http://www.opednews.com/articles/WAKE-UP-AMERICA-The-EPA--by-Press-Release-100721-624.htmlsnip.....
Congressman Markey and Nadler, as well as Senator Mikulski, have been heroes in this respect. Congressman Markey made the BP and government put a camera down there to show the public the gusher. And when they did that, experts saw that the amount of material, oil being released, is orders of magnitudes greater than what BP and NOAA and EPA were saying. And the cover-up started to evaporate.
But the use of dispersants has not. Consequently, we have people, wildlife--we have dolphins that are hemorrhaging. People who work near it are hemorrhaging internally. And that's what dispersants are supposed to do. EPA now is taking the position that they really don't know how dangerous it is, even though if you read the label, it tells you how dangerous it is. And, for example, in the Exxon Valdez case, people who worked with dispersants, most of them are dead now. The average death age is around fifty. It's very dangerous, and it's an economic--it's an economic protector of BP, not an environmental protector of the public.
Now, the one thing that I did want to mention to you, Amy, that's occurred in most investigations, back even in the Watergate days, people said, "follow the money." And that's correct. In this case, you've got to follow the money. Who saves money by using these toxic dispersants? Well, it's BP. But then the next question--I've only seen one article that describes it--who owns BP? And I think when you look and see who owns BP, you find that it's the majority ownership, a billion shares, is a company called BlackRock that was created, owned and run by a gentleman named Larry Fink. And Vanity Fair just did recently an article about Mr. Fink and his connections with Mr. Geithner, Mr. Summers and others in the administration. So I think what's needed, we now know that there's a cover-up. Dispersants are being used. Congress, at least three Congress folks--Congressman Markey, Congressman Nadler and Senator Mikulski--are on the case. And I think the media now has to follow the money, just as they did in Watergate, and tell the American people who's getting money for poisoning the millions of people in the Gulf.
snip....
HUGH KAUFMAN: EPA has all the information on what's in--the ingredients are. The largest ingredient in Corexit is oil. But there are other materials. And when the ingredients are mixed with oil, the combination of Corexit or any dispersant and oil is more toxic than the oil itself. But EPA has all that information. That's a red herring issue being raised, that we have to somehow know more information. When you look at the label and you look at the toxicity sheets that come with it, the public knows enough to know that it's very dangerous. The National Academy of Science has done work on it. Toxicologists from Exxon that developed it have published on it. So, we know enough to know that it's very dangerous, and to say that we just have to know more about it is a red herring issue. We know plenty. It's very dangerous. And in fact, Congressman Nadler and Senator Lautenberg are working on legislation to ban it.
Senior EPA Analyst: "Government Have Been Sock Puppets for BP In This Cover Up"http://www.zerohedge.com/article/senior-epa-analyst-government-agencies-have-been-sock-puppets-bp-coverI have also previously pointed out the similarities between the government's handling of 9/11 and the oil gusher. Kaufman gives some insight about the parallels:
You’ve made comparisons between Corexit, the use of Corexit and hiding BP’s liability, and what happened at Ground Zero after the attacks of September 11th, Hugh Kaufman.
Yeah, I was one of the people who—well, I did. I did the ombudsman investigation on Ground Zero, where EPA made false statements about the safety of the air, which has since, of course, been proven to be false. Consequently, you have the heroes, the workers there, a large percentage of them are sick right now, not even ten years later, and most of them will die early because of respiratory problems, cancer, etc., because of EPA’s false statements.
And you’ve got the same thing going on in the Gulf, EPA administrators saying the same thing, that the air is safe and the water is safe. And the administrator misled Senator Mikulski on that issue in the hearings you talked about. And basically, the problem is dispersants mixed with oil and air pollution. EPA, like in 9/11—I did that investigation nine years ago—was not doing adequate and proper testing. Same thing with OSHA with the workers, they’re using mostly BP’s contractor. And BP’s contractor for doing air testing is the company that’s used by companies to prove they don’t have a problem.
Video of the interview with Amy here ...
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/7/20/epa_whistleblower_accuses_agency_of_covering