Gulf Oil Spill

[Elder John Thurber]

Shield of Omnipotence Over America.—The United States is a land that has been under the special shield of the Omnipotent One. God has done great things for this country, but in the transgression of His law, men have been doing a work originated by the man of sin. Satan is working out his designs to involve the human family in disloyalty (MS 17, 1906).

Apostasy and National Ruin.—When the Protestant churches shall unite with the secular power to sustain a false religion, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution; when the state shall use its power to enforce the decrees and sustain the institutions of the church—then will Protestant America have formed an image to the papacy, and there will be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin (The Signs of the Times, March 22, 1910).

We are nearing HOME. Let us look up and praise HIS NAME. Brother John

[Mimi]

CNN just reported this spill is now in Battle Creek on its way to Detroit.

[Richard Myers]

From Yahoo News:

Small amounts of oil and gas started coming from the cap late Sunday, but "we do not believe it is consequential at this time," retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

Help me. What is a "retired" man doing with all this information? Why is he involved if he is retired? Sounds to me like his is working. Then he must not be retired? I have been wondering about this for some time. When did he retire?  It keeps coming to my mind every time I hear him telling us what is going on.

[Mimi]

  Only retired from military service. Now he has a whole new career! 

[Richard Myers]

Thanks. Now I will stop wondering.   He is going to get two pensions, maybe three!

[Mimi]

We pray this is not a repeat but it certainly looks like it ...



Oil platform fire reported in Gulf of Mexico
By the CNN Wire Staff
September 2, 2010 2:50 p.m. EDT
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/louisiana.oil.platform.explosion/index.html?hpt=T1

(CNN) -- A well connected to an oil and gas production platform caught on fire in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday, engulfing the vessel in flames about 100 miles off the central coast of Louisiana and forcing 13 people overboard, Gov. Bobby Jindal said.

All 13 people have been accounted for, said Petty Officer Bill Colclough of the Coast Guard. They were found floating on a raft, officials said. Mariner Energy, which owns the Vermilion Oil Rig 380, said none of the crew members was hurt in the incident, despite earlier reports of a single injured worker.

Also, Mariner indicated that the fire -- which was first reported to the Coast Guard by workers on a nearby rig around 9:20 a.m. (10:20 a.m. ET) -- was not sparked by an explosion. It started at one of the platform's seven active wells, the company said, though its cause is under investigation.

The company said an initial flyover of the site indicated "no hydrocarbon spill." However, Coast Guard Petty Officer Elizabeth Bordelon said there is a sheen on the water at the site of the platform, measuring about 100-feet wide and stretching for one mile.

The fire at the platform is not out yet, but it has been contained, she said.

Jindal said that Mariner has told him that all seven wells have been closed off and that what is burning now is from fuel in storage, and not from an active leak.

[Cop]

Down here, explosions and fires on off-shore rigs is somewhat common. We hear of them often and they usualy only rate a mention on the news. After the big blowout, I guess any fire will now be national or world news.

[Cop]

Microbes are breaking down Gulf of Mexico oil spill  [Excerpts]

A top scientist studying the ability of bacteria to break down the oil plume in the Gulf of Mexico says that microbes have been so successful that the oil may be gone.

Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who published a groundbreaking study of microbial activity Tuesday in the online research journal Science Express, has had a team of researchers out in the Gulf since May 25 collecting water samples. They noticed a dramatic drop-off in the amount of oil in the Gulf immediately after the well was idled July 15, and now they can't find any oil in the ocean.

Although many have cast doubt upon an Aug. 4 report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other governmental agencies that just 26 percent of the estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil released from blown out BP well remains onshore and at sea, Hazen is even more optimistic that oil is disappearing rapidly.

Hazen's team of researchers believe that the large amount of natural oil seeps in the area have helped the bacteria to adapt to oil in their environment over a long period of time, so when the BP blowout came long, they thrived. Even as the amount of oil in water increased the longer the well flowed, microbe levels remained constant, suggesting that they were able to keep pace with the oil.

"The bugs in this area have become adapted to using oil as a carbon source," Hazen said.

More at: http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/08/microbes_are_breaking_down_gul.html