TOLD YOU SO - Oil and hurricanes, drilling defies moratorium

I thought I would just take a moment to reinforce two previous post one regarding hurricanes and oil and the other about drilling despite the moratorium. Nothing much can be added to either post, but in our busy disaster cycle things tend to get lost in the latest calamity. 

NPR reported that NOAA is predicted a busy hurricane season this year. The water in the Atlantic region that spawns hurricanes is 4 degrees hotter than normal. This will add energy to the normal cycle. The prediction is from 14 to 23 tropical storms with 8 to 14 of them reaching hurricane strength. The more storms we have the more likely one of them will interact with the gulf oil spill. Even if it does not pick up oil from the subsurface and oil rich hurricane is a brand new disaster for the record books. Even just normal storms can drive the surface slicks far into the wetlands and river inlets even if oil is not picked up as rain and carried inland.

Secondly, the New York Times has been doing a series of reports on the fact that MMS has continued granting drilling permits despite the alleged presidential moratorium. At the time I had reported that 15 permits had been granted and that number has continue to rise. After my post the agency even approved a permit in the arctic refuge. After a meeting with oil and MMS officials the participants set down to eat a cake decorated with “drill baby drill”. This sort of episode would be edited out of a cheap movie conspiracy thriller as too over the top to be believed.

Well, the American meltdown continues. BP treats the coast guard as their personal employees, defies EPA official and even advises them to contact the industry before issuing any further statements. It does not get more pathetic than this. This must be what Nigerians feel as the oil corporations exercise sovereign authority in there nations replete with a huge army of mercenaries to enforce their will. Also remember, while we are busy watching this disaster on TV, the other calamities are moving forward – debt, corporate lobbyist writing “reform” laws, failing infrastructure, global warming – the beat goes on.



Sources:

NPR - Big Hurricane Season Expected
LINK

NYT - Big Drilling continues despite “moratorium”
LINK