Obama admin. backs spill figures, releases e-mails

[ProSense]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration Wednesday defended the integrity of its estimates — which turned out to be inaccurate — during the summer of how much oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, turning over thousands of pages of internal e-mails written by government scientists who worked on the project.

The e-mails hint at uncertainties in the estimates. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, for example, was "concerned about the level of certainty implied in the pie and cylinder charts." Another e-mail noticed that a pie chart in a draft of the government's report wasn't actually round: "A pie chart pretty much has to round to 100," wrote NOAA spokeswoman Jennifer Austin.

In other messages, U.S. Geological Survey scientists acknowledged they relied on BP to report how much oil it collected and said estimates of amounts skimmed from the ocean's surface were a "rough calculation" based on reports of oily water.

The head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jane Lubchenco, cautioned a colleague about how to present the government's findings: "I believe we owe it to everyone to provide the best estimates we can where direct measurements are not possible," she wrote. "We also need to be forthright about how certain we are about each number, which we've done."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

[Igel]

1. It's all silly.

My mother firmly believes that either you're right or you're lying.

Notice what's omitted: Simply being wrong, whether because you don't understand, have forgotten, overlooked something, haven't been given information that exists, have no way of obtaining the crucial information, or whatever.

You are either right or you're lying.

Which puts her rather in a difficult spot because she has moderate to severe Alzheimer's, so she's not right about most things--whether she had breakfast, the day of the week, how many kids she has, whether or not the 1200 miles between my house and hers can reasonably be covered in 2 hours by car (or, as the competing view she has puts it, a couple of minutes). . . Still, that whole "she has moderate to severe Alzheimer's" means we cut her a bit of slack.

No crime in being wrong.

[tpsbmam]

2. There is significant amount of evidence that the Obama administration covered up

the true destructiveness & scope of this disaster. They have, among other things, claimed that everything is just peachy-keen in the Gulf -- go ahead and eat the fish, they say. They've not had any response to the multitude of people sickened by the oil spill and the dispersants. And they're ignoring the facts laid out for them by scientists and others who've tested seafood from the Gulf and have stated it is unsafe for consumption. They've ignored or blocked access at times top scientists' input. Honest differences? I think no. Just plain wrong? Well, yeah....to the extent that they have been dishonest about the Gulf oil disaster from the outset.

Anyway, it's too late and I'm far too tired to give you a comprehensive and cogent argument with imbedded references. Too tired even to look through my saved articles -- did a quick Google search and here are a few I suggest you peruse.


Panel: Feds blocked worst-case Gulf spill figures
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39539761/ns/us_news-environment

Marine Scientists Take Issue With Administration’s Oil Spill Report

Marine scientists at the University of Georgia are taking issue with a report released last week by the Obama administration that said much of the oil from the Gulf oil spill had been contained or cleaned up.

In fact, according to a report released yesterday in conjunction with the Georgia Sea Grant, “up to 79 percent of the oil released into the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon well has not been recovered and remains a threat to the ecosystem.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/94978/marine-scientists-take-issue-with-administrations-oil-spill-report

Scientists Fault Lack of Studies Over Gulf Oil Spill (published in early May)

Tensions between the Obama administration and the scientific community over the gulf oil spill are escalating, with prominent oceanographers accusing the government of failing to conduct an adequate scientific analysis of the damage and of allowing BP to obscure the spill’s true scope.

FDA Not Testing Gulf Seafood for Mercury, Arsenic or Other Heavy Metals Because "We Do Not Expect to See an Increase Based on this Spill" (article explains that these and other ignored chemicals are components of oil and found in oil spills.)
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/08/fda-not-testing-gulf-seafood-for.html

Scientists investigating oil spill unsettled by calls from federal commission
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/science/earth/20noaa.html

Gulf Oil Spill: Scientists Beg For A Chance To Take Basic Measurements
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/gulf-oil-spill-scientists_n_636981.html


The Spill, The Scandal and the President
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/111965

[JDPriestly]

3. The Obama administration was sloppy about this.

They so hoped they could trust BP.

The thought of extricating our country from BP's clutches is just too frightening for most Americans.

It was naivete on the part of the Bush administration and fear of the economic repercussions that would result from offending BP and the oil industry.

I do think that Obama should have taken advantage of the situation to appoint a different Secretary of the Interior. The present one did not serve him well.

[No Elephants]

8. IMO, any admiiistration would have realized that BP would "misunderestimate" the extent of the

damage that BP caused. Heck, EVERYone has heard the expression "fox guarding the henhouse."

[Psephos]

4. US surrenders e-mails on Gulf oil leak estimates

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Wednesday defended the integrity of estimates that for months were inaccurate in showing how much oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico, disclosing thousands of pages of internal e-mails written by government scientists on the project. "It is a guess," a senior U.S. scientist acknowledged to his colleagues. The behind-the-scenes e-mails hint at uncertainties in what the government knew during the summer, even as its scientists wrestled over how to measure oil leaking from a runaway well a mile beneath the water's surface. The government said this week that its final estimate of 172 million gallons of oil pouring into the ocean between April 20 and July 15 was accurate.

<snip>

The government released the files to news organizations and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who with other lawmakers had asked for the records in August. "The public has a right to know right now what is going on in the Gulf of Mexico, and your report should be analyzed by others right now so that we are sure we got it right," Markey told Lehr, who defended the government's estimates during congressional testimony.

<snip>

The panel also previously criticized statements by President Barack Obama's energy adviser, Carol Browner, who mischaracterized on national TV the government's analysis about where the oil went, saying it showed most of the oil was "gone." In a new study published Tuesday, the government itself acknowledged that its oil calculations were never intended to "provide information about the impact of the oil, nor indicate where the oil is now."

<snip>

In another e-mail, Lehr threatened to resign from the government's team after the inadvertent disclosure of names of nongovernment scientists who were helping in the crisis. "We as government officials have betrayed the trust these gentlemen placed in us," Lehr wrote to the head of the U.S. Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hF6MyS8Icq2vTbEbxzkayNGMgDXQ?docId=cac071470476496a8f87d79fb218082e

[burrowowl]

5. Good!

[defendandprotect]

6. Does the government spy on itself ...? Is there a way to know if these are the original e-mails?

Which reminds me ...

Re the Nixon 18 minute gap on one of his tapes --

The Secret Service always made back up copies, so at some point the info

was recoverable, but the pubic probably still doesn't know that.

On the other hand, like the JFK classified records to be released in 2017 ....

much of the info keeps disappearing!!!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

7. Transparency is good.

I just wish it didn't take so long to switch from opaque.

[No Elephants]

9. I wonder how we would ever be 100% certain if we were being treated to transparency, or to semi-

transparency or only to an illusion of transparency.

[xchrom]

10. +1