According to recent analysis by SkyTruth, Taylor Energy’s estimates on the amount of crude oil spilling from a chronic leak in the Gulf of Mexico are vastly understated. The leak has been pouring into the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Ivan damaged Taylor Energy’s Mississippi Canyon 20-A platform and its pipelines in September 2004. Federal officials say the leak could last through the century and into the next. The problem is, it’s not small. In one instance, satellite analysis conservatively estimated one resulting 21-mile long slick to represent at least 8,100 gallons of crude oil. That same slick was estimated by Taylor Energy to contain only 71 gallons of crude oil.
According to an AP report, in the years since the spill occurred, Taylor Energy sold all its oil and gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico and has repeatedly garnered support from Louisiana politicians while also facing an (ongoing) lawsuit brought by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic to enforce the Clean Water Act against Taylor Energy.
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