Another Oil Platform Explodes

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Follow Kate Sheppard, Mac McClelland, and Julia Whitty on Twitter for the latest updates on the explosion.

News on this is just trickling in, but apparently there’s been another oil platform explosion* off the Louisiana coast. The New Orleans station WDSU reports that the Coast Guard has been called in, and the 13 workers on the rig have been accounted for.

The explosion happened 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay at around 9 a.m., on a rig owned by Mariner Energy. There aren’t a whole lot of details yet; will update as they come in.

The Houston Chronicle has more.

* Post has been updated to clarify that it was a platfrom, not a rig, that exploded this morning.

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We just keep seeing it happen: Newsrooms owned by billionaires and corporations are spinning their own narratives, overwriting the truth, following only stories that keep them in the pocket of those with even more power.

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Our mission is to find the truth and amplify it. That’s why we’re independent, nonprofit, and, crucially, funded by readers. The investigations on our website will always be free to read, watch, and listen to, but our newsroom is powered by readers who pitch in what they can so we can keep asking the hard questions.

Can you chip in today?

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