U.S. is making an effort to end the longest oil spill in history This company is fighting against it

[Rhiannon12866]

The U.S. is making an effort to end the longest oil spill in history. And this company is fighting against it in court.

Taylor Energy says hardly any oil is reaching the surface in the site where a hurricane destroyed its oil platform. To the contrary, the government says, the spill is probably at hundreds of barrels per day.


As the longest offshore oil spill in U.S. history creeps toward its 15th year, the federal government is preparing to launch a determined effort to contain the oil and cap the leaking wells.

But the energy company responsible for the spill has gone to court to stop the government’s efforts to fix a leak that is sending hundreds of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Taylor Energy of New Orleans recently filed four lawsuits against the Interior Department, U.S. Coast Guard and a private contractor to contest their assessment that the spill is catastrophic and to shut down plans to cap more than two dozen leaking wells.

The wells were torn open in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan triggered powerful currents that collapsed the walls of a deepwater canyon. The tumbling walls slammed into an oil production platform that Taylor Energy operated 12 miles off the Louisiana coast, burying most of its 25 wells.

According to one estimate, up to 700 barrels of oil per day are flowing into the Gulf, rivaling the catastrophic 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill. The estimate is based on an analysis by Oscar Garcia-Pineda, a specialist in remote sensing of oil spills, which the government accepted but Taylor Energy disputes.

The BP disaster leaked 4 million barrels over five months. If Garcia-Pineda’s estimate is correct, the Taylor spill amounts to 1.5 million barrels to 3.5 million barrels in more than 14 years.


Much more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/03/02/us-is-trying-end-longest-oil-spill-history-this-company-is-trying-stop-it/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7d3b75f16e80



Taylor Energy's downed platform was one of thousands in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. How horrifying.

And for once our government is trying to do the right thing, and these yahoos oppose it?

[Rhiannon12866]

2. This has been going on for such a long time

Think this is the fourth post I've made on it. And the company is fighting it in court - while the leak goes on and on...

[littlemissmartypants]

3. Kicked and recommended. nt