Who Can You Trust? Oil-Spill Edition

“Who Can You Trust?” is an ongoing look at some of the main players in the gulf oil-spill disaster. We analyze the media appearances and public statements of those covering, controlling, and combating the spill to determine who’s spinning for personal advantage, who’s playing to the crowd, and who (or what) we can truly count on.

Flow Rates

Output measurements

After months of confusion about how much oil was actually spilling from the well—confusion, that is, followed by higher and higher estimates of the spill’s daily output—we’re getting closer to understanding the truth. BP fit the rig with sensors to determine the flow’s output, which should put an end to the question of how effective the containment cap really is. And it seems we can be confident about the numbers: despite BP’s protest that measuring the flow would be difficult, Mother Jones reveals that BP was quite confident in its output-measuring ability just two years ago.

Pay attention: When the rates stay the same for a few days’ running.

President Obama

Commander in chief

Obama’s been a more frequent visitor to the Gulf Coast, and his presence on the scene seems to be impressing upon him the full gravity of the situation: he’s giving his first Oval Office speech on Monday, and pushing an escrow account on BP to compensate businesses (rather than paying stockholders dividends). His new zeal for the oil spill has him making bold statements: in a Politico interview, he compared the spill to 9/11, saying the disaster would shape both his agenda and the country’s thinking for years to come. It’s a claim that offended some 9/11 survivors and families, but others say the lack of preparedness echoes the lead-up and aftermath of the Twin Towers collapse. Either way, it’s clear Obama is taking the spill seriously. Just how he’ll direct his attention is another question.

Pay attention: To what Obama does next—is he going to spend time going after BP, or mobilizing his federal agencies to speed up recovery efforts?

The British

Across-the-pond neighbors

Last week The New York Times reported the Brits were complaining of “anti-British rhetoric” because of the spill. Seriously? We understand that the BP was a source of great national pride for Britain, and that a large part of the country’s pension system is tied to BP stock. The fact that said stock has lost a third of its value—and that there’s no end in sight to the money BP is going to have to spend on cleanup and restoration—would make anyone close to retirement nervous. But let’s not mistake the calls to withhold dividends from stockholders, or to put BP on the hook for lost income, as fueled by a subliminal hatred of the U.K. Let’s make no mistake: CEO Tony Hayward is not despised by Americans because he has a posh accent and Savile Row shirts. Tony Hayward is despised by Americans because he’s a clueless boor, and he ruined our gulf.

Pay attention: To the reaction if dividends are withheld.

Oil Collection and Distribution Systems

Energy necessity

So, yes: oil is spilling from the Deepwater Horizon site at a rate of one Exxon Valdez every eight to 10 days. It’s bad, and it’s not the only failure: another very small leak in the gulf, from a well site destroyed in 2004, has also been reported. Though at a rate of less than barrel a day, it’s nowhere near the size of the Horizon spill, it does raise troubling questions about who’s minding the mines once the rigs move on, and what the cumulative affect of these “hundreds of small oil leaks” has been. And what about the 21,000-gallon oil leak that nearly polluted the Great Salt Lake? Workers were able to contain the spill—the result of a Chevron pipe breaking near the lake—but not before 300 birds were coated in oil and a habitat of rare fish was polluted.

Pay attention: To any rigs or pipelines near your home.

Cleaning Oily Animals

Spill recovery effort

It’s not working. The magnitude of the spill and the plethora of wildlife in its path has been a deadly mix.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has kept a chart of the animals collected: more than half the birds found have died, and only 42 have been released to a wetlands preserve, only two mammals have survived (37 were found dead), and there have been about six times as many dead sea turtles (an endangered species) found than live ones.

Pay attention: To the baby animals being brought into the rescue centers. Their survival will say a lot about the future of the gulf.

Previous Updates:

Volume five: Lubchenco Retains Some Scientific Cred; Relief Payments Leave Workers Scrambling

Volume four: The Head of NOAA and the Governor of Mississippi Play Down the Disaster

Volume three: Google vs. the Containment Cap—What’s More Reliable?

Volume two: Landry Steps Back. Suttles Lays Low.

Volume one: Academics, Admirals, and Angry Politicians