A new directive from the EPA on what to do with recovered BP oil, toxins and waste from the oil leak was released today.

Today, the U.S. Coast Guard, with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreement, issued a directive to BP on how the company should manage recovered oil, contaminated materials and liquid and solid wastes recovered in cleanup operations from the BP oil spill.  The U.S. Coast Guard, along with EPA, and in consultation with the states, will hold BP accountable for the implementation of the approved waste management plans and ensure that the directives are followed in the gulf coast states. While the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida are overseeing BP’s waste management activities and conducting inspections, this action today is meant to compliment their activities by providing further oversight and imposing more specific requirements.  More information on the directive here.

What if BP doesn’t comply?  They have already refused to do what they have been ordered to do by the EPA.  EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson will visit the Gulf states tomorrow on her sixth trip there to see how things are going. Well, if she’d watch TV news, she could figure that out.  I’ve been amazed at how the mainstream media is relentlessly pursuing this story, and I know it’s surprising the government too.  On one of his trips to Louisiana President Obama mentioned that the government would be working on this long after the media forgot about it.  It seems like the media won’t be forgetting about it, and that’s the way it should be.  Until this leak is plugged, this should be the #1 story on all newscasts in the country and it should be the #1 priority of President Obama.  Remember, he actually said at one point that it was.

If you want to see a heartbreaking video about why that is and what we are losing,  see the video here.

More interesting than how the EPA is gradually taking control of the situation after all this time are new energy proposals.   Below are two videos of energy proposals from a real scientist, not a politician.  The scientist answered a call for ideas put out by  Andrew Revkin of Dotearth.    The scientist is  Burton Richter, a “recipient of the  1976 Nobel Prize in physics, Richter was a signatory on a letter from 34 Nobel laureates to Obama last year pushing for a big and sustained rise in the  federal investment in energy research.”  He told Revkin he was “unaware of any response from the White House.”  Don’t let that discourage any people with great energy ideas from contacting the White House — it’s the Senate where good ideas go to die.  Here is the energy presentation by Mr. Richter, and below that some more basic information about him and his ideas on new energy legislation.  Also, he’s a Nobel prize winner*.

Part 1

Part 2 is next.

Part 2

His latest book is [...]