETS MORE CRAZY BY THE MINUTE.CAROL ASKED ONE OF THE WORKERS ,WERE ARE YOU FROM,HE REPLIES I CAN NOT SAY ANYTHING.OH MAN NOW THEY BRING IMMIGRINTS IN I FIGURE TO PUT ON A SHOW WHILE OBAMAS AT THE SPILL SITE.THIS JUST TAKES THE CAKE.

SDR AS WORLD CURRENCY
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32090166/GS-SDR-Currencies
http://israndjer.blogspot.com/2010/05/plunge-protection-team-robbery-sdrs.html
BILL GATES-KILL POPULATION OFF BY 50%-80% BY VACCINES TO SAVE THE EARTH
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31264229/Bill-Gates-Use-Vaccines-to-Lower-Population
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I&feature=player_embedded

READ YESTERDAYS LIES FOR YOURSELF.OR WATCH VIDEO.
VIDEO
http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/deepwater-bp-oil-spill-presidential-press-conference

For Immediate Release May 27, 2010 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE GULF OIL SPILL East Room 12:50 P.M. EDT
TO READ QUESTION-TRANSCRIPT
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-gulf-oil-spill

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, everybody. Before I take your questions, I want to update the American people on the status of the BP oil spill -– a catastrophe that is causing tremendous hardship in the Gulf Coast, damaging a precious ecosystem, and one that led to the death of 11 workers who lost their lives in the initial explosion.Yesterday, the federal government gave BP approval to move forward with a procedure known as a top kill to try to stop the leak. This involves plugging the well with densely packed mud to prevent any more oil from escaping. And given the complexity of this procedure and the depth of the leak, this procedure offers no guarantee of success. But we’re exploring any reasonable strategies to try and save the Gulf from a spill that may otherwise last until the relief wells are finished -– and that's a process that could take months.

The American people should know that from the moment this disaster began, the federal government has been in charge of the response effort. As far as I’m concerned, BP is responsible for this horrific disaster, and we will hold them fully accountable on behalf of the United States as well as the people and communities victimized by this tragedy. We will demand that they pay every dime they owe for the damage they’ve done and the painful losses that they’ve caused. And we will continue to take full advantage of the unique technology and expertise they have to help stop this leak. But make no mistake: BP is operating at our direction. Every key decision and action they take must be approved by us in advance. I’ve designated Admiral Thad Allen -– who has nearly four decades of experience responding to such disasters -– as the National Incident Commander, and if he orders BP to do something to respond to this disaster, they are legally bound to do it. So, for example, when they said they would drill one relief well to stem this leak we demanded a backup and ordered them to drill two. And they are in the process of drilling two. As we devise strategies to try and stop this leak, we’re also relying on the brightest minds and most advanced technology in the world. We’re relying on a team of scientists and engineers from our own national laboratories and from many other nations -– a team led by our Energy Secretary and Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Stephen Chu. And we’re relying on experts who’ve actually dealt with oil spills from across the globe, though none this challenging.

The federal government is also directing the effort to contain and clean up the damage from the spill -– which is now the largest effort of its kind in U.S. history. In this case, the federal, state, and local governments have the resources and expertise to play an even more direct role in the response effort. And I will be discussing this further when I make my second trip to Louisiana tomorrow. But so far we have about 20,000 people in the region who are working around the clock to contain and clean up this oil. We have activated about 1,400 members of the National Guard in four states. We have the Coast Guard on site. We have more than 1,300 vessels assisting in the containment and cleanup efforts. We’ve deployed over 3 million feet of total boom to stop the oil from coming on shore -– and today more than 100,000 feet of boom is being surged to Louisiana parishes that are facing the greatest risk from the oil. So we’ll continue to do whatever is necessary to protect and restore the Gulf Coast. For example, Admiral Allen just announced that we’re moving forward with a section of Governor Jindal’s barrier island proposal that could help stop oil from coming ashore. It will be built in an area that is most at risk and where the work can be most quickly completed.We’re also doing whatever it takes to help the men and women whose livelihoods have been disrupted and even destroyed by this spill -– everyone from fishermen to restaurant and hotel owners. So far the Small Business Administration has approved loans and allowed many small businesses to defer existing loan payments. At our insistence, BP is paying economic injury claims, and we’ll make sure that when all is said and done, the victims of this disaster will get the relief that they are owed. We’re not going to abandon our fellow citizens. We’ll help them recover and we will help them rebuild.

And in the meantime, I should also say that Americans can help by continuing to visit the communities and beaches of the Gulf Coast. I was talking to the governors just a couple of days ago, and they wanted me to remind everybody that except for three beaches in Louisiana, all of the Gulf’s beaches are open. They are safe and they are clean. As we continue our response effort, we’re also moving quickly on steps to ensure that a catastrophe like this never happens again. I’ve said before that producing oil here in America is an essential part of our overall energy strategy. But all drilling must be safe. In recent months, I’ve spoken about the dangers of too much -- I’ve heard people speaking about the dangers of too much government regulation. And I think we can all acknowledge there have been times in history when the government has overreached. But in this instance, the oil industry’s cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all. When Secretary Salazar took office, he found a Minerals and Management Service that had been plagued by corruption for years –- this was the agency charged with not only providing permits, but also enforcing laws governing oil drilling. And the corruption was underscored by a recent Inspector General’s report that covered activity which occurred prior to 2007 -- a report that can only be described as appalling. And Secretary Salazar immediately took steps to clean up that corruption. But this oil spill has made clear that more reforms are needed. For years, there has been a scandalously close relationship between oil companies and the agency that regulates them. That’s why we’ve decided to separate the people who permit the drilling from those who regulate and ensure the safety of the drilling.I also announced that no new permits for drilling new wells will go forward until a 30-day safety and environmental review was conducted. That review is now complete. Its initial recommendations include aggressive new operating standards and requirements for offshore energy companies, which we will put in place.

Additionally, after reading the report’s recommendations with Secretary Salazar and other members of my administration, we’re going to be ordering the following actions: First, we will suspend the planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska. Second, we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia. Third, we will continue the existing moratorium and suspend the issuance of new permits to drill new deepwater wells for six months. And four, we will suspend action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico. What’s also been made clear from this disaster is that for years the oil and gas industry has leveraged such power that they have effectively been allowed to regulate themselves. One example: Under current law, the Interior Department has only 30 days to review an exploration plan submitted by an oil company. That leaves no time for the appropriate environmental review. They result is, they are continually waived. And this is just one example of a law that was tailored by the industry to serve their needs instead of the public’s. So Congress needs to address these issues as soon as possible, and my administration will work with them to do so. Still, preventing such a catastrophe in the future will require further study and deeper reform. That’s why last Friday, I also signed an executive order establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. While there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an independent review by the National Academy of Engineering, the purpose of this commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions are necessary. If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such a spill, or if we did not enforce those laws, then I want to know. I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.

Let me make one final point. More than anything else, this economic and environmental tragedy –- and it’s a tragedy -– underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean, renewable sources of energy. Doing so will not only reduce threats to our environment, it will create a new, homegrown, American industry that can lead to countless new businesses and new jobs. We’ve talked about doing this for decades, and we’ve made significant strides over the last year when it comes to investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency. The House of Representatives has already passed a bill that would finally jumpstart a permanent transition to a clean energy economy, and there is currently a plan in the Senate –- a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans –- that would achieve the same goal. If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wake-up call that it’s time to move forward on this legislation. It’s time to accelerate the competition with countries like China, who have already realized the future lies in renewable energy. And it’s time to seize that future ourselves. So I call on Democrats and Republicans in Congress, working with my administration, to answer this challenge once and for all. I'll close by saying this: This oil spill is an unprecedented disaster. The fact that the source of the leak is a mile under the surface, where no human being can go, has made it enormously difficult to stop. But we are relying on every resource and every idea, every expert and every bit of technology, to work to stop it. We will take ideas from anywhere, but we are going to stop it. And I know that doesn’t lessen the enormous sense of anger and frustration felt by people on the Gulf and so many Americans. Every day I see this leak continue I am angry and frustrated as well. I realize that this entire response effort will continue to be filtered through the typical prism of politics, but that’s not what I care about right now. What I care about right now is the containment of this disaster and the health and safety and livelihoods of our neighbors in the Gulf Coast. And for as long as it takes, I intend to use the full force of the federal government to protect our fellow citizens and the place where they live. I can assure you of that.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/05/27/94956/full-text-of-president-obamas.html#ixzz0pE3H8K94

BP pushes on with top kill as true slick size emerges by Stephane Jourdain – 4:50AM

VENICE, Louisiana (AFP) – BP pressed on Friday with a risky bid to plug a ruptured oil well it said was going as planned, while new data showed the Gulf of Mexico spill is the worst in US history.Amid the looming environmental catastrophe, there were growing fears for the health of cleanup workers exposed to the crude and chemical dispersants, some of whom had to be airlifted for treatment after falling sick while out at sea. Even if BP's top kill maneuver succeeds in capping the leak, millions of gallons of crude are sloshing about in the Gulf waters, and a visibly angered President Barack Obama moved to clamp down on the oil industry.If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wake-up call, Obama said at his first formal White House press conference in 10 months, called specifically to address the crisis triggered by an April 20 explosion that rocked a BP-leased drilling rig off the Louisiana coast.My job is to get this fixed, Obama said, a day before his second trip to the Gulf of Mexico to oversee disaster relief efforts.The British energy giant said Friday the oil spill had cost the firm close to one billion dollars while BP's market value has also dropped by billions.The cost of the response to date amounts to about 930 million dollars, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs, BP said in a statement.

BP said it had paused the top kill for some 16 hours on Thursday to monitor the results, before resuming it again as night fell.Nothing's actually gone wrong or unanticipated," BP chief operations officer Doug Suttles stressed at a press conference on the latest bid to cap the ruptured pipe on the seabed nearly a mile (1,600 meters) below the surface.He said it was important for engineers to keep checking pressures as robotic submarines force-fed heavy drilling fluids into the broken pipe in order to stop the oil flow long enough to plug it with cement.Suttles said he expected to know on Friday or Saturday whether the operation has worked.We are very pleased with the performance of the equipment so far, he told CNN.The spill will have far-reaching implications for the livelihoods of those living in the southern Gulf states, as well as the oil industry in the area.Obama slammed past lax regulation as he laid out steps to bar any new deepwater oil exploration for six months and suspend some permits and lease sales off the vulnerable coasts of Alaska and Virginia.In this instance, the oil industry's cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship with government regulators meant little or no regulation at all, he said.

The president also lashed BP, suggesting it may have sought to downplay the true extent of the economic and ecological disaster now threatening Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.Government scientists meanwhile released data Thursday showing the oil may have been flowing from the burst pipe at a rate up to four times higher than previous estimates by BP and the federal government.The new estimates put the flow rate at 12,000 to 19,000 barrels (504,000 to 798,000 gallons) a day -- much higher than the previous estimate of 5,000 barrels. That would mean between 18.6 million gallons and 29.5 million gallons of oil have seeped into the Gulf -- far more than the roughly 11 million gallons of crude spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska. With 100 miles (160 kilometers) of Louisiana coastline already contaminated, there are fears US officials may order the burning of the state's unique marshlands, home to a variety of endangered birds and mammals. Obama dismissed charges the government response had been too slow, but said it was legitimate to question whether BP was being fully forthcoming about the extent of the damage.US Coast Guard chief Thad Allen, who is coordinating the government's battle against the spill, said the top kill maneuver appeared to be having some success, noting that as long as the mud is going down, the hydrocarbons are not coming up.All 125 commercial fishing boats helping to clean up the oil off Louisiana were recalled after seven workers reported health problems. The cause of the workers' illnesses is under investigation, said BP's Suttles, as he sought to calm public fears over the chemical dispersant used to break down the oil for faster decomposition in the water. As I've stated many times, if there is a less toxic, more effective product (than Corexit), we'll switch to it, without a doubt,he said.

Gulf Coast awaits word that oil flow has stopped By GREG BLUESTEIN and BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Writers - MAY 28,10 4:40AM

ROBERT, La. – It could be late Friday or over the Memorial Day weekend before the world knows if BP's latest effort has succeeded in stopping the surge of oil in the Gulf of Mexico that has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez disaster as the biggest oil spill in U.S. history.The good news is that so far, BP's latest attempt — which involves pumping drilling mud into the broken well — hasn't made things worse.After an 18-hour delay Thursday to assess its efforts and bring in more materials, BP resumed pumping heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater in a procedure known as a top kill.As the world waited, President Barack Obama announced major new restrictions on drilling projects, and the head of the federal agency that regulates the industry resigned under pressure, becoming the highest-ranking political casualty of the crisis so far.BP PLC insisted the top kill was progressing as planned, though the company acknowledged drilling mud was escaping from the broken pipe along with the leaking crude.The fact that we had a bunch of mud going up the riser isn't ideal but it's not necessarily indicative of a problem, spokesman Tom Mueller said.Early Thursday, officials said the process was going well, but later in the day they announced pumping had been suspended 16 hours earlier. BP did not characterize the suspension as a setback, and Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute, said the move did not indicate the top kill had failed.

The good news is that they pumped in up to 65 barrels a minute and the thing didn't blow apart, Smith said.It's taken the most pressure it needs to see and it's held together.The top kill is the latest in a string of attempts to stop the oil that has been spewing since the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.If the procedure works, BP will inject cement into the well to seal it permanently. If it doesn't, the company has a number of backup plans. Either way, crews will continue to drill two relief wells, considered the only surefire way to stop the leak.A top kill has never been attempted before so deep underwater. BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said the company is also considering shooting small, dense rubber balls or assorted junk such as golf balls and rubber scraps to stop up a crippled five-story piece of equipment known as a blowout preventer to keep the mud from escaping.The stakes were higher than ever as public frustration over the spill grew and a team of government scientists said the oil has been flowing at a rate 2 1/2 to five times higher than what BP and the Coast Guard previously estimated.Two teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day. Even using the most conservative estimate, that means about 18 million gallons have spilled so far. In the worst-case scenario, 39 million gallons have leaked.That larger figure would be nearly four times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which a tanker ran aground in Alaska in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf, said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation.BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.BP officials said the previous estimate of 210,000 gallons a day was based on the best data available at the time and that the company's response was not tied to the estimate.I don't believe at any time we have misled anybody on this,Suttles said.The spill is not the biggest ever in the Gulf. In 1979, a drilling rig in Mexican waters — the Ixtoc I — blew up, releasing 140 million gallons of oil.

In another troubling discovery, marine scientists said they have spotted a huge new plume of what they believe to be oil deep beneath the Gulf, stretching 22 miles from the leaking wellhead northeast toward Mobile Bay, Ala. They fear it could have resulted from using chemicals a mile below the surface to break up the oil. In Washington, Elizabeth Birnbaum stepped down as director of the Minerals Management Service, a job she had held since July. Her agency has been harshly criticized over lax oversight of drilling and cozy ties with industry. An internal Interior Department report released earlier this week found that between 2000 and 2008, agency staff members accepted tickets to sports events, lunches and other gifts from oil and gas companies and used government computers to view pornography. Polls show the public is souring on the administration's handling of the catastrophe, and Obama sought to assure Americans that the government is in control and deflect criticism that his administration has left BP in charge. My job right now is just to make sure everybody in the Gulf understands: This is what I wake up to in the morning, and this is what I go to bed at night thinking about. The spill, he said. Obama said he would end the scandalously close relationship between regulators and the oil companies they oversee. He also extended a freeze on new deepwater oil drilling and canceled or delayed proposed lease sales in the waters off Alaska and Virginia and along the Gulf Coast. Fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the 100-mile stretch of Gulf coast affected by the spill are fed up with BP's failures to stop the spill. Thick oil is coating birds and delicate wetlands in Louisiana. Charlotte Randolph, president of Louisiana's Lafourche Parish, one of the coastal parishes affected by the spill, said: I mean, it's wearing on everybody in this coastal region. You see it in people's eyes. You see it. We need to stop the flow.Tourism is dead. Fishing is dead. We're dying a slow death,she added. The Coast Guard approved portions of Louisiana's $350 million plan to ring its coastline with a wall of sand meant to keep out the oil. Associated Press Writers Seth Borenstein, Matthew Brown, Jason Dearen, Andrew Taylor and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

Arresting images of oil spill help drive story By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer - MAY 28,10 4:30AM

NEW YORK – For many following the news, the Gulf oil spill was an important but abstract story — until live video became widely available showing plumes of oil gushing into the water at a furious pace, hour after hour and day after day.The undersea images were first seen publicly late last week and television news networks have used it more as this week goes on. CNN and MSNBC executives debated internally whether to keep the feed constantly on the corner of their screens, much like they do with menacing maps of approaching hurricanes. On Thursday, the videos allowed experts and laymen alike to evaluate whether BP's latest attempt to plug the leak by shooting mud into the well appeared to be working. It was hard to tell, but also hard to look away.The video has become part of the story, and has increased the attention that news executives and news consumers are paying to the spill, said Bill Wolff, vice president of prime-time programming at MSNBC. The first pictures showed oil blackening the clear water around it like an out-of-control fire churning smoke into a clear sky.It's an amazing, startling, shocking, arresting and upsetting picture that is impossible to ignore, Wolff said.PBS' Newshour converted a video feed from BP to make it work on most Web browsers and has made that available for free. More than 3,000 websites have linked to it. On Thursday alone, more than one million people watched the video through that PBS feed, said Anne Bell, the show's spokeswoman.Subscribers to the Newshour channel on YouTube doubled in 24 hours, she said.

U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, was instrumental in pushing BP PLC to make the video feed public. He said that has helped to pressure BP to work with more urgency to stop the leak and to own up to the magnitude of the spill. BP spokesman Graham MacEwen denied the pictures had anything to do with making the company work harder to plug the flow of oil.BP didn't make the video available until more than three weeks after the spill. President Barack Obama said Thursday his administration sought the release, but should have pushed them sooner.The company has up to a dozen camera views available from near the leak, with the help of undersea vehicles positioned there. The company's primary concern was to use the images to evaluate what should be done to stop the leak, MacEwen said.I don't think it was a case of us trying to cover it up, he said.Markey's office became aware of the underseas footage through a snippet posted on YouTube that had apparently been provided by BP to government authorities. The first video was publicly released by BP after Markey sent the company a letter May 19.At the same time, CNN was trying with little success to get its own pictures of the spill, said Nancy Lane, senior vice president of editorial for CNN U.S.
Undersea rovers rented by the news organization were prevented by the U.S. Coast Guard from getting close enough for a good view, she said. CNN was able to get close enough to see damage done to coral reefs by the oil, she said.Somebody needed to be the eyes and ears somewhat independent of the story to make a judgment about what is really going on there, Lane said.We kept pressing for access and we keep pressing for access.With television news organizations restricted to showing the after-effects of the spill, Lane said CNN sensed viewers were starting to lose interest in the story.

That has quickly changed. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd called it the plume of doom — a symbol of national impotence.While BP made one camera view of the leak widely available to the public, more extensive views have been limited to congressional offices, prompting CNN to take cameras to these offices to record the images off their computers, she said.BP also said on Tuesday that it would black out video during its latest fix effort this week, but backed down after protest from the Obama administration. It's easy to see why a company already suffering through a public relations crisis wouldn't want these pictures out, said Dan Fagin, head of the environmental journalism program at New York University. The gusher is a powerful image that conveys what's happening in a sense that pictures of oil near marshlands can't, he said. While BP and environmentalists and oceanographers argue about how many gallons are leaking out, a regular viewer can look at this and say, who cares? It's a massive amount of oil and that's all I really need to know,he said.It makes the intangible tangible.

Gulf spill surpasses Valdez; plug try going well By GREG BLUESTEIN and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 27,10

COVINGTON, La. – An untested procedure to plug the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico seemed to be working, officials said Thursday, but new estimates showed the spill has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history.A team of scientists trying to determine how much oil has been flowing since the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon exploded April 20 and sank two days later found the rate was more than twice and possibly up to five times as high as previously thought.The fallout from the spill has stretched all the way to Washington, where the head of the federal agency that oversees offshore drilling resigned Thursday and President Barack Obama insisted his administration, not BP, was calling the shots. His comments marked a change in emphasis from earlier administration assertions that the government was overseeing the operation.As for the spill, even using the most conservative estimate, the leak has grown to nearly 18 million gallons over the past five weeks. In the worst case scenario, if 39 million gallons has spilled, the oil would fill enough jugs to stretch from the Louisiana marshes to Prince William Sound in Alaska. That's where the Exxon Valdez ran aground in 1989, spilling nearly 11 million gallons.

Now we know the true scale of the monster we are fighting in the Gulf, said Jeremy Symons, vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. BP has unleashed an unstoppable force of appalling proportions.BP and the Coast Guard estimated soon after the explosion that about 210,000 gallons a day was leaking, but scientists who watched underwater video of well had been saying for weeks it was probably more.U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt said two different teams of scientists calculated the well has been spewing between 504,000 and more than a million gallons a day.BP spokesman Steve Rinehart said the previous estimate came from industry experts and scientists based on the best data available at the time. Asked for the company's response to the new numbers, he replied: It does not and will not change the response. We are going all out on our response.

Gulf awaits word on latest bid to plug oil leak By BEN NUCKOLS and GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 27 3:30AM

ROBERT, La. – If oil stops flowing to the surface in the Gulf of Mexico, BP officials will know that their latest effort to plug a blown-out undersea well off the Louisiana coast was successful.BP PLC was pumping heavy mud into the leaking well, and executives said Wednesday night that there had been no problems so far. Still, BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward said engineers would not know until at least Thursday afternoon whether the latest remedy was having some success.The absence of any news is good news, said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who is overseeing the operation. He added: It's a wait and see game here right now, so far nothing unfavorable.If the risky procedure, known as a top kill, stops the flow, BP would then inject cement into the well to seal it. The top kill has worked above ground but has never before been tried 5,000 feet beneath the sea. BP pegged its chance of success at 60 to 70 percent.We're doing everything we can to bring it to closure, and actually we're executing this top kill job as efficiently and effectively as we can, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles said.Fishermen, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the coast are fed up with BP's failures to stop the oil that is coating Louisiana's marshes and the wildlife that relies on them. The anger has turned toward President Barack Obama and his administration. Polls show the public is souring on their handling of the catastrophe.Sarah Rigaud, owner of Sarah's Restaurant in Grand Isle is tired and nervous. The oil has to be stopped, she said.The tourists won't come, Rigaud said Wednesday, serving lunch to a half-full restaurant of mostly oil workers and local politicians who are worrying themselves.It makes me very nervous. I have anxiety attacks, she said.Every day I pray that something happens, that it will be stopped and everybody can get back to normal.

The gusher, which has spewed 7 million gallons of crude by the most conservative tallies, began after an offshore drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command aboard the rig impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.Additional leaks springing from the top kill solution were a grave risk, said Anil Kulkarni, a mechanical engineering professor at Penn State.One scenario is that it may make things worse, Kulkarni said.If it ruptures all over, then it would be even more difficult to close it.

Suttles said BP had not detected any new leaks as of Wednesday night.

He said within the next day, if oil stops flowing to the surface, then engineers will know the drilling fluid being pumped in was starting to work. Engineers were monitoring the well's pressure readings constantly to determine how much oil was escaping.If not, the company had several backup plans, including sealing the well's blowout preventer with a smaller cap, which would contain the oil. An earlier attempt to cap the blowout preventer failed. BP could also try a "junk shot" — shooting golf balls and other debris into the blowout preventer to clog it up — during the top kill process.Last week, the company inserted a mile-long tube to siphon some of the oil into a tanker. The tube sucked up 924,000 gallons of oil, but engineers had to dismantle it during the top kill.A permanent solution would be to drill a second well to stop the leak, but that was expected to take a couple months.

Some 100 miles of Louisiana coastline had been hit by the oil, the Coast Guard said.

When will they stop the oil and can they? They were questions on the lips of residents in Grand Isle at the bottom tip of Louisiana. Certainly there's hope. But the reality for us is that whether they cap it or not, we're still going to have an ecological and economic disaster down here, one that we don't know whether or not we'll be in a position to recover, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said. In Pass a Loutre, the odor wafting above the oily water was that of an auto shop. There's no wildlife in Pass a Loutre. It's all dead,Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said. Louisiana-raised Democratic strategist James Carville has been critical of the administration response and hoped Obama's visit Friday would change that. I think you're going to see some real action,once the president sees the oiled coast, Carville said. Associated Press writers Brian Skoloff in Grand Isle, La., Mike Kunzelman in New Orleans, Kevin McGill in Venice, Julie Pace in Fremont, Calif., and Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this story. Online:
http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

BP's top kill underway in attempt to plug oil leak By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer - MAY 26 6:25PM

COVINGTON, La. – BP started pumping heavy mud into the leaking Gulf of Mexico well Wednesday, the company's boldest attempt yet to plug the gusher that has spewed millions of gallons of oil over the last five weeks.BP hoped the mud could overpower the steady stream of oil. The company wants to eventually inject cement into the well to permanently seal it.The stakes are high. Fisherman, hotel and restaurant owners, politicians and residents along the coast are fed up with BP's so far ineffective attempts to stop the oil leak that sprang after an offshore drilling rig exploded April 20. Eleven workers were killed, and by the most conservative estimate, 7 million gallons of crude have spilled into the Gulf, fouling Louisiana's marshes and coating birds and other wildlife.The top kill has worked above ground but has never before been tried 5,000 feet beneath the sea. Company officials peg its chance of success at 60 to 70 percent.President Barack Obama said there's no guarantees it will work. The president planned a trip to Louisiana on Friday.We're going to bring every resource necessary to put a stop to this thing, he said.

Meanwhile, dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out.At a Coast Guard hearing in New Orleans, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a skirmish between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the company man, overruled the drillers, declaring, This is how it's going to be. Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled,Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for,which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.A live video stream Wednesday showed pictures of the blowout preventer, as well as the oil gushing out. At other times, the feed showed mud spewing out, but BP said this was not cause for alarm.A weak spot in the blowout preventer could blow under the pressure, causing a brand new leak.Gene Beck, a petroleum engineering professor at Texas A&M in College Station, said the endeavor would likely fail quickly if the mud could not overcome the pressure of the oil.The longer it goes, maybe the better news that is, Beck said.

Frustration with BP and the federal government has only grown since then as efforts to stop the leak have failed.Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, both outspoken critics, led a boat tour around the oil-fouled delta near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Through the Mississippi's South Pass, there were miles-long passages that showed no indication of the oil, and the air smelled fresh and salty. Nearby fish were leaping and tiny seabirds dove into the water.But not far away at Pass a Loutre, the odor wafting above the oily water was that of an auto shop. We have yet to see a plan from the Coast Guard, a plan from BP, a plan to keep it from coming in, a plan to pick it up, Nungesser said of the oil.There's no wildlife in Pass a Loutre. It's all dead,Nungesser said.
Associated Press writers Mike Kunzelman and Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Jeff Donn in Boston, Julie Pace in Fremont, Calif., Ben Nuckols in Covington contributed to this story. Online: http://globalwarming.house.gov/spillcam

Public opinion turning against Obama on oil spill
MAY 26,10 5PM

The American public is losing its patience with President Obama over his handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill.In the five weeks since an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig sent hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico, Obama had largely escaped political fallout. But as BP attempts yet again to seal the leak, a new USA Today/Gallup Poll finds a majority of Americans unhappy with Obama's handling of the spill. According to the poll, 53 percent rate Obama's handling poor or very poor; 43 percent believe Obama is doing a good job.

Yet the poll also finds that the public tends to blame others in the mess more than it blames the White House. Asked broadly about the federal government's role, 60 percent rated the response poor.BP got the lowest marks: 73 percent of Americans gave the company's handling of the spill a poor rating. Still, a whopping 68 percent say BP should remain in charge of the cleanup.More than two-thirds of respondents called the gulf spill a disaster, and of them, 37 percent considered it the worst disaster in 100 years.Yet 52 percent of registered voters still support offshore drilling. That number is slightly down compared with other polls in recent weeks, including an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll this month in which nearly 60 percent of voters still agreed with offshore drilling.What will no doubt give the White House pause is the shifting public sentiment on Obama's handling of the spill. Earlier this month, the president seemed to be escaping most of the public wrath over the disaster. An Associated Press poll released May 13 found mostly good-to-neutral marks for Obama's role in the mess: 42 percent approved, 33 percent disapproved and 21 percent said they were neutral.But with the leak still unplugged and the economic and environmental impact only worsening, the White House has increasingly come under fire for not doing enough to handle the cleanup and control the spill. That includes criticism both from Republicans including Sarah Palin, who tried to make an issue of BP's donations to Obama's presidential campaign, and Democratic allies like James Carville, who slammed Obama for being too hands off.

Broken down along party lines: 63 percent of Democrats believe Obama is doing a good job on the spill, while 68 percent of Republicans rate the president's job as poor. Among independent voters — the voting bloc credited most for Obama's victory in 2008 — 58 percent describe Obama's job on the spill as poor.White House officials aren’t unaware of the shift. In recent days, they’ve stepped up their media strategy in response to the spill. Tomorrow, Obama will hold his first full-fledged news conference in nearly a year to take questions on the issue. And Friday, he is scheduled to make his second visit to the Gulf.Will it be enough to placate an increasingly frustrated public?— Holly Bailey is a senior political writer for Yahoo! News.

AP Exclusive: Workers describe failures on oil rig By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, MIKE BAKER and JEFF DONN, Associated Press Writers - MAY 26,10 6:40PM

NEW ORLEANS – As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig burned around him, Chris Pleasant hesitated, waiting for approval from his superiors before activating the emergency disconnect system that was supposed to slam the oil well shut at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.The delay may have cost critical seconds. When Pleasant and his co-workers at rig owner Transocean finally got the go-ahead to throw the so-called deadman's switch, they realized there was no hydraulic power to operate the machinery.Five weeks after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, the blown-out well continues to gush oil, pouring at least 7 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.Dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.On Wednesday, BP launched its latest bid to plug the well, force-feeding it heavy drilling mud in a technique known as a top kill. Officials said it could be days before they know if it worked, and President Barack Obama cautioned there are no guarantees.

At a Coast Guard hearing that started earlier this month and continued in New Orleans on Wednesday, Doug Brown, chief rig mechanic aboard the platform, testified that the trouble began at a meeting hours before the blowout, with a skirmish between a BP official and rig workers who did not want to replace heavy drilling fluid in the well with saltwater.The switch presumably would have allowed the company to remove the fluid and use it for another project, but the seawater would have provided less weight to counteract the surging pressure from the ocean depths.

Brown said the BP official, whom he identified only as the company man, overruled the drillers, declaring, This is how it's going to be. Brown said the top Transocean official on the rig grumbled,Well, I guess that's what we have those pinchers for, which he took to be a reference to devices on the blowout preventer, the five-story piece of equipment that can slam a well shut in an emergency.In a handwritten statement to the Coast Guard obtained by the AP, Transocean rig worker Truitt Crawford said: I overheard upper management talking saying that BP was taking shortcuts by displacing the well with saltwater instead of mud without sealing the well with cement plugs, this is why it blew out.

BP declined to comment on his statement.A congressional memo about a BP internal investigation said that tests less than an hour before the well blew out found a buildup of pressure that was an indicator of a very large abnormality. Still, the rig team was satisfied that another test was successful and resumed adding the seawater, said the memo by Reps. Henry Waxman and Bart Stupak to members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which is investigating.There were other signs of problems, including an unexpected loss of fluid from a pipe known as a riser five hours before the explosion that could have indicated a leak in the blowout preventer.The witness statements show that rig workers talked just minutes before the blowout about pressure problems in the well. At first, nobody seemed too worried, with Transocean chief mate David Young leaving two workers to handle the difficulty on their own and telling them to call when he was needed. The well site leader worked in his office. Then panic set in.Workers called their bosses to report that the well was coming in and that they were getting mud back. The drilling supervisor, Jason Anderson, tried to shut down the well.

It didn't work.

At least two explosions turned the rig into an inferno. Crew members were hurled through walls, doors flew through the air and the living quarters blew apart. Workers stumbled across a bloody, dark deck, trying to pull debris off the injured.
Brown said that as he waited beside a lifeboat for the order to abandon ship, he witnessed complete chaos, mayhem. People were screaming, people were crying. Rig leaders struggled to comprehend the magnitude of what was happening. An emergency generator wouldn't start.Steve Bertone, the chief engineer for Transocean, wrote in his witness statement that he ran up the bridge and heard the captain screaming at a worker for pressing the distress button. Bertone turned to Pleasant, who was manning the emergency disconnect system, and asked whether it had been engaged. Pleasant told Bertone that he needed approval first, according to Bertone's sworn statement. Another manager tried to give the go-ahead, but someone else said the order needed to come from the rig's offshore installation manager. Ultimately who gave the order is a matter of dispute. Donald Vidrine, well site leader for BP, said he did it. But Bertone said it was Jimmy Harrell of Transocean. By the time the workers obtained the approval and got started, Pleasant said he got all the electronic signals but no flow on meters, meaning hydraulic fluid wasn't flowing to close the valves on the blowout preventer. Darryl Bourgoyne, a petroleum engineer at Louisiana State University, said a valve could have been broken or hydraulic fluid could have leaked earlier.

It is not clear whether the delay could have contributed to the system's failure to close off the well and snuff out the fire. The rig burned for two days before finally collapsing in the Gulf. Gene Beck, a petroleum engineer at Texas A&M at College Station, said companies typically have criteria that allow any worker to engage the system if problems get bad enough. It's hard for me to imagine the situation where there's been a fire and an explosion and someone can't make that decision to hit the disconnect on their own, he said. Workers elsewhere on the rig were having problems of their own. Some were told the situation was under control, even though it was absolutely not, said Yancy Keplinger, a senior crew member. Benjamin LaCroix, a tank cleaner, said walls and ceilings were caving in and workers were running for their lives, and yet rig officials wanted to do a roll call. A couple of workers described a debate about whether they should be in lifeboats. Once workers finally started getting into the boats, it took several minutes to persuade officials to start lowering them. Once they did, the operator didn't know how to detach a boat from the rig. It was only by the GRACE OF GOD that we didn't burn to death,LaCroix told investigators. Baker reported from Raleigh, N.C. Donn reported from Boston. Associated Press Writers Greg Bluestein in Covington, La., and Alan Sayre in Kenner, La., contributed to this report.