Environmental Economics

Worse than the Exxon Valdez spill already?

USGS Director Dr. Marcia McNutt today announced that the National Incident Command’s Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) has developed an independent, preliminary estimate of the amount of oil flowing from BP’s leaking oil well.

...

Based on three separate methodologies, outlined below, the independent analysis of the Flow Rate Technical Group has determined that the overall best initial estimate for the lower and upper boundaries of flow rates of oil is in the range of 12,000 and 19,000 barrels per day.

via www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com

At 12,000 barrels per day, it would take only 21 days to reach the level of the Exxon Valdez spill (250,000 barrels).

This could be one of my biggest pet peeves

"If this outlook holds true, this [Atlantic hurricane] season could be one of the more active on record," said Jane Lubchenco, the under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, and NOAA's administrator.

via www.cnn.com

With so many qualifiers, is there any useful information in that quote?

Breaking BP news

From the inbox:

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thu, May 27, 2010 -- 11:11 AM ET
-----

'Top Kill' Effort Seems to Be Working, U.S. Says Cautiously

The latest effort to plug a gushing underwater oil well in the Gulf of Mexico appeared to be working, officials and engineers said on Thursday morning, though definitive word on its success was still hours away.

At the same time, government experts said that the flow of oil from the well, which has been gushing since an explosion and fire wrecked a drilling rig in late April, was several times worse than the preliminary estimate by BP, the oil company responsible for the rig and the well.

And The Associated Press reported on Thursday that the head of the agency responsible for regulating offshore oil drilling had been dismissed.

Up Close and Personal: BP Oil Spill

UCAP: BP Oil Spill - watch more funny videos

LA, MS and AL fisheries are declared a national disaster

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared the Gulf of Mexico a national fisheries disaster area this week, citing the havoc wrought on the region’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry by the Deepwater Horizon blowout. The fisheries of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are covered by the disaster declaration, making them eligible for federal relief funds.

The spill in the gulf has forced the closing of more than 54,000 square miles of federal waters and wide swaths of Louisiana state waters to commercial and recreational fishing. Louisiana’s commercial fisheries, which generated about $2.4 billion in revenue and 27,000 jobs for the state last year, have been particularly hard hit by the spreading slick.

via green.blogs.nytimes.com

Deepwater Horizon blowout: Live video link

The live feed might be working here. We'll keep this post at the top for a while.

Marginal Revolution: Top Kill

We hope some time today.  Live video feed from 5000 feet below.

via www.marginalrevolution.com

It's going to make a great movie. My 12:27 pm Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center email says:

Federal On-Scene Coordinator Rear Admiral Mary Landry, acting on the validation of government scientists and in consultation with the National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, has granted approval for BP to begin proceeding with their attempt to cap the well using the technique known as the “top kill.”

This expedited step provides the final authorization necessary to begin the procedure.

I only wish this were from the Onion

"A 'teacher' told my child in class that dolphins were mammals and not fish!" a third complains. "And the same thing about whales! We need TRADITIONAL VALUES in all areas of education. If it swims in the water, it is a FISH. Period! End of Story."

via www.washingtonpost.com

Now that's a funny read.

Env-Econ 101: Oil Spill Induced Seafood Supply Decrease=Price Increase

The supply of Gulf Coast food -- and the cost of it -- fluctuates on a daily basis, with the NOAA Fisheries Services map of safe and affected fishing waters constantly being redrawn. ABC reports that in light of the reduced amount of seafood on the market, "Fish that normally sold for $2.50 a pound were going for $3.25."

via www.cnn.com

MoDo on lax regulation

The tragedy is that M.M.S. eerily presaged the disaster in the draft of a May 2000 environmental analysis of deep-water drilling in the gulf. The agency noted that “the oil industry’s experience base in deepwater well control is limited” and that given the prodigious production rates, “a deepwater blowout of this magnitude in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico could easily turn out to be a potential showstopper” for the Outer Continental Shelf program.

But M.M.S. got rid of those caveats in the final report, just as they deemed a remote-controlled shut-off switch an unnecessary expense for drilling companies several years ago.

via www.nytimes.com