Renewable energy advocates and policymakers gathered in Orlando Thursday for a Clean Energy Summit.
Speaking of which, the American Power Act could actually help reduce the deficit, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis shows.
Gov. Charlie Crist says he’s calling a special session to discuss a drilling ban, over some legislators’ objections.
Marco Rubio is using the session as an opportunity to cast Crist as irresponsible.
As for the spill itself…
+ Sand skimmers, which “only skim the surface,” may be counterproductive.
+ Scam artists advertising oil spill cleanup jobs are proliferating.
+ Obama is pressuring BP to accelerate cleanup efforts; Commander Thad Allen says the leak could be “contained” by Monday.
+ The administration’s appeal of a ruling overturning its drilling moratorium has been rejected.
+ BP has released new injury and illness statistics for cleanup workers. Five hundred and fifty-two illnesses, Seven hundred and eighty-five injuries.
+ A ProPublica photojournalist says he was “followed by BP, then detained by police.”
See also: “When the police control the press,” his side of the story.
+ Transocean has a reputation as a troublemaker among drilling firms, known for “testing” laws and regulations, while Anadarko, another company involved with Deepwater Horizon, has notified BP it’s not willing to pay what BP argues is its share of the damages.
+ Porous regulation undermines the “safe-drilling theory,” argues an editorial in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
+ Tends of thousands of abandoned oil wells sit idle in the Gulf of Mexico.
+ Oil below the surface may pose a threat to sea life.
