Topic: Oil Spills

Top galleries, list articles, quizzes

Earth Day: Five ways we affect the planet

The late Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D) of Wisconsin organized the first Earth Day in 1970 after the devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. The event started as an environmental teach-in, with some 20 million Americans taking part on college campuses across the United States. Today, 500 million people in 175 countries observe Earth Day on April 22 as a way to celebrate the natural world and raise awareness of the environment. How much do humans affect the earth? Click below to find out.
In Pictures: It's Mardi Gras time all over the world!
Amazon's top 10 book picks for November

Amazon's editors pick their top 10 books for the month of November.
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 06/23
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/20

All Content

Private Empire

Pulitzer Prize-winner Steve Coll takes a close look at secretive behemoth that is Exxon Mobil.
BP engineer arrested in Gulf oil spill

Former BP engineer Kurt Mix is accused of deleting text messages that revealed the true scope of the disaster.
First BP oil spill arrest: Why put the squeeze on a mid-level engineer?

The first criminal charges brought in the 2010 BP oil spill – against Kurt Mix, a former BP engineer – show that the government still seeks the answer to an essential question in the spill’s aftermath: Did BP tell the truth about what it knew about the size of the spill? At stake are billions in fines.
Earth Day: Five ways we affect the planet

The late Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D) of Wisconsin organized the first Earth Day in 1970 after the devastating oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, Calif. The event started as an environmental teach-in, with some 20 million Americans taking part on college campuses across the United States. Today, 500 million people in 175 countries observe Earth Day on April 22 as a way to celebrate the natural world and raise awareness of the environment. How much do humans affect the earth? Click below to find out.
Gulf oil spill: Two years later, safety lessons ignored

In its rush to pump more oil, America is ignoring the key lesson of the Gulf oil spill two years ago. Complex drilling, wherever it occurs, comes with unknowable risks.
BP oil spill settlement: Justice for 100,000 Gulf Coast victims?

The estimated total cost of the settlement will be about $7.8 billion, which makes it one of the largest class-action settlements in US history. The BP oil spill settlement was filed Wednesday.
BP settles with private plantiffs over Gulf oil spill

The multinational corporation said Wednesday it will pay out $7.8 billion from the $20 billion trust it set up after the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Mysterious Gulf oil sheen: Where did it come from?

Scientists can't yet determine where the 10-mile stretch of oil sheen found Wednesday in the Gulf of Mexico originated, but they have ways of finding out. Shell oil is investigating.
Coast Guard checks 10-mile oil sheen near Shell oil wells in Gulf

Shares in Royal Dutch Shell PLC fell in European trading early Thursday after it reported a 'light sheen' of oil about 1 mile long and 10 miles wide in the general area of two of its production platforms in the oil and gas prospects called Mars and Ursa.
Reader recommendation: The Great Penguin Rescue

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.
North Sea gas leak has environmental activists concerned

North Sea gas leak: An oil production platform off the Scottish coast has been leaking gas since last weekend. Environmentalists are concerned the North Sea gas leak could lead to an oil spill.
President Algae? Obama not green enough, say environmentalists

President Obama has blocked the Keystone pipeline, backed biofuels, and prioritizes the earth over people, say GOP presidential candidates. Environmentalists say Obama is a big disappointment. Who's right?
Exxon Valdez bound for scrap heap in India

Exxon Valdez: Best Oasis Ltd., an Indian company that buys old ships to dismantle them, and recycle salvageable material, bought the old old tanker. The Exxon Valdez was involved in one of the worst oil spills in US history.
Warm spring weather and global warming: If only scientists could be so persuasive

Warm spring weather can help convince Americans that global warming is happening and a problem. But scientists must change the way they talk about this subject. They must leave their ivory towers and learn to speak about climate change in a language that people understand.
The Circle Bastiat
The Pentagon is a gas guzzler

The Pentagon spent $17.3 billion on oil in 2011, a 26 percent increase from 2010. This despite the Pentagon's public efforts to "go green."
With BP oil spill billions at stake, why did Gulf fishermen suddenly settle?

News that 100,000 fishermen and oil spill workers settled with BP for $7.8 billion rather than going to trial suggests a lesson from the Valdez spill: Drawn-out litigation can become its own tragedy.
BP settles spill claims for $7.8 billion. Will victims take it?

BP settlement of worst US offshore oil spill involves 100,000 claims by fishermen, cleanup workers, and others. The $7.8 billion settlement is in addition to a $20 billion BP compensation fund.
BP faces billions in fines as spill trial nears

The huge legal bill for the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is coming due for BP as a federal trial opens Monday to determine the company’s liability for the blowout of its Macondo well.
In Pictures: It's Mardi Gras time all over the world!
Deep-water oil drilling: why Obama is OK with angering left and right

Neither the oil industry nor environmentalists are pleased with President Obama's new deep-water oil drilling plan. But in an election year, that might be a safe position politically.
Obama puts Keystone pipeline on hold, decries 'rushed and arbitrary' deadline

Speaker Boehner accuses Obama of 'selling out American jobs for politics,' but Keystone pipeline operator TransCanada says it will submit plans for a rerouted project later this year.
White House may reject oil pipeline, Feb. deadline 'purely political'

White House spokesman Jay Carney stopped short of saying a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline had been made.
BP parries with Halliburton over recovery costs for Gulf oil spill

British oil giant BP wants a US judge to force Halliburton to pay all recovery costs stemming from 2010 Gulf oil spill. In a filing Monday, it aims to rebuff assertion that Halliburton bears no liability.
Gulf oil spill could result in criminal charges for BP employees

The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors are targeting several Houston-based engineers and at least one supervisor employed by British oil giant BP connected to the 2010 Gulf oil spill.
Halliburton 'destroyed' evidence after Gulf oil spill, BP charges

BP alleges that Halliburton, a subcontractor working on the Deepwater Horizon rig, destroyed evidence pertaining to what might have caused the explosion that triggered the Gulf oil spill.