BP committing Ecocide on Islands of the Gulf

Wayne Madsen

From environmentalists and wildlife specialists to fisherman and businessmen along the Gulf Coast the message is the same: BP is not only strangling the news of what is actually occurring in the Gulf of Mexico with the oil disaster but has co-opted key federal regulatory and oversight agencies to advance its agenda and that of its oil partners, including Halliburton, Anadarko, and Transocean.

Elmer's Island, in the Gulf Coast is becoming one of many BP's toxic dumps.

The logistics of the oil clean-up is being criticized because of the over-dependence on deepwater oil skimmer boats. No procedures are in place for using skimmers that can operate in shallower waters of 1 1/2 to 2 feet. There are a number of boats that could be used for shallow water skimming being tied up in port and not being used by BP.

Fishermen who have experience in rescuing sea turtles enmeshed in fishing nets are not being used in turtle rescue operations. In fact, they face arrest if they even touch an endangered turtle. Some 3,000 fisherman have remained idled by the oil disaster and most have not been hired by BP. Idled fishermen were told by BP that they would be called when their help was needed. However, later BP told them that many would probably never be called.

BP has hired an army of contractors and sub-contractors who are spending plenty of “flash money” to assuage some local businesses. However, WMR noticed while driving to Louisiana a large number of seafood distributors and restaurants that were shuttered.

Those hired by BP to clean up beaches and waters are not permitted to wear respirators and many are becoming sick, even coughing up blood. This editor, while driving to Venice, began to experience burning and watering eyes, a condition that lasted hours after returning to the west bank of New Orleans.

The disinformation being promulgated by BP is being accentuated by a number of local TV reporters being “embedded” with Coast Guard units in the waters off the coast and in the marshland and estuaries. Furthermore, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), accused by many local environmentalists and fishermen of being complicit in the cover-up of bad news, has issued a report claiming that tests of 600 fish caught in waters “near the edge of the oil” have proven negative for chemical toxins. Fishermen interviewed by WMR said the claim is ludicrous since there are no fish in the waters in the oil zone or near it.

Gone from the waters of the Gulf off Louisiana are grouper, snapper, amberjack, tuna, and even the small colorful blenny, which normally feeds at oil rig pylons in the Gulf and is found only in the Amazon basin, in addition to the Louisiana Gulf waters. The Gulf waters are slowly being turned into a hydrocarbon soup of dispersed oil bubbles that is translucent black in color.

Fishing boat owners whose boats have been used for clean-up efforts are suffering fiberglass hull damage from hydrocarbon penetration and BP has informed the owners that their boats will have to be destroyed afterwards and their hulls ground up. However, even boats not being used for clean-up will be destroyed with no assurance that BP will compensate the owners.

NOAA is also reportedly sitting on bathymetric maps of the Gulf sea floor that shows a massive fissure on the sea floor that is located 7 miles from the Deepwater Horizon site. The fissure is leaking 120,000 gallons of crude a day, along with methane gas. The Corexit-dispersed oil has seeped under booms set up to protect Lake Ponchartrain, which lies north of New Orleans. Dead fish and tar balls have now turned up in the lake.

Further out in the Gulf and along sensitive refuges like Elmer’s Island, massive fish kills are being reported by local residents. The Coast Guard and BP have established a no-fly zone over Elmer’s Island, a major bird sanctuary.

In addition, local fishermen said that nurseries in the Gulf, responsible for producing 40 percent of America’s seafood, are being destroyed by the oil and the chemical soup created by the mixing of oil dispersant Corexit 9500. Corexit is breaking down the crude oil into small oil bubbles and a watery oil mixture that is seeping under the booms set up to protect sensitive fish nurseries, oyster beds, and other pristine areas. Many Atlantic fish species also spawn in the Gulf and they are also threatened by the oil disaster. Even barnacles, one of the most resistant sea creatures to extreme situations, are dying in vast numbers, along with sponges and coral.

Near Venice, Louisiana in Plaquemines Parish, is the old Civil War fort of Fort Jackson. A national historical site and park, Fort Jackson has been turned into a major base for joint BP-Coast Guard dumping of Corexit on oil in the Gulf. WMR witnessed five helicopters carrying suspended white bags of Corexit out over Gulf waters.

Hastily-erected signs at the entrances to Fort Jackson warn that the site is closed to visitors because of “construction.” Fort Jackson actually serves as a major base of operations for BP and Coast Guard activities. The Obama administration, which has stated its commitment to “open government,” is engaged in what amounts to semi-covert BP-Coast Guard operations in the Gulf.

WMR has also been informed by a reputable source that BP has been engaged in night time spraying of a bleaching agent on Louisiana beaches to make it appear that the beaches are being cleaned up. The planes, which fly at night, disregard flight regulations by flying with their lights out. The operations have been approved by the Coast Guard and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Also coming in for criticism is the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has remained silent as federal incident commanders have ordered home wildlife rescue workers from Texas and other states. One group that was told to pack its bags was the non-profit Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc. from Texas, which has 20 years of experience in handling animal rescues from oil spills. BP hired the O’Brien Group, a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as its wildlife rescue coordinator. Local environmentalists view O’Brien as a shill for BP.

The EPA is also remaining mute on air quality reports from Venice that show that on May 7 hydrogen sulfide in the air was measured at 1192 parts per billion. Five parts per billion is considered hazardous to human health. In addition, the May 7 reports show that benzene levels in the air were measured at 5000 parts per billion, again in the health danger zone. Propylene glycol, a major component in Corexit 9500, is being measured in Gulf waters at 150 times its lethal concentration.

BP has hired the same firm that performed air quality monitoring in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina’s Murphy oil spill in Chalmette to perform monitoring for the current oil disaster. The firm has been called a “proven liar” in both incidents by environmentalists and emergency planners.

BP clean-up workers have also been found dumping tar balls from the water and beaches in land-fills in Mississippi and St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. The oil from the sludge is seeping into the local water tables.

The corporate news media, particularly the local New Orleans television stations, are embedding their reporters with Coast Guard and BP teams in the Gulf. The corporate media reports essentially serve as public relations outreeach for BP. A number of New Orleans and Louisiana groups are trying to get the actual news about the disaster out but face limited resources.

To call the Gulf oil disaster the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States is an understatement. And with the connivance of the Obama White House, the Gulf of Mexico is being turned into the Gulf of Death.

The Big Red Bear is Waking up and It Will Affect Us All

NASA Science

Coronal Mass Ejection

Coronal Mass Ejection

Earth and space are about to come into contact in a way that’s new to human history. To make preparations, authorities in Washington DC are holding a meeting: The Space Weather Enterprise Forum at the National Press Club on June 8th.

Richard Fisher, head of NASA’s Heliophysics Division, explains what it’s all about:

“The sun is waking up from a deep slumber, and in the next few years we expect to see much higher levels of solar activity. At the same time, our technological society has developed an unprecedented sensitivity to solar storms. The intersection of these two issues is what we’re getting together to discuss.”

The National Academy of Sciences framed the problem two years ago in a landmark report entitled “Severe Space Weather Events—Societal and Economic Impacts.” It noted how people of the 21st-century rely on high-tech systems for the basics of daily life. Smart power grids, GPS navigation, air travel, financial services and emergency radio communications can all be knocked out by intense solar activity. A century-class solar storm, the Academy warned, could cause twenty times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina.

Much of the damage can be mitigated if managers know a storm is coming. Putting satellites in ‘safe mode’ and disconnecting transformers can protect these assets from damaging electrical surges. Preventative action, however, requires accurate forecasting—a job that has been assigned to NOAA.

“Space weather forecasting is still in its infancy, but we’re making rapid progress,” says Thomas Bogdan, director of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Bogdan sees the collaboration between NASA and NOAA as key. “NASA’s fleet of heliophysics research spacecraft provides us with up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening on the sun. They are an important complement to our own GOES and POES satellites, which focus more on the near-Earth environment.”

Among dozens of NASA spacecraft, he notes three of special significance: STEREO, SDO and ACE.

STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) is a pair of spacecraft stationed on opposite sides of the sun with a combined view of 90% of the stellar surface. In the past, active sunspots could hide out on the sun’s farside, invisible from Earth, and then suddenly emerge over the limb spitting flares and CMEs. STEREO makes such surprise attacks impossible.

SDO (the Solar Dynamics Observatory) is the newest addition to NASA’s fleet. Just launched in February, it is able to photograph solar active regions with unprecedented spectral, temporal and spatial resolution. Researchers can now study eruptions in exquisite detail, raising hopes that they will learn how flares work and how to predict them. SDO also monitors the sun’s extreme UV output, which controls the response of Earth’s atmosphere to solar variability.

Bogdan’s favorite NASA satellite, however, is an old one: the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) launched in 1997. “Where would we be without it?” he wonders. ACE is a solar wind monitor. It sits upstream between the sun and Earth, detecting solar wind gusts, billion-ton CMEs, and radiation storms as much as 30 minutes before they hit our planet.

“ACE is our best early warning system,” says Bogdan. “It allows us to notify utility and satellite operators when a storm is about to hit.”

NASA spacecraft were not originally intended for operational forecasting—”but it turns out that our data have practical economic and civil uses,” notes Fisher. “This is a good example of space science supporting modern society.”

2010 marks the 4th year in a row that policymakers, researchers, legislators and reporters have gathered in Washington DC to share ideas about space weather. This year, forum organizers plan to sharpen the focus on critical infrastructure protection. The ultimate goal is to improve the nation’s ability to prepare, mitigate, and respond to potentially devastating space weather events.

“I believe we’re on the threshold of a new era in which space weather can be as influential in our daily lives as ordinary terrestrial weather.” Fisher concludes. “We take this very seriously indeed.”

For more information about the meeting, please visit the Space Weather Enterprise Forum home page at  http://www.nswp.gov/swef/swef_2010.html

Laser Weapons and Weather Modification Today

Laser beams shot from Earth into space (HAARP) or viceversa are a reality today.

By Luis R. Miranda
The Real Agenda
June 1, 2010

Many people act in disbelief when the topic of direct energy weapons is brought into a conversation. It is thought to be ‘kooky’ if one explains that such weapons can be used to change weather patterns or shoot structures down. However, a recent application of laser beams reveals that such uses -military and otherwise- are not only closer to reality than we thought, but indeed a common application nowadays.

In an article published on Russia Today, the admission of the existence of such technologies is not only admitted, but also explained in their applications.

From Russia Today Published 04 May, 2010, 13:08:

A powerful laser can be shot into humid air to cause intense water condensation, scientists have discovered. The technology has the potential to replace cloud seeding widely used today.

Then a short laser pulse is shot into the air, it forms a path of ionised nitrogen and oxygen. Some military researchers want to use this “plasma channel” to conduct electricity in futuristic direct energy weapons, but there appears to be a peaceful application.

The ionized molecules act as natural nuclei for water condensation and can potentially be used to cause rain. Optical physicist Jérôme Kasparian at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and colleagues stumbled on it as they investigated the possibility of diverting lightning discharges via laser.

The “cloud seeding” method used today involves silver iodide or frozen carbon dioxide, which stimulate droplet formation in clouds. The chemicals are released by ground generators or dropped from planes wherever needed. The approach, which has been used for some 50 years now, is only moderately efficient and there are some environmental concerns over it.

So far Kasparian and the team have successfully tested the laser-induced condensation technology both in lab and in the field. They measured the number of new droplets by counting back-scatterings from a second low-energy pulse from another laser. In humid weather, they measured 20 times more of those after firing the first beam, they report online in Nature Photonics.

The technology, however, is in the early stages, and the scientists are yet to prove that it can effectively cause condensation over wide areas rather than along a narrow channel. They also need to investigate if it works in different environmental conditions.

So are we supposed to believe this technology is not already in use? Of course not. Can this laser technology be used to create higher degrees of instability in the atmosphere the same way it can be used to create clouds and make it rain? You be the judge.

What other applications can this weaponry have? How about shooting a laser beam from space into any point on Earth? Suddenly, the theory of direct energy weaponry used on 9/11 does not seem so far fetched, does it? Although she is still missing the connecting dot between the technology and how it may or may not have been used in 2001, the drawn parallels during her investigation seem to be pretty much on the spot.

Chemtrails have taken over the skies of world with aluminum oxide, barium and sulfur compounds.

Is weather modification a peaceful application as the article above defines it? Not really. The weather in our planet revolves around natural processes which are part of a natural balance, so any artificial changes will -at the very least- ultimately have unforeseen effects in the regular weather patterns. Artificial weather modification through the use of chemtrails is denied as a technique to change the weather over a region today even though there are classified and unclassified government programs that consist of spraying barium and aluminum oxide compounds, among others. into the atmosphere as a way to control how much sunlight gets to Earth. When authorities are asked about the unclassified programs, they state that the use of chemical spraying is for the greater good. The first excuse that unequivocally comes to mind is Global Warming. So, scientists and the government think it is a good idea to spray chemicals that cause health problems and pollute the air we breath and the water we drink in order to affect a naturally occurring process.

Programs that deal with weather modification are thought to be a matter of people’s imagination; that is until we discover that corrupt organizations like the IPCC studied and suggested the use of technology to artificially alter the weather. What the studies don’t tell you is that particles used in weather modification that are as small as 10 microns, can be disastrous for our health. The accumulation of aluminum oxide and other chemicals in rain water collected in regions where chemtrails are used are as high as 20 times the natural content.

Weather modification is not only a thing of the present or the future. In the past, the United States government, for example, used weather modification in the form of cloud seeding to cause heavy rains in Vietnam during the war period. The rain brought massive floods over the Vietnamese resistance army and facilitated the work of the U.S. American planes flew over 2,000 weather modification missions during the war. Project Storm Fury, which used cloud seeding to modify weather, as well as other technologies have been studied and applied for at least 40 years. According to Dr. Joseph Golden, a senior research scientist at the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA), says such technologies have been used to weaken hurricanes by as much as 15 percent in the past. He also admits the spraying of chemicals allow scientists and the military to control the weather in any area for different periods of time. Chemtrails can last anywhere between 6 to 20 hours in the atmosphere after the chemicals that form them are sprayed. They can cover areas as large as 4000 miles or more. My question is, can these technologies be used to create or direct hurricanes as they are used to weaken, slow them down or even dissipate them? The answer is YES.

The use of laser beams and similar technologies is, as we see on this table, a well achieved goal. The most famous of all applications is Nikola Tesla’s laser beam direct energy technology. Tesla’s application has been studied and perfected throughout decades and now, it is recognized -even by military men- as a real source of energy. Lt. Colonel Thomas E. Bearden (retired), an experienced systems analyst and wargames specialist, said: “time as energy eventually becomes engineerable”. And he continued: “For our very survival, it is absolutely imperative that informed citizens be aware of this dramatic change, which is just now starting. The powerful new science and engineering must be controlled and used for humanity’s benefit, not its detriment. Else it will eventually be let loose unrestrainedly, to destroy all life on earth – as possibility indicated by Nikita Khrushchev in 1960.

What Mr. Bearden means is that humanity has in its hands a new weapon; a weapon that is capable of wiping all life on Earth. Lt. Colonel Bearden’s vision is supported by former U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen, who warned about the use of laser weapons as a form of eco-terrorism. “Others are engaging even in an eco-type of terrorism whereby they can alter the climate, set off earthquakes, volcanoes remotely through the use of electromagnetic waves… So there are plenty of ingenious minds out there that are at work finding ways in which they can wreak terror upon other nations…”

Although scientists themselves may not be thinking about using geo-engineering or weather modification technologies to cause harm to large areas of the Earth, -at least not all of them- especially those densely populated, the reality is, it is not in their hands to make that decision. Scientists are the ones in charge of thinking, creating and applying technologies. Whatever is done with those technologies is then the prerogative of private corporations or governments, that are the ones who provide financing and infrastructure for the experiments. One question that may be raised about weather modification in the form of laser weapons or chemtrails is, how do they affect us? The answer is, not positively. Another question then is, why if in the past governments and corporations denied the existence of weather modification and weapons technologies of this sort, are they now telling us about their use and putting them in plain sight? Well, because it is undeniable geo-engineering is happening as it is admitted by scientists and military men. So no more need to document chemtrails as they admittedly exist. No more need to document laser beam weapons; both on Earth and in space, as they admittedly exist. Check this PDF from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a known influential globalist organization on the ideas about the unilateral use of Geo-engineering.

Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen

As former United States Defense Secretary William Cohen confessed, the issue now is not whether geo-engineering through laser beams or spraying is real or not, but what is it going to be used for. And if we take his word as the former defense secretary of the most powerful military in the world, the future does not look well. Simply from the point of view of what laser weapons are capable of, or what does geo-engineering do to the environment, all eyebrows need to be raised. How toxic can these chemtrails be that Monsanto, a chemical company itself, is creating a type of seed capable of resisting chemicals of the kind being used in chemtrails. According to Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri , the chemicals sprayed over populated and non-populated areas are damaging not only the environment, but also to human health.

…we also know that certain kinds of chemicals can and do disrupt human [and other animals’] entire immune system… …on the dangers of hormone disruption, is now more widely available on Internet sites, it still is not well known by the average person who gets news mostly from mainstream media.(1) Most of these highly toxic chemicals are invisible; and, therefore, are easily off our collective radar. With the high stress level created by the deliberately orchestrated financial crisis –where millions have lost their jobs and homes– a degraded/collapsing environment or serious health problems are not priorities –especially, if very little is reported in mainstream news. This disaster scenario is part of the larger picture of what Naomi Klein writes about in her book “The Shock Doctrine.” We have so many major crises, one after another, that it is hard just to keep up with one’s daily routine –let alone have time to read and consider the toxicological health ramifications of massive amounts of thousands of heavy metals and chemicals that have poisoned our entire food chain and, thus, our own supposed “health.” We are at the very top of this wrecked food chain.”

A global awakening has begun to stop the atmospheric and orbital war on the people.

Read Dr. Perlingieri’s complete assessment on geo-engineering and weather modification here. And how about those laser beam weapons? Well, if governments and corporations are now capable of creating clouds, creating and directing hurricanes, creating earthquakes and other phenomena, as both William Cohen and Lt. Bearden say, it is safe to say that those too, are threats of gigantic scale for the survival of humanity. The use of chemicals and lasers are the kind of quick fixes that brought us DDT, CFC gases, microwave radiation devices, genetically modified organisms (GMO), pesticides in the food supply and others of the kind. It is this very same threat that has propelled people around the world to mobilize. Scientist David Suzuki calls geo-engineering “insane” and goes beyond to say: “If we have learned anything from the past, it is that while we are very clever at inventing powerful new technologies, our knowledge of how the world works and is interconnected is almost zero.”

Even the traditionally globalist, population control supporter United Nations is restrained on the use of both -chemical and laser- weapons. The 14th meeting of Subsidiary Body of Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice was the first time a UN Body addressed geo-engineering for the first time since the 1976 ENMOD Treaty banned environmental modification for “hostile uses”. SBSTTA 14 is already recommending that the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity call on its member governments to impose a moratorium on all climate geo-engineering activities when it convenes in Nagoya, Japan this October. Of course, knowledge spreads faster and better when more people, at the local level, take it upon themselves to let others know about mainstream important issues. Please inform your relatives, friends and acquaintances about the origin and dangers of laser weapons for military and weather modification purposes, as well as Geo-engineering with chemicals all around the planet. Just as THE PEOPLE exposed the lies about Anthropogenic Global Warming and Climategate, it is our duty to expose this, too.

BP’s Top Kill Procedure fails as Coast Guard Blocks Media Access

Natural News

BP officials have announced today that the “top kill” effort to stop the Gulf oil leak has failed. Unanticipated problems doomed the project, which involved trying to pump tens of thousands of gallons of mud, shredded rubber tires and other “junk” into the hole to try to halt the outflow of oil.

At 6pm Saturday evening, BP officials announced the “top kill” effort had failed and now they were moving on to another plan (more below).

I am on site at the Gulf Coast right now, and while I haven’t reached the areas where oil is washing up on the beaches, I’m learning some interesting information nonetheless. In particular, finding a hotel room anywhere near New Orleans has become virtually impossible, as BP has rented out virtually every available hotel room from St. Charles, Louisiana all the way to Pensacola, Florida. (I am currently staying in a fleabag hotel that miraculously has internet access…)

But it raises the question: Where are all these people? I haven’t seen a single BP person anywhere, and I was out on some beaches today filming editorial segments for NaturalNews. I did see some small watercraft laying out protective barriers, but I didn’t see any BP people anywhere.

I’ll keep you posted on what we find tomorrow as we approach the beaches to the East of New Orleans.

Expect more oil for the next 10 weeks

Now that the top kill effort has failed, it means oil will keep spewing into the Gulf of Mexico until at least August. That’s when two “pressure release” wells are expected to be completed. The purpose of these two wells is to siphon off the oil from underneath the ocean bed, thereby releasing the pressure that’s currently pushing crude oil out of the existing hole under the doomed Deepwater Horizon rig.

This “plan C” effort remains extremely risky, of course. There’s no guarantee it will work at all. And if it fails, this “volcano of oil” could continue to pollute the Earth’s oceans for years. This could, in fact, be the global killer event I warned about in an earlier story about this BP oil spill. (http://www.naturalnews.com/028805_G…)

We could be looking at a global-scale environmental catastrophe that destroys virtually all marine life in the Gulf of Mexico and takes a century to fully recover. It’s really that bad. If they can’t stop this volcano of oil in the next week, we could be looking at the single most destructive environmental catastrophe ever to strike our planet since the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Get ready for more chemicals

In the mean time, now that the top kill effort has failed, BP has announced it is resuming the spraying of chemical dispersants into the massive oil plumes that remain deep under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico water. This means more chemicals that will kill more forms of marine life throughout the Gulf.

But it’s not just aquatic life that’s being threatened by these chemicals: BP workers are increasingly being sent to the hospital complaining of symptoms like vomiting, dizziness, difficult breathing and others. The obvious cause of such symptoms is the huge amount of crude oil bubbling up to the surface (some of which evaporates into the air) along with the massive injection of chemical dispersants into the waters (some of which also evaporates). CNN is reporting that BP claims it is monitoring air quality, but so far BP has not gone public with any air quality test results.

None of the cleanup workers have been outfitted with chemical masks that might protect them from the volatile chemicals now present in the Gulf waters. Yet CNN is reporting that the warning label on the chemical product made by NALCO states: “Avoid breathing vapor.”

The EPA, meanwhile, remains silent on this whole issue. Remember: It is the EPA that ordered BP to stop using its selected brand of chemical dispersant, but BP utterly ignored the EPA and continues to dump that very same chemical into the Gulf of Mexico right now.

A chemical attack on America

What we are watching here, folks, is very nearly a chemical attack on America by BP and the oil industry. It’s hard to say what’s worse: The oil or the chemical dispersants. In fact, no one knows the answer to that question, and it can’t even be studied by scientists because the disaster keeps growing by the day.

This is one environmental catastrophe that just keeps getting worse, and the cost to the marine ecosystem is incalculable. And that’s not to even mention the economic cost to the region and all the people who depend on life in the Gulf of Mexico for their own livelihoods. Their lives are now being destroyed by this oil drilling catastrophe.

If there’s one lesson that comes from all this, it is a reminder of the immense value Mother Nature provides us each and every day at no charge. The VALUE of a healthy ocean is incalculable. And the COST of killing it may be more than what human civilization can bear.

I suppose this resolves the whole question of what’s more important: The environment or the economy? As we’re rudely discovering today, the economy cannot exist without protecting the environment first.

“There’s Another Oil Leak, Much Bigger, 5 to 6 Miles Away”

Washington’s Blog

Another never discussed oil leak exists below the Gulf of Mexico's water.

Matt Simmons was an energy adviser to President George W. Bush, is an adviser to the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, and is a member of the National Petroleum Council and the Council on Foreign Relations. Simmon is chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International, an investment bank catering to oil companies.

Simmons told Dylan Ratigan that ”there’s another leak, much bigger, 5 to 6 miles away” from the leaking riser and blowout preventer which we’ve all been watching on the underwater cameras:

And as 60 Minutes reports:

[Mike Williams, the chief electronics technician on the Deepwater Horizon, and one of the last workers to leave the doomed rig] said they were told it would take 21 days; according to him, it actually took six weeks.

With the schedule slipping, Williams says a BP manager ordered a faster pace.

“And he requested to the driller, ‘Hey, let’s bump it up. Let’s bump it up.’ And what he was talking about there is he’s bumping up the rate of penetration. How fast the drill bit is going down,” Williams said.

Williams says going faster caused the bottom of the well to split open, swallowing tools and that drilling fluid called “mud.”

“We actually got stuck. And we got stuck so bad we had to send tools down into the drill pipe and sever the pipe,” Williams explained.

That well was abandoned and Deepwater Horizon had to drill a new route to the oil. It cost BP more than two weeks and millions of dollars.

“We were informed of this during one of the safety meetings, that somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 million was lost in bottom hole assembly and ‘mud.’ And you always kind of knew that in the back of your mind when they start throwing these big numbers around that there was gonna be a push coming, you know? A push to pick up production and pick up the pace,” Williams said.

Asked if there was pressure on the crew after this happened, Williams told Pelley, “There’s always pressure, but yes, the pressure was increased.”

But the trouble was just beginning: when drilling resumed, Williams says there was an accident on the rig that has not been reported before. He says, four weeks before the explosion, the rig’s most vital piece of safety equipment was damaged.

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