Oil

Nearly two months into the environmental disaster triggered by BP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama made his first-ever address from the Oval Office last night in an effort to convince Americans that the government is doing enough to protect coastal areas and the livelihoods of residents threatened by the crisis. He sought to convince the public that the federal government is and has been in control and that BP will be held financially responsible, but the weakest part of his speech was the most important: the call for the United States to reduce, and eventually eliminate, our dependence on oil. Although he devoted the conclusion of his speech to the topic, he offered no more than an admonition that the nation must reduce its addiction to fossil fuels and an offer that he's open to suggestions for how to do so. The first order of business for the president appears to be convincing the public that he is in charge.

The storyline heading into Maryland's first-round game against Cornell on Sunday dealt with who to match up against Rob Pannell . This week, there isn't as much speculation over who among Dominic Imbordino , Joe Meurer (McDonogh) and Robby Haus (Gilman) will draw the assignment - one, because fans aren't as familiar with those players as they are with the Terps ' defense; and two, because Ohio State is much more likely to employ multiple strategies to slow down Pannell, as opposed to trying to play him straight up. "We want to play with seven," Buckeyes coach Nick Myers said.

Watching the unfathomable ecological and human disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by the tragic loss of the Deepwater Horizon platform and subsequent leaking of massive amounts of crude oil and gas, I can't help but feel somewhat overwhelmed by the cost to the people of the Gulf States and of the planet from our addiction to oil. Disasters of this sort occur when people try to control complex systems and fail. These grand mistakes are not at all restricted to oil drilling and production but include nuclear energy, chemical plants, aviation and even the human space flight program.

Harry Alford's March 7 commentary, "Anti-fracking legislation is premature," had me scratching my head. It completely ignored the serious and documented environmental and climate issues caused by hydraulic fracturing, the very issues the bill would address. Instead, Mr. Alford, president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, touts the economic benefits of fracking for Maryland and for the U.S. as a whole. He even hints that this bill, designed to protect Maryland from unsafe fracking, could lead to "interfering with the shale gas boom elsewhere.

President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night about the military action in Libya was composed of 3,362 words. But there were two words conspicuously absent from the 30-minute address: "Oil" and "energy. " Back in the day, when politicians didn't use word like "interest" -- a word that appeared six times in Obama's speech -- as a euphemism, they spoke more plainly.  A quick history lesson (I know, I know, but I promise I'll keep this short): When Europeans were divvying up the deceased Ottoman Empire after World War I, they spoke openly of the desire to control oil fields as their reason for interest in African and Middle Eastern countries.

I feel so reassured knowing that we have the advanced technology to locate oil deep below the surface of the ocean floor (remember the T.V. commercials?). Yet,the remote controlled submersible vehicles being deployed in the Gulf oil well blow-out are unable to even locate a 450 ton valve of the blow-out preventer, and when they do, they can't even make it operate, when it was suppose to operate automatically when the blow-out occurred. Gee, I wonder if it was ever tested since it was first installed.

LET'S TAKE a look at oil. It's the one crucial ingredient in the world's economy, and two-thirds of the world's oil is in the region surrounding the Persian Gulf. Both the United States and Great Britain deny that the crisis over Iraq is about oil - but there's no question that the future of the oil business will be profoundly affected by what happens there in the months to come. The key, of course, is Saudi Arabia, with its giant reserves. For several years now, American policy-makers have been growing increasingly concerned about the Saudi connection.

With oil from the Gulf of Mexico spill now reaching major ocean currents, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday to assess the threat to the Chesapeake Bay and the waters off Maryland. "The immediate impact on the communities closest to the spill is obvious," the Maryland Democrat wrote in a letter to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco. "But my constituents are also asking – will they see oil on the beaches of Ocean City?

Two people were injured when a tanker truck overturned in northern Baltimore County, according to the Baltimore County Fire Department. County firefighters responded at 8:20 a.m. to the 3600 block of Blemheim Road in Phoenix, a spokeswoman said. The tanker was delivering heating oil to a house, and firefighters found the truck on its side leaking oil. Hazardous material crews were called, and the Maryland Department of the Environment was contacted to stop the leak. Two patients were taken to Sinai Hospital.

Big Oil, after a 10-year stalemate, has lost its fight, at least for now, for drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve in Alaska. Environmentalists, making ANWR their driving wedge to block energy legislation they decried as the handiwork of the petroleum, coal and nuclear power industries, resorted to a Senate filibuster to win the day. They had the support of both Maryland senators. Fifty senators, half the membership, wanted to push the measure to passage, but they lacked the 60 votes needed to cut off debate.

Lindsay D. Dryden Jr., a Baltimore fuel oil company executive and Florida businessman, died Wednesday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 85. The son of an oil company executive and a homemaker, Mr. Dryden was born and raised in Guilford. He attended the McDonogh School. Mr. Dryden went to work for the family business, Dryden Oil Co., which had been founded by his grandfather in 1893. After his father's death in 1952, he took over its operations, and as president and later chairman of the board, expanded the business to more than 450 employees and established 17 locations in the East.

Words and images go together quite harmoniously in the exhibit "Poets and Painters" at the Artists' Gallery in Columbia. Its participating writers and artists have come up with pairings that prompt one to think about various ways in which to creatively describe the world around us. Those artistic forms of expression actually go beyond painting. Some of the exhibiting artists are photographers. Their straightforward depictions encourage the paired poets to come up with narratives that comment on what's before our eyes.

We wish to recognize the leadership of U.S. Senators Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin on behalf of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. LWCF is the program that ensures Maryland has the resources our parks, forests, and wildlife areas need to provide opportunities for outdoor recreation and to strengthen our economy. If you enjoy visiting a neighborhood or state park, the odds are that the fund helped to make this possible. LWCF has also preserved for future generations the experiences of canoeing Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge's water trails, visiting Antietam National Battlefield, and camping at Assateague Island National Seashore.

Paul B. Moore, a former Evening Sun reporter and editor who later became a public relations executive, died Nov. 27 from complications of prostate cancer at his Homeland residence. He was 84. "Paul was a very conscientious reporter and a very conscientious person. He was very talented and what he did, he did well," said Helen Delich Bentley, a former newsroom colleague who later became a congresswoman and federal maritime commissioner. "As a reporter, he was always fair, and wherever he went always looked for something interesting and challenging," said Mrs. Bentley.

The Justice Department has entered into the largest criminal settlement in U.S. history with the giant oil company BP, in connection with the 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that killed 11 people and caused the worst oil spill in American history. BP pleaded guilty to 14 criminal counts, including manslaughter, and agreed to pay $4 billion over the next five years. This is nonsensical. BP isn't a criminal. Corporations aren't people. They can't know right from wrong. They're incapable of criminal intent.

Two of the more memorable observations to come out of Mitt Romney during the first presidential debate had to do with fibs and Big Bird. The candidate said that as the father of sons, he knows that repeating a lie doesn't make it true. As to the latter? Look out, "Sesame Street," your days as a "victim" on the federal dole are numbered. The two seemingly unrelated remarks are worth mentioning because they intersect in Mr. Romney's tax and budget plans which, even by the most generous of interpretations, don't add up. If President Barack Obama failed in the debate, it was in not making that point strongly enough.

OUR NATIONAL strength is dangerously dependent on a thin line of oil tankers stretching halfway around the Earth, originating in the Middle East and around the Persian Gulf -- one of the most unstable regions in the world."

An excerpt from a Tuesday Chicago Tribune editorial:INTERIOR Secretary Bruce Babbitt has unveiled a plan to allow limited leasing of oil and gas reserves on a part of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.The plan pleases neither the oil industry, which wanted much more access, nor environmentalists, who wanted the secretary to bar all exploratory drilling.The plan represents a "balance," the secretary said, based on "sound science." It came after 18 months of study, numerous hearings and his own personal field trip to the frozen tundra.

Fifty years after Rachel Carson was attacked by industrial interests for writing "Silent Spring" ("'Silent Spring' echo still eloquent," Sept. 16), the players have changed but the game is still the same. Courageous climate scientists such as James Hansen, Michael Mann, Katharine Hayhoe and Kerry Emanuel are routinely smeared by representatives of the fossil fuel industry for highlighting the risks of unrestricted greenhouse gas emissions. Even those who point out that a revenue-neutral carbon tax is the best way to solve the problem of global warming have been assaulted in online alleys by Big Oil's goons.

It's been years since Maggie Lebherz lived in sunny Spain as a college exchange student. Yet just one taste of fresh olive oil takes her back in spirit. "In 2007, I lived with a family in Salamanca, and my host mother cooked everything in olive oil, in a big cast-iron skillet," recalls Lebherz. "She rarely changed the oil, and it became spiced. Whether she was frying potatoes in olive oil or making paella, every meal was so delicious. " After Lebherz returned to the States and graduated from college, her cravings for the quality olive oil she'd enjoyed abroad turned her into an entrepreneur.