75% of BP Oil Spill Remains in Gulf of Mexico---Mainstream Media, White House Silent Over Worst Environmental Disaster in U.S. History

British News Service Takes the Lead in “Potential Cover-up”

Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent from the Guardian reported yesterday that three quarters of the oil in the Gulf of Mexico is still present. Quoting testimony from a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it appears the U.S. Government’s report two weeks ago was “slightly exaggerated”:

Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) departed from an official report from two weeks ago which suggested the majority of the oil had been captured or broken down.

“I would say most of that is still in the environment,” Lehr, the lead author of the report, told the house energy and commerce committee. link

The House Energy and Commerce Committee consisted of Congressman Ed Markey who was visibly perplexed while questioning Mr. Lehr and Monica Lawrence at BNO News suggested there’s some serious spinning going on :

“His statement seems to all but confirm suspicions within the scientific community that the White House was trying to spin and hide scientific data regarding the damage of the oil spill. The only member of Congress who turned up at the hearing was Ed Markey, the committee chair.”

Markey was visibly upset and critical of Lehr, saying that the released report by NOAA gave the public a false sense of confidence. “You shouldn’t have released it until you knew it was right,” he said.

“People want to believe that everything is OK and I think this report and the way it is being discussed is giving many people a false sense of confidence regarding the state of the Gulf.” link

Hiding scientific data? (where have we heard this before?) Why not use words like distortion, fabrication, or collaboration? Also a “blip” in the mainstream media’s news cycle was the reporting of massive plumes of oil still present. Blogger Alexander Higgins calls the White House “overly optimistic” in their assessments. Higgins also follows the report of huge plumes of oil “discovered” beneath the gulf’s surface:

“The growing evidence that the White House painted an overly optimistic picture when officials claimed two weeks ago the remaining oil in the Gulf was rapidly breaking down fueled a sense of outrage in the scientific community that government agencies are hiding data and spinning the science of the oil spill.”

Meanwhile, in the Science article, experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute mapped a 22-mile plume of oil droplets from BP’s well, providing the strongest evidence so far over the fate of the crude.

“These results indicate that efforts to book-keep where the oil went must now include this plume,” said Christopher Reddy, one of the Woods Hole team. The report also said the plume was very slow to break down by natural forces.

“Many people speculated that subsurface oil droplets were being easily degraded,” said Richard Camilli, the lead author of the paper. “Well, we didn’t find that. We found it was still there.” link

So, there you have it. The largest oil spill in U.S. history may still be present in the Gulf with the probable quantities around 75% NOT CAPTURED, and your government, along with its complicit media are completely ignoring the disaster. Even with the scientific community disputing our government’s assessments, you would think our Nobel-Prize winning environmentalist Al Gore would speak up---right?

Perhaps Crickets can’t chirp when lubricated.