Nasty Little Man

200,000+ gallons of oil spill at Big Oil's "model", Prudhoe Bay

Did you know that the largest oil spill ever in Alaska's North Slope occurred during the first week of March? I didn't know until reading this article in last week's Time. Where was the mainstream media on this story? I don't have a news routine where I read x newspapers and hear y radio reports, but I read and listen enough that I generally catch most of the biggest stories. This one slipped by.

A Google News search of "Prudhoe Bay" finds that most of the coverage, other than an initial Reuters report, is from the west coast- San Diego, Seattle, and Anchorage.

All told, the spill totaled 267,000 gallons of petroleum, which leaked through a hole in a pipeline.

BP says that it increased corrosion-management spending 16% from 2004 to 2005 to meet these challenges. But an alarming Department of Transportation document obtained by the Anchorage Daily News raises questions about BP's diligence in inspecting its pipelines, pointing to no fewer than six other anomalies found on the same 10-mile stretch of pipeline, including a spot where the pipe had corroded so badly it was less than 0.04 in. thick. (my bold)

Now, Prudhoe Bay is supposedly the industry's model of how drilling can co-exist with the natural environment. Hopefully, Big Oil's dream of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge also leaked away with all of that oil.



In other green news, Time's cover story this week is on global warming and how the crisis is here, not decades away.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 10:01 PM