Crews cleaning oil residue from Louisiana wetlands

Crews using special vacuum devices are sucking pools of spilled Macondo crude oil residue out of Louisiana marshes, said US Coast Guard Rear Adm. Paul D. Zukunft, federal onscene coordinator for the Deepwater Horizon response.

“At some point, we will let Mother Nature do the work,” Zukunft said, adding the USCG and other federal officials are working with state officials to mutually determine when “there is no net environmental benefit” to continuing to clean marsh areas.

During a Sept. 29 teleconference, Zukunft said 588 miles of shoreline remained oiled and are being cleaned. This includes both marshes and beaches.

In Louisiana, one particular marsh cleanup crew involves 600 people, he said. Nine marsh areas continue to be cleaned, and they are all in Louisiana. Zukunft described a heavy, black “sticky residue in marsh grass.”

An Apr. 20 blowout of the deepwater Macondo well resulted in a fire and explosion on Transocean Ltd.’s Deepwater Horizon semisubmersible, killing 11 workers and resulting in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. No oil has spilled since the installation of a capping stack on July 15. BP operated the well.

Louisiana DNR: Natural gas is key to US energy future

No climate program should impose constraints or disincentives on US natural gas and oil production, said Scott Angelle, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources secretary.

Speaking to the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s annual meeting in New Orleans on Nov. 5, Angelle called everyone in the room an environmentalist when it comes to enjoying the outdoors. He said industry is open to innovation and technologies that promote a clean, safe environment.

But he also noted that industry is well aware how political debate around climate change policy could have serious implications for independents and for the country’s energy future.

Angelle and other speakers at the IPAA meeting agreed that no climate change policy should be adopted unless it assures the future production and use of gas.

IPAA literature reports that about 800,000 oil and gas wells operate in the US. These wells account for less than 1% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, said an Inventory of US Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006.