BP Refuses EPA Order to Switch to Less-Toxic Oil Dispersant

Well. Commander-in-Chief, what you gonna do now?

Published on Sunday, May 23, 2010 by the Los Angeles Times

BP Refuses EPA Order to Switch to Less-Toxic Oil Dispersant

Oil washes ashore on 50 miles of Louisiana shoreline as tensions mount over how to treat the spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

by Margot Roosevelt and Carolyn Cole, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Los Angeles and Elmer's Isalnd, LA --

BP has rebuffed demands from government officials and environmentalists to use a less-toxic dispersant to break up the oil from its massive offshore spill, saying that the chemical product it is now using continues to be "the best option for subsea application."

On Thursday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave the London-based company 72 hours to replace the dispersant Corexit 9500 or to describe in detail why other dispersants fail to meet environmental standards.

The agency on Saturday released a 12-page document from BP, representing only a portion of the company's full response. Along with several dispersant manufacturers, BP claimed that releasing its full evaluation of alternatives would violate its legal right to keep confidential business information private.

But in a strongly worded retort, the EPA said that it was "evaluating all legal options" to force BP to release the remaining information "so Americans can get a full picture of the potential environmental impact of these alternative dispersants."

So far, 715,000 gallons of dispersant has been applied since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig, mostly on the spill's surface. The chemical has also been released near the leaking pipe on the seafloor.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/05/23-0

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-spill-20100523,0,3247111,print.story

That'll show 'em.

:thumbsdown: