Everything from high-tech imaging gear to plastic bags with screens is being tested by a "skunk works" team at BP set up to evaluate cleanup methods in the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil company's High Interest Technology Team, based in Mobile, Ala., is currently sifting through thousand of proposals to fix the leak or reduce damage to the environment. BP recently began testing some new products, including a machine that removes oil from sand and an oil-water separator made from hardware store components, including plastic bags, mesh from lawn furniture, and plastic pipes.
If you think you have a technology that can help clean up the Gulf oil disaster, then BP says it wants to hear from you.
Shortly after the oil started spewing in April, BP set up an Alternative Response Technology Web site to solicit ideas for stemming the flow and cleaning up the environment. With the Gulf accident being so severe and high-profile, it has captured the attention of thousands of entrepreneurs.
More than half of all new electricity capacity added in the United States and Europe last year was from renewable power such as wind and solar, a body backed by the International Energy Agency and the UN reported.
Last year was also a record year for the amount of new green power added to the grid, partly a result of shifting deployment and manufacture to emerging economies including Brazil, India and China, from flagging developed countries.
"In 2009, China produced 40 percent of the world's solar PV supply, 30 percent of the world's wind turbines, up from … Read more
MOSCOW/WASHINGTON--His face wracked by age and his voice rasping after decades of chain-smoking coarse tobacco, the former longtime Russian minister of nuclear energy and veteran Soviet physicist Viktor Mikhailov knows just how to fix BP's oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
"A nuclear explosion over the leak," he says, nonchalantly puffing a cigarette as he sits in a conference room at the Institute of Strategic Stability, where he is a director. "I don't know what BP is waiting for, they are wasting their time. Only about 10 kilotons of nuclear explosion capacity and … Read more
Dissatisfied with what he sees as tepid effort on behalf of oil giant BP to stop the flow of petroleum from an exploded well in the Gulf of Mexico, a New York-based video producer named Adam Quirk has started raising money for a stunt designed to irritate its executives to no end with vuvuzelas--those buzzing horns that have been everywhere at the World Cup soccer confab in South Africa (and, by proxy, the Internet) this summer.
"In order to put a bit of public pressure on them, we plan to buy 100 vuvuzelas and hire 100 vuvuzela players off … Read more
BP said it had spent $300 million on its Gulf of Mexico oil spill response effort in the past three days, hitting the $100 million-per-day spend rate for the first time and bringing its total bill to $2.65 billion so far.
The figures, which BP released in a statement on Monday, include the cost of trying to cap the well, clean up the environmental damage caused by the leaking crude, and pay compensation to those affected by the spill.
BP added that it remained on track to complete its relief well, which aims to kill the leaking well at … Read more
WASHINGTON--Lawmakers accused BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward of evasion and ducking responsibility for the worst oil spill in U.S. history when he appeared before them on Thursday to answer charges his company cut corners on its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well.
In his first appearance before Congress since the start of the 59-day-old crisis, a tired-looking Hayward sat alone at the witness table as lawmakers took turns during more than three hours of questioning to lambaste the British energy giant.
"Under your leadership BP has taken the most extreme risks," Democratic lawmaker Henry Waxman told Hayward, who sat impassively during the lawmakers' barrage.
"BP cut corner after corner to save a million dollars here and a few hours or days there," Waxman said, his comments reflecting public anger over BP's handling of the crisis.
Hayward, a 53-year-old geologist with a reputation for blunt speaking, kept largely to a well-rehearsed brief and repeatedly declined to go into detail pending the results of investigations into the spill. He said it was too early to conclude the company had cut corners.
Waxman snapped back, saying, "You are not taking responsibility. You are kicking the can down the road."
Several lawmakers grew visibly annoyed by Hayward's answers, accusing him of evasion and telling him they were less interested in his expressions of regret and more concerned about finding out what had gone wrong.
The Briton said he had seen no evidence of reckless behavior and repeatedly said he was not involved in the decision-making about the methods used to dig the well. "I am not stonewalling," Hayward said at one point. … Read more
According to Jato Dynamics, the United States car market is still significantly behind Europe and Japan in terms of reducing vehicle CO2 output.
The new study of the U.S. light vehicle market in the first quarter of 2010 reveals the market's average CO2 is 268.5 grams per kilometer. To reflect like-for-like comparison with car markets in other global regions, excluding pickup trucks, full-size vans and small commercial vehicles the figure falls to 255.6 grams per kilometer. The report listed Japan at 130.8 grams per kilometer and Europe's five biggest markets at an average of … Read more
WASHINGTON--President Obama vowed on Tuesday to compel BP to pay the price for its "recklessness" in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and sought to harness public outrage over the disaster for a "national mission" to cut U.S. dependence on fossil fuels.
"We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes. We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused," Obama said in a televised address aimed at restoring confidence in his handling of the crisis before it further tarnishes his presidency.
Go ahead, make your "Waterworld" jokes. BP has placed an order to purchase machines to separate spilled oil and Gulf of Mexico water from Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company backed by actor and environmentalist Kevin Costner, according to reports.
Ocean Therapy Solutions has been testing the centrifugal oil-water separator but has not yet received payment from BP, which is under growing pressure to stem the massive flow of oil from the remains of the Deepwater Horizon rig and clean up the spill.
"Kevin has spent 15 years and $24 million of his own money on this technology, … Read more
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