Breaking: Another Gulf Oil Platform Explodes

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

Another oil platform has exploded in the Gulf, and details are still coming in about today’s explosion. Firefighters are battling the blaze on the platform, and there are reports of a mile-long oil sheen extending from the site. As the Houston Chronicle reports, platform owner Mariner Energy has been involved in 13 accidents in the Gulf since 2006.

Stay tuned, we’ll have more details on today’s explosion as they come in.

Perhaps it’s a good time for a reminder of just how many pipelines (33,000 miles), wells (50,000), platforms and rigs (thousands of abandoned ones alone) are out there in the Gulf, each with its own potential for disaster. And did we mention it’s hurricane season?

Here’s what it looks like out there, from our September/October issue:Click for larger versionClick here for a larger version.

Special Report: Check out our in-depth investigation of BP’s crimes in the Gulf, “BP’s Deep Secrets.”

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Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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