Lawmakers share World Cup enthusiasm

By Michaela Martens and Richard Barry - 06/12/10 06:00 AM ET

Soccer doesn’t have the popularity in the U.S. that it enjoys in the rest of the world, but lawmakers still appear to have World Cup fever.
Republicans and Democrats alike say they plan to watch the U.S. take on England Saturday on the second-day of the month-long event. The U.S. will be huge underdogs to the English, one of the favorites to win the most popular sporting event in the world, when they take the field on Saturday in front of an audience that will include Vice President Joe Biden.Biden watched Friday's opening game, a 1-1 tie between host South Africa and Mexico, from a box in the Soweto stadium shared with Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is traveling back to North Dakota on Saturday, but hopes to catch as much of the game as possible.

“It's going to be exciting,” said Dorgan, who proved himself a bit of a soccer historian by talking about the “Miracle on Grass” of 1950, when the U.S. defeated England, which thinks of itself as the country where the sport originated.

Dorgan thinks Landon Donovan and company have a better shot at beating the English in South Africa.

“Our kids grew up playing soccer, so we're more acquainted with it now - not so 60 years ago,” Dorgan said.

Congress has had its share of former athletes. Former Redskins quarterback Heath Shuler is a Democrat representing North Carolina in the House, and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) is a Hall-of-Fame pitcher.

Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) is a former soccer player for Carleton College in Minnesota, who despite his busy schedule would like to watch some World Cup matches with his constituents.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) will be watching the U.S.-England game from his home in New Hampshire. “I love soccer,” said Gregg, whose favorite player, striker Charlie Davis, was injured in a car accident last fall.

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Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) remembers seeing the construction of South African’s new soccer stadiums from his airplane window during a visit to the country last year. “I’m a big soccer fan and can’t wait,” he said of the World Cup.

Still, it doesn’t appear soccer is in any danger of surpassing the popularity of more traditional U.S. sporting pastimes.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) claims that he has sacrificed a lot of sleep from following the World Cup over the years, but balked when asked if he preferred international football over American football.

“Heavens no! I’m from Texas,” he said.

Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) was more excited to talk about hockey on Thursday after the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup.

“Why aren't you writing your story on that?” he said.

House majority whip

saw 'elephant dung' in South Carolina Democratic primary

By Bridget Johnson - 06/13/10 10:19 AM ET

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Sunday that he does not see himself supporting Alvin Greene, the surprise Democratic nominee challenging Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
Clyburn charged last week that Greene was likely a "plant" in the race. "I never said he was a Republican plant," he said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."

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"I said he was someone's plant. And it turned up after the elections, we found out, as I said earlier, something untoward was going on."Clyburn said that the campaign manager of Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) was also managing the campaign of his primary opponent.
"I saw the patterns in this," Clyburn said. "I know a Democratic pattern, I know a Republican pattern, and I saw in the Democratic primary elephant dung all over the place.
"And so I knew something was wrong in that primary," the congressman continued. "And this result tells us that. People intentionally circumvented the law, the rules and regulations, did not file any disclosures, did not file any of their campaign finances, yet they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars running this campaign and broke every law."

Obama to address the nation on BP oil spill

By Silla Brush - 06/13/10 09:51 AM ET

President Barack Obama this week will address the nation on the oil spill when he returns from a trip to the Gulf Coast region.
David Axelrod, White House adviser, announced the address on NBC's "Meet the Press" and said it is planned for Tuesday.
"He wants to lay out the steps that we're going to take from here to get through this crisis," Axelrod said.

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White House Photos of the President and the Gulf Oil Spill

One of the Presidential helicopters flies over southern Louisiana as President Barack Obama returns to New Orleans after visiting Grand Isle, May 28, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Barack Obama and Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolf, left, inspect a tar ball as they look at the effect the BP oil spill is having on Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon, La., May 28, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Barack Obama, National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, and Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph look at the effect the BP oil spill has had on Fourchon Beach in Port Fourchon, La., May 28, 2010. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama meets with local, state and federal officials during a briefing on the BP oil spill at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grand Isle, La., May 28, 2010.
(Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Grand Isle (Louisiana) Mayor David Camardelle points out areas on a map relating to the BP oil spill during a briefing with President Barack Obama at the U.S. Coast Guard Station in Grand Isle, La., May 28, 2010. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama meets with Cabinet members and senior administration officials during a meeting on the BP oil spill in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, May 14, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama is briefed on the response to the BP oil spill by U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen in the Oval Office, May 3, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama talks with local fishermen about recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast in Venice, La., Sunday, May 2, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama listens during a briefing about the situation along the Gulf Coast following the BP oil spill, at the Coast Guard Venice Center, in Venice, La., Sunday, May 2, 2010. Pictured, from left, are U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen, John Brennan, assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama talks with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal after arriving at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, La., Sunday, May 2, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama listens to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, right, during a briefing on the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, aboard Air Force One en route to New Orleans, La., Sunday, May 2, 2010. Also participating in the meeting are, from left, John Brennan, assistant to the President for homeland security and counterterrorism, Carol Browner, assistant to the President for energy and climate change, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama is briefed by National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen as Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, listens aboard Marine One en route to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, May 28, 2010 (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama discusses the response to the BP oil spill, during a phone call with Gulf Coast governors in the Oval Office, May 24, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 President Barack Obama meets with Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, and other senior administration officials in the Oval Office, April 22, 2010, regarding the situation in the Gulf of Mexico. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama meets with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and senior administration officials, including National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, left, in the Oval Office, regarding the situation in the Gulf of Mexico, April 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama talks with U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Thad Allen, who is serving as the National Incident Commander, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, aboard Marine One as they fly along the coastline from Venice to New Orleans, La., May 2, 2010. John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, is in the background. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Scientists Try to Gauge Potential Long-Term Environmental Impact

ROBERT LEE HOTZ

AFP/Getty Images

A brown pelican flies over oil soaked containment booms near the Pelican Rookery off of Queen Bess Island, near Grand Isle, La.

Dissolving into patches, sheens, tarballs and microdrops, the oil slick spreading from BP PLC's damaged well in the Gulf of Mexico is creating a unique mosaic of potential hazards that has marine biologists, health experts and wildlife activists scrambling to understand its potential impact.

• Discuss: What should be done to stop the oil spill in the Gulf? Share your ideas.

It is a spill like no other, taking place a mile or so under water and spreading in layers of more-shallow water and on the surface, unlike more-common spills that occur on the surface alone. The oil and dispersant chemicals used to dissolve it are potent variables in the biochemical equation of life across the Gulf, said several marine biologists, oceanographers and wildlife experts are working to understand how large or long-lasting the region's problems may become.
"This is a three-dimensional spill," said Columbia University oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam. "The physics, the chemistry and the biology action are very different when you have oil released from below."
The well's location some 50 miles off Louisiana's coast, in an area of extensive marine diversity, has heightened scientists' concern about potential damage. Around the spill zone, marine researchers have cataloged 1,728 species of plants and animals, such as crabs, shrimp, marine mammals and sea turtles. Of those, 135 are unique to the area and 74 species are endangered, according to a comprehensive marine survey.

The oil spill is giving marine scientists a rare opportunity to seek answers to some fundamental questions .

Life in the Gulf evolved in a world of oil: In addition to the 4,000 commercial oil platforms operating in the Gulf, there are 1,500 or so natural seafloor seeps that leak about 15 million gallons of oil every year. However, the seepage amounts to nowhere near the amount of oil currently gushing into the environment.
Ideally, the scientists said, eddy currents may continue to sequester much of the oil offshore, where naturally occurring bacteria can safely break down the toxic petroleum compounds.
Under the worst-case scenario, however, the oil spill could fundamentally alter the marine chemistry of the Gulf, making it less hospitable to the life that makes the region a valuable commercial fishery and damage—perhaps irreparably—much of the marine life that gives the area its unique natural character.
"We've thrown a monkey wrench into that ecosystem," said marine oil-spill expert Chris Reddy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. "There are uncertainties about the long- and short-term impacts."
Under the best-case scenario, the effects of so much oil may taint Gulf fisheries for only a season. But even brief exposures to the oil could further weaken species already listed as threatened or endangered.
"Depending on where the oil spill moves and when, it has the potential to harm five different species of sea turtles, all of which are listed as threatened or endangered," said marine scientist Elizabeth Griffin Wilson at Oceana, an environmental group opposed to offshore drilling.
"You could end up changing the ecosystem completely," said Columbia University marine biologist Andrew Juhl, who studies marine pollution. "The things that tend to live in polluted areas are not the sorts of things we like."
Meanwhile, the approaching hurricane season is compounding the uncertainty because the spill's effects could be curtailed or worsened by storms, depending on their strength, duration and direction.
"The big jokers in the deck now are hurricanes," said marine ecologist Thomas Shirley at Texas A&M University. Forecasters have predicted as many as 14 major hurricanes in the coming season.
Hurricane winds could whip up waves that would more rapidly dilute and disrupt surface slicks so they could be digested by natural bacteria. However, a hurricane-driven storm surge could drive oily saltwater deep into freshwater marshlands, smothering plants and killing wildlife far from the wellhead.
"If that water is carrying oil as well as salinity, there is a double whammy," Dr. Shirley said.
Until it was partly contained, the well gushed as many as 50,000 barrels a day into the Gulf, according to the newest calculations by government and university experts. All the while, low concentrations of that oil spread on subsea currents in billows of oil drops too small to see, as many as 45 miles from the well site.
By week's end, crews had sprayed about 800,000 gallons of chemicals to disperse the oil on the surface and injected another 360,000 gallons under water to break it up near the seafloor, though the chemicals themselves may harm the environment. In 165 controlled fires, crews also burned an estimated 3.85 million gallons of oil on open water.
About one-third of federal waters in the Gulf remain closed to fishing.
"We are not really dealing with a monolithic spill," Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the said national incident commander, said earlier this week, emphasizing the complexity of the spill. "We're dealing with about a 200-mile radius around the well site with thousands—maybe hundreds of thousands—of smaller patches of oil."
Write to Robert Lee Hotz at sciencejournal@wsj.com

The President and Mrs Obama in Pictures

President Barack Obama is briefed by FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other senior officials on the outlook for hurricane season and the Federal government’s preparation efforts during a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, May 27, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama leads a moment of silence in memory of the lives lost when the plane carrying President Lech Kaczynski of Poland crashed in Russia last week, at the start of the first plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., April 13, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

President Barack Obama visits with patrons who were playing bridge in a backroom at Jerry's Family Restaurant in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, April 27, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Paul David "Bono" Hewson, lead singer of U2 and anti-poverty activist, animatedly tells a story to President Barack Obama during a meeting on development policy in the Oval Office, April 30, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama poses for a photo with a patron at Jerry's Family Restaurant, a diner in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, April 27, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

 First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, far left, talk with, from left, Anne Eisenhower, Former First Lady Rosalynne Carter, granddaughter Sara Carter, Susan Eisenhower, and Kathleen Biden's mother, Roberta Buhle, in the Blue Room of the White House, before the start of a Mother's Day Tea, May 7, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

First Lady Michelle Obama greets guests during a Mother's Day Tea in the State Dining Room of the White House, May 7, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

 President Barack Obama and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai walk along the South Lawn Drive of the White House following their working lunch, May 12, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama bids farewell to Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai upon his departure from the South Lawn Drive of the White House, May 12, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

A patron hugs President Barack Obama during a lunch stop at Duff's Famous Wings in Cheektowaga, N.Y., May 13, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama attempts to block a shot by personal aide Reggie Love during a basketball game at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. , Sunday, May 16, 2010. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, left, watches the play. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama discusses G20 goals and strategy with National Economic Council Director Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chair Christy Romer, and others during a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, May 20, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama shares a laugh with Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., left, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., right, and others during a meeting in the Oval Office, May 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama talks on the phone in the Oval Office with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Saturday, June 12, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama meets with administration officials on the Times Square attempted car bombing during a terrorism threat briefing in the Situation Room of the White House, May 4, 2010. Left to right, National Security Advisor Gen. James Jones, CIA Director Leon Panetta, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Bo, the Obama's family pet, plays in the snow during a blizzard on the south grounds of the White House, Feb. 10, 2010.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

First Lady Michelle Obama hugs student Tammy Nguyen in the Red Room of the White House before an event announcing a campaign to combat the rapidly growing problem of childhood obesity while Tiki Barber checks his notes before they take the stage, Feb. 9, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama applaud the performance of Harry Connick Jr. and the Big Band during the Governors Ball in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2010.(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dance together during the Governors Ball in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 21, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

"We Don't Need This on Camera"

: BP's Crappy Cleanup Job

— By Mac McClelland

| Fri Jun. 11, 2010 8:55 AM PDT

You know Isle Grande Terre, Louisiana, from the unbelievable pictures of oiled birds taken there last week. It's also the island just to the east of Grand Isle, which I've been reporting on since oil made landfall there several weeks ago. I wanted to check up on Grande Terre, and so to get there, and avoid a BP escort, yesterday I got in a kayak with my intrepid former literature professor from the University of New Orleans and paddler extraordinaire, Dr. John Hazlett.
On the way, we beached ourselves on an uninhabited spit near Grand Isle State Park. It was completely covered in oil, and there were no cleanup crews in sight. 
Nor was there any boom across Barataria Pass, which is a gateway to wetlands:

After a while, a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries employee trailing half a dozen big & tall men behind her appeared. She flagged us down and told us nobody should be walking on that beach because it was a wildlife reserve. Which, considering the amount of oil (massive) and level of cleanup taking place (none), was pretty alarming. Plus, as a big guy next to her wearing a shirt from ES&H, the main cleanup contractor here, said, "We don't need this on camera." Which is why BP's contractors have their workers on a gag order: because sometimes they say stupid shit like that.
We paddled on and pulled up on Grande Terre, where the oil stretched as far as we could see in deep dark pools. We encountered a cleanup crew supervisor gunning around on his ATV, who said there were all of 30 workers on the whole island, which he said is five miles long. For the hour we walked around, only three of them were working anyway, while the rest sat in the shade. And the work consisted of somewhat haphazardly laying down paper towels.
 
Also, we found a dead dolphin. 
That was about all we could take, what with a heat index of 105 and the rowing we had to do back to Grand Isle and I was already getting a little woozy. At least I kept my wits enough about me to remember to keep my mouth closed when waves splashed water thick with oil into my face. I suppose the 60 or so dolphins swimming the pass with us don't have that option; things got a little (more) depressing in the kayak when we saw that they were blowing it out through their holes. They'd probably like to take the double scrubbing-down with dishwashing liquid we took when we got home, too.

Update on Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Response

- 10 June

Release date: 10 June 2010

BP today provided an update on developments in the response to the MC252 oil well incident in the Gulf of Mexico.

Subsea Source Control and Containment

The lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap, installed on June 3, continues to collect oil and gas flowing from the MC252 well and transport them to the Discoverer Enterprise drillship on the surface.

In the first 12 hours of June 9 (midnight to noon), approximately 7,920 barrels of oil were collected and 15.7 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared. On June 8, a total of approximately 15,000 barrels of oil were collected and 29.4 million cubic feet of natural gas were flared.

Lightering - the transfer of crude oil from one vessel to another - from storage on the Discoverer Enterprise to the barge Massachussetts began on the morning of June 9 and continues. When the process is complete, the barge will transport the oil for discharge at an onshore terminal.

The volume of oil captured and gas flared is being updated twice daily on BP’s website, www.bp.com. The LMRP containment cap never before has been deployed at these depths and conditions, and its efficiency and ability to contain the oil and gas cannot be assured.

Preparations for additional planned enhancements to the LMRP containment system continue to progress.

The first planned addition will use the hoses and manifold that were deployed for the “top kill” operation to take oil and gas from the failed Deepwater Horizon blow-out preventer (BOP) through a separate riser to the Q4000 vessel on the surface, in addition to the LMRP cap system. This system is intended to increase the overall efficiency of the containment operation by potentially increasing the amount of oil and gas that can be captured from the well and is currently expected to be available for operation in mid-June.

The second planned addition is intended to provide a more permanent LMRP containment cap system by directing the oil and gas to a new free-floating riser ending approximately 300 feet below sea level. It is then proposed that a flexible hose be attached to a containment vessel. This long-term containment option is designed to permit more effective disconnection and reconnection of the riser to provide the greatest flexibility for operations during a hurricane. It is expected to be implemented in early July.

In the meantime, work on the first relief well, which started May 2, continues and has currently reached a depth of 13,978 feet. The second relief well, which started May 16, is at 8,576 feet, and preparing to drill ahead. Both wells are still estimated to take approximately three months to complete from commencement of drilling.

Surface Spill Response and Containment

Work continues to collect and disperse oil that has reached the surface of the sea, to protect the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico, and to collect and clean up any oil that has reached shore.

Almost 3,600 vessels are now involved in the response effort, including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels. Operations to skim oil from the surface of the water now have recovered, in total, approximately 383,000 barrels (16.1 million gallons) of oily liquid.

The total length of containment boom deployed as part of efforts to prevent oil from reaching the coast is now over 2.3 million feet, and almost 2.7 million feet of sorbent boom also has been deployed.

To date, almost 42,000 claims have been submitted and more than 20,000 payments already have been made, totalling over $53 million. BP has received more than 173,000 calls into its help lines.

Additional information

The cost of the response to date is approximately $1.43 billion, including the cost of the spill response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to the Gulf states, claims paid, and federal costs. This also includes the first $60 million in funds for the Louisiana barrier islands construction project. It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.

RunDown with Nancy Pelosi

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Dick Cheney's Last Laugh

The oil spill raises new questions about the Bush administration's secret energy task force.

By Kate Sheppard | Thu Jun. 10, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

---

Dick Cheney hasn't made much time for television appearances lately. But in the weeks since the Deepwater Horizon unleashed a torrent of oil on the Gulf of Mexico [1], his name has been creeping back into the press. "The truth is that right now we have precisely the regulatory system that the Bush-Cheney administration wanted: full of loopholes, full of cronies and lobbyists filling the very agencies that are supposed to be overseeing the industry," liberal commentator Arianna Huffington said on ABC's This Week last Sunday.  Cheney's daughter, Liz, was on hand to defend her father. "Arianna, I don't know what planet you live on," she shot back. "What you are saying has no relationship to the truth, no relationship to the facts."
The reality is a lot more complicated than that. Many of the policy and regulatory failures that laid the groundwork for the BP catastrophe [1] can be traced back to the Bush-Cheney era. But so far, this question has received relatively little attention—mostly because the task force that developed the former administration's energy policy operated in extreme secrecy. Did the task force's decisions play a role in the BP spill? And could the Gulf disaster finally provoke new scrutiny of the task force's clandestine workings?
The energy task force was created days after onetime oilman George W. Bush took office in 2001, and was headed by Cheney, a former CEO at Halliburton, one of the world's largest providers of oilfield products and services. For months, the task force solicited input on US energy policy. On May 16, 2001, the group issued its final report [2], which was submitted to Congress in June. But the participants and details of the discussions were kept tightly under wraps.

The open-government group Judicial Watch tried to pry details of the task force's deliberations from the administration in June, arguing that the sessions qualified as public information under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the open-meetings law. The US General Accounting Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, also sought information on which industry executives and lobbyists had attended the gatherings.
But in the first of many clashes over presidential secrecy, the White House rejected those requests, arguing that it was entitled to conduct the meetings behind closed doors thanks to executive privilege. Judicial Watch and the Sierra Club sued, but the Supreme Court [3] ultimately sided with the administration. Though some information has trickled out in the years since, the vast majority of the task force's deliberations remain hidden from the public eye.
Here's what we know about the task force and offshore drilling. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, was able to obtain 13,500 pages of heavily redacted documents [4] that gave a glimpse into the role industry leaders played in shaping the administration's policies (NRDC also got a list of the documents [5] (PDF) that the administration refused to turn over). In July 2007, the Washington Post got a list of the roughly 300 groups and individuals who met with task force staffers and, in some cases, Cheney himself.

BP officials were among [6] those who "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the administration, though when that fact came to light, the company refused to comment on those meetings. We still don't know what specific policy areas BP execs weighed in on. Perhaps it's little surprise that BP recently hired [7] Cheney's former press secretary, a public defender of the secret task force, to help the company with crisis communication after the spill.
But we do have a few more details about other oil industry players in the talks. Chevron's CEO contributed a detailed list [8](PDF) of ways in which the government could "eliminate federal barriers to increased energy supplies"—many of which were incorporated in the task force's final report [9]. This included recommendations to ease federal permitting rules for energy development and a request that the administration support opening up new areas of the eastern Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and gas development. Doing so, wrote Chevron CEO David O'Reilly, would "demonstrate a commitment to reject unjustified opposition to new energy leasing and development."
The American Petroleum Institute offered its own long list [10] of suggestions for energy policy. A March 20, 2001, email from API to an official at the Energy Department included a draft executive order [11] calling for all federal agencies to issue a detailed statement on any regulatory action that "adversely affects energy supply, distribution or use." It was nearly identical to the order Bush issued just two months later [12].
Many of the recommendations from the task force report were adopted in the 2005 Energy Policy Act. That legislation provided $6 billion in subsidies [13] for oil and gas development. Royalty payments for oil and gas development were waived in several regions of the US. Some companies were allowed to pay royalties with oil, rather than money—a less transparent system that was more vulnerable to abuse. The bill also provided $1.5 billion in direct payments to companies to incentivize drilling in deepwater wells, and curtailed the power of states to oversee oil and gas exploration off their coasts under the Coastal Zone Management Act.
In addition, the bill weakened environmental protections for offshore drilling, making it easier to exclude a broad range of exploration and drilling activities from analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. This has been cited as the reason that the Deepwater Horizon site was not subjected to a thorough environmental analysis [13].
The task force's final report also presented a rosy picture of the offshore drilling industry. Newer oil and gas drilling methods, it said, "practically eliminate spills from offshore platforms" and "enhance worker safety, lower risk of blowouts, and provide better protection of groundwater resources." The report advocated lifting the moratorium on portions of the outer continental shelf, noting that "concerns over the potential impacts of oil spills have been a major factor behind imposition of the OCS moratoria." Bush lifted the executive moratorium in 2008, and the Democratic-controlled Congress allowed its own moratorium [14] to expire.
But there's a lot we still don't know. The task force recommendations included scaling back regulations and oversight of offshore drilling while expanding incentive programs and access to resources, many of which would come to pass in future legislation. But how much the task force may have guided decisions at federal agencies—in particular the notoriously lax Minerals Management Service (MMS)—is unclear. The administration's directives across the agencies actively discouraged any regulations or oversight that might hinder development of resources.
Among the many questions is what role the task force may have played in a 2003 decision by the MMS not to require offshore rigs to install an acoustic shut-off switch, a remote-controlled backup system that seals off an underwater well even if the rig above is destroyed. Countries like Norway and Brazil require this precaution, and MMS considered doing the same. But oil companies complained that the $500,000 devices were too expensive and, they argued, ineffective. Ultimately, MMS made the switches optional. The Deepwater Horizon was not outfitted with such a device, which could have prevented the spill. Other concerns include [15] a failure to implement new cementing policies or act on known concerns about key components on drilling rigs.
The Department of Justice has launched criminal and civil investigations into the disaster, while a presidential commission is looking into both the spill and offshore drilling policy in general. That  commission currently lacks subpoena power, though there's an effort underway in Congress [16] to grant the commission that power. Numerous congressional committees have also launched probes of the spill. A congressional aide working for one of those committees indicated that there has been some discussion of revisiting the task force in those investigations, though no concrete steps to do so have been taken.
Open government advocates say this might be the appropriate time to push for more information about his task force. Mandy Smithberger, an investigator at the Project on Government Oversight, says that it's "definitely a ripe time" to find out more about what went on in the meetings. "I don't think you can understand how we got to where we are without looking back," she says.
"When you have a disaster of this magnitude, it raises the question, if in this whole secretive process, what was discussed, how much did the Bush administration ignore, how much did they allow the oil and gas industry to basically do what they wanted," says AnneWeismann, chief counsel at Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington. "Secrecy is so pernicious that it can continue to damage even when the administration is not in power."

Arlington National Cemetery scandal leads to shake-up

by Steve Handelsman, NBC Newschannel

Story Published: Jun 10, 2010 at 4:07 PM CDT
Story Updated: Jun 10, 2010 at 4:12 PM CDT

ARLINGTON, Va. - It's a square mile of hallowed ground across the Potomac from Washington.

Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of more than 320,000  Americans, many of them war heroes.
Now a Pentagon investigation has uncovered troubling problems with the plots and record keeping.
Unmarked gravesites, improperly marked graves and improper handling of cremated remains were all found.
At least 211 mistakes have been documented so far.
Two are in Section 60, an area reserved for those lost in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Salon.com revealed the scandal, detailing how in 2008 Air Force Master Sgt. Marion Grabe's cremated remains were mistakenly buried on top of other remains.
Salon reporter Mark Benjamin found the pattern of bad record keeping and improperly disturbed graves.
"Arlington officials went to bury a service member in what was supposed to be an empty grave.  And guess what?  There was already somebody there," he explained.  "They didn't know who it was, and they covered it up with grass and they walked away."
Arlington's superintendent John Metzler has been reprimanded and will step down.
His deputy was fired.
Secretary of the Army John McHugh apologized on Capitol Hill Thursday and vowed to make immediate corrections.
A new team will take over to fix the mess.
They might have to X-ray gravesites and even dig up coffins to get a perfect roll call of Arlington's heroes.

 

200 graves misidentified at Arlington Cemetery

Probe found some graves where the bodies were misidentified

By Jim Miklaszewski

NBC News

updated 7:46 p.m. ET, Thurs., June 10, 2010

Video

Offenses at Arlington lead to change of command June 10: Two administrators at Arlington National Cemetery have lost their jobs following accusations that mistakes and poor management violated the nation's most sacred oath to its fallen. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports. Nightly News

WASHINGTON - A number of scandals at Arlington National Cemetery, including one in which a service member's body was buried on top of another, cost the top two administrators their jobs, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

Army Secretary John McHugh announced that Arlington National's superintendent, John Metzler, would be relieved of his duties and that his deputy, Thurman Higginbotham, would be placed on immediate administrative leave, pending further investigation.

McHugh told a Pentagon press conference that the investigation found 211 graves where there were problems of misidentification or improper record keeping. There also are claims that Higginbotham had illegally hacked into the computer files of a former Arlington employee.

Over the past couple of years, officials said, some of the 300,000 graves at Arlington were improperly marked and in some cases bodies were buried in the wrong graves.

In 2008, an Air Force master sergeant was buried on top of a staff sergeant already in the grave, but the error wasn't discovered until the widow of the first service member buried there complained to authorities that someone else's headstone had been placed on her husband's grave. 

Metzler and Higginbotham have come under heavy criticism for not creating a computer database of gravesites. Records of the hundreds of thousands buried at Arlington National are still kept in paper files.

"We found nothing that was intentional, criminal intent or intended sloppiness that caused this. ... But of all the things in the world, we see this as a zero defect operation," Whitcomb told reporters Thursday.

The Army said it plans a more thorough investigation of the questioned grave sites under the new management.

Kaitlin Horst, Arlington National's spokesperson, said all scheduled funerals at the cemetery would still be held. Family members with questions are urged to call the cemetery at 703-607-8000.

The Army is investigating whether Higginbotham made false statements to service investigators. Higginbotham, who ran the day-to-day operations at the cemetery, has been accused by former employees of creating a hostile work environment and breaking into their e-mail systems.

Higginbotham is on administrative leave, pending further review.

According to a defense official familiar with the case, who discussed the details on condition of anonymity, Higginbotham won't face criminal charges because of a lack of evidence. But, the official said, the Army will ensure he never works at the cemetery again.

While Metzler announced in May that he intends to retire on July 2, Department of Defense and Army officials say he is being forced to step down with a letter of reprimand that blames him for failing to rein in Higginbotham's mistakes.

Taking their place will be Kathryn Condon, a former civilian head of Army Materiel Command who as executive director will in charge of fixing any burial errors. Patrick Hallinan, a director with the Veterans Affairs Department, is temporarily being assigned as the cemetery's superintendent.

McHugh also announced the creation of an independent advisory commission that will be led by former senators and Army veterans Max Cleland and Bob Dole. 

Metzler, 62, has worked for the government for 42 years. He is the son of John C. Metzler Sr., who preceded him as cemetery superintendent.

In a Marine Corps Times story on Thursday, Metzler responded to the charges against him. "Nobody here is doing anything malicious," he said. "Sure, mistakes get made . . . Does anyone run a perfect organization?"

Jim Miklaszewski is NBC's Pentagon correspondent. This story contains reporting from The Associated Press, msnbc.com staff and the Marine Corps Times.

BP Refuses to Provide Oil Samples to Scientists Investigating Underwater Plumes

The ProPublica Blog

by Marian Wang, ProPublica - June 8, 2010 4:57 pm EDT

Getty Images

The giant deepwater plumes of oil in the Gulf of Mexico have been confirmed by the government [1], but one thing the testing couldn’t confirm was that the oil below the surface is definitively from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. (The other possibility is the plumes are the result of natural seepage.)
According to a lead scientist involved in the testing, an oil sample from the BP well would have helped ID the origin of the plumes, but BP refused to provide any samples [2], reported the St. Petersburg Times. “I was just taken aback by it,” said the scientist, David Hollander, who’s a professor of chemical oceanography at the University of South Florida. “It was a little unsettling.”
This is hardly the first time [1] we’ve heard a scientist claiming that the oil company has stood in the way of efforts to obtain better information on the Gulf disaster. Ira Leifer, a scientist on the government’s Flow Rate Technical Group told McClatchy that “we’re still waiting [3]” for BP to hand over data that would yield a more accurate flow rate estimate. We’ve also noted that in May, scientists stood ready to help measure the Gulf gusher, but BP turned down their offers to help [4].
I’ve left messages with BP and have not received a response. I’ll update when I get one.