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Google Sizzles As Top Employer - But Big Oil's Rise Is Stunning
October 17, 2013
Suppose you could work anywhere. What employer would you pick? LinkedIn culls its member data annually for insights, and the big surprise of this year’s survey isn’t that Google, once again, rates No. 1. What’s stunning is farther down the list: the ascent of big energy companies, which now claim 16 of the top 100 spots, up from 10 a year ago.
Big Oil? We’re talking about the likes of Shell (No. 9), BP (No. 13) and even ExxonMobil (No. 33.) Yes, the same BP that agreed last year to pay $4.5 billion in fines and other penalties related to a 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the same ExxonMobil that took a nonstop pounding last year in author Steve Coll’s grim, award-winning history of the company, Private Empire.
The Environmental Impact of the Government Shutdown
October 17, 2013
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has had to furlough more than 16,000 of its employees—about 93 percent of its staff—due to the government shutdown. It's down to the bare-bone minimum like so many other government agencies. But the longer the shutdown drags on, the longer the health of the environment and the public is at risk.
The employees within the EPA make it their goal to protect the health of both American citizens and the environment. The agency's enforcement guards against toxic air and water pollutants, the release of poisonous chemicals from hazardous waste sites, ingestion of lead-based paint and even asbestos in buildings. But the shutdown has seriously hampered its capacity to perform these duties.
There are no longer scientists to inspect industrial facilities to ensure they are following pollution control standards. Litigation to punish violators of pollution laws has been halted. Companies seeking environmental permits are out of luck. Basically, the EPA isn't much of a deterrent while the government's not operational.
The Fraser Institute: Pipelines Pose Fewer Risks for Workers and Less Spills Compared to Transporting Oil by Rail or Truck
October 16, 2013
CALGARY, ALBERTA- Oil transport by pipeline presents significantly lower safety risks to workers than oil movement by road or rail, concludes a study published today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
The study, Intermodal Safety in the Transport of Oil, determined that the rate of injury requiring hospitalization was 30 times lower among oil pipeline workers compared to rail workers involved in the transport of oil, based on extensive data collected in the United States. Road transport fared even worse, with an injury rate 37 times higher than pipelines based on reports to the U.S. Department of Transportation for the period 2005-2009.
The study also found the risk of spill incidents is lower for pipelines per billion ton-miles of oil movement compared to rail and road.
Resistance to pipeline infrastructure expansion is putting more pressure on road and rail systems as growth in North American oil production outpaces pipeline capacity. Petroleum production is now nearly 18 million barrels a day, and could climb to 27 million barrels a day by 2020.
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Health Department explains oil spill response procedures
October 16, 2013
When Tesoro notified state and federal officials of an oil pipeline leak late on Sunday, Sept. 29, the North Dakota Department of Health and other state agencies immediately began a coordinated emergency notification and response process that continues today.
The emergency manager in the county in which the spill was reported was quickly notified on Sept. 30, and the Health Department mobilized a response team that had field staff on site within hours. Tesoro reported that they shut down the pipeline as soon as they were notified of the leak. The pipeline is under the regulatory authority of the U.S. Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
The North Dakota Department of Emergency Services and the state Department of Mineral Resources also were notified the night the leak was reported. Also notified that night was the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Response Center.
Whose Oil? The Gulf of Mexico’s or BP’s?
October 16, 2013
Three years after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are still determining how much damage was done and where all the oil went.
A team of scientists funded by a 10-year, $500 million “Gulf of Mexico Initiative” grant from BP is examining the effects of the oil spill on the ecosystem of the gulf.
One of those scientists is University of Florida geology professor Thomas Bianchi, who focuses on detecting trace amounts of oil in the water 900 to 1000 meters below the surface.