Live Video Feed of the Gulf Oil Disaster

Following pressure from Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) and other members of Congress, BP has released a live video feed of the damaged underwater well that is gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The feed may be slow or freeze at times -- or may go to other content without warning. 

Click on the button to clear ads if they get in the way of the picture (they were added by those who posted the video link).  We'll keep this connected while it's available.  Continue to feed...

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EPA sued (again) by 18 states over greenhouse gas emission standards

by Janet Ritz,
Martin Muse

Cross-posted on Reuters

Eighteen states, two cities and ten environmental groups filed suit Wednesday against the EPA's refusal to issue a decision on emissions regulation. The filing asks the federal court to compel the EPA to act within 60 days, at which time, further action may be taken.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eighteen states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday for failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new cars and trucks, one year after the Supreme Court ruled that the agency had the power to do so.

The suit seeks EPA's response to the high court's April 2, 2007, ruling, a landmark decision seen as a sharp defeat for the Bush administration's policy on climate change.

This is another in a string of lawsuits that have been filed by various states to attempt to compel the EPA to take a position on greenhouse gas emissions, after the EPA's refusal to do so prevented California (and the other states that would use California's regulation as a standard) from lowering their own limit in a state regulation.

The plaintiffs include: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, the District of Columbia, the city of New York, the city of Baltimore, the Sierra Club and nine other environmental groups.

The EPA has also received a subpoena from Congress to turn over their correspondence and other paperwork after reports came to light that President Bush had personally intervened on the decision to lower a key greenhouse gas regulation. The head of the EPA, Stephen Johnson, has also been accused of foot dragging by members of Congress...

THERE'S MORE

Congress grills Big Oil on prices

by Janet Ritz

and The Environmentalist Staff

Cross-posted on Reuters, IBS, USAToday, FoxNews


The top five oil companies, testifying before Representative Edward Markey's (D-MA) Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, insisted that their 125 billion dollar profit last was "in line with other industries."

Representative Markey's take on the profits:

“On April Fool’s Day, the biggest joke of all is being played on American families by Big Oil, while using every trick in the book to keep billions in federal tax subsidies even as they rake in record profits,” said Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass. [video]

As reported in this article, Congress to drill for answers on oil prices, both the House and the Senate are holding hearings this week regarding the record profits by oil companies. The House hearings are focusing on the actual profits by the big five oil companies; Exxon Mobile, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and Royal Dutch Shell.

The Senate investigation will be on the impact of investors on rising prices.

Lawmakers were looking for answers to the soaring fuel costs a day after the Energy Department said the national average price of gasoline reached a record $3.29 cents a gallon and global oil prices remained above $100 a barrel although supplies of both gasoline and oil seemed to be adequate.
~snip~

In November, 2005, Hofmeister and the top executives of the same companies represented Tuesday, sat in a Senate hearing room to explain high prices and their h&uge profits. The prices are of concern, Hofmeister said at the time, adding a note of optimism: "Our industry is extremely cyclical and what goes up almost always comes down," he told the skeptical senators on a day when oil cost $60 a barrel.

Oil recently reached a high of $111 a barrel.

The increase in the price of gasoline is hitting all sectors of the American economy. Truckers, dependent upon high diesel prices, have been particularly hard hit, leading to an increase in the inflation index for the products they carry. This ranges from milk to hardware to the price increase announced by Delta Airlines today due to high fuel costs...

THERE'S MORE

Pat Buchanan: 6,000 Future Voters versus a Dinosaur of the Past

by Janet Ritz

Cross-posted on The Huffington Post

Pat Buchanan faced off against Energy Action Coalition youth leader, Jessy Tolkan, on Hardball Monday, with a gentlemanly, albeit condescending, smile, which accompanied his insistence that global warming, while possibly real, is not as serious as she believed.

Ms. Tolkan, the Challenge Campaign Director for the Energy Action Coalition, a 'Youth United for Clean Energy" group, listened patiently while Buchanan went on to say that "global warming, if it happens, would not be "all that bad."

Ms. Tolkan's response: "Pat, with all due respect, I think you're living in the past."

This Hardball 'debate' was prompted by a session of Rep. Edward j. Markey's (D-MA) Select Committe on Energy Independence and Global Warming entitled: "Youth Leadership for Clean Energy and Healthy Climate." with testimony from several youth environmental groups (video), including Energy Action Coalition's co-Founder, Billy Parish, the youth leaders of Environmental Justice, Alaskan Youth, various student representatives and California's Public Interest Research Group. The committee members then moved to the West Lawn of the Capitol where they were greeted by ~6,000 young people who'd traveled to call for new energy legislation.

Later, on Hardball, Mr. Buchanan countered their enthusiasm by pointing out that the inaction vis-à-vis Kyoto implied a consensus lack of belief in the urgency of global warming and that Ms. Tolkan's 6,000 young people versus the 500,000 outside the Nixon White House protesting the Vietnam War, showed a lack of serious concern by her peers and by the world. He then referred to Al Gore's "little badge" (Nobel Peace Prize) and "awards" (Oscar) as something given while others do nothing (he may have something there on the 'others doing nothing' part).

Ms. Tolkan's response: "Pat's living in the past and I'm here to represent the future." She added: "It is my future."

Granted, 6,000 is a small number of protesters, especially when compared to the millions expected to be displaced by climate change in the future. But then, the environment has never been as emotionally charged an issue as war.

However, despite the relatively small number of protesters this week, it may be increasingly difficult to ignore the millions impacted by the many climate and energy warning signs of late. These include the reports on the increasing inability for the oceans to absorb C02 (carbon sinks), impending $100 oil, the underreported floods in Mexico, the wildfires in the West, the over forty percent of our country currently experiencing severe to extreme drought, the calls to arms by the world's religous leaders, and this report on how climate change threatens our national security.

So, while 6,000 youth voters may not compare to the half-million Pat Buchanan remembers descending upon the Nixon White House while he worked there, it could not have been, as Chris Matthews mentioned, an easy task for Ms. Tolkan and her colleagues to get that many of today's young people to drop what they were doing and come together in Washington for an environmental rally, and even Pat Buchanan had to acknowledge that.