OIL SPILL RESPONSE AND CLEANUP
If An Oil Spill Happens In Icy Arctic Waters, We Have No Way To Really Clean It Up (Video)
WHOI study reports microbes consumed oil in Gulf slick at unexpected rates
"[Researchers] found that bacterial microbes inside the slick degraded the oil at a rate five times faster than microbes outside the slick—accounting in large part for the disappearance of the slick some three weeks after Deepwater Horizon's Macondo well was shut off. At the same time, the researchers observed no increase in the number of microbes inside the slick—something that would be expected as a byproduct of increased consumption, or respiration, of the oil. In this process, respiration combines food (oil in this case) and oxygen to create carbon dioxide and energy."
OIL INDUSTRY TRENDS
U.S. dependence on petroleum imports is falling
"The country recently stopped being a net importer of petroleum products for the first time since at least 1973, as the country's refiners sold more gasoline and other end products to other countries. A second factor is simply lower demand for petroleum products, in large part a result of the sour economy, but also helped by more efficient cars."
