Tag: british petroleum

During the floods and the government shutdown he was hobnobbing with Karl Rove and his money men. During the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe it was lobbyists for British Petroleum.

The Obama administration has approved BP’s first plan to drill for oil in the gulf since last year’s Deepwater Horizon disaster, which left 11 dead and damaged the gulf ecosystem and the economies of the states that border it. Representatives for the Gulf Restoration Network say the decision is “problematic,” considering the fact that comprehensive safety legislation has yet to be passed through Congress.

Colorado Fourth-District Republican US Rep Cory Gardner is filling his campaign coffers for 2012 as he did in 2010 by leaning heavily on oil-and-gas industry donors. He raked in $370,000 in the quarter that just ended. That's the most of any candidate for federal office from Colorado and topped his take in previous quarters by roughly $100,000. One of every ten dollars Gardner brought in last quarter came from oil and gas, and this quarter the percentage is higher, coming in at roughly 12 percent. That notable campaign finance record paired with the high-profile pro-drilling and environmental-regulation-rollback positions he has taken mark out the freshman congressman as an aspiring top-level advocate for oil and gas on the Hill.

Though BP has continued to deny that any of its gulf wells are leaking oil, a large-scale oil slick reported in the area is worrying Gulf Coast watchdogs. Concerns abound that the oil could spell trouble for area fisheries, especially since reports of dead dolphins have persisted in recent days.

Reports of a spreading oil slick near British Petroleum’s Maconda well about 40 miles from shore in the Gulf of Mexico have local residents and area scientists concerned. BP has yet to confirm or deny the reports and mainstream media outlets have so far avoided investigating the story.

The Deepwater Horizon Joint Investigation Team (JIT), comprised of representatives from the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, Friday released Volume I (PDF) of its exhaustively titled “Report of Investigation into the Circumstances Surrounding the Explosion, Fire, Sinking and Loss of Eleven Crew Members Aboard the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, April 20 – 22, 2010.”

The U.S. Department of the Interior has responded to reports from over the weekend that BP is set to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and that Transocean, the contractor responsible for BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, awarded bonuses to its top executives, in part as a reward for “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history.”

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll delivers the latest edition of “Today’s Awful News” for British Petroleum. BP’s favorability rating now...

Colorado Republican U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn and a bipartisan delegation of 40 introduced legislation yesterday that would lift the moratorium on deep-water oil drilling...

You know you’re having a bad month or two at the office when the calls for your head are coming from both the left...