If you didn't catch it, Thad Allen, disaster incident commander for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response let it slip in his August 18 interview with CNN that all future science with regard to the disaster will be, coordinated under one umbrella held by NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco.
The importance of this announcement coming in the mix of conversation with CNN (time 5:07), was, apparently, lost on CNN themselves who haven't followed up.
Conversational tidbits:
"Last week I signed an order that tries to consolidate all the testing for hydrocarbons in the Gulf" Translation: There can be ONLY ONE centralized authority for testing for oil from this disaster. "I signed an order..." sounds fairly ominous. Like he signed that order keeping people 65 feet back from BP's dead sea turtles and dolphins? That kind of order? History says, yes. Precisely.
"...so that we can bring all the academic institutions in the Gulf under the uh, coordination of Janet Lubchenco and NOAA." Translation: No more independent science searching for, and possibly finding (can't have that!) other pockets of massive quantities of oil from the Deepwater Horizon. This will be under the 'uh' Translation: 'how shall we put this?' 'coordination' Translate: control, control, control, censorship and more control.
Some institutions of higher learning will actually like hearing this. Why? There is one source for funding to approach: NOAA. Just like the vessels of opportunity program which is now closing, since (yay!) FISHING IS OPEN! The Science of Opportunity Program, will only include institutions of higher learning who have shown the sound judgment of science for knowing when to print, precisely what is demanded, when to fudge certain data to meet that demand, and when to STFU. Likely, USF - who have shown themselves to be the conscientious polar opposite of STFU - will not be invited.
"Natural resource damage assessment to be paid for by BP," so that BP can tell the U.S. Government how much in fines should be paid, by BP. No, no back-room deals going on here, because, gosh golly, there's aaaaaabsolutely no conflict of interest anywhere in this equation.
As to Allen's caustic little jibe toward those carrying out real science? (Coming around 1:15 in the video) "...some of these other assumptions, by some of these other guys..."
"Some of these other guys" (translate: disreputable) That would be Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Oxford University of the science; University of South Florida, Tampa; University of Georgia, Athens.
Woods Hole found a large chunk of the oil Lubchenco and NOAA said is gone or doesn't anymore. In this article, the scientists are quoted and the breakout schematic is enlargeable. Not only have these scientists been tracking this plume since June, they have been getting continuous nay-saying from NOAA and other government agencies. They point out that COREXIT thought to make the oil digestible by microbes, has only served to put it into a very cold, dark, deep environment where it could persist in its harmful state for years to come.
This is something NOAA will likely want to cover up; under the direction of the Obama administration's leadership, which, as we know, is partially or wholly directed by the BP administration.
Here is CNN's coverage of the USF findings of dispersed oil all over the bottom at the Desoto Canyon, which, as one witness reports on Youtube, was quickly stripped down from CNN's homepage. Classic example of evaporating history. Bombshell news story, immediately shunted to the dust bin by upper managers.
What can we expect?
Early reports are surfacing that Lubchenco was an embattled, on the way out administrator who, in order to save her job, lobbed up an impossibly rosy, science challenged, reality challenged picture in her "all is well" report to the administration. A classic case of telling the boss what he wants to hear. A report which is now the basis for the reopening of the entire fishery, and will likely be the roadmap for all future "research" for additional "hydrocarbon" sumps from the spill.
Here's the sort of scientific thinking you can also expect from the director of this new "effort" to "find" the oil still out there from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"Just tiny tar balls" Irrespective of some of the massive, boar-head sized chunks discovered.
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