The Yale Project on Climate Change just released a poll that found growing support for measures to reduce global warming pollution. It interviewed 1,024 people from May 14 to June 1, and compared the results to a similar poll it conducted in January 2010. CAP’s Daniel J. Weiss and intern Ariel Powell have the story.
There was more support or more intense support in the June survey for the following actions.
Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) has been fighting aggressively to defend the oil industry even as BP’s oil disaster gets worse and worse by the day. TP has the story in this repost.
The U.S. Senate is poised to vote Thursday on the Murkowski Resolution (see “Clean air Lisa vs. dirty air Lisa“). EPA chief Jackson says passage would “increase our dependence on oil … by billions of barrels.” Environment America has a new state-by-state analysis, confirming that conclusion, which I repost below:
Today, the Obama administration announced initial steps to improve oversight of BP’s processing of claims of economic damage caused by the foreign oil giant’s Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. After weeks of growing complaints and a huge backlog of unpaid claims, National Incident Commander Thad Allen met with BP officials and wrote a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward demanding “access to the BP claims database with personally identifiable information removed.” On Sunday, Hayward lavishly praised his own company’s performance in a BBC interview, saying BP had paid “every claim” by instituting a claims process that takes only “48 hours”:
We’ve taken a claims process that has taken 45 days traditionally in the United States and shortened it to 48 hours. It takes 12 seconds when you phone the BP claims line to be put into the process, be given a number. If you turn up at the claims office, within 48 hours you’re given a cheque.
Watch it:
Hayward’s fantastical 48-hour deadline is not being enforced by the government, however. Instead, unpaid claimants must wait 90 days before the federal government has promised to take action:
Any claim that is denied by BP or not settled within 90 days of submission to BP may be presented to the Coast Guard for relief from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund through the National Pollution Funds Center (NPFC).
The administration should make BP stand behind its CEO’s words, and mandate Hayward’s purported 48-hour turnaround for processing claims. Better yet, the administration could take the Center for American Progress’s suggestion to take over the claims process from this environmental criminal. For fishermen, hotel owners, and other Gulf Coast businesses, a ninety-day wait would be an economic death sentence.
Last week, AP photographer Charlie Riedel published disturbing photographs of oil-soaked birds suffering in the wake of the BP disaster on the Gulf Coast.
Tony Hayward, BP’s controversial CEO, thinks the Gulf Coast will ultimately benefit from his company’s catastrophic environmental disaster. Yesterday, the foreign oil giant announced that the “net revenue” from selling the oil being drawn to the surface from the uncontrolled gusher will go into “a new wildlife fund to create, restore, improve and protect wildlife habitat along the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.” Hayward claimed that BP’s recovered-oil money is the silver lining to the incomprehensible damage being done by the oil itself:
We’ve already launched the largest environmental response in history, and BP is committed to protecting the ecosystems and wildlife on the Gulf Coast. Proceeds from the sale of oil recovered from the MC252 well will be used to further this commitment. We believe these funds will have a significant positive impact on the environment in this region.
With the approval of the Obama administration, BP sheared the gushing riser pipe six days ago and installed a funnel to draw off some of the oil, pumped to a ship on the surface above. The surface ship, the Discoverer Enterprise, is now processing oil at maximum capacity — 630,000 gallons a day — without any visible decrease in the amount of oil gushing into the ocean at the seabed.
Two of the scientists working in the federal Flow Rate Technical Group, Ira Leifer and Steve Wereley, have described why that’s the case. The “top kill” effort to pump the wellbore with mud cleared out obstructions to the upward flow, and then shearing the riser pipe widened the outflow hole. They have indicated that the flow rate — which had been one to two million gallons a day — is likely to now be two to four million gallons a day or even more, with only about twenty percent of the oil being captured.
Even as the oil is being captured at maximum capacity, undersea dispersants are still being pumped into the uncaptured gusher at or around the maximum rate of 15,000 gallons a day as well. Satellite imagery shows an undiminished surface slick menacing four states.
The reason BP has launched the “largest environmental response in history” is, of course, because the company has caused one of the largest environmental catastrophes in history — one with no end in sight.
A look at the culture of deregulation, self-regulation, and corruption ushered in by VP Dick Cheney underscores why the BP oil catastrophe should forever be remembered as Cheney’s Katrina, by CAP’s Joshua Dorner.
The best analyses available show comprehensive climate and clean energy jobs legislation is a very good investment. CAP’s Richard W. Caperton looks at several recent economic studies.
In one of the fastest wholesale flip-flops in Senate history, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has rejected his own climate bill and embraced an energy-only bill — just months after declaring such an approach intellectually dishonest and worse than meaningless. The Politico reports this morning:
Sen. Lindsey Graham, who had earlier unsuccessfully negotiated to be part of the Kerry-Lieberman(-Graham) climate change bill, will join Sen. Dick Lugar at a presser at 2:15 p.m. in the Senate Radio-TV gallery today to announce his support of the “Lugar Practical Energy and Climate Plan.” Big mo? Following today’s introduction, more Republicans and Democrats are expected to join the growing momentum for Lugar’s bill.
This in spite of his repeated ridicule of exactly the kind of energy-only bill Lugar is pushing: Read more
The AP reports that well over half of the federal trial judges in states affected by the BP oil disaster have financial ties to that industry:
CAP’s Kate Gordon testifies before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on the liability and financial responsibility for oil spills under the OPA:
Embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward asserted that his company has paid “every claim” for damages caused by the offshore-drilling disaster that is flooding the Gulf of Mexico with millions of gallons of toxic oil. TP explains why this is another lie.
10 Eastern States Join Wind Energy Consortium
The governors of 10 East Coast states have joined federal authorities to form a consortium that will promote the development of offshore wind energy.
Edited by Joe Romm, we cover climate science, solutions and politics. Columnist Tom Friedman calls us "the indispensable blog" and Time magazine named us one of the 25 "Best Blogs of 2010." Newcomers, start here.
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.
Joe Romm has pulled together the secrets of the greatest communicators in history to show how you can apply these tools to your writing, speaking, blogging — even your Tweeting.
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