Protesters gathered at the New York Times building yesterday as part of a worldwide protest of BP, though from the looks of it not nearly as many showed up as they said they would on Facebook. Instead of the harassing another BP station owner, the protesters chose to rally outside the NYT building because the paper continued to run full-page BP ads in the wake of the oil spill. Organizer Lauren McGowan told NY1, "BP has spent $50 million on campaign ads for positive [public relations] and we feel that money really needs to be spent on protection."Join the club.
Coast Guard Rear Admiral James A. Watson also sent a letter to BP officials yesterday, asking them to expedite the cleanup process. Oil continues to encroach on Gulf land, and the NOAA has begun issuing oil spill trajectory forecasts for the next 72 hours. The latest forecast shows "sheens and possible tarballs" scattered across the gulf, and the "uncertainty boundary" reaching about 100 miles off the coast of Cuba. Wreckage that appears to be from the Deepwater Horizon rig has also washed up on the coast of Florida. According to WCBS, a stainless steel tank that had "some oil oozing from it" was found on Panama City beach yesterday. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Aaron Frost said a sticker on the tank read "BP" and had some other numbers on it.
However, things may be looking up for U.S.-British relations after President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron chatted on the phone yesterday. Maybe that war can finally end! Obama assured Cameron that the "unequivocal view was that BP was a multinational global company and that frustration about the oil spill had nothing to do with national identity," and that he has "no interest in undermining BP's value."
Millions of Brits rely on BP as pension funds are heavily invested in the company, and are worried Obama's fiery rhetoric could push investors to think twice before supporting the company. Because it would be statements like saying he would have fired BP CEO Tony Hayward that would keep people from investing—not all those oil covered pelicans. However, we can always rely on environmental disasters to produce some great comedy. Here's this weeks most popular BP parody video from the Upright Citizens Brigade. Happy Sunday!
