Kill the Spill 1-Year Anniversary

Photo: Marcus Sanders



One Year After the Oil Spill: What Has Changed?


Find out what's being done to prevent another disaster from polluting the Bay


Jared Huffman, California State Assembly, 6th District
Sejal Choksi, Baykeeper and Program Director, San Francisco Baykeeper
Chris Godley, Manager of Emergency Services, Marin County Sheriff Office of Emergency Services
David Lewis, Executive Director, Save the Bay - Moderator

Last November's Cosco Busan oil spill exposed many gaps in existing laws and policies governing oil-spill response in California. Come learn about what changes have been made, how prepared we are for another oil spill in the Bay, and what reforms still need to be made.


Location: Commonwealth Club, San Francisco
Time: 11:30 a.m. check-in, noon program
Cost: CLUB/BAYKEEPER MEMBERS FREE, $15 non-members
Program Organizer: Kerry Curtis
Also know: In association with San Francisco Baykeeper and Save the Bay

Find about how to get tickets here

Photos from the spill

The Fuel Film

Check it out

a dramatic collapse in oil prices

Oil is down to $63 a barrel, the lowest since May 2007. Oil prices have been more than halved since peaking at $147 a barrel in July.

Because the growth in global oil demand has slowed sharply in recent months, OPEC fears that the world will face a huge oversupply next year.

Does anyone still think that our 3% of the world supply is going to have a significant impact on oil prices?

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Oil drilling could disrupt chemical weapons off NJ coast

If New Jersey allows drilling for oil and natural gas off its coast, it may dredge up an ugly and dangerous past.

Fortunately, New Jersey's Governor Jon S. Corzine remains opposed to the idea of new offshore drilling. Last month, Corzine said an energy plan that focuses on offshore drilling poses threats to the environment and New Jersey's vital tourism and fishing industries.

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From Department of Energy

Opening the Outer Continential Shef (OCS) will have little consequence on our total domestic product.

And remember that our total domestic production is very small compared to the world and our use.







The United States own's less than 3 percent of the world's oil. Yet we use over 25% of the supply. Drill, Baby, Drill amounts to nothing more than sticking your head in the sand and ignoring the impending energy crisis. Sound eerily similar to what happened to Wall Street.








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Break the Addiction

Thanks to Greenpeace USA for this one

Price of Oil Plummets 40% in 3 Months

Back in July, when oil was trading near $150 per barrel, President Bush used the opportunity to lift the Executive Ban on offshore drilling, commenting "To reduce pressure on prices...we need to increase the supply of oil, especially here at home."

Americans bought in, chanting "Drill Baby, Drill!" but there was just one problem...the soaring cost of oil wasn't being driven by supply - it was being driven by Wall Street speculators.

With the world markets now in freefall, the price of oil has followed suit, plummeting 40% to $83 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

According to an article published this week on Time Online, "The big oil producers have good reason to be nervous. Many are still haunted by a disastrous error made at an Opec meeting in Jakarta in 1999, when the cartel — which produces more than a third of the world's oil — opted to raise its production levels. Within weeks Asian stock markets tumbled, driving world oil prices down to $11 a barrel. Oil officials in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere have cited that price crash as the reason they've rebuffed pleas from President Bush to pump more oil. Countries have learned the lessons of the past."

Sadly, even if this lesson is to be learned here in America, it may have come too late for our country's coastlines.

Spill Baby Spill

We hear a lot about how "safe" offshore oil drilling is now. Well, Hurricane Ike recently did a lot to dis-prove that notion.

Hurricane Ike's winds and massive waves destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines. The environmental damage only now is becoming apparent: At least a half million gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas, according to an analysis of federal data by The Associated Press.

In the days before and after the deadly storm, companies and residents reported at least 448 releases of oil, gasoline and dozens of other substances into the air and water and onto the ground in Louisiana and Texas. The hardest hit places were industrial centers near Houston and Port Arthur, Texas, as well as oil production facilities off Louisiana's coast, according to the AP's analysis.
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oil drilling is NOT the answer

Dems plan to keep Big Oil out of their backyard backfires

This week Senate Democrats, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, lost a last minute attempt to maintain a moratorium on oil shale production on federal lands in the Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. . The measure, which was tagged to an economic stimulus package, failed to get the necessary votes to maintain the moratorium.

Apparently Reid, who hails from Colorado, believes that the interior states are somehow more worthy of protection than our nation's coastlines...