This is a story actually considered newsworthy by the Associated Press:
Barrel of crude oil spills into sea off Santa Barbara
A barrel of crude oil has spilled or seeped into the sea at offshore Platform Holly two miles off Santa Barbara.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Cory Mendenhall says the guard’s Los Angeles-Long Beach sector received a National Response Center report of a spill at the Venoco-operated platform before dawn Monday.
The cause hasn’t been disclosed.
Clean Seas has been contracted for clean up. The Coast Guard says containment booms are keeping the oil from spreading and clean up has begun. Venoco vice president Michael Edwards says the platform is shut down and natural seepage may be to blame. Edwards says 150 barrels of crude seeps in the area each day.
To repeat, one barrel spilled. Not one million barrels. Not one hundred thousand barrels. One barrel. One lonely barrel. And it may not have spilled at all. It may have seeped. Because up to 150 barrels seep naturally into the area every day.
But it made a damn fine headline. And we thank you for your hard-hitting reportage, Associated Press.
Source: Associated Press via SanLuisObsipo.com
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
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It's worth noting that in East LA the city has to post a notice on the storm drains that you shouldn't pour oil down the drain because it leads to the ocean. I'm not saying this is a common habit of people from a particular country, but the notices are written in Spanish. I'm quite sure more oil goes down those drains than a barrel's worth but I don't expect the AP to be doing a story about this group of eco-polluters anytime soon.
Well said!
The AP is bound and determined to make oil the enemy and no story is too insignifigant for their busy little hands.
The Assignment Desk at the AP must be having a slow day. There are more dead bodies floating in the L.A. River each day, more human waste dumped into marina's in the Santa Barbara area, weekly, and more BS flowing out of the current administration... and AP is reporting about 1 barrel of oil that "may" have seeped out of an offshore oil rig? You want "crude" cleaned up? Start with "hip hop" music!