Scientists have discovered damage to deep-sea coral that may be caused by BP's huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The findings, in connection with a university study on dispersants, are the first potential evidence of harm being caused to deepwater organisms.

Dead and dying coral formations  were found this week 7 miles from the blown-out well, covered with a brown substance similar to oil, say researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. They were on a NOAA research cruise.

The suspicion is that the substance is oil spilled from the well, but tests must be conducted to make the connection. <Clarification: according to the New York Times, researchers believe the coral was killed by the oil spill but don't consider the brown substance to actually be oil>.

Rod Bremby

A pollution issue that made a hero out of a Kansas governor and helped propel her into Obama's cabinet has made a martyr out of the public servant who actually took the courageous action at the heart of the controversy.

Today, three years after he drew a line at the state's border and refused to let a coal-fired power plant greatly expand its operations and the pollutants/greenhouse gases it would bring,Kansas Dept. of Health and Environment Sec. Rod Bremby was fired by the current governor.

For those of us who have closely followed the issue—often marveling at the courage Bremby displayed—his dismissal by Gov. Mark Parkinson is a political tragedy. Bremby deserves a medal, not a cashiering.

Here's why anyone who cares about our nation's clean energy future should care about Bremby and this issue.

With the national election less than a week hence, we at Earthjustice are asking readers to practice their voting skills in advance—by voting now for our project idea at Free Range's Youtopia Contest.

Like many other groups trying to do life-changing work, Earthjustice is competing for a grant from Youtopia to underwrite a promotional idea in support of our mission. It's a contest to be decided by you and others who cast votes for the idea of their choice. And we're hoping you'll choose ours. Here's the concept:

Some of the worst air polluters have dodged controls for decades, pumping dirty air that makes playing outside a dangerous game for kids across the U.S. Though 2011 brings unprecedented opportunities to clean up these polluters, only public pressure can counteract the polluter lobby's influence. A humorous video can help: in a dodgeball game between kids and pollution, large men dressed as mercury, soot, and other pollutants hurl dodgeballs labeled with diseases (e.g. asthma ) while kids counter with balls marked "health" and "clean air". The message: join the kids' team to ensure dirty industries don't dodge clean air rules again.

Time is short—voting ends at midnight this Sunday—so please visit the Youtopia site now and follow directions. There are more than 150 world-changing ideas, but I think you'll agree with us that a vote for the Earthjustice proposal will go a long way towards supporting our role of using the law to protect the earth.
 

BP's Tony Hayward (f) and Bob Dudley

Today's health headline is about how cigarette smoking causes Alzheimer's, but after reading the latest diatribe from BP's latest CEO, I wonder if there isn't another culprit -- oil.

Just a few months ago, at the height of BP's oil gusher into the Gulf of Mexico, then-CEO Tony Hayward drew angry public reaction—and ultimately had to resign—for making a number of insensitive statements, such as wanting his life back and saying the spill was tiny compared to the ocean. Even President Obama called for Hayward's head.

But, that was then when oil was flooding wetlands, tarring wildlife and leading the news. Since then, the oil well's been capped, the oil has mostly disappeared from public view (although much if not most of it has retreated to the ocean depths), and the public itself is no longer acting or reacting to what continues as America's biggest oil spill, nor is there any apparent reaction to the Obama administration's decision to let deepwater oil drilling resume.

An estimated 20 percent of Atlantic bluefin tuna, spawned this year in the Gulf of Mexico, died because of BP's oil spill according to an assessment based on satellite images.

The European Space Agency, in league with the Ocean Foundation, reached that conclusion after collecting satellite images and other data from the start of the spill on Apr. 20 until Aug. 29. The nearly-200 million gallon spill occurred at the height of the spawn and affected one of two areas in which the tuna spawn.

Already under great stress because of overfishing and the impacts of longline fishing, the oil spill has put the tuna in such peril that the National Marine Fisheries Service is conducting its own year-long study into whether it should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.
 

Earthjustice usually stays clear of election-year politicking, but we're making a strong exception this year because of a California ballot proposition that would kill the nation's strongest climate change regulations.

Financed by Texas oilmen, Proposition 23 would suspend A.B. 32, which has put in place the nation's strongest standards governing greenhouse gas emissions. If it passes, this deadly proposition could have impacts that cascade across the state of California, nation and even into the international community. Here's a quick look at what Prop 23 could do if it passes:

• Kill Clean Energy Jobs: More than 500,000 Californians now work in clean tech jobs in the state, and since 2005, California green jobs have grown 10 times faster than other sectors of the state's economy.

Only days before BP's oil well blew in the Gulf of Mexico, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar was on the Gulf Coast wearing a 10-gallon cowboy hat and preaching the good news about oil drilling in the Gulf. Soon after his sermon, Salazar was eating those words, hat in hand, as millions of gallons of oil flooded coastal waters.

Well, today, the hat's back on and assurances are flowing. Salazar has lifted the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf just weeks after the BP well was officially shut down. Recall that President Obama imposed the moratorium as oil gushed uncontrollably and as revelations poured forth about scandal, duplicity and outright incompetence within the oil industry and the government regulatory system.

Salazar thinks he's fixed what ails the system by renaming the errant agency (from "Minerals Management Service" to "Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement") and carving it into three; and by issuing tough new regulations. In truth, these are good moves, but they don't add up to a cure of the fundamental problem: deepwater drilling itself.

"Deepwater drilling is intrinsically dangerous," observes Earthjustice attorney David Guest, who is our frontline attorney in dealing with Gulf oil spill issues. David is flummoxed that the federal government is preparing to turn the spigot back on only weeks after BP's was finally turned off. Says David:

It ain't easy being an Atlantic bluefin tuna—the tastiest, priciest and perhaps unluckiest tuna of them all. A good specimen can bring $100,000, so it's hunted relentlessly by Atlantic fishing fleets. More damage is done in the Gulf of Mexico, where longline fishermen inadvertently pillage tuna stock while seeking other species.

Until last April, the beleaguered fish could at least count on a spot in the Gulf to spawn, but—if you remember—April is when the BP oil well exploded, gushing hundreds of millions of gallons of oil directly into the tuna's boudoir, at the height of their spawning season.

It's anybody's guess how this year's tuna spawn was affected by all that oil, mixed with nearly 200,000 gallons of toxic dispersant, but now a government agency has announced its intent to take away the guesswork. In direct response to pressure from environmental groups.

Hungary's red sludge aftermath

As my colleague Raviya Ismail described yesterday, the flood of toxic red sludge in Hungary is ominously similar to the toxic coal ash flood two years ago that swept out of a ruptured reservoir into a Tennessee town. But, the comparisons don't stop there.

The size and toxicity of the red sludge are also being compared to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They are roughly the same volume and can be harmful in high concentrations. They both have had immediate lethal effects on human and animal species, and are expected to have long-lasting harm. Moreover, in both cases, the governments involved have downplayed their impacts.

Hungarian officials are declaring the red sludge menace to be under control and without the feared consequences, even though at least seven people have died and aquatic life in various rivers and creeks have been wiped out. Read the following three graphs from a news report today and ask yourself if they sound familiar:

A couple of Texas oilmen carrying carpetbags full of cash are being met at the California border by a couple of powerful Republicans who don't like what they're up to.

And what those fossil-fueled rascals are up to is killing California's burgeoning green economy.

The oilmen and others of their ilk are trying to buy enough votes in the November election to suspend a state law that sets limits on greenhouse gas emissions from refineries in the state. A ballot measure, Proposition 23, that is funded by oil interests, would put those limits on hold until California achieves an unemployment level above 5.5 percent for four consecutive quarters. Unemployment now hovers about 12 percent.

California's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger is furious at this blatant attempt to do to his state what oil interests did to the nation: smother energy policies that would start shifting consumers to clean energy alternatives.