Oil Spill

by Colleen Long and Harry R. Weber The Associated Press Friday, July 16, 2010 NEW ORLEANS -- The federal pointman for the BP oil spill says results are short of ideal in the new cap but the oil will stay shut in for another 6 hours at least. Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said on a Friday afternoon conference pressure readings from the cap have not reached the level that would show there are no other leaks in the well. He said the test will go ahead for another 6-hour period before being reassessed to see if BP needs to reopen the cap and let oil spill out again.

by The Associated Press Wednesday, July 14, 2010 JACKSON, Miss. -- Lt. Gov. Craig Campbell says Alaska can "learn a lot" from Mississippi and the federal government's response to the Gulf oil spill. Campbell is among about half of the nation's lieutenant governors who say they'll attend an annual meeting along Biloxi's coast this month. He says the 1989 Exxon-Valdez oil spill has been "eclipsed" in scope by the leak. And, he notes that Alaska has "rocky shorelines," instead of the sand and shallow marsh land that lines the Gulf coast, which makes the current response "a lot different" than what Alaska did. He says he hopes to come back with "ideas to ensure Alaska has environmentally sound ways of developing natural gas projects.

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, April 29, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- In a poll conducted by Channel 2 News, respondents were asked if the accident on an offshore oil platform and the resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has made them less likely to support offshore drilling in the Arctic. Here is the official question and results of the 525 people who voted. Has the accident on an offshore oil platform and the resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico made you less likely to support offshore drilling in the Arctic?

by Channel 2 News staff Thursday, May 6, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Alaska's two U.S. senators want to beef up the nation's oil spill liability fund. The fund is administered by the Coast Guard and pays for response costs and damages in cases where the responsible party hasn't paid. The fund currently has $1.6 billion, but Sens. Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski want to raise that to $10 billion by increasing the fee oil companies pay from 8 cents to 9 cents per barrel.

Residents in Cordova will soon have an impressive place to gather for meetings and city events with its new city center. The building will house city offices, a museum, the library, and it will also have space for performances in its location along 1st Street in downtown Cordova. The city has planned the center for more than a decade, but it was only in the past few years that the city was able to come up with the money. “This stems out of the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the city of Cordova was very negatively affected by that and this is a goal to sort of help the community rebuild part of that economic base that we lost in that oil spill,” Cordova City Manager, Mark Lynch said.

A nationally recognized commission of oil spill investigators is in Alaska this week. It’s working on a report about the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and members want ideas from a state that's been through a similar disaster. University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Fran Ulmer is on the commission. Ulmer and the commission co-chair, William Reilly, held an open-mic event at UAA Wednesday to listen to Alaskans’ thoughts on the spill. Just mention the words "oil spill" to a group of Alaskans, and you're likely to get an earful.

A Senate Judiciary committee heard from an Alaskan Tuesday about the devastation of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Sen. Mark Begich asked Cordova resident Joe Banta to testify at a hearing focusing on protecting the victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Begich told the committee he appreciates the focus on making sure the victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster don't suffer the same injustices experienced by Alaskans. Banta sympathized with people in the Gulf of Mexico because he knows the toll a spill takes on a community.

The agency in charge of distributing reimbursement claims to businesses impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico says it's changing the way it evaluates claims. Kenneth Feinberg, who is running the $20 billion compensation fund for the BP oil spill, says one of the biggest problems is documentation. Feinberg says more than a third of the roughly 104,000 applicants need to do more to back up their claims. In Pensacola, Fla., some local businesses felt the impact.

by Lori Tipton Wednesday, May 5, 2010 ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An environmental group is threatening to sue the federal government over allowing off shore drilling in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. The Center for Biological Diversity says that when Interior Secretary Ken Salazar handed out permits to Shell Oil, he failed to consider the impacts of a possible oil spill on threatened and endangered species. "Under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government has to ensure that any projects it carries out or funds don't jeopardize the continued existence of threatened and endangered species," said Rebecca Noblin with the Center for Biological Diversity.