On Twitter, Gingrich falsely claimed "no [oil] spill since 1969" in waters off Santa Barbara
SUMMARY: In a Twitter post, Newt Gingrich falsely claimed that there have been no oil spills in the waters off Santa Barbara since 1969. In fact, there were at least two oil spills reported in or near the Santa Barbara Channel in just the last few months, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
In a March 2 Twitter post, Fox News contributor and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) wrote that his wife, Callista, "pointed out flying into [S]anta [B]arbara you can see the oil rigs off shore," and asserted, "Ironically they have had no spill since 1969." In fact, there were at least two oil spills reported in or near the Santa Barbara Channel in just the last few months, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, including one spill in mid-February and another in December 2008 that required a coordinated cleanup effort by the Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), and the company responsible for the spill.
The Ventura County Star reported on December 9, 2008:
More than 1,000 gallons of oil spilled Sunday into the Santa Barbara Channel from a hole in a pipeline on a platform six miles offshore of Santa Barbara.
Boats used skimmers Sunday and Monday to clean up the oil sheen that stretched more than 1.5 miles from Platform A and was headed toward the waters off Ventura County, officials said.
In a December 8, 2008, press release, the Coast Guard reported:
The California Department of Fish and Game Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the U.S. Coast Guard and DCOR, LLC are responding to an oil spill from a platform six miles off the coast of Santa Barbara County. The three entities have established a unified command to manage cleanup and recovery efforts. DCOR, LLC reported the spill from its Platform A yesterday after a finger-sized hole was found in an oil pump line four feet above the waterline.
DCOR reports that 1,134 gallons (27 barrels) of crude oil has been released into the water and 882 gallons (21 barrels) has been recovered by their oil spill response organization, Clean Seas. The source of the leak has been secured. A sheen approximately 1.5 miles in length remains on the water southeast of the platform. Its trajectory is being monitored.
DCOR, LLC made notification to oil spill regulators at 8 a.m. yesterday after discovering the sheen near the platform. The initial estimate was 30 gallons of high-gravity crude oil. DCOR conducted an over flight of the area shortly after discovering the sheen. At 6 a.m. this morning DCOR recalculated its initial estimate to 1,134 gallons and made follow-up notifications.
Additionally, on February 18, the Associated Press reported on an ExxonMobil spill that initially "was 10 feet wide and stretched for about a mile" off the Southern California coast and threatened to "seep[] into the Santa Barbara Channel":
A mixture of oily lubricant and water was still leaking from an ExxonMobil platform two days after the first report of a spill off the Southern California coast, federal and state officials said Wednesday.
Initial reports indicated the leak came from a deck drainage tank where rainwater, lubricants and fluids drain into a sump unit, said Coast Guard spokeswoman Stephanie Young. She said the company reported the leak Monday and was still working Wednesday night to stop the mixture from seeping into the Santa Barbara Channel.
It was unclear how much of the mixture -- which Young described as water mixed with a light lubricant, not crude oil -- had spilled.
The spill at one point was 10 feet wide and stretched for about a mile, said John Romero, a spokesman for the U.S. Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that owns Platform Harmony and leases it to ExxonMobil.
From Gingrich's March 2 Twitter post:
and that has to do what with contemporary politics ???
It just amazes me how many times we have to show this to people: "Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media"
Where in there does it say ANYTHING about politics...contemporary or otherwise?
"Conservative misinformation" can, and does, touch all subjects...not just politics.
Dog, I think Wolf was asking about Newt's comment.He didn't really deserve the badgering.
Welll...that's not just REAL obvious, is it?
No, but I wanted to work another animal into my comment.
"I wanted to work another animal into my comment"
I've always thought "Newt" was MOST aptly named! I think one of the scariest things I've ever heard in my LIFE was when Newt said "more people should be like me"...God forbid!
Speaking of apt... You could say Newt really puts the "Twit" in "Twitter".
it is politics all the way. talk about oil spills then you don't have to answer questions why you are not supporting the president, or answer questions why the republican leader , self appointed or not, hopes the president will fail. the drill baby drill crowd is easily derailed..
Slightly OT, but it was rather disrespectful for republicans to be sitting in their chairs twittering away during Obama's speech. Obama should take up all their blackberries next speech and treat them like little kids.
I think they should all apologize to Rush Limbaugh... ;>)
These politicians need to learn not to Twitter every thought that pops into their heads.
Maybe Newt has a different definition for "ironically" than the rest of us.It could mean something like "In the fantastic world inside my head and on Fox News.." or " If I wish hard enough.."
they have to. FOX is on 24/7
How do republicans twitter, anyways? I know their thumbs aren't available...
They have forked tongues...
*sigh*
See what happens when you dont really know how technology works, and you distance true intellectuals who do know? A simple Google search and he would have known not to Tweet that.
But what do I expect. There was SCOTUS decision on the Exxon spill, and Madame Palin couldn't even name that in her interview with Couric.
AND ITS HER STATE
Yeah, but she's in the pocket's of the oil companies now. Remember (and this is one of those rare time that I'll defend Palin) she was asked to name a SC decision that she DISAGREED with. She was proably glad that ExxonMobil wasn't forced to pay more, even if the disaster was in her home state.
Good point.
I live in Santa Barbara and let me tell ya, the really big spill back in 69 was felt FOR YEARS. And it's only been in the last few years that after going to the beach you didn't have to scrape oil residue off of the bottom of your feet. I remember as late as 92/03 STILL seeing large gobs of oil on the sands of the beaches. So it only took almost FORTY YEARS for ONE large spill to finally reach this point and THEN we had two more spills recently.
Newt is a maroon.
what's a maroon.
as a kid growing up in l.a., we always had oil on our feet when we bathed in the ocean. and that was before offshore drilling. there is more oil released naturally into the channel off santa barbara than the two recent negligible spills.
if you drive from santa barbara to ojai, taking the back road, you will see a significant amount of oil oozing from the hillsides and filling the culverts. that's nature.
What a surprise, you see niether the quanity nor the quality of the discharge as having any effect on the envirenment. You as an oil company appologist, not a surprise.
well then, why doesn't the oil company just go collect that free flowing crude? I mean, something so plentiful and available on the surface should cost pennies on the dollar to soak up! What spin do you have for us to tell us why that isn't happening?
"there is more oil released naturally into the channel off santa barbara than the two recent negligible spills."
So we should just stop caring? There are more wildfires from lightning strikes than arson, maybe we should stop enforcing those laws as well?
What a maroon. You equate the small amounts of oil naturally released with the huge amounts of oil released in oil spills.