Rolling Stone's Account of the BP Disaster

Sperm Whale found 77 miles from BP burst in late June:

Read Jeff Goodell's terrific account of the BP oil disaster:

Rolling Stone's RS 1110 Issue on BP's disaster by Jeff Goodell

"The technology and hardware that are deployed all look impressive at first glance," says Rick Steiner, a marine scientist who played a central role in the cleanup effort after the Exxon Valdez. "But none of it really works very well. In fact, it is all theater."

"The Macondo Reservoir, which BP was tapping into when the blowout occurred, is estimated to hold up to 500 million barrels. The reservoir is not particularly large by industry standards: It contains about as much oil as Americans consume in a month. But because Macondo has a high permeability – a measure of how mobile the oil is within the rocks that contain it – the blowout was "like uncorking a volcano," says Doug Rader, chief ocean scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund."
"By any measure, however, the administration has failed miserably in its attempt to reduce the amount and toxicity of chemicals that BP is dumping into the ocean. "The EPA is full of smart, competent, hardworking scientists who are trying to do the right thing," says Wilma Subra, former vice chair of the EPA's National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy, who has led the battle against dispersants in the Gulf. "But politically, they are no match for BP."
"Whatever its motives, BP was slow to provide respirators to workers in the Gulf, leaving them exposed to a dangerous combination of oil and chemicals. Many complained of illnesses, headaches, nausea, and BP's own tests have shown that more than 15 percent of the response workers in the Gulf have been exposed to 2-butoxyethanol. "When oil goes into the water, nothing good happens," concedes Allen, the retired Coast Guard admiral overseeing the cleanup. "It's always a trade-off to try to minimize consequences."

This is Tim Dickinson's previous article on the disaster in RS 1108/1109 Issue:
BP Disaster Rolling Stone RS 1108/1109

Begin with Tim Dickinson's original writen piece in the RS 1107 Issue:
Rolling Stone 1107