Topic: 100-Mile Long Oil Slick Spotted Off Louisiana Coast

[IronDioPriest]

***UNCONFIRMED***

This is just a blog post, not a hard news report. I'm only reposting this because if true, it'll turn out to be a helluva story. HERE is a link to a New Orleans news source that seems to corroborate some of the claims made in the blog post, without direct confirmation.

BREAKING NEWS: 100-Mile Long Oil Slick Spotted Off Louisiana Coast

A large oil slick – 12-miles wide by 100-miles long – has been spotted off Grand Isle, Louisiana, and New Orleans photographer Jerry Moran is filing aerial photos.

(photos@ link)

The environmental writer and frequent Huffington Post contributor Jerry Cope has confirmed the approximate size of the slick and says that skimming operations have been under way for at least 24 hours now. The suspected source is the Matterhorn Mc243 facility only about 25 miles from where BP’s Macondo well spewed more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf last year.

There are already allegations that the Coast Guard and other authorities are busy trying to cover up the spill, so stay tuned.

Details are still spotty but here’s a report from the Times-Picayune: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/oil_sheen_in_gulf_of_mexico_un.html

[Roy Rogers]

I thought Obama was doing the RUMBAHHHHH?

jerk off

I don't care what ANYBODY says, she is one F U G L Y angry looking beeeatch

[Sectionhand]

As of 5:00 AM this morning there's nothing in Yahoo News about it .

[Glock32]

If true, just add it to the list of unusually timely incidents in the energy industry to have occurred during Chairman Zero's presidency.

Off the top of my head, we had his glib, imperious dismissal of coal, followed by the WV mining accident. Then we have him pretending to expand offshore drilling followed by the BP debacle. Shortly after that there was some huge fire at a natural gas refinery in Houston.

Now we have the 1970s anti-nuclear activists taken out of cryostorage to rail against our one viable alternative to "fossil fuel", in light of the Japanese troubles. Furthermore, there seems to be some uncertainty over whether or not the US pressured Japan to accept permanent shutdown of their reactors as the price for US assistance.

So, if this oil slick turns out to be true, it's just the latest. While I would hesitate to allege conspiratorial motives, it all plugs into the "green energy" template and their desire to de-legitimize petro and nuclear energy.

[AlanS]

I'm not too sure about this.

From the Times-Pickyournose

The first caller, around 11 a.m., described a sheen of about a half-mile long and a half-mile wide, he said.

About two hours later, another caller reported a much larger sheen -- about 100 miles long (Wonder who that could be?) -- originating in the same area and spreading west to Cocodrie on Terrebonne Bay, Barnard said.

"We haven't been able to verify that, and it would be very unlikely for an individual to be able to observe a 100-mile long sheen," he said, adding inspection teams were en route around 3 p.m. to the site.

One thing that a lot of people don't understand, when you fill out a spill response report, you put the area (Lenght X Width) plus the color to determine the volume of the slick. The colors range from a light sheen (like a rainbow coloring) to dark brown and everything in between. One QUART of diesel fuel can cause a sheet almost 100 yds long and 10-20' wide. So there is a technical difference between a "sheen" and a "slick". As a general rule, nothing is done about a sheen because the oil will dissipate before much skimming can be done. Of course, that was pre-BP, too.
Any time there is a slick or sheen of a proportion that warrants a clean up, the US Coast Guard has a Representative on site to monitor. If the operation are not going to his satisfaction, he has the authority to take command. So IF there were skimming operations already going on (which the government would have to know about via the USCG), you KNOW this administration would be trumpeting the news from the roof tops to prove yet again how bad oil is for this country and we need renewable energy.
I'm sure there's more, but I'm trying to multitask.

[Miltrainer]

Looks like Fox News is finally reporting on it. The other news agencies......not so much. ....... Meanwhile, Wyclef Jean is shot in the hand.