Major Oil Spill in Alaska

I would have expected the media to jump all over this one but not a peep as far as I know.

Here's the link for your viewing convenience...

news.yahoo.com...

Did you actually read the article?

The entire spill was less than 2 acres. Massive? Hardly. Just another case of eco-hyperbole to garner headlines. The environmental industry is trying to 'spin' this non-event into something it is not. The sierra club membership probably accidently spill more than that each year changing the oil in their SUVs.

Rather than a 'disaster', this is proof that contemporary oil spill detection and clean-up works.

Very interesting story, for several reasons.

Although it is a significant spill and it is a large volume, the footprint, being just under two acres, is small

Lots of oil confined to a small area.

"Knowing the impact area and getting it cleaned up, to us, is in a sense the most important thing," said Beaudo, who added that restarting production is less of a priority.

Expect prices for oil and gasoline to rise again while they clean up.

Officials suspect corrosion created a quarter-inch hole in the transit line and the ensuing leak, even though BP said the area of the breach was not registered as vulnerable as part of the company's corrosion-monitoring program.

Can anybody say .243, or even .270 caliber? "Honest Warden, I thought it was a caribou!" Although I would prefer a heavier caliber weapon for such game. Even a .30-06 is only 3/10ths of an inch in diameter, versus 1/4th, a difference of only .05 inches.

"By nature, the oil industry is a messy business," said Luci Beach, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, a group of Athabascan Indians opposed to oil development in the refuge.

Beach, who was in Washington, D.C., to campaign against Congressional attempts to allow drilling in the refuge, said she often encounters arguments that modern oil-field technology has eliminated environmental risks.

"Look at this huge spill. It kind of takes the air out of that argument," she said.

Well now, how convenient is it to have Luci Beach, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, in DC at the same time someone discovers (shoots?) a hole in the pipeline? This hole just happens to be where there was no probplem expected with corrosion, and where the large spill would be confined to a small area and do relatively little damage.

Am I reading between the lines here, or making up my own story because I'm bored at home on a stormy Saturday afternoon?

The BBC had the following quite:

"I can confirm it's the largest spill of crude oil on the North Slope
that we have record of."

Even if you have seen news on this subject, it is obviously not
getting the proper attention!
If this eclipses the Exxon-Valdez, then where were the cameras that
were there all those years ago? Have those people stopped caring? I
don't think they have. I think this just reflects what happens when
we let oil businessmen in charge of the country.

Originally posted by carlwfbird
... I think this just reflects what happens when
we let oil businessmen in charge of the country.

It's more indicative of what happens when let newspaper editors try to push a political agenda onto their readership by manipulating news.

It's yellow journalism.

This was already postedhere.