BU Now » Deepwater Horizon

BP CEO hit at Congressional hearing

Dick Taffe — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:04:07 +0000

Members of Congress came down hard on BP CEO Tony Hayward (r.) as he testified about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But political science Professor Graham Wilson, author of “Business and Politics,” wondered why the spotlight over American’s worst-ever spill hasn’t shone on Transocean, BP’s partner in the Gulf of Mexico oil rig that exploded in April.

“How did Transocean get off the hook so easily? Aren’t they people who were drilling the well with MMS approval and weren’t they ones saying the rig was needed to quickly to drill another well?”

Contact Graham Wilson, 617-353-2540, gkwilson@bu.edu

How much is that spill?

Dick Taffe — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:36:34 +0000

The BP oil spill now has released at least 1.3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on June 15th. What’s that equivalent to? Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies and editor of Encyclopedia of Earth” suggests some possibilities in his blog, “The Energy Watch.”

Years of energy used in a single average America home: 81,286

Number of miles that could be driven by a Prius: 3,085,600,000

Number of airplane round trips between London and Louisiana that could be taken by BP CEO Tony Hayward: 263,808

Hours of motor gasoline consumption for the entire United States: 3.9

Minutes of world energy use: 8

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

BP tries (again) to plug leak

Dick Taffe — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:52:46 +0000

Embattled oil company BP is again trying to divert the six-week-old Gulf oil leak by smothering the gushing flow under yet another dome. Geology Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, has updated his entry on the Deepwater Horizon saga in the BU-born Encyclopedia of Earth to discuss the myth that this catastrophe is no different that the oil seeps that release large volumes of oil to the ocean naturally.

“The Deepwater Horizon site releases 3 to 12 times the oil per day compared to that released by natural seeps across the entire Gulf of Mexico … A sudden, concentrated and massive pulse of oil from an event such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster presents a fundamentally more acute stress to marine and coastal systems.”

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

BU environmental expert on impact of oil spill

Kira Jastive — Thu, 27 May 2010 15:48:26 +0000

Cutler Cleveland, professor of Geography and Environment, lays out the short and long-term environmental effects of the BP oil spill.

Contact: Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-7552, cutler@bu.edu

BP tries “top kill” to stop Gulf leak

Dick Taffe — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:10:42 +0000

Though it’s never been tried before in such deep waters, BP started its “top kill” operation in an effort to plug the mile-deep leak that has been spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico in U.S. waters for five weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, says the whole incident points a damning finger at Washington.

“The magnitude of failure of the federal government to protect the nation and the people of Louisiana grows with each passing day. From patronage between government regulators and the oil industry to shoddy environmental impact assessment, we have been supremely let down.”

For more on the oil spill, see the entry in the Encyclopedia of Earth, developed by BU researchers as a peer-reviewed Wikipedia-like source for authoritative environmental content.

Contact Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu

Regulators too close to oil industry

Dick Taffe — Tue, 25 May 2010 22:33:48 +0000

The Interior Department’s inspector general issued a report showing an all-to-cozy relationship between the department’s Minerals Management Service and the oil industry that it was supposed to be regulating. Law Professor Tamar Frankel, author of “Trust and Honesty: America’s Business Culture at a Crossroad” and an authority on legal ethics, says the problem of regulators becoming captives is complex and there should be limits on how much they can accept in gifts from those they’re overseeing.

“There are many other effective ways to nip corruption in the bud. The main point is to recognize that it is waiting in the shadows and to eliminate it before it starts festering and rotting the system.”

Contact Tamar Frankel, 617-353-3773, tfrankel@bu.edu

Gulf oil spill documented by BU researchers

Kira Jastive — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:05:40 +0000

Details of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill have now been documented, and will be updated, on the Encyclopedia of Earth, developed by Boston University under the guidance of Professor Cutler Cleveland, director of the BU Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and fellow at the university’s Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future.

The entry, authored by Cleveland, details the explosion and fire, casualties and rescue efforts, magnitude, geographic spread, attempts to stop the leak, clean-up efforts, paying for the clean-up, ecological concerns, investigations, government response, and economic impact.

Contact: Cutler Cleveland, 617-353-3083, cutler@bu.edu