It's hard to kick oil addiction despite ugly risks

America is seeing the usually hidden costs of fossil fuels -- an oil spill's potential for huge environmental and economic damage, and deaths in coal and oil industry accidents.

But don't expect much to change. America and the world crave more oil and coal, no matter the all-too-risky ways needed to extract those fuels.

"We are absolutely addicted and we have no methadone. All we have is the hard stuff," said Larry McKinney, director of the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. "The reality is we're on it, this incident has happened and what we have to do is figure out how we can move forward."

The United States is increasing its dependence on oil and other fossil fuels. And more domestic oil has to come from offshore because the land is producing less. The alternatives of renewable energy aren't cheap and aren't progressing quickly despite three decades of energy crises and legislation.

Industry leaders like former Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister see the well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico as defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory. A Democratic president had just opened up to drilling areas of US coastline that once seemed untouchable. "Drill baby drill" has been replaced with the phrase, "Whoa, there."
Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, which usually rails against too much government intervention into business, spoke Tuesday of the need for "more scrutiny of the industry" and regulations. That way drilling can continue.

BP's leaking well off the coast of Louisiana is that much of a game changer -- at least in the way people talk.

Environmental activists see this as a moment when the public pushes aside an industry -- like the Three Mile Island nuclear plant's partial meltdown did to nuclear energy.

"The thing that we had hoped would never happen has just happened," said Anna Aurilio, Washington office director for Environment America. "I think this has potential to really reset the conversation of climate and energy."

Likewise President Barack Obama's White House sees this as coinciding with the $80 billion in stimulus money already spent and going partly toward moving America's effort away from fossil fuels to a greener energy economy.

"We need a new energy plan for this country ... that begins a transition to renewable and battery technology," White House energy and climate change senior adviser Carol Browner told The Associated Press Tuesday. "We can push and have been pushing for legislation that will begin the change."
An odd but understandably muted tone has been adopted by both oil interests and many environmentalists. Aurilio had a hitch in her voice as she said: "Quite frankly, we're heartbroken. This disaster is touching us personally. This is something to pray that will never happen again."

Here in Houston, capital of the American oil industry, those at an offshore drilling technology conference don't like to say it too much or publicly -- but no one is too worried about a public turning its back on oil and coal.

Why? They know there is not much of an alternative.

"There will be a temptation in that direction. When you see the risks of hydrocarbons you have to ask yourself, is this as good as it gets?" former Shell president Hofmeister told The Associated Press. "The good news is that hydrocarbon for all of its risks -- meaning coal, gas and oil -- is much less risky today than it was earlier in the industry's history."

Hofmeister, author of the new book "Why We Hate the Oil Companies," said that America not only has to keep drilling for more oil in places like the Gulf of Mexico, but increase its drilling.

By 2020 if drilling is limited, he said: "We will be in a new age in this country. It will be called the age of the energy abyss."

Hofmeister said no industry is hated more than the oil industry -- it polls even lower than the federal government -- but until the internal combustion engine is replaced, people will demand more oil. Especially when gas prices hit $4 a gallon -- something Browner said can't be blamed on the oil spill since the well was an exploratory one, not one already supplying fuel.

"More and more of our oil and gas has to come from offshore. All you have to do is look at the historical trend," said Tyler Priest, an oil historian at the University of Houston.

Since 1991, oil production on US land and in Alaska has dropped 40 per cent, but it has nearly doubled in the Gulf of Mexico, according to federal statistics.

A 2008 International Energy Agency report estimates that reachable conventional oil located in water more than a quarter-mile deep is between 160 and 300 billion barrels, with more than two-thirds of that in Brazil, Angola, Nigeria and the United States.

"Our energy security is going to hang on whether we can drill offshore," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an energy studies fellow at Rice University's public policy institute.
So what are the costs?

It starts with the possibly devastating oil spill unfolding right now off the coast of Louisiana.

McKinney's research institute in Corpus Christi estimated a worst-case scenario cost of the spill to the Gulf of Mexico: $1.6 billion.

About one-quarter of that is due to lost fishing and tourism. But the bulk of the cost is in the stuff that's less easy to quantify: the general wetlands ecology. If half a million acres of wetlands are severely damaged, that drastically affects a fragile area that acts as a wastewater treatment plant for water flowing out of the Mississippi River -- where 40 per cent of America's water flows into. And every acre of wetland means one less foot of storm surge from a hurricane, he said.

McKinney worries that this is "strike three" for the Gulf's wetlands. First, they've been shrinking because of development and engineering changes to natural drainage in Louisiana. Then Hurricane Katrina damaged them. And now this.

"This one is getting all of us worried," McKinney said.

But that's not all, environmentalists point out. There are lives lost in getting oil and coal.
Another coal miner died in an accident Tuesday in West Virginia, that's in addition to the 29 who died in a massive explosion April 5 in that state and an accident last week that killed two in Kentucky. Besides the accidents, more than 29,000 workers have died of coal mining-related lung diseases since 1968, according to the federal government.

The BP PLC oil rig explosion April 20 that caused the spill also claimed 11 lives. That came only weeks after an April 2 refinery fire in Washington state that killed seven workers. In 2008, work accidents killed 120 people in the oil and gas extraction industry, according to the US Department of Labor.

Add to that global warming. Burning oil and coal produces carbon dioxide, which scientists say is changing the Earth's climate and will eventually change the life of nearly everyone on the planet.

This year, after what seemed like a cool winter in some spots, the heat is back on. Already it's shaping up to be one of the warmest on record, with a record-setting March, according to both government weather statistics and those kept by global warming skeptics at the University of Alabama Huntsville.

"What we're seeing is proof positive of our dependence of oil and gas and we've ignored that in the past," McKinney said. "Unfortunately it's being rubbed in our face right now."


Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/news/environment/its-hard-to-kick-oil-addiction-despite-ugly-risks-23908.php?cp

BP: CEO Tony Hayward relieved of day-to-day spill duties

LONDON (AP) — The chairman of BP says embattled chief executive Tony Hayward is being relieved of day-to-day responsibility for managing the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a day after he angered U.S. lawmakers with his refusal to answer many of their questions.

Company chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg said Hayward "is now handing over the operations, the daily operations to (BP Managing Director) Bob Dudley," according to the transcript of an interview with Sky News television released Friday.

The company had already announced June 4 that Dudley would lead the long-term response to the oil spill once the leak had been stopped. Svanberg's statement appeared to accelerate that timeline, as millions of gallons of crude continue to gush into the Gulf.

" ... Now (Hayward) has been out there for eight weeks and he is now handing over the operations, the daily operations to Bob Dudley and he will be more home and be there and be here, but I think it has been a difficult period and as long as we don't close the well and take care of this, there will be criticisms about many things," Svanberg told Sky News. "Right now that is our focus to make that happen."

On Thursday, Hayward told lawmakers on a U.S. House investigations panel that he was out of the loop on decisions at the well. Both Democrats and Republicans were infuriated when he asserted, "I'm not stonewalling."

HOSTILE FIRE: Lawmakers take shots at BP CEO Tony Hayward


It also follows a string of gaffes from the BP chief that made him appear tone-deaf. He was quoted by the Times of London suggesting that Americans were particularly likely to file bogus claims, and later shocked residents in slick-hit Louisiana by saying that "no one wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back."

A BP spokesman in Houston, Tristan Vanhegan, said he had not heard Svanberg's comments, but the "board still has confidence in Tony."

Svanberg said "it is clear that Tony has made remarks that have upset people," but he also defended the chief executive.

"Here is also a man who has (been through) a 100 hours of TV time and maybe 500 interviews," he told the broadcaster. He added that Hayward's grilling in Washington was "a very, very difficult hearing to go through."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

U.S.-Russian crew blasts off to space station

By Peter Leonard, Associated Press
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan — Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian crewmate blasted off successfully Wednesday on a mission to the International Space Station that will see the last ever shuttle visit to the orbiting lab.

U.S. astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russia's Fyodor Yurchikhin lifted off in a Russian Soyuz rocket, its boosters lighting up the the starry nighttime sky over Central Asian steppe. Their Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft is set to reach the station Friday.

The trio will be onboard the space station to see the final shuttle — the Endeavour — depart from its last planned mission to the lab in November before the fleet is finally retired.

PREPARING: Russian rocket ready for space station mission on Wednesday


Wheelock said he was saddened to see the shuttle go, but he described his mission as an exciting new start.

"Of course, it's a big change in our program ... but change is not always bad," Wheelock, who takes over as commander of Expedition 25 as soon as the current crew returns to Earth in about three months time, said at a pre-launch news conference.

With the shuttle being phased out, the venerable Soyuz will take over as the only means by which astronauts will be able to travel to the space station, which has raised some concern about over-reliance on the Soviet-designed craft.

A crowd of astronauts' relatives, space officials and others gasped with awe as they watched the rocket slowly dissapearing at a distance, leaving a ghostly white cloud behind. They broke into applause on announcement of the craft's successful entry into orbit nine minutes after the launch.

"That was probably one of the more beautiful launches I have ever seen," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said.

Shortly after, people at the launch pad saw the glittering dot of the space station quickly moving overhead in a rare coincidence.

Wednesday's liftoff marked a seminal landmark, being the hundredth flight in the station program.

Wheelock said their mission will be the first to take full advantage of the station's capacity as orbiting lab. He said he was particularly excited about the station's contributions to the engineering of new materials and its role in ensuring breakthroughs in medicine.

"We are finally getting to the point when we can use the International Space Station for its original purpose, and that is to do science and research," Byerly said after the launch.

Wheelock, a U.S. Army colonel, is returning to the space station for the first time since his two-week stint on the Discovery in late 2007, when he and his colleagues earned plaudits for their work repairing a power generation facility.

Walker is making her maiden trip to the space station, and thereby following in the footsteps of husband Andrew Thomas, one of a handful of U.S. astronauts to live onboard the old Russian Mir station in the 1990s.

Like other launches from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan, their mission followed a time-tested routine.

After being meticulously fitted for their pressure suits just past midnight, the crew received a final message of encouragement from space officials, including the head of the Russian space agency.

At the final salute before mounting the bus to the launching pad, a group of well-wishers greeted Walker with letters spelling out "Go Shannon!"

Before the bus engines started up, Yurchikhin's young daughter, Yelena, was held aloft and kissed her father through the glass.

At the pad, the astronauts sat, tightly bound into their seats in the rocket some two hours before the launch, while their family and colleagues anxiously waited at a viewing platform a little more than one kilometer away.

Against the backdrop of the starkly dim steppe, lights on the gantry holding up the Soyuz rocket shimmered on the the launch pad known as Gagarin's Pad. It is the site from which the Soviet Union sent off Yuri Gagarin in 1961 to become the first human in space.

In the hour before the launch, regular updates on the final preparations crackled out of speakers at the viewing platform.

When the time came, the rocket roared to life and gradually lifted off the ground before darting off into the heavens, dramatically turning the sky a shade of phosphorous white.

The three-person crew will join Russian commander Alexander Skvortskov, NASA flight engineer Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russia's Mikhail Kornienko, who have been on the orbiting laboratory since April.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Controversial call denies USA a comeback win against Slovenia

JOHANNESBURG — The moment referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali waved off Maurice Edu's goal in the 85th minute, which would have given the USA a win against Slovenia, there was disbelief, then outrage.

No one except Coulibaly, presumably, knew on whom the foul was called on and what the transgression was. The U.S. players pleaded and protested. "He couldn't, or wouldn't, explain," midfielder Landon Donovan said.

The Americans would have to live with a 2-2 draw Friday, a result that would allow them to live another day. England helped the Americans' cause in Friday's late game with its stunning scoreless draw with Algeria.

The USA will advance to the knockout round if the Americans defeat Algeria on Wednesday. A USA draw and an England loss to Slovenia on Wednesday would allow the Americans to go to the next round. They also could advance if they tie and England ties as long as the USA maintains its two-goal scoring edge.

Slovenia (1-1-0) leads Group C with four points, followed by the USA (0-0-2) and England (0-0-2), who have two points each. The top two in each four-team group advance to the knockout round.

Fourth-place Algeria, making its first World Cup appearance in 24 years, is considered the weakest team in the group and has yet to score a goal in its first two games.

When the game ended, U.S. players, coaches and officials said that their cellphones had exploded with text messages from friends and family who had the benefit of replay.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said the federation will ask for an explanation of the foul, but added, "They're not required to tell us."

REPORT CARD: USA midfielders, subs earn top marks
GAME ON!: Ref's Wikipedia page defaced after game
PHOTO GALLERY: Moments from South Africa
SCHEDULE: Games, results and TV times


The Americans had come back from a 2-0 deficit at halftime in one of the most dramatic games in the tournament thus far. Though it was the greatest comeback in U.S. World Cup history, the focus afterwards was on a goal that wasn't.

"What I heard was that there were three fouls in the box, all against Slovenian players," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said.

The play began with a Donovan free kick to an onrushing Edu. Replays showed several U.S. players wrapped in bear hugs as the play unfolded.

Couilibaly, 40, who ironically was born on the Fourth of July and was refereeing his first World Cup game, began to signal the foul just before Edu struck the ball.

"To be honest, I don't really know what the call was," Edu said. "I didn't see anything wrong."

In a sport in which much is left up to interpretation, officials aren't required to explain their decisions. "Well, I'm a big enough boy to know that's never going to happen," said goalkeeper Tim Howard, when asked if officials should be held more accountable.

Afterwards, there was frustration. "I'm a little gutted to be honest," Donovan said moments after the game. "I don't know how they stole that last goal from us."

But largely, from the team's perspective, there was resignation. "In the midst of the game it's rare a ref at that moment will give you an answer," Bradley said. "At the moment you are frustrated, but that's the way the game works sometimes, so you move on."

Slovenia, the smallest of the 32 nations in the tournament, took the lead in the 13th minute when Valter Birsa buried a goal as Howard stood frozen. "I lost sight of it," Howard said. "The pace he hit it with, it was a very good finish." Then Zlatan Ljubijankic scored on a counterattack in the 42nd.

With the USA 45 minutes away from likely elimination from the tournament, Donovan took matters into his own feet.

Three minutes into the second half, Donovan streaked down the right side and neared the right side of the keeper's box. He thought about passing, then decided to "aim high and aim at his head." As he unleashed a shot full of fury, Samir Handanovic flinched.

"I don't think he wanted to get hit there," said Donovan, who was named Man of the Match. With the goal, the USA was back in the game.

In the 82nd, midfielder Michael Bradley provided an early Father's Day present when he right-footed a shot past Handoanovic for the equalizer. On the play, Altidore knocked a header in the middle of the penalty area as Bradley rushed in. "Jozy did a great job of getting into position to knock it down in a space where I was running," Bradley said.

As the USA enters its final group game, plenty of concerns remain, none of which involve a ref from Mali. Starting forward Robbie Findley got a yellow card in the 40th minute for a hand ball in Slovenia's penalty area, an automatic suspension for the Algeria match because he also was cautioned against England.

And once again, the USA was nearly derailed by a slow start. Donovan credited the team's "American spirit" and added that "not too many teams could have done what we did."

But can they continue to count on such comebacks as the tournament progresses?

"We seem to play better from behind and that's gotta change," Howard said.
Yahoo! Buzz

Probe blames Canada govt for failure to prevent Kanishka tragedy

A Canadian public inquiry concluded on Thursday that authorities should have known an Air India flight in 1985 was a likely terrorist target.

The bombing of Air India Flight 182 killed 329 people in one of the world's deadliest terrorist strikes. It is the largest case of mass murder in Canadian history.(Read: Chronology of Kanishka bombing)

Former Supreme Court Justice John Major said on Thursday a cascading series of errors contributed to the failure of Canada's police and security forces to prevent the atrocity.

"The level of error, incompetence, and inattention which took place before the flight was sadly mirrored in many ways for many years, in how authorities, governments, and institutions dealt with the aftermath of the murder of so many innocents," Major said in a massive, five-volume report.

The Air India flight from Montreal to London, originating in Vancouver, exploded and crashed off Ireland on June 23, 1985.

An hour earlier, a bomb in baggage intended for another Air India flight exploded in the Tokyo airport, killing two baggage handlers.

The attacks were blamed on Sikh militants based in British Columbia who, prosecutors said, sought revenge for a deadly 1984 raid by security forces on the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the holiest site of their religion.

Before the bombings, Canadian intelligence officials had apparently learned of the plot by Sikh separatists in Canada and India to launch a terror attack.

"There were individuals in the Sikh community who claimed to have knowledge about the bombing and its perpetrators," said Major.

The agencies failed to obtain that information, to preserve for its use as evidence or to offer adequate protection to those individuals. Instead they engaged in turf wars," Major said.

Inderit Singh Reyat, who was convicted of manslaughter in the bombings, remains the only suspect ever convicted of a role in the attacks. Two other accused were brought to trial, but never convicted.

Testimony from current and former members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service painted a picture of strained relations between the two agencies in the 1980s, with key wiretap tapes erased, leads left to grow cold, investigators quitting in frustration and crucial witnesses reluctant to cooperate because they feared for their lives.

Air transport experts told of security lapses by Air India and Canadian airport authorities and regulators.

Major said holes in the country's security systems still need to be fixed.

He recommended greater powers for the national security adviser to set security policies and priorities, and to oversee communication between agencies. He called for improved police work, intelligence operations, airline security and the conduct of anti-terrorist trials.

The inquiry did not have a mandate to identify the perpetrators of the crime, but to determine what went wrong and what can be done to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.

Major's report also recommended compensation for the families who, he said, were often treated as adversaries.

"I stress this is a Canadian atrocity," Major said. "For too long the greatest loss of Canadian lives at the hands of terrorists has somehow been relegated outside the Canadian consciousness."

Organizers of Dutch minidress model scheme arrested

The story of ITV pundit Robbie Earle getting fired for passing his tickets for Monday's Netherlands vs. Denmark match to a Dutch beer company Bavaria has gotten even stranger. Two women have been arrested by Johannesburg police for their alleged role in sending a group of more than 30 women in orange minidresses to advertise on behalf of the brewer.

[Photos: More of the controversial women in orange]

From the AP:

The women are being prosecuted under the Contravention of Merchandise Marks Act which covers ambush marketing, when a company benefits from an event without paying for advertising.

South African police arrested the women at their hotel in the Johannesburg district of Roodepoort on Wednesday.

“We view ambush marketing in a very serious light and we urge people not to embark on these ambush campaigns,” police said in a statement.

The women appeared at Johannesburg Magistrates Court and were released on bail of 10,000 rand ($1,300) each, with their next court appearance set for Monday.

FIFA claims it didn't press charges against the two women who are accused of organizing the stunt, but with all that's keeping South African police busy at the moment, it seems odd that it would pursue such an innocuous case without a bit of encouragement. And that kind of encouragement seems well within FIFA's iron-fisted protection of its official sponsors — sponsors such as Budweiser, which paid millions to be the official beer of the World Cup.

And while FIFA denies pressing charges against those Dutch ladies, Robbie Earle — the man who passed on the tickets that started this whole mess — denies profiting from the transaction in any way. Says Earle:

"Call me naive but I didn't think I was doing anything wrong.

"I hope when people hear the full story they will see me in a different light."

Yes, Robbie, people will be very interested to hear that full story when it does come out. Anything involving 30 Dutch women in orange minidresses tends to get attention.

Here's the AP's video report on the matter, featuring lots of shots of the ladies in question:

Women love foreign cars, men love exotics

The Volkswagen New Beetle, now on its last legs, has the highest percentage of female buyers, TrueCar.com reports. But the Nissan Rogue, a much newer model, isn't far behind.

As an automakers representative about which models have higher percentages of one sex or another, and a strange dance of evasion usually ensues. They are afraid that if one model or another is branded as macho or "chick car," it will suddenly become off limits to the other sex.

The 2008 Nissan Rogue crossover vehicle is introduced to the media at the North American International Auto Show
CAPTIONBy Bill Pugliano, Getty ImagesMen register 64% of the cars in the U.S., TrueCar says.

About the only thing in common among the vehicles on TrueCar's list is that they are all imports. Beyond that, they are a mix of cars and small crossovers, or what Ford analyst George Pipas calls, "Cute Utes." Volkswagen says they will make a final edition of the New Beetle, seen at top, and then it will bow out after a long run. That's the Rogue, above right.

And what do men buy?

They dominate exotics and truck sales. The six brands with 10% or less for female registration incuding Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla, Aston Martin and Lotus. Representing the low end of female registered brands were several makes best known for trucks, including GMC, Dodge and and the gone, but not forgotten, Hummer.

As for the vehicles women registered in the greatest percentages, they were:

VOLKSWAGEN NEW BEETLE 56.1%
NISSAN ROGUE 53.5%
HYUNDAI TUCSON 53.0%
VOLKSWAGEN EOS 53.0%
VOLVO S40 51.9%
HONDA CR-V 51.3%
KIA SPORTAGE 50.5%
TOYOTA RAV4 50.4%
NISSAN SENTRA 50.1%