Transparency is needed, not secrecy, censorship, and mis-informaton in order to have a greater chance for us protect our beautiful land and its valuable resources! CORD
http://www.examiner.com/x-2903-Energy-Examiner~y2010m6d4-BP-information-blackout-backfiring-as-latest-effort-fails
"BP's blackout of information should tell us all that something is going terribly, terribly wrong with their efforts to contain the spill, geyser, now volcano of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. "
"The company started out minimizing the amount of oil that was 'leaking' into the Gulf of Mexico, and then after being challenged on their figures, was forced to increase those figures, which independent experts say are still too low for the volume of oil floating on and suspended below water in the Gulf."
"Then as the oil began drifting ever closer to shorelines, the company frantically sprayed a chemical that is more toxic than the oil spill itself in order to conceal the magnitude of the spill."
"After the EPA began questioning the levels of toxicity of the chemicals that BP was using (which is banned in Britain), BP brought the sprayers below the ocean's surface, where they have released over one million gallons of dispersant directly into geyser on the ocean floor. The U.S. EPA ordered BP to use a less toxic, more efficient dispersant, but BP, being invested in the company that makes Corexit, denied the EPA's request."
"Once scientist began to find giant oil plumes the size of Manhattan under the water's surface, BP said 'prove it' and then launched a hired police force that threatened anyone near the spill, including journalists, with arrest if they didn't cease trying to cover the spill without a BP escort."
Just how secretive has BP been about information?
Apparently, BP has assessed that real time information and images related to the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico will digust Americans to the point of revolt if they were ever made public, so the company has decided on a gag-order strategy for all its employees, even though the company still denies it.
(BP Using Google To Manipulate Public Opinion, HuffPost.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jacqueline-leo/bp-using-google-to-manipu_b_598677.html
(BP oil spill contract and letter to employees cloud media access, Powering a Nation)
"Related to this gag-order strategy is the company's use of a chemical dispersant to keep a large portion of the oil from ever reaching the surface so that it can not be seen. The chemical they are using to disperse the oil before it reaches the surface is called Corexit, and it is made by a company called Nalco that was bought by Blackstone, Apollo, and (you guessed it) Goldman Sachs in 2003. "
(In Gulf Spill, BP Using Dispersants Banned in U.K., ProPblica.)
http://www.propublica.org/ion/blog/item/In-Gulf-Spill-BP-Using-Dispersants-Banned-in-UK
For more on this still developing story please see http://www.examiner.com/x-2903-Energy-Examiner~y2010m6d4-BP-information-blackout-backfiring-as-latest-effort-fails
