#ActInTimeDEADLINETime left to limit global warming to 1.5°C 4YRS113DAYS13:52:42 LIFELINEWorld's energy from renewables14.781915689%Ambitious climate action could boost global 2040 GDP by 0.2% | Tanzania’s marine reserves offer long-term benefits to communities | Paris residents vote in favor of making 500 more streets pedestrian | Use of pesticides on UK farms to be cut by 10% by 2030 to protect bees | New forest to be created in England, with 20m trees planted by 2050 | Affordable e-bikes are transforming delivery work for Latin American migrants | California & Sonora sign agreement to boost clean energy & climate collaboration | UK to invest $260 million on solar panels for schools and hospitals | Green power to give 570 million energy access in Africa | UN hails rare success story as emissions from construction stop rising | Ambitious climate action could boost global 2040 GDP by 0.2% | Tanzania’s marine reserves offer long-term benefits to communities | Paris residents vote in favor of making 500 more streets pedestrian | Use of pesticides on UK farms to be cut by 10% by 2030 to protect bees | New forest to be created in England, with 20m trees planted by 2050 | Affordable e-bikes are transforming delivery work for Latin American migrants | California & Sonora sign agreement to boost clean energy & climate collaboration | UK to invest $260 million on solar panels for schools and hospitals | Green power to give 570 million energy access in Africa | UN hails rare success story as emissions from construction stop rising |

Sep 12, 2017

Color Me Skeptical


Reuters (Houston):

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency are working with Texas state regulators to clean up oil and chemicals spilled from a dozen industrial facilities after flooding from Hurricane Harvey, authorities said.

The spills came from oil refineries, fuel terminals and other businesses, but EPA spokeswoman Terri White said it was not possible to provide an estimate for the amounts spilled.

"Initial reports were based on observation," White said. "Some spills were already being cleaned up by the time EPA or other officials arrived to assess them and others had already migrated offsite."

(Gotta love that passive voice bullshit - inviting the inference that a spill is no longer a problem because it's "migrated offsite")

Refineries owned by Valero Energy Corp in Houston, Motiva Inc in Port Arthur, and Exxon Mobile Corp in Baytown, were among the facilities that had reported spills, according to White. Representatives for those companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The piece kinda rambles on with plenty of Company SpokesPimps telling us everything's peachy, but it mostly translates to: "We've made billions at the expense of everything and everybody, and now that the storm's gone, we need to notify the tax payers to get this shit cleaned up so we can get back to making more billions and externalizing more of the costs".

 BTW - the humanitarian crises that are coming into focus in places like USVI and the Florida keys could get turned into some very effective cover: "We really can't worry about the feel-good niceties of protecting Snail Darters and Spotted Owls when real Americans are suffering blah blah blah".

 Also: We should be hearing about a whole suite of Mystery-Maladies for years. Some folks will make the obvious connection with all that Ethyl-Methyl-Death that "escaped" into the water, and then "migrated offsite", but the American Chemistry Council will have their dis-information campaign in place very soon, and the Plausible Deniability is likely to be thick enough to choke a fuckin' hippo.

 This shit doesn't stop until we put a stop to it.

 Go get 'em, Press Poodles.
Labels: , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)