Bad news for the Gulf of Mexico: a study released this week sheds new light on the toxicity of oil in aquatic environments, and shows that environmental impact studies currently in use may be inadequate….

The key finding involved the embryos of Pacific herring that spawn in the [San Francisco Bay, which was hit by an oil spill in 2007]. The fish embryos absorbed the oil and then, when exposed to UV rays in sunlight, physically disintegrated. This is called phototoxicity, and has not previously been taken into account when talking about oil spills. 

Photos from a UC Davis/NOAA study show the effects of phototoxicity in Pacific herring embryos. Embryos on the left are unexposed to oil; those on the right have been in oil and then exposed to sunlight and show cells destroyed.

After the BP oil disaster, I wrote about the toxicity of oil (see “BP’s dispersants are toxic — but not as toxic as dispersed oil“).  Turns out oil is even more toxic than we thought, as a new study from the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NOAA finds.

The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study is titled, “Unexpectedly high mortality in Pacific herring embryos exposed to the 2007 Cosco Busan oil spill in San Francisco Bay” (subs. req’d).  That spill occurred when a “tanker hit the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and spilled 54,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the bay.”

Here’s more from the L. A. Times on the phototoxicity study:

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Other stories below: Philippine Death Toll Rises in Worst Cyclone in Three Years; India May Jump in Solar Trade War

Shell spills 13,000 gallons while drilling near Deepwater Horizon site

Shell International spilled 13,000 gallons of oil and drilling fluids into the Gulf on Sunday while drilling an exploratory well near the site of last year’s Deepwater Horizon accident, according to a federal report on the spill.

The area where the well was being drilled is about 20 miles from the site of the BP oil spill. Shell is working in water more than 7,000 feet deep. The well was being drilled by the Deepwater Nautilus, according to federal records. That rig is owned and operated by Transocean, the company that owned the Deepwater Horizon rig.

While a report Shell filed Monday morning with the National Response Center states that the company spilled 7,560 gallons of oil and 5,829 gallons of synthetic drilling fluids, company spokesperson Kelly op de Weegh said late Monday afternoon that no oil was spilled.

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Other stories below:  Gore Links Climate Change to Great Lakes Problems; U.S. Allows BP to Drill in the Gulf; Marine Contractors Seek Jobs in Offshore wind.

China Targets GE Wind Turbines With $15.5 Billion War Chest

China has taken on General Electric Co. and Western peers that control the $70 billion wind-turbine market, striving to repeat its 2010 coup when the Asian nation sold more than half the world’s solar panels for the first time.

Armed with at least $15.5 billion in state-backed credit, China’s biggest windmill makers Sinovel Wind Group Co. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. won their first major foreign orders in the past year. They plan to set up plants abroad, including China’s first in the U.S., easing entry into markets for delivering machines that can weigh 750 tons each.

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by Kiley Kroh

Until today, it has been difficult to determine who was more dead-set on ignoring the effects of the BP oil disaster: Congress or the oil companies themselves. While Big Oil has gone right on beating its “Drill Baby Drill” drum, their allies in Washington have successfully blocked any attempts to change the permissive culture that’s allowed them to reap tens of billions of dollars in profits. But today, there is a glimmer of hope that Congress may yet act to right some of the wrongs that have been visited upon the Gulf Coast.

The RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act, a bill that would dedicate 80% of Clean Water Act fines charged to BP directly to the five Gulf Coast states in order to immediately begin the process of ecological and economic recovery, passed easily out of the Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee by a voice vote.  Several provisions in the bill are consistent with recommendations put forth by the Center for American Progress and Oxfam America in the February 2011 report, “Beyond Recovery,” including:

• Establishment of a Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council to ensure that local stakeholders have representation in directing the distribution of funds;
• Creation of research “centers of excellence” that will assist in commercializing science and technology innovations in water management and coastal protection/restoration to help promote diversification into new sustainable industries and jobs across the Gulf;
• Preferences for firms agreeing to hire local workers and for use of local contractors in restoration project procurement;
• Provisions to develop strategies that address the specific needs of socially and economically vulnerable communities in the region.

That bill will now move on for consideration by the full Senate. This is not uncommon practice. Last year, several bills passed out of Committees in the Senate that weren’t even voted on by the full body, much less passed into law. The RESTORE the Gulf Coast States Act, however, is a truly viable piece of legislation; the measure is sponsored by 9 of the 10 Gulf Coast Senators, including 7 of the 8 Republicans.

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by Kiley Kroh

Yesterday, federal regulators released their report on the cause of BP’s April 20, 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil disaster. The report finds BP “ultimately responsible” for the catastrophe because it had sought to cut costs and save time, all at the expense of safety. The joint Interior-US Coast Guard effort is the conclusion of a 17-month investigation, the most exhaustive to date.

Though the brunt of the blame certainly falls on BP for its “failure to have full supervision and accountability over the activities associated with the Deepwater Horizon,” the report also cites key failures on the part of both Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. as contributing to the eventual blowout.

The report concluded that a “central cause of the blowout was failure of a cement barrier.”  Halliburton ran cementing operations for the well that ultimately took three months to seal.  The report also criticizes drilling rig owner Transocean for two critical failures. First, rather than sending the escaping gas overboard, Transocean personnel used a piece of equipment that kept the gas on the rig, allowing it to ignite. And second, they subsequently failed to promptly alert engine operators that gas was detected.

The report echoes many of the same findings as previous probes – including those of the independent National Oil Spill Commission. The question now is whether the governmental involvement will carry any weight in Congress where Republican lawmakers in particular have said they are unwilling to adopt reforms until this investigation was complete. Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has had no problem passing a host of bills that cater directly to the oil industry by simultaneously weakening oversight and opening vast areas of the US to new drilling.

On the regulatory side, the report notes that “stronger and more comprehensive federal regulations might have reduced the likelihood of the Macondo blowout.”  The Washington Post offers harsher criticism:

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A round-up of climate and energy news. Please post other stories below.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is the planet’s largest reef system and one of the seven natural wonders of the world, but it may not survive the century.

Coral reefs ‘will be gone by end of the century’

Coral reefs are on course to become the first ecosystem that human activity will eliminate entirely from the Earth, a leading United Nations scientist claims. He says this event will occur before the end of the present century, which means that there are children already born who will live to see a world without coral.

The claim is made in a book published tomorrow, which says coral reef ecosystems are very likely to disappear this century in what would be “a new first for mankind – the ‘extinction’ of an entire ecosystem”. Its author, Professor Peter Sale, studied the Great Barrier Reef for 20 years at the University of Sydney. He currently leads a team at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

The predicted decline is mainly down to climate change and ocean acidification, though local activities such as overfishing, pollution and coastal development have also harmed the reefs. The book, Our Dying Planet, published by University of California Press, contains further alarming predictions, such as the prospect that “we risk having no reefs that resemble those of today in as little as 30 or 40 more years”.

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