AOL News has a new home! The Huffington Post.
Click here to visit the new home of Politics Daily!Hot on HuffPost:
Controversial Book On Obama Appears To Have Lifted Key Quote
Walker Recall Effort Struggles To Gain Momentum
thad allen
BP Resumes 'Bottom Kill' to Seal Well by Weekend
By Lauren Frayer - AOL News(Sept. 14) -- BP's runaway oil well could be sealed off for good by the end of this week, after BP restarted drilling on a relief well that was halted for more than a month during the Gulf of Mexico's hurricane season. BP resumed drilling its relief well Monday for the first time since Aug. 10, when operations were halted by a tropical storm threat. Since then, stormy seas and a scientific debate over whether a so-called "bottom kill" is needed have stalled the process to permanently plug the well. After pouring heavy mud and concrete into the well's containment cap, the oil company ...
Risk of Leak Remains as BP Prepares to Lift Well Cap
By Mara Gay - AOL News(Sept. 2) -- BP plans to carefully remove the cap from its crippled oil well today in preparation for a procedure it hopes will plug the massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico once and for all. That procedure, known as "bottom kill," has been cited by the government as the only solution to stopping the oil for good. But the final steps to permanently seal the well are not without risks. Before the bottom kill can be attempted, engineers must remove the cap from the wellhead, replace the blowout preventer that failed to stop the April 20 explosion and hope that no oil escapes in the process. BP ...
Why Is BP Delaying the Bottom Kill Operation Till September?
By Dana Chivvis - AOL News(Aug. 20) -- National Incident Commander Thad Allen said Thursday that BP's unruly well won't be killed once and for all until September. Original estimates had planned for the bottom kill -- which will kill the well for good -- to take place this month. At several points, emergency crews were even said to be ahead of schedule on the project, but no longer. How come? As Allen explained in a press conference Thursday, "All of this has been done over an overabundance of caution related to minimizing risk associated with the intersection of the well," adding, "We are very, very close to the ...
Gulf Oil Spill: Residents' Skepticism, Resentment Remain Uncapped
By Ben Sandmel - Politics DailyThe BP spill appears to be capped for good, even though the ultimate solution known as "final kill" has yet to be implemented. But while fresh oil has stopped gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, distrust and resentment continue to flow freely. Many citizens and scientists alike do not believe an inter-agency federal report stating that roughly 25 percent of the spilled oil was collected by processes such as skimming, 25 percent has deteriorated or been consumed by microbes, and 25 percent has dispersed. The remaining "residual amount," the report continues, ". . . is either on or just below the ...
Reports Sharply Contradict Claims About Vanished Oil
By Dana Chivvis - AOL News(Aug. 17) -- Two new reports from different groups of academic scientists are providing a counterweight to the government's rosy assertions that the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis is drawing to a close. One says that as much as 79 percent of the oil is still loose in the gulf; the other expresses the fear that oil on the ocean floor may not stay there but could resurface at a later time. Researchers at the University of Georgia announced Monday that between 70 and 79 percent of the oil and its toxic byproducts are still present under the surface of the gulf. That finding stands in stark ...
Final Plug on Gulf Oil Leak at Least Days Away
By not in system - AOL NewsNEW ORLEANS (Aug 14.) -- The government official overseeing the Gulf oil spill response said Saturday he wants additional tests done before ordering BP to finish drilling a relief well that will help plug the runaway well for good. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told reporters it could be late Monday or early Tuesday before officials know the results of those tests, which will be designed to minimize any potential risks with the final plugging procedure. If Allen gives his final order to proceed with the relief well then, it could be next weekend before the relief well intercepts the ...
Drilling on Relief Wells to Continue: 4 Questions Answered
By Dana Chivvis - AOL News(Aug. 13) -- BP oil spill incident commander Thad Allen announced this afternoon that the relief wells at the Macondo well site will be finished after all. There had been debate over whether or not to proceed after the static kill operation appeared to have succeeded in plugging the leak last week. Below, Surge Desk answers four questions about the state of the BP oil spill kill operations. 1. Has the well been plugged? It has been plugged, but not completely. 2. Did the static kill work? The static kill successfully lodged a cement plug in the well, but today's tests showed that pressure ...
Government: BP Must Go Forward With Relief Well
By not in system - AOL NewsNEW ORLEANS (Aug. 13) -- BP's broken oil well is not dead yet. The government's point man on the crisis said Friday that the blown-out well is not securely plugged to his satisfaction and that the drilling of the relief well - long regarded as the only way to ensure that the hole at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico never leaks oil again - must go forward. "The relief well will be finished," said retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen. "We will kill the well." Work on the relief well was suspended earlier this week because of bad weather. Allen did not say when it would resume, but when the ...
BP May Have Already Plugged Oil Well for Good
By Lauren Frayer - AOL News(Aug. 13) -- Analysis of pressure tests on BP's cemented Gulf of Mexico oil well could indicate today that the damaged well is already plugged for good, and that a relief well won't be needed after all. For more than three months, BP has been drilling two relief wells near the Deepwater Horizon disaster, to intercept the damaged well shaft deep under the sea floor and plug it with heavy mud and cement. One of the wells reached within 30 feet of the problem well, before drilling was temporarily called off earlier this week, as a tropical depression swept through the gulf. Now officials say ...
Officials Testing Seal at BP's Broken Oil Well in Gulf
By not in system - AOL NewsNEW ORLEANS (Aug. 12) -- In the strongest indication yet that BP's broken oil well in the Gulf of Mexico may be plugged for good, officials on Thursday said they're conducting tests to determine if further work to seal the well is needed. A final decision was expected Friday on whether crews need to go ahead with drilling relief wells to allow for a so-called "bottom kill," in which mud and cement are pumped from deep underground to permanently seal the well. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the Obama administration's point man on the oil spill, said at a news conference that an earlier ...
Follow Politics Daily
POPULAR
- Nancy Pelosi Confirms House May Skip Up or Down Vote on Senate Health Bill
- Debrahlee Lorenzana: A Double Take on Those Double D's
- Palin Earnings Estimated at $12 Million
- Campbell Brown Quits CNN With Shockingly Frank Farewell
- The Five Most Racist Obama Cartoons?
- Soraya M., Stoned to Death for Being an "Inconvenient Wife''
- Jimmy Carter Leaves Church Over Treatment of Women
- No posts are available.
News From Our Partners
- Dragon arrives at space station in historic 1st
- Picking new leader, Egyptians search for superman
- Egyptians vote in first free presidential vote
- Moon chips from Vegas casino mogul sent to NASA
- Egyptians vote to rid nation of autocratic rule
- More Stories »
- Romneys Love Fancy World of Dressage Riding
- Rudy Giuliani: Mitt's Great. I'm Just Better
- 'Masters of the Universe' Sure Have Fragile Egos
- Romney: My Mistakes 'Haunt Me'
- Newt Lauds Romney: He's Like Eisenhower
- More Stories »
- The 7 Best Moments from Sunday Talk
- Know Your Enemy
- Cannes’s Mischief Maker
- Cut It Out, Internet Bullies!
- Cut It Out, Internet Bullies!
- More Stories »
- Ambition Counteracting Ambition
- Robert Blagojevich Speaks Out
- In Iowa, Obama Calls Romney's Words 'A Cow Pie of Distortion'
- In Iowa, Obama Calls On Congress to Act on Clean Energy Tax Credits
- Romney Has Interesting Morning in Inner-City Philly
- More Stories »
Top News
More News
More on Aol
Local News
More Blog/Sites
Sites and Services
HuffPost Politics