Sunken oil rig off Louisiana coast may form huge oil slick

The Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times report:


PORT FOURCHON, La. – As the odds of survival for 11 missing workers diminished Thursday, officials warned that the dramatic explosion and fire that sank an oil rig off the Louisiana coast may pose a serious environmental threat if oil is leaking thousands of feet below the surface.

An oil slick was already forming Wednesday as the Deepwater Horizon oil rig burned in the Gulf of Mexico, about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La. The Deepwater Horizon, the $600 million mobile offshore rig that burned for more than a day before sinking Thursday, could spill up to 336,000 gallons of crude a day into the water.
http://tinyurl.com/2fpjjmq

Agreement to trap CO2 wins green support for coal plant

Randy Lee Loftis writes: An agreement reached Monday between a major environmental group and a power company clears some of the opposition to a new West Texas coal plant that promises to capture 85 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions.

If Nebraska-based Tenaska's plan comes through, its new Trailblazer Energy Center near Sweetwater would be among the first big commercial-scale coal plants in the U.S. to slash the amount of CO{-2} reaching the atmosphere.

In exchange for Tenaska's pledge to cut CO{-2} and reduce potential water use, the Environmental Defense Fund agreed to withdraw from a Texas permit hearing that seeks to block the 600-megawatt plant.
http://tinyurl.com/y25v7zv