One Year Anniversary of the Gulf Oil Spill

Here's a roundup of news from today:

• Nil, Baby, Nil: Congress Fails To Pass A Single Oil Spill Law

• One Year After BP, Congress Has Yet To Change Oil Spill Liability Cap

• BP Marks Anniversary With Campaign Contributions

• BP Still Being Awarded Lucrative Government Contracts

• Cleanup Workers Report Mysterious Illnesses

• So do fishermen and local residents:
  
  

• A growing body of evidence reveals that the massive release of oil combined with the unprecedented amount of chemical oil dispersants applied by BP is still an environmental threat a year later

• CNN reports, "Some potential clues about the impact of the spill have made themselves known: dead baby dolphins and sea turtles; oiled brown pelicans; fish with strange sores; sticky marsh grasses; tar balls on beaches. … "
  

• 3,200 Gulf Oil And Gas Wells Remain Unplugged, Unprotected

• The Associated Press reported recently, some local governments have been using the $754 million in disaster payments from BP to buy iPads, SUVs, and laptops. Meanwhile, BP just gave another $30 million to Florida to help entice tourists onto its beaches this summer

• The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement contracted the Norwegian firm Det Norske Veritas to conduct a forensic examination of the blowout preventer. The blind shear rams, which were supposed cut through and close off the well, failed because a pipe had buckled, the 551-page report concluded—a problem that casts doubt on all the other BOPs in use today
  

• A year later, BP is still blocking reporters from the beaches (and from learning about injured wildlife)
  

• While pro-BP scientists claim that the Gulf has recovered, new pictures show the real damage

• BP's Oil Spill Tax Credit Matches EPA's Entire Annual Budget

• Only 17 months before BP's Deepwater Horizon rig suffered a deadly blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP deepwater oil platform also blew out (but BP kept it secret, failing to even disclose it to Congress or US safety regulators)

• Nothing has really changed, and so a giant spill is likely to happen again.

• A former top oil industry executive says:

Today marks the first anniversary of the worst environmental catastrophe in the history of the US. Unfortunately, most Americans, including our politicians, are suffering from collective amnesia about that tragic event that cost 11 lives, destroyed thousands of jobs, polluted thousands of square miles of the Gulf of Mexico, and damaged the economies of 5 states. As tragic as all those events were (some are still ongoing), media attention has moved on to the Royal Wedding, the next earthquake, and, of course, breathless coverage of American Idol. At the same time, our politicians, especially those in Washington, have used the lack of media attention to not only abdicate their responsibilities to make offshore drilling safer and are actively working to make it less safe, shocking as that seems.

• Ironically, on this one-year anniversary of the Gulf spill, there has been a massive spill in Pennsylvania caused by a blowout of a fracking well