The U.S. Coast Guard has nearly doubled its initial estimate of the amount of oil that seeped from a crack in a pipeline off the coast of Louisiana.

The leak was first announced on Oct. 13 from a damaged pipeline operated by LLOG Exploration some 40 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana. The privately-owned company originally reported between 333,900 to 392,700 gallons of oil were discharged by the broken line, located nearly 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a press release from the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard has said it is coordinating with the company as well as the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to locate and respond to any oil that floats to the surface. With overhead flights and underwater vehicle inspections conducted multiple times a day, no recoverable oil has been detected thus far.

Though the pipeline has been secured, the company on Wednesday reported a revised estimated volume of "unaccounted-for oil" to the Coast Guard and the federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, indicating as much as 672,000 gallons of oil may have been released.

More: http://abcnews.go.com/US/672000-gallons-oil-spill-off-louisiana-coast-coast/story?id=50608857



The Coast Guard assesses the water near the location of an oil discharge from a damaged pipeline approximately 40 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana, Oct. 14, 2017

Monologue: Salt in the Wound



Bill discusses President Trump's feud with a war widow and Harvey Weinstein in his Real Time monologue.



Janice Min: Predators in Power



The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group Co-President and COO Janice Min joins Bill to discuss the Harvey Weinstein scandal and sexual harassment in the workplace."



New Rule: ShitStarters



Bill explores how Russia used America's self-obsessed social media culture to turn its citizens against each other.



Overtime with Bill Maher: Dirty Money, Bannon's War, LGBT Justice



Bill and his guests – Janice Min, Erick Erickson, Margaret Hoover, James Carville, and Daryl Davis – answer viewer questions after the show.

LOIZA, Puerto Rico — One month after Hurricane Maria pummeled this oft-overlooked piece of the United States, the mayor of Loiza is just one of many who has her hands full picking up the pieces.

Julia Nazario had barely been in office nine months when the storm struck her community of 30,000 people on the island’s northeast coast.

She ticks through the grim picture:

Two hundred ninety eight families lost their homes completely. Another 596 lost their roofs, essentially making their homes uninhabitable. Add in other damage from wind and flooding and the tally of unlivable dwellings reaches 3,000, she said.

Loiza has no electricity. The water system comes and goes, but even when it comes, the residents are afraid to drink it because of contamination.


More: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/brown-no-electricity-little-water-plenty-of-despair-in-puerto-rico/



One month after Hurricane Maria, electrical poles still teeter precariously over a street in Loiza, a community of 30,000 people on Puerto Rico's northeastern coast. | Mark Brown/Sun-Times

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday failed to pass a measure to block oil and gas drilling in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, losing to Republicans who believe production there would provide jobs and wealth.

An amendment blocking the development failed 48-52, mostly along party lines. A lone Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, supported the measure. The only Democrat to vote against it was Joe Manchin from West Virginia.

Conservationists and many Democrats treasure the Alaskan reserve, also known as ANWR, as one of the planet’s last paradises. Established by Congress in 1980, it is home to tribes and a habitat for sensitive wildlife including caribou, polar bears and hundreds of species of migratory birds.

Republicans, who now control Congress and the White House, have long wanted to open a portion of ANWR called the 1002 area. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chair of the Senate energy committee and an Alaskan Republican, called the 1002 portion a “non wilderness area” because the government put it aside decades ago for petroleum exploration. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the area on the Prudhoe Bay in Northern Alaska has up to 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-arctic/democrats-fail-to-block-arctic-reserve-oil-drilling-idUSKBN1CO36H

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats on Thursday failed to pass a measure to block oil and gas drilling in part of the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, losing to Republicans who believe production there would provide jobs and wealth.

An amendment blocking the development failed 48-52, mostly along party lines. A lone Republican, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, supported the measure. The only Democrat to vote against it was Joe Manchin from West Virginia.

Conservationists and many Democrats treasure the Alaskan reserve, also known as ANWR, as one of the planet’s last paradises. Established by Congress in 1980, it is home to tribes and a habitat for sensitive wildlife including caribou, polar bears and hundreds of species of migratory birds.

Republicans, who now control Congress and the White House, have long wanted to open a portion of ANWR called the 1002 area. Senator Lisa Murkowski, the chair of the Senate energy committee and an Alaskan Republican, called the 1002 portion a “non wilderness area” because the government put it aside decades ago for petroleum exploration. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the area on the Prudhoe Bay in Northern Alaska has up to 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

A Senate budget measure introduced this fall instructed Murkowski’s committee to raise $1 billion over 10 years. She hopes some of that money will come from energy company royalties after opening the 1002 area to drilling. Murkowski urged senators to see the “instruction as an opportunity to do something constructive” and focus on boosting energy output from federal lands that have long been off limit.


More: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-arctic/democrats-fail-to-block-arctic-reserve-oil-drilling-idUSKBN1CO36H

Trevor breaks down how President Trump turned an ordinary press conference into a feud with Gold Star families.

Vuntut Gwitchin Chief Bruce Charlie hopes to discuss issue with Trudeau at November meeting

A 40-year battle over oil drilling in an Arctic wildlife refuge in Alaska could become the latest political irritant in a growing list of disagreements between U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

U.S. plans to lift a decades-old ban on exploring and drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are underway, with both the White House and Congress working on regulations and legislation to make it happen.

Trump campaigned on getting the U.S. to produce more oil on its own and his sights now are set on the refuge, a protected area in the northeast corner of Alaska which covers an area bigger than New Brunswick.

<snip>

Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Chief Bruce Charlie says he plans to reach out to Trudeau in a meeting already scheduled for early November, hoping the prime minister will flex some international political muscle with Trump to keep it that way.

"We'll fight to the very end for this," Charlie told The Canadian Press in an interview from his office in Old Crow, Yukon.

Charlie called the refuge "the Serengeti of the Arctic," home to breeding grounds for Porcupine caribou as well as waterfowl from several continents, polar bears and wolves.


Much more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yukon-chief-trudeau-us-drilling-caribou-1.4357155



Migrating caribou in the Porcupine River Tundra in the Yukon. A 40-year-old controversy about drilling for oil in an Alaskan wildlife refuge has resurfaced this month, prompting a northern First Nation to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene. (Rick Bowmer/The Associated Press)

As dozens of women come forward to accuse Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, Michelle Wolf breaks down how men are responding.

LLOG reports as much as 9,350 barrels spilled last week

Release dwarfed by multimillion-barrel Deepwater Horizon spill

An oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last week may be the largest in the U.S. since the 2010 blowout at BP Plc’s Macondo well that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 people.

LLOG Exploration Co. reported 7,950 to 9,350 barrels of oil were released Oct. 11 to Oct. 12 from subsea infrastructure about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Venice, Louisiana, according to the company and the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. That would make it the largest spill in more than seven years, BSEE data show, even though it’s a fraction of the millions of barrels ejected in the 2010 incident.

“Way offshore, the oil had time to dissipate before it could cause lots of damage,” Edward Overton, emeritus professor in the Environmental Sciences Department at Louisiana State University, said by telephone. “I’m sure there’s some impact associated with this spill out in the deep water, but I don’t think there was enough for the oil to sink.”

The LLOG spill was triggered by a fracture in a flowline jumper located on the sea floor, Rick Fowler, the company’s vice president for deepwater projects, said in an email Tuesday. That’s a short pipeline used to connect a well to nearby subsea structures. Multiple barriers placed on either side of the fracture stopped the release, but the the flowline jumper hadn’t yet been repaired, he said.


More: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-16/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill-may-be-largest-since-2010-bp-disaster

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democrats vowed on Tuesday to fight a measure expected to be slipped into budget legislation that would open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve to oil and gas drilling, saying it would destroy one of earth’s remaining paradises.

Northern Alaska’s ANWR is a wilderness about the size of South Carolina that supports tribes that have fished and hunted there for thousands of years and is home to polar bears, caribou and birds vulnerable to development.

A plan passed by the Senate budget committee late last month contains a directive for the Senate energy committee to draw up a provision securing $1 billion in revenue for the budget, which is expected to be voted on late Thursday.

The head of the energy panel, Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican and a longtime proponent of drilling in ANWR, is expected to write a provision opening the reserve. She and Senator Dan Sullivan, also an Alaska Republican, have both supported measures to open up parts of ANWR.

“This Republican budget scam to hand over the wildest place left in America to Big Oil should be removed from the budget and put on ice,” said Senator Edward Markey.


More: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-arctic/senate-democrats-vow-to-fight-drilling-in-alaska-reserve-idUSKBN1CM38C