BP tussles with latest bid to contain oil spill

Pressing ahead after another setback, British energy giant BP said it hoped to complete its latest effort to contain the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill late on Saturday, while the company's chief executive appeared to dismiss the disaster as "tiny."

The accident at the offshore oil rig is threatening an environmental and economic calamity along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

While London-based BP moved forward with its tricky undersea efforts to redirect the flow of oil, the Obama administration demanded "immediate public clarification" from BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward over the company's intentions on paying costs tied to the accident.

With crude oil gushing unchecked from its blown-out offshore well a mile deep on the floor of the Gulf, BP was attempting to guide undersea robots to insert a small tube into a 21-inch pipe, known as a riser, to funnel the oil to a ship at the surface.

BP's initial attempt to insert the tube into the riser ran into trouble when the metal frame that supports the siphon shifted, BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles told reporters in Robert, La., on Saturday.

At Fourchon, La., workers on Friday place containment booms on a beach in a bid to prevent oil from getting into the nearby marsh at high tide.

(Credit: U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Patrick Kelley)

Suttles said BP hopes to get the siphoning tube inserted late on Saturday night and operational overnight.

"We did have to pull it back to surface [Friday] to make some adjustments so that we could connect it properly to the pipework," Suttles said. "We expect to begin operation of that equipment overnight tonight."

The company's previous attempt to contain the oil using a giant containment dome failed last week.

BP: A "tiny" amount of oil in "a very big ocean"
In an interview published in a British newspaper on Friday, Hayward appeared to play down what threatens to become the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

"The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant that we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total volume of water," Hayward was quoted as saying in Britain's Guardian newspaper.

Hayward also acknowledged his job was on the line and that he would be judged by the company's response to the disaster. BP's shares have tumbled and wiped out $30 billion of market value since the disaster began last month.

The spill began after an April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers. It threatens to eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska as the worst U.S. ecological disaster ever.

Officials said on Saturday that so far the spill has had minimal impact on the shoreline and wildlife.

There have been questions about the implications of current U.S. law that limits energy companies' liability for lost business and local tax revenues from oil spills to $75 million.

In a letter to Hayward, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano cited statements by BP executives that the company was taking responsibility for the spill and would cover spill-related costs.

"Based on these statements, we understand that BP will not in any way seek to rely on the potential $75 million statutory cap to refuse to provide compensation to any individuals or others harmed by the oil spill, even if more than $75 million is required to provide full compensation to all claimants," Salazar and Napolitano wrote.

A member of the Louisiana State Wildlife Response Team cleans oil off a pelican at a mobile wildlife rehab station in Plaquemines Parish, La., on Saturday.

(Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Justin Stumberg)

Earlier, BP spokesman Mark Proegler said oil washed up in Mississippi for the first time in the state on Saturday, when tar balls were discovered at Long Beach. Oil has now contaminated eight beaches in three states after it was also located at Whiskey Island, Louisiana, and several in Alabama.

Seeking to curb the volume of oil reaching the surface, the U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency said they have authorized more undersea use of chemical dispersants at the source of the leak. Dispersants are designed to break the oil into small droplets more likely to sink to the sea floor.

Some environmental groups and the Gulf's shrimping industry have raised concerns about the effect of the chemicals, saying the oil might not sink all the way, but become suspended in the water column and ingested by fish and other wildlife.

A statement by the EPA and Coast Guard sought to allay those fears, saying dispersants are "generally less harmful than highly toxic oil" and biodegrade more quickly.

Cleanup crews continue attacking the oil slick using surface dispersants, skimming and controlled burns.

Inland, BP contractors assisted by flotillas of hired shrimp boats continued to string containment booms around sensitive coastal areas, while National Guard teams with bulldozers and helicopters press on to plug gaps in booms protecting Louisiana's storm-battered shoreline to prevent oil from reaching the fragile marshlands behind them.

Scientists and shrimpers alike have said that contamination of marshes, the foundation for the region's economy and way of life, would be devastating.

The vast but dwindling marshes are the nurseries for shrimp, oysters, crabs, and fish that make Louisiana the leading producer of commercial seafood in the continental United States and a top destination for recreational anglers.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday gave a tongue-lashing to all the companies involved in the spill--BP, Halliburton and Transocean--and said he would not rest until the leak was stopped at its source.

Estimates of the rate of escaping oil range widely from the official BP figure of 5,000 barrels per day, adopted by the government, to 100,000 barrels per day.

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Sprint hangs up on Google's Nexus One

Only one U.S. carrier plans to offer Google's Nexus One to its customers this year now that Sprint has confirmed plans to take a pass.

Sprint customers won't be able to buy Google's Nexus One.

(Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET)

When it launched the Nexus One in January, Google said support from other carriers would arrive, but following the news that Verizon has changed its mind, Sprint told GizmodoMonday that it has also reassessed its plans. Only loyal friend T-Mobile--the original Android launch partner--is supporting the phone with a two-year plan.

Google sells the Nexus One at its own Web site, and that's the exclusive distribution channel for the phone in the U.S. The idea for that site was to offer potential customers a lineup of Nexus phones with wireless plans from several carriers, breaking the chain of exclusive deals for cool phones enjoyed by many a carrier.

However, only T-Mobile fully supports the program with subsidized pricing attached to a two-year contract. Unlocked Nexus Ones that work on T-Mobile and AT&T's networks are available, but despite the fact that the long-term math on an unlocked phone can work out to their advantage, consumers still get sticker shock at unsubsidized pricing.

Sprint, like Verizon, is opting to direct its customers toward a different Android phone, in Sprint's case the HTC Evo 4G phone. A Sprint representative confirmed the decision to drop plans for the Nexus One but declined to comment on what caused those plans to unravel.

While Android momentum shows no signs of slowing down, the Nexus One--a phone designed to change the way carriers do business--is clearly not very popular with carriers.

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Nokia to reorganize...again

The still waters at Nokia's headquarters in Espoo, Finland, belie the upheaval in the company's organizational structure and the waves of change in the mobile phone market.

(Credit: Nokia)

Hit by a tough market and rough competition, Nokia is hoping that yet another reorganization will shake up the status quo.

The Finnish handset maker announced Tuesday that it will reorganize itself into what it calls a "simplified company structure." To better distinguish its various mobile phones and services, Nokia will revamp its business units into three separate entities--Mobile Solutions, Mobile Phones, and Markets.

The new Mobile Solutions unit will handle Nokia's high-end mobile computer and smartphone products, which run under the Symbian and new MeeGo operating systems. The revamped Mobile Phones unit will turn its attention to Nokia's more affordable mobile phones, concentrating on devices that run under the Series 40 OS.

The Services division, now part of the Mobile Solutions unit, will continue to focus on integrating the company's Ovi service into its smartphones and mobile PCs and creating new services to be offered with mobile phones. The Mobile Phones unit will also work with the Services division to add key services such as Ovi Life Tools, Ovi Mail, Ovi Store, and Nokia Money to lower-cost devices.

Both the Mobile Solutions and Mobile Phone units will have their own dedicated management and staff to map out new products and tackle research and development. The existing Markets unit will continue its current mission of handling sales and marketing and supply chain operations.

Nokia's latest organizational structure

(Credit: Nokia)

Along with the change in business units comes a management shakeup. The Mobile Solutions group will be led by Anssi Vanjoki, with its MeeGo Computers segment managed by Alberto Torres and the Symbian Smartphones segment by Jo Harlow. Mobile Phones will be headed by Mary McDowell, replacing Rick Simonson, who will retire from his full-time job at Nokia in June. Finally, the Markets unit will be led by Niklas Savander.

Nokia also has tapped Richard Green to serve as the company's new chief technology officer, responsible for the overall technology strategy. Formerly a vice president with Sun Microsystems and more recently with Nuance Communications, Green will report directly to Anssi Vanjoki.

Effective July 1, this latest reorganization is supposed to help Nokia more quickly launch new devices and software that better integrate with each other and can be targeted to its specific mobile PC, mobile phone, and smartphone product lines.

"Nokia's new organizational structure is designed to speed up execution and accelerate innovation, both short-term and longer-term," Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said in a statement. "We believe that this will allow us to build stronger mobile solutions--a portfolio of products and integrated services that connect people and enable new ways of communicating, sharing and experiencing mobility."

The urge to reorganize itself is certainly nothing new. Nokia has a track record of revamping itself every few years in response to difficult market conditions. In the spring of 2002, the company set up nine different business units for its mobile phones. In early 2004, Nokia trimmed those nine units into four and juggled key management positions. Then in early 2008, Nokia yet again reorganized its business segments and moved around VPs and unit managers.

In recent years, Nokia has been buffeted by a turbulent market, and the recession certainly hasn't helped. Facing lower sales and earnings, the company has been forced to lay off certain staff around the world. Though itslatest financials have been a bit more promising and Nokia continues to enjoy a leading mobile market share, the company is still stuggling against tough competition.

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FCC plans Net neutrality regulations for broadband

Net neutrality regulations are likely to be imposed on broadband providers after all.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski plans to announce details of the plan on Thursday, a senior agency official said. The purpose is to circumvent a recent federal appeals court ruling saying the FCC had no legal authority to punish Comcast for throttling some BitTorrent transfers.

Stung by the recent unanimous ruling, Genachowski will outline a "third way" to implement Net neutrality regulations, the official said in a statement.

"The chairman will seek to restore the status quo as it existed prior to the court decision in order to fulfill the previously stated agenda of extending broadband to all Americans, protecting consumers, ensuring fair competition, and preserving a free and open Internet," the official said.

The confirmation from the FCC comes only hours after two senior Democratic politicians sent a letter to Genachowski saying that imposing Net neutrality regulations on broadband providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon is "essential." And Free Press, the liberal lobby group that's led the fight to hand the FCC more Internet regulatory authority, hastily convened a conference call to warn that Genachowski would be leaving President Obama's Net neutrality promises unfulfilled.

Free Press President Josh Silver called news of Genachowski's planned announcement "extremely welcome," but said his group would wait to see "whether the FCC has gone far enough to protect consumers with this new proposal."

Earlier in the week, The Washington Post reported that Genachowski "has indicated he wants to keep broadband services deregulated," a position favored by companies that say sweeping new regulations will deter investment and be overly burdensome.

The FCC official said Wednesday that Genachowski hopes to balance "a weak Title I and a needlessly burdensome Title II approach." Title I refers to lightly regulated information services; Title II refers to heavily regulated telecommunications services, such as legacy telephone networks.

The aim is to "apply to broadband transmission service only the small handful of Title II provisions that, prior to the Comcast decision, were widely believed to be within the commission's purview," the official said, adding that the plan would have "meaningful boundaries to guard against regulatory overreach."

Reclassifying broadband services as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act would effectively import some of the rules from the analog telephone era and extend those to the modern Internet. The move could the FCC the authority to regulate prices and competitive access under what's known as common carrier rules on these networks. It also would not require Congress to enact a new law.

Reclassification, however, is bitterly opposed by telecommunications companies, who predict it will harm consumers, hinder investment, and cost jobs. Net neutrality laws could endanger 65,000 jobs by 2011, with the total economy-wide impact growing to 1.5 million jobs affected by 2020 because of reduced revenue growth in the broadband sector, according to a recent report (PDF) sponsored by Mobile Future, which counts AT&T as a member. AT&T has lobbied against Net neutrality laws.

Also on Wednesday, FCC commissioner Robert McDowell, a Republican appointee, sent Congress a four-page letter summarizing the history of the FCC's Internet regulation. McDowell cited, for instance, a Clinton administration-era FCC decision concluding that regulating Internet access providers would lead to "negative policy consequences."

CNET's Declan McCullagh and Marguerite Reardon contributed to this report.

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MIT researchers print solar cell on paper

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have successfully coated paper with a solar cell, part of a suite of research projects aimed at energy breakthroughs.

Susan Hockfield, MIT's president, and Paolo Scaroni, CEO of Italian oil company Eni, on Tuesday officially dedicated the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center. Eni invested $5 million into the center, which is also receiving a $2 million National Science Foundation grant, said Vladimir Bulovic, the center's director.

The printed solar cells, which Bulovic showed at a press conference Tuesday, are still in the research phase and are years from being commercialized.

However, the technique, in which paper is coated with organic semiconductor material using a process similar to an inkjet printer, is a promising way to lower the weight of solar panels. "If you could use a staple gun to install a solar panel, there could be a lot of value," Bulovic said.

Vladimir Bulovic, director of the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Research Center, holds a solar cell printed onto a piece of paper to spell MIT. This is the first paper solar cell, according to MIT and Eni.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET)

The materials MIT researchers used are carbon-based dyes and the cells are about 1.5 percent to 2 percent efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. But any material could be used if it can be deposited at room temperature, Bulovic said. "Absolutely, the trick was coming up with ways to use paper," he said.

MIT professor Karen Gleason headed the research and has submitted a paper for scientific review but it has not yet been published. MIT and Eni said this is the first time a solar cell has been printed on paper.

During the press conference, Scaroni said that Eni is funding the center because the company understands that hydrocarbons will eventually run out and believes that solar can be a replacement. At the same time, he said, current technologies are not sufficient.

"We are not very active (in alternative energy) today because we don't believe today's technologies are the answer of our problems," he said.

Quantum dots
The paper solar cells are one of many avenues being pursued around nanoscale materials at the Eni-MIT Solar Frontiers Center. Layers of these materials could essentially be sprayed using different manufacturing techniques to make a thin-film solar cell on a plastic, paper, or metal foils.

Silicon, the predominant material for solar cells, is durable and is made from abundant materials. Many companies sell or are developing thin-film solar cells, which are less efficient but are cheaper to manufacture.

Exploring nanomaterials for a solar breakthrough (photos)

       

During a tour, Bulovic showed one of the center's labs, where researchers use a laser to blast light at nanomaterials for picoseconds. A picosecond is one trillionth of a second. The laser provides data on how the light excites electrons in the material, which will provide clues as to whether it will make a good solar cell material, he explained.

MIT is focusing much of its effort on quantum dots, or tiny crystals that are only a few nanometers in size. A human hair is about 50,000 to 100,000 nanometers thick.

By using different materials and sizes, researchers can fine-tune the colors of light that quantum dots can absorb, a way of isolating good candidates for quantum dot solar cells.

Researchers at the center are also looking at different molecules or biological elements which can act as solar cell material. These cheap thin-film materials can be used on their own or added to silicon-based solar panels to enhance the efficiency, Bulovic said.

If 0.3 percent of the U.S. were covered with photovoltaics with 10 percent efficiency, solar power could produce three times the country's needs, including a transition to electric vehicles, Bulovic said. For example, the easement strip on highways could be coated with material that could capture energy from the sun.

But don't expect a revolution in solar power tomorrow.

"I'm giving you a whole bunch of hype," Bulovic said while explaining solar's potential during the tour. "It usually takes 10 years from the time between when you invent something and you commercialize it." He estimated that many of the technologies in the labs were in the first three years of a five-to-seven-year development cycle.

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