Government’s Report on BP Oil Spill Challenged by Scientists and Gulf Residents
On August 4, 2010, the White House released a controversial report titled “BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Budget: What Happened To the Oil?” In answer to the question “what happened to the oil,” government scientists suggest:
- 26% is “residual” oil which is “either on or just below the surface as light sheen and weathered tar balls, has washed ashore or been collected from the shore, or is buried in sand and sediments;”
- 25% has evaporated or dissolved;
- 17% was directly recovered from the wellhead;
- 16% was naturally dispersed;
- 8% was chemically dispersed;
- 5% was burned;
- 3% was skimmed.
The government acknowledges that the oil spill report merely “Shows current best estimates of what happened to the oil.” (emphasis added). And these estimates kicked off a firestorm of controversy. Within minutes, cable news anchors were reporting the story with apparent incredulity, using terms such as “if this is true.” And prominent scientists soon denounced the government estimates of the effects of the BP oil spill. One scientist, John Kessler, of Texas A&M University, who led a National Science Foundation on-site study of the spill, told The Guardian “Recent reports seem to say that about 75% of the oil is taken care of and that is just not true.”
The accuracy of the report has been called into question by other scientists, as well as fishermen and others who have commented about the conditions they have actually witnessed on the Gulf Coast. Take a look at:
- Oil Spill Calculations Stir Debate on Damage (New York Times, Aug. 4, 2010)
- Gulf oil spill: White House accused of spinning report (The Guardian, Aug. 5, 2010)
- Federal Report on Oil’s Fate in Gulf Raises Eyebrows (New York Times, Aug. 5, 2010)
- Upbeat oil report questioned (Nature, Aug. 10, 2010)
- Scientists Allege Federal Gov’t Tried to Muffle Plume Findings (ProPublica, Aug. 10. 2010)
- The BP Cover-Up (Mother Jones, Aug. 10, 2010)
- Louisiana Fishermen Slam Claims that Oil Almost Gone, Seafood Safe (Solve Climate, Aug. 11, 2010)
Do you buy the argument that most of the oil from the BP oil spill has disappeared from the Gulf? Feel free to share your thoughts in a comment.
