Update: BP says the second, smaller container has reached the Gulf seafloor and been placed away from oil gusher for now. In BP’s latest bid to stop the oil leak, a crane late Tuesday lifted the new containment box from the deck of the Viking Poseidon, one of the more than a dozen boats helping [...]  More »

The BP oil spill is not just affecting U.S. policies on offshore drilling. It also has implications for Norway’s waters, which the industry has been pushing the Norwegian government to open up to exploration. Areas near Norway’s Lofoten and Vesteraalen islands are being eyed by the industry because of an estimated 1.3 billion barrels in [...]  More »

After a day of finger pointing and testimony about the Gulf oil spill, hearings on Capitol Hill as well as the public hearings in Louisiana conducted by the Coast Guard and Minerals Management Service continue today.  More »

• Witnessess say hints of trouble came hours before the Deepwater Horizon blowout. • Proposed MMS reorganization would split agency in two. • BP, Transocean, Halliburton escalate blame game in Congressional hearings. • Senators at hearing focus on well pressure, question adequacy of response plan. • Availability of booms is a growing concern, Napolitano says. [...]  More »

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has spurred senators to revise — but not abandon — plans to expand offshore drilling as part of a broad climate change and energy bill set to be unveiled Wednesday. The measure, devised by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Ct., would expand a lucrative royalty [...]  More »

Map of spill, May 12  More »

As congressional committees today launched initial investigations on the Deepwater Horizon disaster, some senators warned that the Capitol Hill hearings threaten ongoing work to stop and contain the oil spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico. “The people testifying today at all these hearings should be spending their valuable time (focused on) the response effort,” [...]  More »

As luck would have it, one day before the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20, the crew of a commercial supply boat that ultimately saved most of the rig’s evacuating workers had performed a “man overboard” drill. The crew of the Damon B. Bankston vessel, positioned alongside the Deepwater Horizon at the time of the [...]  More »

WASHINGTON — A top Environmental Protection Agency official told a Congressional hearing this morning the agency doesn’t know if chemical dispersants will work to break up the oil slick off the Gulf Coast — or what impact the dispersants will have on the environment. Jim Jones, the EPA’s deputy assistant administrator in charge of the [...]  More »

When the Coast Guard first got word of trouble on board the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig late on the evening of April 20, the severity of the situation was unclear, said Kevin Robb, a search and rescue specialist with the Coast Guard’s District 8 in New Orleans. The initial notification to the command center, which [...]  More »

AP BP’s Lamar McKay testifies before Congress. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today blamed a “corporate culture” at British Petroleum for causing a “pattern of accidents,” like the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig. “The culture of this company is that there has been one accident after another,” Wyden said during a Senate Energy [...]  More »

In response to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today is splitting apart the troubled agency tasked with regulating offshore drilling. Salazar’s announcement, set to be made later today, targets the Minerals Management Service, the agency that now oversees offshore drilling operations and administers the leasing of federal [...]  More »