You're viewing all posts tagged with new orleans

Rig owner refuses to honor subpoenas (and rightly so). #rsrh

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board has subpoenaed rig owner Transocean for records and witnesses to the Deepwater Horizon spill. Transocean has declined to coorperate and disputes the Board’s claim of jurisdiction.

I’ve never dealt with the Chemical Safety Board as a regulatory body. This was not a refinery explosion, it was a crude oil blowout in a drilling well, and the USCG and BOEMRE have jurisdiction.

At issue is whether the Deepwater Horizon rig was stationary or mobile. On station, the rig was a moored seagoing vessel. That’s the way it would be interpreted under the Jones Act, in any case. Only fixed, stationary platforms are exempt from the Jones Act, and there’s no such thing in 5,000 ft of water.

S. Baldwin v K. Costner lawsuit over oil centrifuge flim-flam. #rsrh

It’s not as though hydrocyclones are new separation technology for oil & water. The price Stephen Baldwin got for his shares is still probably represents $1 million per gallon of oil recovered.

BP could not have expected Costner’s separators to work. $52 million represents the price to get him to shut up and to get the media off their back.

And the Alcee Hastings Gov't Service Award goes to ... Fed. Judge Thos. Porteous!!!

In the Senate, by a unanimous vote…

FEMA improperly granted $450 K to ACORN. #rsrh

Clipped from www.foxnews.com

ACORN Improperly Awarded FEMA Grant, Government Report Claims

An ACORN affiliate in New Orleans was improperly awarded a fire safety and prevention grant worth nearly a half-million dollars, according to a new report from the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general. 

The federal grant detailed in the report dates back to 2007 and was awarded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The review of the now-defunct advocacy organization’s funding was requested by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and was distributed Tuesday on Capitol Hill. It is expected to be released next month. 

In the findings, obtained by FoxNews.com, the inspector general’s office said that FEMA went against the advice of an evaluation panel to hand out the $450,484 grant to the ACORN Institute in New Orleans. From there, not all of the money could be tracked. 

“We concluded that the ACORN Institute should not have received these funds, did not fully implement and evaluate the program as approved and could not substantiate all its grant expenditures,” the report said. 

Issa, who is looking to take over the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as chairman and has been a vocal ACORN critic, said in a written statement, “It is really unthinkable that anyone would use the guise of public safety and helping victims of a tragedy like Hurricane Katrina as a calculating way to inappropriately obtain taxpayer dollars.” 

Read more at www.foxnews.com
 

Transocean complains of delays on BOP autopsy. #rsrh

Clipped from www.newsobserver.com
Published Wed, Nov 10, 2010 02:47 PM
Modified Wed, Nov 10, 2010 09:48 PM

APNewsBreak: Rig owner complains of BOP delays

NEW ORLEANS — The owner of the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico has told federal investigators that the now infamous blowout preventer is in danger of corroding and its value as a key piece of evidence may be compromised.

Transocean lawyer Steven Roberts said in a Nov. 3 letter to the federal investigation team that forensic testing had not yet begun on the device even though it’s been sitting at a NASA facility in New Orleans for two months. He said it may be corroding because of inadequate preservation.

The blowout preventer, which Transocean was responsible for maintaining while it was being used on BP’s well, was raised from the seafloor on Sept. 4. It was taken to the NASA facility a week later.

Investigators agreed to flush the control pods with fluid on Sept. 27 to prevent corrosion. But Roberts said in his letter that there have been no further preservation steps on the blowout preventer since then.

Read more at www.newsobserver.com