Fox News' Jarrett failed to challenge Energy Secretary's false claim that no "oil or gas [was] spilled" during Katrina, Rita
SUMMARY: Fox news host Gregg Jarrett did not challenge the false assertion by U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman that "[w]hen we had Katrina and Rita, the two worst hurricanes in at least in recent memory, in '05, some three years ago, there was not one case where we had a -- a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment." In fact, according to a 2007 report prepared for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita resulted in 124 spills from outer continental shelf structures with a total volume of more than 17,000 barrels of petroleum.
During the July 30 edition of Fox News' Happening Now, co-host Gregg Jarrett failed to challenge the false assertion by U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman that "[w]hen we had Katrina and Rita, the two worst hurricanes in at least in recent memory, in '05, some three years ago, there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment." In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, according to a 2007 report prepared for the U.S. Minerals Management Service -- an agency within the Interior Department -- by the international consulting firm Det Norske Veritas, "124 spills were reported with a total volume of roughly 17,700 barrels of total petroleum products" as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
By contrast, on the July 17 edition of MSNBC Live, anchor David Shuster confronted Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior policy adviser for Sen. John McCain, about her past assertion that no oil was spilled as a result of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Shuster said: "Earlier this week on this program, though, you defended offshore drilling and said, quote, 'We withstood Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and did not spill a drop.' In fact, the U.S. Mineral Management Service said that Katrina and Rita caused 124 offshore spills for a total of more than 743,000 gallons of oil and refined products spilled. So, Nancy, do you want to take back what you said?" Pfotenhauer replied: "Right. Well, I actually do. I was misinformed, and my embarrassment aside, the point is still that we had a remarkable performance."
From the July 30 edition of Fox
News' Happening Now:
JARRETT: Well, the rising cost of energy -- the top focus today at the White House, President Bush wrapped up a news conference a little while ago after meeting with his cabinet to tackle the rising cost of oil. A little good news, though, at the pump today: The national average dropped two cents overnight. It is now $3.92 per gallon, which is still about $1 more than this time last year.
But you heard the president in the Rose Garden: "I've lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling. It's up to Congress to allow more drilling." Democrats seem opposed.
With us now, a gentleman who was there meeting with the president this morning: the U.S. Secretary of Energy, Samuel Bodman. Mr. Secretary, welcome.
BODMAN: Gregg, I'm happy to be here. Thank you.
JARRETT: You know, the only way to impact prices is to either affect supply, demand, or both.
BODMAN: Right.
JARRETT: And yet many in your town, as you know, oppose more drilling, especially offshore. What will supply and prices be like if we do not act to increase production?
BODMAN: Well, I think there -- we're clearly headed higher, it would appear. What we are attempting to do, what the president was attempting to do this morning with his remarks in the Rose Garden was to augment that which we're already doing. That is to say, work on energy efficiency, work on renewable energy, work on coal, work on nuclear power, all the different things that we're doing, those are being augmented by work on hydrogen fuel cells and plug-in hybrid vehicles, all sorts of things that the Energy Department is doing.
But in order to accomplish that, we need more oil and gas from our country.
JARRETT: Yeah.
BODMAN: And it is there, and the -- the American public is I think getting the idea.
JARRETT: I --
BODMAN: That's the hope.
JARRETT: I -- I think they are, but you've heard Nancy Peloser -- Pelosi [D-CA], speaker of the House.
BODMAN: Right.
JARRETT: She's vowing to block any offshore drilling because, and this is her latest quote from Politico: "I want to save the planet." That's a -- that's a quote. Look, you're an engineer by background. Has --
BODMAN: That's right.
JARRETT: -- technology improved so dramatically that drilling can now be done in a way that protects the environment?
BODMAN: I believe that it can. When we had Katrina and Rita, the two worst hurricanes in at least in recent memory, in '05, some three years ago, there was not one case where we had a -- a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment. There is a lot of work and -- that has gone on -- on the Alaska -- in the Alaska area to be able to drill and use directional drilling, so that we can accomplish with a very small footprint a -- a great deal. And that's what's being hoped for and that's what we're espousing and --
JARRETT: Sure.
BODMAN -- trying to make the case for to the American public.
JARRETT: Mr. Secretary, some Democrats have a different idea, including Barack Obama. They want a windfall profits tax on oil companies.
From the 4 p.m. ET hour of the July 17 edition of MSNBC Live:
SHUSTER: Nancy, a key issue, as you know, related to the Middle East, is oil and energy independence. Here at home, Senator McCain supports increased offshore drilling, as you have said. [Sen.] Barack Obama does not. Earlier this week on this program, though, you defended offshore drilling and said, quote, "We withstood Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and did not spill a drop."
In fact, the U.S. Mineral Management Service said that Katrina and Rita caused 124 offshore spills for a total of more than 743,000 gallons of oil and refined products spilled. So, Nancy, do you want to take back what you said?
PFOTENHAUER: Right. Well, I actually do. I was misinformed, and my embarrassment aside, the point is still that we had a remarkable performance. That you had about 16,000 barrels that were lost during two of the worst storms that have ever -- that have hit our coastline in recent history. And keep in mind, David, that 1,700 barrels per day naturally seeps into the ocean floor, so, 365 days a year, you're at about 620,000 barrels per day -- pardon me, per year that naturally seep into the ocean floor. So, this is a really remarkable performance of technology. And according to the National Oceanic Industry Association, since 1985, we've pulled about seven billion barrels of oil out of the federal offshore area, and we have only spilled about one one-thousandth of that oil. That's a 99.999-percent success rate. That's why other developed nations don't tie their hands the way we do.
SHUSTER: Right, but just to be clear, you just -- I thought you just said 16,000, but in fact, the U.S. Mineral Management Service said Katrina and Rita caused a spilled -- and this is just offshore - of 743,000 gallons of oil. Are they wrong?
PFOTENHAUER: Yeah. You're talking gallon -- you're talking gallons, I'm talking barrels. That's the --
SHUSTER: OK.
PFOTENHAUER: -- only difference. There are about 42 --
SHUSTER: Fair enough.
PFOTENHAUER: -- I believe 42 gallons in each barrel.
SHUSTER: Fair enough.
So because a hurricane moves through and spills a little oil, we shouldn't even try drilling for oil?
How much undrilled oil was spilled when the earthquake hit the other day?
Where are the oil wells in Los Angeles?
Does it matter? Notice in this map even the offshore areas are sliced and diced with faults that all have the potential to relieve themselves at any time. The LA basin in general has experienced 450 years of relativly quiet siesmic activity and a huge siesmic debt has built up.
http://www.data.scec.org/faults/sofault.html
I do not understand your point, this is about Katrina
and when posters make comments like this it needs to be exposed for the stupidity it is.
So because a hurricane moves through and spills a little oil, we shouldn't even try drilling for oil?
"[w]hen we had Katrina and Rita, the two worst hurricanes in at least in recent memory, in '05, some three years ago, there was not one case where we had a -- a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment."
There was not one - there were 124....
Liars - every one of them.
Dawuss, when does 17,700 equal zero? I tried new math, old math, an abacus, even the metric system and couldn't get it to compute. Then I used ConMath and it worked.
Want to drill for oil, contact the Stevens mob in Alaska but bring your cash.
Any mention of the recent spill on the Mississippi ever make it to MSM?
If an oil spill occurs in the Gulf of Mexico and no ethical conservative sees it. Does it make a sound? Will it then run for congress?
I wonder if the percentage of oil spilled in the Gulf could be compared to the number of people in Berlin who came to hear the acts of Patrice and Reamonn instead of the dear Barak?
My guess is that the percentage to see Barak was about the same as the oil spilled compared with the volume of water in the Gulf......... .0000000065% !!!
My guess is that the percentage to see Barak was about the same as the oil spilled compared with the volume of water in the Gulf......... .0000000065% !!!
That percentage really represents the number of functioning brain cells in PC's head.
Proud,
Do you and yuor idiot wingnut friends realize that the oil spilled wasn't diluted? It was actually concentrated so your stupid number is meaningless as has been pointed out many, many times on many. many threads.
Please try to come up with non-debunked statements.
The issue isn't how much oil was spilled during Katrina. The issue is conservatives and Republicans who keep saying "none" when that's simply not true. If there was any at all, then by definition, the answer "none" is incorrect.
Now, if Bodman, McCain, Goode, Schmidt and every other lying Republican who's made this calim wanted to argue that the amount is insignificant, or that it was an unusual event, or any other argument that acknowledged there was oil spilled, well then they might be raising a point worth debating. But that's not what they do -- they keep insisting on "none" when there's just no question that the answer is, at the very least, "some".
In short, you're not entitled to your own facts.
PC,
Was oil spilled during Katrina and Rita or not?
grilledhamburgerkid,
Of course, but the amount was insignificant compared to the volume of the Gulf so as to be nil. It's as if someone said that because Algore broke wind during a speech at the Hague, the amount of methane produced would mean that all of Europe would now be a toxic waste zone and enlarging his carbon skid marks. That just wouldn't be the case, would it?
Elite Democrats want us to suffer needlessly with high prices for energy so placate their whacked out econut base. Any spillage, natural or unnatural, minor or barely measurable fits the template that America shouldn't even think about harnessing our own resources. I hope that the Republican party will make this an issue in all races. It's a winner.
Peacockesquecoward, it sounds like you're volunteering to position your face between Al Gores buttocks after he attends an all-day curry cook-off. After all, you'd only be subjected to a tiny percentage of the world's methane.
Are you making a wish list?
PC,
Thank you for proving that the comments made by Jarrett were lies. Whatever you think of the oil drilling, its good to see that you know Jarrett is a liar. Why don't the oil companies drill on the leases they have?
Also, since you are very pro drilling, what percentage of the oil companies' record profits do you think should be used on research?
To put it in perspective, a quick search shows me that 1,264,155 barrels of oil were spilled by the Exxon Valdez in Prudhoe Bay back in 1989.
So the amount of oil spilled after two incredibly destructive disasters was 1.3% of the spillage that happened in Alaska.
I hate to see any oil dropped into the gulf, but considering how much oil comes in through New Orleans, that seems to me to be pretty darn good.
More than 500 specialists are working to clean up 44 oil spills ranging from several hundred gallons to nearly 4 million gallons, the U.S. Coast Guard said in an assessment that goes far beyond initial reports of just two significant spills.
The report comes nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, and reflects the fact that the Coast Guard and other agencies are able to only now tackle environmental problems since the search and rescue effort is winding down.
The Coast Guard estimates more than 7 million gallons of oil were spilled from industrial plants, storage depots and other facilities around southeast Louisiana.
That is about two-thirds as much oil as spilled from the Exxon Valdez tanker in 1989. But unlike the oil from the Valdez, which poured from a single source, these oil spills are scattered at sites throughout southeast Louisiana.
Another myth bites the dust!
Thought you needed a bit of information to put this in perspective, AA...
Exxon Valdez was the original name (later Sea River Mediterranean and eventually Mediterranean) of an oil tanker owned by the former Exxon Shipping Company, a division of the former Exxon Corporation. It gained widespread infamy after the March 24, 1989 oil spill in which the tanker, bound for Washington, USA, captained by Joseph Hazelwood, hit Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled an estimated 10.8 million US gallons (40.9 million liters) of crude oil. This has been recorded as one of the largest spills in U.S. history and one of the largest ecological disasters.[1]
The vessel has an all steel construction, built by National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego. A relatively new tanker at the time of the spill, it was delivered to Exxon in December 1986. The tanker is 300 m long, 50 m wide, and 27 m in depth (987 ft by 166 ft by 88 ft), weighing 30,000 tons empty and powered by a 31,650 shp (23.60 MW) diesel engine. The ship can transport a maximum of 1.48 million barrels (200,000 t) at a sustained speed of 16.25 knots (30 km/h).
At the time of the spill it was employed to transport crude oil from the Alyeska consortium's pipeline terminal in Valdez, Alaska, to the lower 48 states of the United States. The vessel was carrying about 1.26 million barrels, or about 53 million US gallons (200 megalitres), of oil at the time it ran aground.
According to GEOTIMES (February 2006),
"Damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina caused four medium spills (more than 10,000 gallons) and 134 minor spills, in which 8 million gallons of oil leaked onto the ground and into waterways from Louisiana to Alabama. The largest single spill was at the Bass Enterprises Production Company site in Cox Bay, La., where 3.78 million gallons of oil spilled. Another large spill was at the Chevron Empire oil terminal in Buras, La., where the roof of one storage tank was ripped off and the foundation of another ripped out, leaking 1.4 million gallons of oil.
At the Chevron Empire oil terminal in Buras, La., oil spill responders used a controlled burn to clean up oil that spilled out of several of the facility’s tanks following Hurricane Katrina. The storm caused at least 8 million gallons of oil to leak at a number of different facilities, making it the second largest U.S. oil spill. "
http://www.geotimes.org/feb06/feature_oilspill.html.
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000
Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well
over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]
In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore
throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as
tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were
destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The 9 million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez’s 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas. The most massive spills included:
– The Bass Enterprises Cox Bay spill of 3.78 million gallons of oil,
the largest spill caused by the hurricanes
– The Murphy Oil spill in Mereaux, LA of 819,000 gallons of oil,
contaminating 1,700 homes and the local high school
As the Houston Chronicle reported in 2005:
The quantity and cumulative magnitude of the 595 spills, which were spread across four states and struck offshore and inland, rank these two hurricanes among the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
http://thinkprogress.org/wonkroom/2008/06/19/mccain-katrina-spills/
Please feel free to go to the website so that each link will open up leading to a story reported in the news or from the MMS.gov.
There were 595 spills during these two Hurricans. It was and remains an environmental nightmare. The only reason we haven't heard more about it is because NOLA is a common republican whipping boy and the oil was spread over 4 states.
PS it took all of 5 minutes to get this information -- the whole picture, not a half truth.