Organization

The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization that deals with public policy and provides recommendations based on sound research. The organization’s premise is to further its three goals of strengthening American democracy, fostering economic and social welfare, and securing a better international system.

Class Blogs

Lauren’s blog was about the opening of a Harry Potter theme park. I really liked the layout of her blog as well as the subject she chose. I especially liked one of the Web sites she found that actually worked as a Harry Potter search engine. I think people interested in this topic would find it useful.

Julie’s blog was about the change of Disney’s MGM theme park to “Disney Hollywood Studios” and a new addition to the theme park. I liked her blog because she seemed to put a lot of effort into it, and it became very interesting because she seemed like she was enjoying finding information about her topic.

Blogs

English reporter Greg Palast wrote an entry in his blog, entitled British Petroleum’s “Smart Pig,” concerning the shut down of British Petroleum’s Alaskan pipes in 2006. In this article, he speculates that the shut down was done on purpose for monetary reasons, not because the pipeline was any more dangerous than it had been over the last several years. He also states that BP has persecuted whistle-blowers in the past and has kept knowledge of corroded pipes secret, when a shut-down would be unprofitable.

The second blog is written by a law professor and is called Environmental Law Prof Blog. In one entry, she refers to an agreement by British Petroleum to pay $70 million to the United States for “environmental crimes.” These crimes are mostly centered on violations of the Clean Air Act in Texas; however, they do include violations associated with pipe breaks in Alaska.

News Story

A news story on CNNMoney.com entitled “Methanol and Crude Spill in Alaska” reports about a toxic methanol spill in Alaska. According to the story, Beyond Petroleum, the company that owned the pipe, was running the methanol through the pipe to remove an ice blockage after it had been cleaned. An unknown mechanism triggered the spill. Nearly 2,000 gallons of a mixture of methanol, water and crude oil was spilled.

Web sites

The Beyond Petroleum Web site lists information such as the company’s products and services, investor information and a section for the press. However, much of the company’s Web site is devoted to environmental responsibility.

Petroleum News is the Web site of a weekly Alaskan newspaper based in Anchorage. It details all of the major oil and gas news in Alaska and northern Canada.

Oil & Gas Journal is an online journal that reports the latest international oil and gas news. Its primary focus is how this news effects investment in oil and gas companies.

Discussion Boards

Energy, one of the discussion forums I found had various topics ranging from alternative energies to the politics behind oil. One topic discussed how alternative energies have major problems or simply are not developed enough for practical use. In my response to the opening, I wrote that it is usually because companies haven’t really found large investments in them to be very lucrative.

Treehugger, an environmental forum had a discussion forum that centered on a BP oil spill in Alaska. Most of the posters were upset about the oil spill and seemed to think that BP was irresponsible. One response to the initial post stated that BP had a history of not revealing spills to the public. Government involvement was also brought up throughout this topic.

Public Relations Class Project

I am creating this blog for a public relations class at the University of Florida. It will be a part of a project involving Beyond Petroleum, a British energy company.