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Newly Discovered Bacteria Could Aid Oil Cleanup
suraj.sun passes along news from Oregon State University, where researchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that may be able to aid cleanup efforts in the Gulf of Mexico. The bacteria "can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive 'rhamnolipids,' and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs — environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills. Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say." In related news, Kevin Costner's centrifugal separator technology has gotten approval for deployment; now it is only waiting on funding from BP.
As for the other idea, I don't see how Kevin Costner can claim to have developed an oil separator that has been in use by US Navy ships since before the early eighties.
I realize this is Slashdot, but if you RTFA you will find that he got his hands on the design and spent $20M or so of his own money on having them improved to the point that they were useful for processing a mess into CLEAN water AND clean OIL. Nowhere is it claimed that he invented the centrifugal separator.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The bacteria idea sounds great, but will probably result in a new and deadly plague that will give rise to oil gobbling mutants!
As for the other idea, I don't see how Kevin Costner can claim to have developed an oil separator that has been in use by US Navy ships since before the early eighties. We had them on my ship when I was in back in 1983. They were used to separate water and dirt from lube oil.
There are natural bacteria that eat oil that have been used before and are very safe, even it wetlands:
http://farmwars.info/?p=3013
Yeah, thinking that that oil conglomerates fix prices is a super nutty conspiracy thinking. I mean, it's not like giant companies like ADM have ever been involved in price fixing with their group of international competitors. Now, I may not be totally up on the matter, because I'm a geek and stick to tech news rather than business news, but I've never heard of price-fixing happening in real life and not just in conspiracy nutters ramblings. The whole concept is just crazy. You are a wise man.
If you've ever driven through the south eastern US, say along HWY 85 from Georgia to Alabama you can see fields of kudzu that are engulfing whole areas. This stuff grows inches per day and covers trees, cars, telephone poles etc..
Uhh.. They did. There was even a movie about the whole thing starring Matt Damon.
AccountKiller
Technically, they are required to. Unfortunately, the agency responsible for signing off on their response plans is basically a textbook case of regulatory capture. Thus, companies routinely get away with either ridiculously under-specced contingency plans, or just outright lying about what capabilities they possess. Corruption is cheaper than actual hardware and it isn't as though the US is a very good place to be cast as the "mean evil regulator who hates business, and wants your gas to be expensive"...
Kevin Costner's machines were originally developed by the Idaho National Laboratory for nuclear fuel reprocessing.