As 11 teams of lawyers deliver opening statements in trial over 2010 disaster, judge sets out a three-month timetable

The man in charge of BP's ill-fated Deepwater Horizon rig warned his boss that staff were operating in "chaos, paranoia and insanity" just days before a fatal blowout killed 11 men and caused the worst oil spill in US history, a New Orleans court heard on Monday.

In opening arguments Michael Underhill, the lawyer representing the US Department of Justice, said BP knew it was drilling a "well from hell" but that its managers refused to deviate from a "course of corporate recklessness" that ultimately led to the fatal blowout at the Gulf of Mexico well.

In a difficult day for BP, Underhill was followed by statements from BP's partners in the fatal rig, Transocean and Halliburton, who also slammed BP. The dead rig workers "put too much trust in BP and paid for that trust with their lives," said Transocean attorney Brad Brian.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/25/deepwater-trial-justice-bp-warnings

According to the transcript of the secretly recorded tape, Charles Koch was chuckling like a six-year old. Koch was having a hell of a laugh over pilfering a few hundred dollars' worth of oil from a couple of dirt-poor Indians on the Osage Reservation.

Why did Koch, worth about $3 billion at the time (now $20 billion) need to boost a few bucks from some Indian in a trailer home? Koch answered:

"I want my fair share – and that's all of it."

Now "all of it" includes a pipeline, the Keystone XL, which would run the world's filthiest oil, crude made from tar sands, down from Canada to his family's refinery on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

Problem: the Keystone XL tar-oil tube would endanger the largest US water sources, vastly increase pollution in the USA and measurably heat the planet.


http://www.nationofchange.org/i-want-my-fair-share-and-s-all-it-1360943988

This was a very unlikely SOTU, but Jimmy Fallon as Boehner had me in stitches anyway and I just had to share it...


http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2013/02/boehner-gets-emotional-during-state-of-the-union/?__source=feed_recent_entries

According to a University of Michigan study, fuel economy of newly purchased vehicles hit a new record all-time high in January.

The average fuel-economy (window-sticker) value of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in January reached a record of 24.5 mpg--up 0.4 mpg from the revised December value and up 4.4 mpg (or 22%) from the value in October 2007 (the first month of our monitoring). The recent improvements reflect the improved fuel economy of the 2013 model year vehicles.

The University of Michigan Eco-Driving Index (EDI)--an index that estimates the average monthly emissions of greenhouse gases generated by an individual U.S. driver--stood at 0.82 in November. This value indicates an improvement of 18% since October 2007. The EDI takes into account both the fuel used per distance driven and the amount of driving (the latter relying on data that are published with a two-month lag).





Read more at http://blog.gasbuddy.com/posts/U-of-Mich-Fuel-economy-of-new-vehicles-at-a-new-record-high-of-24-5-mpg/1715-530587-1613.aspx#u9IALluLauuyt1UI.99