Gulf Coast Reacts to President's Oval Office Address
President Obama delivered his first prime time address from the Oval Office Tuesday evening, nearly 60 days after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, leaving...
View ArticleDissecting the War Metaphors and Messaging in President's Speech
With the help of Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, we take a look at President Obama's Oval...
View ArticleListeners Respond: Give BP a Piece of Your Mind
The BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has devasted the Gulf and angered many Americans. As BP CEO Tony Hayward testifies before congress, we wanted to know what you would say to him if given the...
View ArticleBP Makes $20 Billion Deal on Cleanup Costs
At the request of the Obama administration, BP has set aside $20 billion in escrow to be paid out to individuals and communities affected by the oil disaster on the Gulf Coast. The money will be handed...
View ArticleStart the Conversation: Should BP Be Punished?
During his testimony before Congress, BP's CEO, Tony Hayward, said he's "deeply sorry" for the oil spill in the Gulf. We want to hear from you. Is Hayward to blame for the disaster? How should he and...
View ArticleGulf Residents Struggle with Stress, Uncertainty Over Oil Disaster
BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster hits the two month mark this weekend. Since April 20, oil has been gushing into the Gulf, wreaking havoc on the thousands who make a living from those waters....
View ArticleBP CEO Slammed at Congressional Hearing
Tony Hayward, the much-criticized CEO of BP, faced angry lawmakers on Capital Hill yesterday for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Hayward stuck closely to his prepared statements,...
View ArticleOn Environmental Torture
The BBC’s Caroline Duffield said it this morning: the Niger Delta is plagued by continual oil spills, sustaining spills equivalent to the Exxon Valdez spill every year for the past 50 years. In talking...
View ArticleA Change at the Top for BP
In an effort to boost its public image following a brutal hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg has announced the company is handing over the daily operations of...
View ArticleWith No Solution in Sight, Gulf Coast Residents Turn to Faith
Since the start of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, neither BP nor politicians nor the smartest engineers and technicians in America have been able to cap the well and contain the damage.Some...
View ArticleWQXR's The Washington Report
It's a busy time in Washington. President Obama just convinced BP to set up a $20 billion compensation fund to pay for damage caused by the oil spill, but one Republican senator accused him of having...
View ArticleWill $20 Billion Keep Gulf Businesses Afloat?
Questions remain as to how the government plans to dole out the $20 billion sitting in an escrow account, set up by BP, to businesses and individuals directly affected by the Gulf oil crisis. Will the...
View ArticleFederal Judge Strikes Down Drilling Ban
A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled against the federal government's moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.Judge Martin Feldman has ordered the federal government to halt its...
View ArticleWhat Should We Call the Oil Spill?
For more than two months, we've tracked news and developments of the Gulf oil spill. But is it technically a "spill?" The broken pipe is spilling (or gushing, or spewing, or leaking) as many as 30,000...
View ArticleFeedback Loop: An Oil Spill By Any Other Name...
Is still a major disaster. We asked you to tell us what the spill should be called and ideas ranged from "gusher" to "devastation" to "a complete disaster! Not natural!" On the show, New York Times...
View ArticleUnderreported: Under the Radar Oil Spills
The attention being paid the Deepwater Horizon oil spill has many residents of Nigeria, Egypt, and Chile scratching their heads. Devastating oil spills in these countries in the past decades have gone...
View ArticleOn Interviewing the New Face of BP, Darryl Willis
Speaking this morning with the new face of BP, this fellow Darryl Willis, made me think about what public relations are all about. First of all let me be clear, I liked the guy. He certainly has a hard...
View ArticleUnderreported: Chemical Fingerprinting of Oil Spills
The emerging field of environmental forensics may be the best way to determine the impact that the oil spill will have on the gulf coast. Merv Fingas, former Chief of the Emergencies Science Division...
View ArticlePreparations Underway for Hurricane Alex
Hurricane Alex was well into the Gulf of Mexico and headed toward Texas and Mexico on Wednesday, after being upgraded to a Category 2 Hurricane this afternoon, making it the first Atlantic hurricane of...
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My Life in Oil
For almost his entire professional life, from the late 1940s well into the 1990s, my father worked as an engineer in heavy construction. He helped build petroleum cooling towers and plants that...
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