E2 Round-up: Feds confirm undersea oil plumes, Interior faces lawsuit over drilling freeze, BP faces heat for buying Web search terms, and BP increases amount of oil captured

“It was on May 30 that Tony Hayward, BP’s CEO and in-house gaffe machine, first went on the record denying that any hidden oil plumes were swirling through the Gulf. ‘The oil is on the surface,’ he said. ‘There aren’t any plumes.’ But that could be true only if some basic rules of chemistry and arithmetic had been repealed,” Time’s piece states.

But it later adds:

“The report is not entirely without some positive news. For now at least, NOAA says the oil is in ‘very low concentrations,’ and with the exception of one sample at one site at a depth of about 1,000 ft (300 m), that concentration drops off the deeper the plume goes. That makes it less likely that much oil can sweep down to the Gulf floor, and that could spare sensitive areas like the DeSoto Canyon, a nutrient-rich trench near the spill site that is a breeding and feeding ground for all manner of life forms.”

Interior Department facing lawsuit over deepwater drilling ban

Hornbeck Offshore Services Inc. is seeking an injunction in federal court that would lift the federal ban on new deepwater drilling permits, which is scheduled to last six months while a White House-created commission probes the BP oil spill.

The administration has also halted 33 existing deepwater drilling projects.

“’Hornbeck is suffering immediate irreparable harm,’ including the ability to retain trained staff for its vessels and offshore operations, which have been idled by the ban on drilling in waters deeper than 500 feet, according to the complaint,” reports Bloomberg in this story about the lawsuit.

Consumer watchdogs questioning BP’s purchase of Web search terms

The BBC has a nice summary of the controversy that has been simmering for days about the company buying up terms on popular search engines including Google and Yahoo.

“The oil giant has shelled out an undisclosed amount of money to purchase relevant phrases like ‘oil spill’ and ‘oil disaster’ to ensure its site dealing with America’s biggest environmental catastrophe floats to the top of the search page ahead of millions of other results,” their piece states.

It continues:

“There is nothing sinister about the effort says BP, claiming the move aims to ‘assist those who are most impacted and help them find the right forms and the right people quickly and effectively.’”

But others aren’t so sure. “John Simpson over at Consumer Watchdog is worried some users will not be able to differentiate between a sponsored link like BP’s and other search results,” BBC notes.

BP has increased the amount of oil being captured

“BP Plc’s seabed containment cap collected 7,850 barrels of oil through noon CDT on Tuesday which, if sustained, would reach the company’s highest daylong collection rate yet,” Reuters reports.

“The system collected collected 14,800 barrels of oil in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, the highest capture rate since the system was installed last week. If Tuesday’s rate is sustained, the total would reach 15,700 barrels for the 24-hour period.”