rssPosts by Mike Lillis
BP’s ‘Top Kill’ Efforts Are Working
So reports the L.A. Times, citing U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen.
The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, has pumped enough drilling fluid to block all oil and gas from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well is very low,
Shocker: BP Chose Cheaper, Less Safe, Oil Well Seal
The New York Times reports:
The concern with the method BP chose, the document said, was that if the cement around the casing pipe did not seal properly, gases could leak all the way to the wellhead, where only a single seal would serve as a barrier.
Using
Both Parties See Immigration as Path to Victory in Arizona
As The Washington Post’s Peter Slevin reported last week, GOP Senate hopeful J.D. Hayworth might be down in the polls, and he might have just a fifth of the campaign funds accumulated by his primary opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). But following enactment of Arizona’s draconian new immigration More…
Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine Still Racking Up Safety Violations
The coal mine that exploded last month in West Virginia — killing 29 workers and all but killing a 30th — may be shuttered in the wake of the blast, but federal regulators continue to find safety problems there. As The Charleston Gazette’s Ken Ward Jr. reports today, More…
Extension of Unemployment Benefits Stalled in House
Officially, House leaders are saying they’ll have the support to pass an enormous jobs proposal that would extend the deadline to file for additional unemployment benefits (but not create new benefits) through the end of the year.
“We will have the votes,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) More…
Third Time: GOP Blocks Bill to Raise Oil Spill Liability Cap
Twice this month, Senate Democrats have tried to pass their proposal hiking the oil spill liability cap from $75 million to $10 billion. And twice Republicans have objected, calling the $10 billion figure “arbitrary” (which is precisely what the Obama administration has called it).
Today, the bill’s sponsors More…
Environmentalists Roll Out National Ad Targeting Mountaintop Coal Mining
When most of us flip on the lights (or type into our computers, for that matter), we aren’t thinking about how those simple acts might affect those living in coal country. Yet nearly half of the country’s electricity is generated by coal, and increasingly that coal is being More…
Massey Miner: ‘I Felt Like I Was Working for the Gestapo’
A coal miner working at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine when it exploded last month, killing 29 colleagues, described the operation this week as “a ticking time bomb,” where the management valued production over safety and workers didn’t protest for fear of being fired.
“The ventilation system they had didn’t More…
Why Is BP Controlling Louisiana’s Cops?
By now, we all know that the federal government is pretty much impotent in the face of the seafloor gusher that’s been spewing unknowable amounts of oil into the Gulf of Mexico for a month, reliant instead on BP to clean up the mess it’s made. But why More…
Senate Dems Seek Probe Into Transocean’s $1 Billion Shareholder Payout
Transocean Ltd., the Swiss company operating the Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it blew up last month, raised plenty of eyebrows last week when it announced its plan to pay out $1 billion in dividends to shareholders.
“It’s heartwarming to see that Transocean, the same company that rushed to More…
