[Updated at 9:20 p.m.] BP says it will continue to provide live video feeds of oil gushing from the seabed of the Gulf of Mexico while it attempts to seal the damaged well in a procedure known as "top kill."
"BP agreed to make the live feed of the top kill attempt available at the request of the President and the National Incident Center," an administration official told CNN.
Preparations for the procedure are continuing with the expectation that it could be activated on the morning of Wednesday May 26, 2010, BP said in a statement Tuesday night.Throughout the top kill procedure - which may take up to two days to complete - significant changes in the appearance of the flows at the seabed may be expected, BP said. The changes will not provide a reliable indicator of the progress of the operation as a whole and BP will report on the progress of the operation as appropriate, the company said.
[Updated at 6:10 p.m.] BP told the chairman of the House subcommittee on energy and the environment that it will be killing the live feed video of the spill at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico while it attempts to seal the well using the "top kill" procedure, Rep. Edward Markey said in a statement.
“It is outrageous that BP would kill the video feed for the top kill. This BP blackout will obscure a vital moment in this disaster,” Markey said in a statement. “After more than a month of spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, BP is essentially saying to the American people the solution will not be televised.”
But BP said no decision has been made yet on whether to temporarily suspend live webcam coverage from the sea bed during the operation.
"Any statement that a decision has already been taken to stop the feed is both inaccurate and premature," BP said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “As we have been throughout our response to this incident, BP remains committed to full transparency in all our actions.”
Markey's said BP was expected to terminate the live feed Wednesday, but BP said it's still considering its opti0ns.
“We are working extremely closely with multiple agencies across the Government and the Unified Command in considering how best to continue to provide access and information throughout the ‘top kill’ procedure. Over the next few days we will be carrying out a sensitive and complex procedure involving multiple simultaneous operations, and we are in active discussion as to whether the live feed from the sea bed that we have been broadcasting will continue to provide meaningful information through this complicated and unpredictable procedure.
Visibility on the pictures will be great when all that mud starts spewing out. And what will Joe Public say then; you know the ones that have found it so easy to measure the flow rate of oil should equally well be able to tell the difference between mud and oil on the video and will raise needless merry hell. Leave them in peace: if it works hurrah – and pray that it does.
It's not like this "top kill" method is a trade secret or anything....they should just show it, the site will crash anyway if too many people try to view it like when they put it up. This way they can blame it on something else.
For everyone hoping depth charges or a Nuke will cap it, you have to realize that the source of the Oil is thousands of feet below the ocean surface...which is already 5000 feet down. Its not a easy as covering up the hole. I'm not even sure any nuke could survive the crushing pressure at those depths to detonate properly.
Jeffo! agreed. Let's blow off the BOP stack and remove any possible restriction on flow it offers, put a huge hole in the seabed and bury the stump of the well below the seabed, and then try and identify where the well to cap off based on the huge resulting plume of oil that is then coming out. Not that I am a legal advisor, but if the Navy were to do this I seem to think this just may mean that the legal responsibility for clean up will have passed to the government. Another reason why as a taxpayer getting BP to get on with it is kinda cool. Oh and blowing up the BOP removes any chance of identifying whose was ultimately to blame for the accident in the first place. Otherwise explosives are a great idea.
The only right solution was the first containment dome. The problem was that BP welded the wrong pipe on top! The "chimney" on the square roof was ridiculous! You need to smoothe the surfaces for the oil to flow upwards1 The crystals formed because the oil had nowhere to go! It's Beves Butthead 101! BP must pull up the dome to the surface, and weld a two-story conic "chimney" instead the one that is now! The chimney should look like a interplanetary rocket! In three days, this job could be accomplished! The oil will not freeze up if it has freedom to gush upwards! Otherwise, it just spun inside the dome like a tornado! It was the most idiotic design I have ever seen in my life!
"And we are all at fault,"
Stupidest line I've ever heard...
many of us are too young for it to be our fault. Great Job on the country, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, you Betcha!! stupid a holes
I remember lots of environmentalists warning of these types of disasters. They were not only disagreed with, they were often mocked and ridiculed as extremists and paranoid. So not "Everyone" is to blame. There were many far left liberals who burned up countless hours warning of this EXACT sort of disaster and their concerns were dismissed.
George: Thank you for FINALLY bringing that to everyone's attention. Maybe they'll beleive them about global warming now too???? We can only hope.
Good... The general public and the news agencies are not educated enough to understand what they are seeing and do not have some "Right" to witness what is a company's internal operation. The sensationalism being promoted by the news agencies (with CNN being right there at the top with their one sided coverage) is just making matters worse.
No one in America is innocent in this oil spill. There are hundreds of thousands of oil wells and there could be a spill of greater or lesser magnitude at any one of them. Statistically the oil industry has a remarkable safety record (better than air or auto travel by far). If you want zero possibility of an oil spill then we need to get consumption (and therefore production) down to zero. Every time any American gets in their car or on a bus or airplane you are accepting your part in this oil spill.
Please joni Facebook page "SEIZE THEIR ASSETS" if you care at all about what is happening to our environment and BP's corruption on this issue!
"And we are all at fault,"
My want for cheap fuel has NOTHING to do with other people's BLATANT NEGLIGENCE – of which there's plenty of that at BP and the US Gov.
BS...you are a deny-er...Cheap oil comes at a significant risk.. And now we are all paying for it.
if you are over 30 years old, I point my finger at you all! this is your fault!! not the young adults/kids.... you guys clean it up, oh, and by the way,... THANKS ALOT for the oil dependency, we just loooove it! jerks
If Senator Markey told me to do anything I'd probably give him a vivid description of where he should shove it.
Quit your political BS. The American public watching where something is happening (is there a camera inside the BOP where you could actually see what is happening, if one could see through the oil?) will have no impact on the success of the mission. None. That would be like people watching the Super Bowl at home having an impact on the game.
Okay This top kill procedure is not an instant fix. Itll take time to actually do the whole thing. The last thing BP (or anyone else for that matter) needs is a bunch of armchair scientists and politicians screaming that it is not working when they havent even finished the job.
As for how long this is taking. This spill is under 5000 feet of water, that is over 150 times the pressure that you and I experiance at ocean level chemistry, geology, and science works by different rules at this depth and all the 'simple' solutions for plugging this spill could create an even bigger problem.
For all its bluster, pomp and yelling about the government taking control of the situation, this is not feasiable, the people who understand the difficulties know that the gov't does not have the manpower, equipment, or knowhow to fix this.
I agree with keeping on top of BP but once again there is no easy solution or quick fix. They have their best on this and it will be resolved as soon as possible.... Which is not going to happen overnight.
Bingo...but the American public has an ADHD, I want it now mentality.
They neither have the knowledge or patience to see this through
OK, maybe I'm in the minority here, but I want them to turn the cameras off. That has to be a stressful job and it seems to me the individuals doing the work don't need 100 million people watching them while they work. Talk about pressure . . .
Worry about all this blame and name calling later. Let's get the leak stopped first.
obviously they do need to be watched, along with all of you so called adults that put the kids of this nation in this boat. THIS IS YOUR FAULT, and you all need to be babysat!!
Idiot,... if you want no part of petroleum then turn in your I-pod, other i-whatevers, and start riding your bike everywhere,
that is the stupidest argument ever, how old are you? you a holes made it this way for us. you just add to my growing angst towards ignorant american adults. Yeah, get all the kids in this nation hooked and that's your argument. Your kind are the problem with this country.
Playng the Generational Blame Game is insane. There are plenty from previous generations that didn't intend for this to happen and didn't get the kids "hooked on oil". Henry Ford had no way of knowing what the invention of the automobile would bring about, it was a cool buggy that you didn't need a horse to pull. This situation does have some to blame, money driven Big Business men, corupt government officials, random other idiots I am not aware of. Blaming the entire population though, come on!
Just because a Congressmen has jumped to an unsupported conclusion again, doesn't mean the rest of you should be doing the same thing.
TT Boy's wang would plug that thing in a heartbeat
Those jerks!!!! The damage is already done and all the eyes of the world are already on this disaster so what's is the reason for not broadcasting live. Again i ask how much worse can it get.. What they need to do is be completely forthright and not hide any ounce of truth in their approach. Fix the damn thing so the healing process of nature can begin... I mad at the situation but accidents happen...I love oil anyway
"BS...you are a deny-er...Cheap oil comes at a significant risk."
WRONG. ALL OIL COMES WITH SIGNIFICANT RISK – CHEAP OR OTHERWISE. I know – I work around the industry.