M.T.B.E.

Last week, eight of the major oil companies settled in a law suit regarding the cleaning up of M.T.B.E. -- a chemical that used to be added to gasoline to make it burn cleaner.

The NY Times reported on the 8th:

In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs, which include 153 public water systems in New York, California and 15 other states, claimed that the additive, a chemical called methyl tertiary butyl ether, or M.T.B.E., was a defective product that led to widespread contamination of groundwater. The suit contended that the chemical was used by oil companies, even though they knew of the environmental and health risks that it posed.

Trying to retell a big story is nerve wracking, and this one, has a lot of holes. I can't find, for example, what the health risk are -- or what it means when water becomes undrinkable. I can't find what's been done or what is planned.

There was an attempt by congress in 2003 to shield oil companies from all culpability. It didn't pass the senate.

A series of sentences and paragraphs from EPA papers and the NY Times:

Methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) has been used as a gasoline additive to serve two major purposes. First, MTBE was used as an octane-enhancer to replace organic lead, beginning in about 1979. Beginning in about 1992, MTBE was also used as a fuel oxygenate additive to meet requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA) of 1990.

***

MTBE and other petroleum hydrocarbons can "dive" into aquifers because of infiltration of surface water, stratigraphy, and pumping wells.

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Releases of MTBE to ground and surface water can occur through leaking underground storage tanks and pipelines, spills, emissions from marine engines into lakes and reservoirs, and to some extent from air deposition.

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This was from an article by the Environmental Working Group -- it seems to be undated, but from the time the detections were beginning.

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Also rising rapidly are lawsuits against the oil companies by communities whose water is contaminated with MTBE. Since September 2003, at least 141 water systems in 16 states have filed suits arguing that MTBE is a defective product, and that refiners knew that it would contaminate groundwater before they began adding it to gasoline but failed to warn consumers. In 2002 that argument, outlined in devastating detail in industry documents, convinced a jury to find Shell, Texaco and four other companies liable for contaminating drinking water supplies in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., forcing a $60 million settlement for cleanup. In 2003, Shell, Exxon, ChevronTexaco and 15 other companies settled a contamination lawsuit brought by Santa Monica, Calif., by agreeing to spend an estimated $200 million on a filtration system to remove MTBE from the city's water supplies.

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MTBE contamination as low as two parts per billion — two drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool — can produce a harsh chemical odor and taste that can cause tap water to be undrinkable

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The American Water Works Association, representing 4,700 U.S. water systems, estimates nationwide MTBE cleanup and water replacement costs at $29 billion — and rising with each new detection..

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The 2000 Times article said,
In 1985, state officials found the additive near the home of a neighborhood woman at the extraordinary level of 100,000 parts per billion, they said. The woman, Mary Curcio, has moved, and could not be reached for comment.


The whole thing, it seems, lead to the use of ethanol.
The whole thing, it seems to me, is largely secret.

Not Petroleum

Okay -- this is really cheating -- but I think it's fascinating and am in dire need of a better story and a little more sleep.

This is a non-bi-lined story in the British Mirror. I don't know anything about the media outlet at all. Though it sounds vaguely familiar it could be Mad Magazine for all I know...

The world's oldest oil paintings have been discovered in caves blown up by Taliban fanatics.

Scientists found the 1,350-year-old images behind the site of two Buddha statues destroyed at Bamiyan, in northern Afghanistan, in 2001.

They show robed Buddhas and may have been painted with walnut and poppy seed drying oils in the 7th century.

Researcher Yoko Taniguchi said: "This is the earliest clear example of such paintings."

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Oil painting was thought to date from the 15th century.

$700 A Year

I've been thinking and talking quite a lot about giving up my car lately. I'm not going to get rid of it -- I love it -- and I own it. It does need to be cleaned.

An interesting article caught my eye this morning -- via the oil drum. Seems someone in Ottowa's done a bit of the math involved in trading cars around...

"The CAA [Canadian Automobile Association] measured the total annual ownership costs of a $20,000 Chev Cobalt and a $26,000 Chrysler minivan, both driven 18,000 kilometres a year. As you might expect, the minivan costs more to drive, but it's not because of fuel consumption. The Cobalt costs $8,944.50 a year in total. The minivan is about $2,800 more but almost all of that is increased depreciation and financing costs on the more expensive vehicle.

There is a $531 differential in annual fuel costs between the two vehicles. If gasoline went up 10 cents a litre, it would cost the person with the minivan about $50 more a year than the same increase would cost the thrifty Cobalt driver."

[Note -- the Canadian dollar at today's exchange rate is almost exactly equal. I looked it up. THAT's a little alarming!]

Okay -- so the article goes on to talk about luxury. That a manicure probably costs more than a fill up.

[As an aside, I find this a sort of interesting thought. I had a conversation with a manicurist about how that is not necessarily a luxury, but part of the uniform for the modern business woman. Interesting to think what extra are required of women -- where men just sort of show up, don't they; so that if belt tightening is in order, women have more to lose more quickly perhaps... but I digress!]

The author also says that the user of the smaller car saves only about $700 a year. Not enough for me -- good to know in the justifying department.

I do think it's important to note that that is a lot of money for a lot of people. That while I ruminate on my $40,000 car and my day at the spa, $700 is heat, medication or food for a lot of people not very far from me. Don't get me wrong -- the spa is a wonderful thing. Health inducing, calm, good for you. Still, I've been intrigued by the tone of privilege in so many of the stories I've been reading lately. As if WE are talking to US. As if the concepts that we are all in this together is lost...

In art school we were shown a film by my favorite photographer, Robert Frank. Frank and the beat poet Charles Orlovsky filmed themselves talking to Orlovsky's brother -- who was autistic. It's a horrible film, I complained after our viewing. Throughout the course of it, the two men resort to screaming and throwing things at the autistic man, who withdraws further and further into himself. The comment on the film is 'it doesn't matter what we do.' But it does matter -- you can see it over the course of the hour. Furthermore, how do we hurt ourselves by participating in the infliction...

Isn't that the trick -- to do what little thing we can do...

On our nice little Discovery Kids cartoon this weekend, the girl from the future asks the girl from our time, 'where people in your time really always so careless about their energy use.' 'Pretty much,' she says.

Which brings me to the other thought. Isn't that $700 in fuel efficiency important in another way? I have been looking around my house, lately -- thinking of what I can change -- even in the littlest ways. The lights on the machines that stay on when they aren't in use. The radio, the printer, the computer, the cable...

"Remember when gas went over a buck and we all thought it was an outrage? Now, if we see it for $1.16, we grab the bargain. People's sense of what something is worth is often based on historical perception, not intrinsic value, but we adapt fairly quickly."

Well, I think this is a mistake. If we are looking at $7 a gallon, few people fold that kind of hike into their daily budget easily -- few governments...

But still,

is there any way to remember that this is not a conversation about money?

Happy Mother's Day

What I really wanted to write about today was the mothers in Nigeria and Ecuador. I found a story about a mother who died in childbirth because there was no blood in the hospital. But other than that I had a lot of trouble -- it's just a longer search, I think. Or I am impatient to get to cleaning for my mother and x-mother-in-law who are coming over soon. In any event -- here's an article that caught my eye. Not the best ever -- but Happy Mother's Day.


EDITORIAL
Who most deserves a pay raise?

Reed Markham | Special To The Orlando Sentinel
May 11, 2008

Are you smarter than a fifth-grader? What is your answer to the following multiple-choice question: Who is most deserving of a pay raise in 2008?

A. Oil-company executives

B. The president of the United States

C. Florida mothers

I am sure that oil-company executives, relaxing in their yacht today, voted for A.

They receive huge salaries and perks. The Associated Press reported last month that "Exxon Mobil Corp., whose $40 billion profit last year again broke the record for a U.S. company, gave chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson an 18 percent raise to $21.7 million." Oh, by the way, he also received $429,792 in other compensation, including $229,331 for personal security, $41,122 for personal use of company aircraft, and $9,150 for financial planning.

I am sure that President Bush would vote for B.

When he was elected in 2000, the president's pay was only $200,000 a year. In 2001, his annual salary was increased to $400,000 per year, including a $50,000 expense allowance.

So I believe that the correct answer is C. Florida mothers deserve a huge salary increase.

Salary.com developed a valuation of a "mom job" and determined the time that mothers spend for performing 10 typical job functions. According to Salary.com, the average mother works 92 hours a week. The study concluded, "The job titles that best matched a mom's definition of her work are (in order of hours spent per week): housekeeper, day-care-center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry-machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO, and psychologist." According to the Web site, the average salary of a stay-at-home mother should be $138,095.

Florida mothers, with great courage and perseverance, go about the business of raising our future Floridians: scientists, teachers, writers, doctors, nurses, political leaders. These great mothers are courageous in the face of tough economic times, figuring out a way to make ends meet while gasoline and food prices skyrocket.

Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, said this about mothers: "All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother."

Thomas Edison observed, "My mother was the making of me. She was so true and so sure of me. I felt that I had someone to live for -- someone I must not disappoint. The memory of my mother will always be a blessing to me."

The author Sterling W. Sill wrote: "We admire the artist who presents man upon the canvas. We applaud the sculptor who carves that same image in the enduring marble, but oh how insignificant are these achievements, though the highest and fairest in all the realms of art, as compared to the great vocation of the human mother. She works not upon canvas that will fade or upon marble that will crumble into dust, but upon mind and spirit that will endure forever and bear throughout eternity the noble impress of a mother's hand."

Florida is fortunate to have so many great mothers. They are the most deserving of a pay raise.

Reed Markham of DeLand is a former speechwriter for the U.S. Supreme Court.

My Shipping Vessel

The titles with 'My' in them started at the very beginning of the project -- it was a conversation about responsibility and ownership. If I say "mine" am I then more connected -- more inclined -- more in control and more responsible...

Today I am focusing on an article from last week by Bruce Stanley in the Wall Street Journal:
"Single-Hull Oil Tankers Persist as Global Risk."

"A key factor in the accident was almost certainly the tanker's design. The Hebei Spirit was a single-hull ship, just like the Exxon Valdez, which spilled 11 million gallons of oil when it ran aground off the Alaskan coast in 1989.

Eight of the 12 worst oil spills to occur world-wide since the beginning of 2001 have involved single-hull vessels -- an older ship design that uses a single layer of steel plates instead of the more-protective double layer that has become the new industry standard. As single-hull tankers haul only 18% of the world's crude, the tankers' role in these disasters is even more disproportionate.

Shipping-industry executives and environmentalists say the Hebei Spirit would have leaked less oil, or none at all, had it been double-hull. Now, in the wake of the accident, South Korea's government is speeding up plans to bar single-hull tankers from its waters."

The single hulled boats were banned from coming to port in the US after the Valdez crash. Still, about 6%, the article says, are single hulled. That seems like a lot -- and also like security isn't really doing the right kinds of checking. Those are big oil boats, aren't they signing some log somewhere?

In Asia, the number is four out of five. Four out of five!

It seems to make sense -- the combination of the continent's growth and desire and the wealth and willingness to put others at risks from the point of view of those who have the power -- the oil in their boats. It's hard to eliminate race from the issue -- though race and money are inextricable in any event.

"Perhaps surprisingly, given its experience with the Exxon Valdez, the oil titan that employs more single-hull tankers than any other is Exxon Mobil. Of the 170 VLCCs that Exxon Mobil sent to Asia last year, one-third were single-hull ships, the company says. About 10% of the VLCCs that the company deployed to North America and Europe in 2007 were single hulls."

I'm remembering, too, what Ben Stein said recently in the NY Times. "Exxon is us."

My Father's Subway Stop

There was an amazing piece of art in the Greenpoint subway yesterday morning. My father's stop on the G line...


gothamist.com

I love this. I'm not quite convinced of the paper towel imagery -- but I really like the concept and the execution.

The thing about public conversation, though, is that... well... the public gets involved.

Here's a comment from AnnonEMouse

"Why are there such pointless idiots living in Brooklyn? Why? All that's gonna happen is those papertowels are gonna litter the entire platform --or worse be used to clean noses & butts-- and then disposed of on the tracks to create fires just in time for rush hour..."

Pointless idiots. One could say this of all artists, really -- couldn't one? Just littering the streets... filling the world with more pages and pages of waste.
Idiots.
The word idiot is a little contagious...

"What kind of idiot knowingly moves into an area on top of a oil spill?
This wasn't a big secret, tards. We've known about it for years. Thats what happens in a district that used to contain oil refineries." jaja007

I suppose I'm a little defensive. And a little annoyed. Defensive because not everyone chose to live there, of course. In this sentence seems such the clear disposal of the people who lived there before the gentrification -- and still live there. I was amazed at how much polish there was there still -- people still speaking it in the streets and in the stores -- young people, children. Furthermore, the only reason anyone cares at all now is because of the desirable land -- the view of Manhattan -- the proximity to the city.

I was at a poetry reading last night, and out to dinner after I was talking with my friend about one of the poems in the program -- wasn't it tongue in cheek, he said... the poem talked about the misfortunes of a family in poverty in Gloucester Massachusetts. The poem laughed at pregnancy and alcohol and drugs and poverty. I know, I sound like such a stick in the mud. "maybe he lived there," said my friend. Maybe -- but he didn't live there -- live there as in understand and reside.

The obvious exclusion in both of these conversations is the fact of lack of choice and alternative for so many people. And not just the lack of choice -- the way that the people without choice simply disappear in the sentence
as if they didn't exist.

Who moves there? Idiots. Who lives there...

This is what Nassau Avenue (or near) looked like when my father was little.


brooklynpix.com

Oil, Oil Everywhere

Sometimes I just like to put things into Google to see what come out. Today I put in "oil, water, everywhere." The top three hits were old articles, spanning the last several years, from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Time magazine. "Oil, Oil Everywhere..."

I've quoted The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner here before, interestingly enough. Months ago I learned that the albatross has got caught up in oil itself, with many species on the verge of extinction...

It seemed like a good time to revisit the stanza in question:


And the Albatross begins to be avenged.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

The very deep did rot : O Christ !
That ever this should be !
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.

About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night ;
The water, like a witch's oils,
Burnt green, and blue and white.