Cantor Fights Kaine Over Ruining Virginia's Shores
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Cantor-Fights-Kaine-Over-Ruining-Virginias-Shores-62858542.html

Offshore Drilling Bill Passes House; Panhandle Chambers Oppose (FL)http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/62680207.html

Cities and county unite to oppose offshore drilling (FL)
https://mex07a.emailsrvr.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=a6c8ab8b5893498e891ae87860261c45&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.heraldtribune.com%2farticle%2f20090929%2fBREAKING%2f909299982%3fTitle%3dCities-and-county-unite-to-oppose-offshore-drilling
Sarasota County and its four cities unanimously approved a resolution to maintain the bank against oil drilling off of Florida's coast.

Let's Talk About Off Shore Oil Drilling (CA)
https://mex07a.emailsrvr.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=a6c8ab8b5893498e891ae87860261c45&URL=http%3a%2f%2fblogs.venturacountystar.com%2fpropaganda%2f2009%2f09%2flets-talk-about-off-shore-oil.html
Just imagine the strip of beach from Ventura to Malibu closed and polluted. Think it can't happen? Well it did. On August 21, over a month ago, an off shore rig in Austalia began to spill oil from a broken underwater pipe. Reports say that it could still take "at least three weeks to plug the spill." It has been estimated that between 400 and 3000 barrels of oil are being spilled into the ocean each day. With the spill taking so long to contain, it is forseeable that if a rig off the Santa Barbara coast had a spill, the oil could seep clear down to Los Angeles and maybe San Diego. That's a lot of soiled beaches.

The End of Oil?

Oil is the curse of the modern world; it is “the devil’s excrement,” in the words of the former Venezuelan oil minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo, who is considered to be the father of OPEC and should know. Our insatiable need for oil has brought us global warming, Islamic fundamentalism and environmental depredation. It has turned the United States and China, the world’s biggest consumers of petroleum, into greedy, irresponsible addicts that can’t see beyond their next fix. With a few exceptions, like Norway and the United Arab Emirates, oil doesn’t even benefit the nations from which it is extracted. On the contrary: Most oil-rich states have been doomed to a seemingly permanent condition of kleptocracy by a few, poverty for the rest, chronic backwardness and, worst of all, the loss of a national soul.

We can’t be rid of the stuff soon enough.

Such is the message of Peter Maass’s slender but powerfully written new book, “Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil.”

Read More

PxP Exposed and Opinion: PXP’s offshore drilling project not right deal for us (CA)
http://www.coastwatcher.com/?p=345

Menendez and Nelson lead effort to block offshore drilling
http://www.shorenewstoday.com/news.php?id=4554
Sen. David Vitter (R.-La.) was supporting an amendment to the Interior Department appropriations bill that would have allowed Bush administration offshore drilling plans to be included in the bill.Sen. Robert Menendez (D.-N.J.), working with Sen. Bill Nelson (D.-Fla.), blocked the amendment and led the Senate in a 56-42 vote against Vitter’s attempt to send the bill back to committee for the inclusion of his amendment.

Oklahoma Says Drill Baby Drill
http://www.bixbybulletin.com/articles/2009/09/26/opinion/doc4abd3294d96af987150014.txt
Yeah, easy for them to say.

As Oil Enriches Australia, Spill Is Seen as a Warning
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/world/asia/28timor.html?_r=2&hp

Florida's deja vu on oil drilling
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/sep/26/co-floridas-dej-vu-on-oil-drilling/news-opinion-commentary/

Offshore drilling is not worth the risks to the Florida gulf coast
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/offshore-drilling-is-not-worth-the-risks-to-the-florida-gulf-coast/1039446

Drilling camp making inroads (FL)
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090927/ARTICLE/909271062/2055/NEWS?Title=Drilling-camp-making-inroads

Beware the Sirens of Big Oil (AK)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/riki-ott/beware-the-sirens-of-big_b_299809.html

Opinion: Bristol Bay should be cut from the five-year OCS leasing schedule (AK)
http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/092509/opi_6_003.shtml

Florida lawmakers gather to debate offshore oil drilling in Clearwater
http://www.examiner.com/x-24773-Tampa-Populist-Examiner~y2009m9d25-Florida-lawmakers-gather-to-debate-offshore-oil-drilling-in-Clearwater

Offshore drilling supporter tells tourism agency: It's safe (FL)
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Business/Headlines/bizBIZ01092509.htm
Note that Rep. Dean Cannon is from Winter Park, FL (near Orlando) which is in the middle of Florida, far from the beaches on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Australian Oil Spill Keeps on Gushing and Spreading

This is from Skytruth:

New images from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites keep coming in. At 8:45 am local time, the Terra satellite passed overhead and captured this image, showing oil slicks and sheen throughout a 9,870 square mile area (=7,455 square nautical miles). Part of the slick appears to be in contact with Cartier Island, a national marine reserve.

Five hours later the Aqua satellite took this image. The wind speed had increased from 10 knots to 18 knots, creating a much rougher sea surface and breaking up or obscuring the thinner slicks and sheen. Only thicker portions of the slick are apparent in this image, adjacent to the Montara platform, covering about 3,940 square miles (=2,976 nautical square miles). No slicks are apparent near Cartier - a good sign on Day 34 of this continuing spill. See all our satellite and aerial images of the spill here.