More Minimal

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs finally gets it

An ashen-faced Robert Gibbs led a White House press briefing on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this afternoon, sounding more somber than this time last week:

[The Gulf oil spill] is an incident of national importance.

Compare and contrast today’s remark to Gibb’s flippant assessment last Friday. What a difference oil headed to the beaches of an electoral powerhouse such as Florida makes.

Coast Guard: Deepwater Horizon oil leak FIVE TIMES worse than previously estimated

Officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and BP held a hurriedly called press conference late Wednesday evening to dramatically revise upward previous estimates of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, whose Coast Guard district oversees the cleanup operation, said a newly discovered rupture and calculations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have caused estimates of the leak to be raised from 1,000 barrels to 5,000 barrels per day. That’s the equivalent of 210,000 U.S. gallons.

More federal help coming

Landry noted that Janet Neopolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, briefed President Obama on the new figures Wednesday night. The Administration is offering resources from the Department of Defense in an effort to step-up emergency response.

An official from BP, which leased the Deepwater Horizon rig, said the newly discovered breach had likely been leaking since the time of the accident. While the 5,000 barrel per day figure was higher than the company’s original estimates, he conceded that NOAA’s calculations — drawn from weather and sea observations — could be correct.

Engineers have now located a total of three leaks near the Deepwater wreckage. On Wednesday, boom crews began test burns of collected oil on the Gulf’s surface. This technique is not uncommon in the cleanup of major spills, but cool water temperatures make it unlikely that more than about three percent of the total slick could be consumed. The burning will produce air pollution, and biologist aren’t certain of the effect residual particulate matter will have on nearby sea life.

Weather may again hamper cleanup

The Coast Guard is keeping an eye on an approaching spring weather system. Meteorologists say southerly winds ahead of the storm could push oil ashore in the new few days. Rough seas are likely to hamper cleanup operations. The slick is now about 20 miles from the sensitive Delta National Wildlife Refuge.

Thanks to WWL-TV in New Orleans for live streaming the entire Coast Guard press conference.

Image: Oil spews from an undersea drill pipe near the wreckage of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform (U.S. Coast Guard picture)

How about a little validation?

In the 2007 short film Validation (watch below), an unassuming character named Hugh Newman brings unexpected joy to the lives of strangers simply by telling them something positive.

Now two women are doing something similar with postcards. Elizabeth (better known by her blogging name Jett Superior) and her best friend Tessa are on a quest to send an arbitrarily chosen number of 715 upbeat postcards to perfect strangers. You can read about the project here.

Jett and Tessa are making the cards by hand, largely from recycled and repurposed materials. They’re also looking for a hand — not in terms of cost or production, but locating card recipients. Do you know someone who might need a smile? Browse your smail mail addresses and email a few here: jettsuperior [at] gmail.com. Read more »

Updated: Wire services report Florida’s Crist to bolt GOP

Everything is politics today. As a quick follow-up to our earlier story on Florida’s shifting political landscape — and the state’s importance as oil industry safety claims face new scrutiny — CNN and others are reporting that Republican Governor Charlie Crist is leaving his party for an independent Senate bid.

Against offshore drilling before he was in favor, Crist seemed to be reclaiming his previous opposition after an aerial tour of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. His GOP opponent, Marco Rubio, is firmly in the pro-drilling camp.

If Crist confirms his departure from the Republican party at a scheduled Thursday event, it sets up an interesting three-way race with Rubio and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek. You can bet energy policy will be a front-burner issue.

It’s already sunset for drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico

With eleven workers dead and the very real possibility of oil making U.S. landfall by weekend, the political wrangling has begun.

I have a longer summary of this over at MNN today, Political fallout spreads with Gulf oil slick. A week after explosions tore through BP’s Deepwater Horizon exploration platform politicians have begun lining up to challenge the oil industry’s reputation for safe and clean operations.

Political sea change

A trio of influential anti-drilling Senators are calling for hearings by at least two committees. On the House side, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman signaled his intention to start an inquest. Official investigations of the Deepwater incident and general rig safety are already underway by the Deaprtments of the Interior and Homeland Security.

But the real political show is in Florida, which has traditionally resisted the expansion of oil and gas exploration in the eastern Gulf of Mexico. This opposition has softened with increasingly volatile energy prices and a Republican-dominated state legislature. Even Governor Charlie Crist — a longtime foe of offshore drilling — has softened his environmental objections over the past year.

This all about to change. After an aerial tour of the spill site on Tuesday, Crist sounded like a changed man. He termed the oil slick’s potential impact as horrific and “the opposite of safe.” Widely thought to be readying an independent bid for the U.S. Senate, Crist may have found a wedge issue with which to pummel his bitter Republican rival, Mario Rubio. One of Crist’s most likely successors in the Governor’s office, state Attorney General Bill McCollum, has already stated that, if elected, he’d veto a drilling bill currently working its way through the legislature.

Spill, baby, spill

If any significant oil reaches a Florida beach, particularly at the height of tourism season, it will become difficult for all but the most zealous drilling proponents to find political cover. President Obama’s plan to allow states the option to explore deepwater gas and oil fields will be instantly moot in the eastern Gulf.

Let the backpedaling begin.

An appropriately minimalist definition of minimalism

BakeLiteDoorBell totally nails the definition of minimalism in 20 words.

Really, that’s about all there is to it. Everything else is commentary.

Weekend storm could push oil to Gulf Coast beaches

Weather forecasters monitoring the Deepwater Horizon oil slick sound a gloomy note:

AccuWeather.com meteorologists foresee winds beginning to pull up out of the south Thursday into Friday as the storm system currently plaguing the Pacific Northwest moves across the Nation’s midsection.

Oil will be pulled toward the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, possibly reaching the beaches early this weekend.

Details here. Meanwhile, even Bloomberg Businessweek concedes the likelihood of oil fouling the Gulf Coast is a political game-changer for opponents of expanded offshore drilling. U.S. Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) were among the first to call upon heads of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees to examine oil industry safety claims.

Photo credit: U.S. military image by Flickr user DVIDSHUB, distributed under a Creative Commons license.

Cut food waste through better management of frozen foods

Americans waste a shocking amount of food each year. How much? About 27 percent of all available food. That’s enough to feed many countries.

Much of this waste happens before food even gets to market. But you’ve probably had the experience of discovering that forgotten piece of produce at the back of the refrigerator. Better food management will save you money and reduce your environmental footprint.

A good place to start is the National Center for Home Food Preservation, a group which basically teaches the skills grandparents knew: home canning, pickling, and all the different ways to store food while it’s still fresh. Freezing is certainly one of these methods, and most of us could keep better track of what’s wrapped up those Ziplock bags and aluminum foil.

Martha Stewart to the rescue with an elegant set of ready-to-print freezer labels. Just print out a few pages of these on Avery label stock, keep a pen on top of the freezer, and mark your leftovers as you store them. Having clear visual cues makes it a lot easier to see what you have on hand, simplifying shopping and menu planning. A direct link to the label page is here (28KB PDF download).

Tip of the hat to Digging Food.

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