Environment & Energy
Related: About this forum15-year-long oil spill is the longest in U.S. history
Port Eads, La. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan plowed across the Gulf of Mexico and triggered an oil spill that is still leaking. It's the longest continuous oil spill in American history.
Captain Rick Jiannuzzi took CBS News to where the Taylor oil rig once stood.
"Wherever it looks smooth, that's all the sheen," he said.
From the air, that sheen is visible for miles and you can even see it from space. Fifteen miles out, you can also smell it.
In 2004, Hurricane Ivan destroyed the MC20 oil platform operated by Taylor Energy. The company has spent over $400 million working alongside the U.S. Coast Guard to contain and clean up the spill which Taylor estimates has been leaking at a rate of about ten gallons a day for years.
But Florida State oceanographer and oil spill expert Ian MacDonald, who has studied the site for the government using underwater technology, thinks the leak is closer to 96 barrels a day. MacDonald convinced the Coast Guard that more oil is leaking than previously thought.
Read more (Includes video): https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/15-year-long-oil-spill-is-the-longest-in-us-history/ar-BBUPF2W?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=U508DHP
rampartc
(5,435 posts)the problem with orphanned oil wells is simple. each well is its own corporation. once the well is closed its corporation becomes insolvent and can no longer be expected to stop leaks or clean up anything.
taylor energy has no assets (all sold to korea national and to samsung in 2008) and 1 full time employee (i think that may be the widow taylor, once the richest woman in louisiana)
with current technology there are 2 kinds of off shore oil wells. those that leak and those that are going to leak.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/01/trump-offshore-oil-drilling-plan-faces-resistance-even-before-release/2814275002/
Rhiannon12866
(206,000 posts)Regardless of party. After what happened in the Gulf, who would be willing to risk another nightmare like that??
rampartc
(5,435 posts)but fortunately he is receeding into history.
Chin music
(23,002 posts)destroying the planet, and everything on it. SO sick of us sometimes.