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US could tap oil stockpiles as prices rise: Obama
WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Friday said he had “tee-ed up” moves to tap emergency US oil stockpiles, as Middle East violence pushed up gas prices for hard-hit US consumers.
Trying to tamp down concern that oil prices will continue to rise on Middle East unrest, Obama said he was willing to make a rare move to open the strategic reserve, but not yet.
“We are going to try to do everything we can” to stabilize the market, Obama said.
“Everybody should know that should the situation demand it, we are prepared to tap the significant stockpile of oil that we have in the strategic petroleum reserve.”
With Americans struggling with Read more…
Dolphin deaths in Alabama, Mississippi may be caused by measles-related illness
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/03/dead_dolphins_measles_related.html
MOBILE, Ala. — With six new dolphin carcasses discovered in Mississippi and Alabama since Saturday, a review of the scientific literature associated with similar mass die-offs of marine mammals around the world suggests a common culprit: a morbillivirus.
In the same family as the viruses that cause measles in humans and canine distemper in dogs, there are well-documented outbreaks of fatal morbillivirus infections in dolphins, whales and seals around the world since the 1980s.
Jerry Saliki, a University of Georgia researcher and veterinarian who has published a number of scientific papers on morbillivirus infections in dolphins, said the virus could be responsible for the current mass die off.
“It is certainly possible. In the past, there have been significant die offs in the Gulf with dolphins that were attributed to morbillivirus,” Saliki said Monday. “But, there are Read more…
BABY DOLPHINS ARE WASHING UP DEAD ALONG THE GULF
HORN ISLAND — The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies has confirmed that a fourth baby dolphin has washed ashore on Horn Island,
The island, one of the longest in the chain that comprises the Gulf Islands National Seashore Park, is about 12 miles south of Ocean Springs.
Three baby dolphins were pinpointed Monday and a fourth was reported today by National Resource Advisory employees who are working with BP cleanup crews on the island.
Highlights of the $3.73 Trillion Budget Request for 2012
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama released a $3.73 trillion budget for fiscal-year 2012 Monday where he sought to balance two competing and conflicting agendas: dramatic cuts to federal spending while also investing in programs to improve U.S. competitiveness.
A look at what President Barack Obama has requested in his $3.73 trillion budget for the 2012 fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Summary: Homeland Security gets $44 Billion with a priority on naked body scanners. The Transportation Department gets over a half Trillion dollars for new highway and rail construction, including $53 billion for high-speed trains. $500 million will go to the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Enforcement (See my article on LOST.) and NIST, the group that dropped the ball on the Sept. 11th investigation will be getting $764 million, roughly a 17% increase from last year.
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Agency: NASA
Spending: $18.7 billion
Percentage Change from 2011: 0.9 percent decrease
Discretionary Spending: $18.7 billion
Highlights: Obama’s space budget is about the same as the previous year, avoiding the major proposed cuts other agencies are facing, partly because of the long planned Read more…
Pirates hijack $200 million crude oil: owners say Somali pirates dangerously disrupting world oil supplies
A supertanker carrying about $200m (£125m; 146m euros) worth of crude oil has been hijacked off the coast of Oman, the vessel’s Greek operator says.
Athens-based shipping company Enesel said they had lost communication with the Irene SL.
The 333m (1,093ft) vessel was on its way from the Gulf to the Gulf of Mexico when it was attacked.
Although the incident happened hundreds of miles from Somalia, pirate gangs are known to operate there.
A body representing the owners of much of the world’s tanker fleet warned that Read more…
“Very disturbing findings” in chemical tests of Gulf residents -Bleeding from ears
No baby oysters being found in Louisiana’s most productive areas
Oyster fishermen worried about problem area along the coast
NEW ORLEANS — In the waters stretching from the MR-GO, down to the mouth of the Mississippi River, oysters are having a tough time, and a mystery is unfolding in one of the state’s most productive areas for oysters.
“It’s not a good sign,” said John Tesvich, chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force.
The sign is a lack of oyster spat, in what is known as coastal zone number two. Scientists are baffled, and they said so at a meeting on Tuesday of the Oyster Task Force.
“That’s really alarming, when we see large areas, some of the areas that are the heart of the predominant oyster seed ground, we’re not seeing the young spat this year,” Tesvich said. Read more…
Russian government now largest shareholder in BP
“Will almost certainly complicate the politics of levying and collecting damages” from Gulf oil disaster says Congressman
BP’s frantic efforts to repair its devastated reputation in the US have been set back by a major new alliance with the Russian government, prompting outraged comments from all sides of the political spectrum.
Amid continuing anger from the American public over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, politicians are calling for an investigation into BP’s deal to sell a 5 per cent stake in the company to the Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.
That deal, which gives BP access to vast untapped oil reserves in the Arctic, was signed with fanfare in London on Friday night, but across the Atlantic, one Congressman renamed BP “Bolshoi Petroleum”. US critics also suggested BP has now become a national security threat, as well as environmental one.
“The national security implications of BP America being involved with the Russian company – that does require scrutiny by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS),” Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas, said in a television interview hours after the deal was signed. Read more…
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