Australian Oil Spill – Just When You Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse

West Atlas Rig and Montara Well Head Platform on Fire
http://www.au.pttep.com/uploads/MediaRelease83_01-11-09.pdf
Australian oil spill well on fire
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jBnSKYWjVXfddqxWb00p8eb6SqXQ
Timor Rig Ablaze as PTTEP Starts 4th Bid to Cap Leak
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKcuzHRNaXhE&pos=9
Flaming Oil Rig Award Goes to... a Flaming Oil Rig
http://oilonthebeach.blogspot.com/2009/11/flaming-oil-rig-award-goes-to-flaming.html


Florida

Wondrous claims about offshore drilling bogus
Gulf states with offshore rigs get paltry royalties

http://www.bradenton.com/442/story/1821387.html

Flaming oil rig award goes to... a flaming oil rig

Here at NTA we have been giving out the "Flaming Oil Rig" award to politicians supporting offshore drilling in particularly egregious ways. Like CA Rep. Sam Blaskesless' attempt end-run the CA State Lands Commission's denial of the PXP project in Santa Barbara.

Today, we are awarding the Flaming Oil Rig award to none other than.... A FLAMING OIL RIG.

The oil rig off the coast of Australia, which has been spilling for 71 days, burst into flames on the weekend.

The damaged West Atlas rig, situated 125 miles off the coast of West Australia, caught fire on Sunday during the latest attempt (at least the 4th) to plug the leak which covered an area of at least 5,800 square miles in the ocean.

Read more....

Energy Expert Ballentine: Promise of Florida’s Offshore Oil is Exaggerated
http://www.heatingoil.com/blog/energy-expert-ballentine-promise-of-florida%E2%80%99s-offshore-oil-is-exaggerated-1030/
Original article - http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091027/OPINION05/910270304/Thomas+Ballentine++Promise+of+drilling+is+vastly+overblown
“The recent hype concerning offshore oil and gas drilling in Florida falls into the category of "Much ado about almost nothing." The US Minerals Management Service estimates that the Eastern Planning Area of the Gulf contained only 1 million barrels of crude oil, which isn’t even enough to supply the US for one hour. Let's stop pipe dreaming about vast quantities of oil and gas off Florida and, instead, begin serious preparation for an inevitable paradigm change as the world's oil production begins its inexorable decline.”

Drilling's benefits unproven to Florida
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20091025/COLUMNIST/910251025/-1/NEWSSITEMAP

Judah gets fired up over offshore drilling (FL)
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091030/NEWS0107/91030032/1075

Chamber, BDA worried about drilling (FL)
http://www.newsherald.com/news/worried-78667-bda-chamber.html

Australia oil spill fuels debate here (FL)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/oct/30/na-australia-oil-spill-fuels-debate-here/news-politics/

Offshore-drilling debate reveals upcoming battle lines (FL) http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-oil-drilling-102909,0,1136191.story

Supporters for offshore drilling in Florida still hiding (FL)
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/dailyloaf/2009/10/29/supporters-for-offshore-drilling-in-florida-still-hiding/

Fla. offshore drilling debated on Internet
http://news.staugustine.com/news/2009/10/29/fla-offshore-drilling-debated-on-internet/

Viewers respond, raise their own concerns about off-shore drilling (FL)
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091029/NEWS01/910290322

Clean Beaches and Ocean Worth More Than Oil

According to “Oceans Under the Gun: Living Seas or Drilling Seas?”, a new report released today by Environment America and the Sierra Club, clean beaches and oceans support a vibrant coastal tourism and fishing economy that generates almost $200 billion per year.

The report shows that the annual value of the sustainable economy based on tourism and fishing in the most regions of the country, with the exception of parts of the Gulf of Mexico, is approximately one and a half to twenty times larger than the annual value of oil and gas resources that we might find offshore. In the North Atlantic the ratio is 12 to 1; in the Mid-Atlantic the ratio is almost 4 to 1; in the South Atlantic the ratio is almost 21 to 1; on Florida’s west coast the ratio is almost 1.5 to 1; and on the Pacific coast the ratio is about 3 to 1.

Over the next few months Congress will decide whether to allow expanded drilling off our coasts as part of the energy and global warming legislation now moving through Congress. The eastern Gulf of Mexico is the area most at risk, but other regions like California, New England, the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast are also threatened by some proposals.

Offshore Oil Drilling Forum Tonight!

Think energy (FL)
http://www.tallahassee.com/article/20091028/OPINION01/910280301/1006/OPINION/Think-energy
“Another way of thinking about propelling us to the future, however, will be explored tonight in a forum on offshore oil drilling, broadcast from Florida State University's TV studio from 7 to 9 p.m. on 4FSU and streamed live on Tallahassee.com”

Learn, ask about offshore drilling tonight (FL)
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091028/OPINION/91027065/1015/opinion/Editorial--Learn--ask-about-offshore-drilling-tonight

Australian Oil Rig Blowout Creates Environmental Catastrophe

From a press release issued by Defenders of Wildlife earlier today:

The impacts of the nine-week West Timor oil rig blowout are creating an environmental catastrophe for wildlife and ocean ecosystems. In August, the West Atlas/Montara offshore drilling rig, widely touted as a "safe, modern" operation, suffered what the rig's operators termed a "loss of well control." Despite three attempts to stop the resulting massive oil spill, oil continues to leak into the surrounding ocean. Estimates of the volume of oil spilled since the August 21 Australian blowout have now expanded as much as five-fold, to more than 9.7 million gallons, while the oil slick has covered several thousand square miles of ocean waters.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is now discussing allowing essentially the same kind of "environmentally-responsible" offshore drilling to go forward off the coasts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida's Gulf Coast and Panhandle beaches.

"If anything like the Australian blowout ever takes place off of the Southeast U.S. beaches or in Florida waters, the economic and environmental consequences will last for decades," said Richard Charter, government relations consultant with Defenders of Wildlife. Worldwide, conservation interests have become increasingly concerned as satellite images have shown that the mega-spill has spread from Australia's whale and sea-turtle rich Kimberley Coast into distant Indonesian waters as well. Three prior attempts to stop the flow of oil have failed, and a fourth attempt this week had to be postponed due to equipment failure.

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