That 265,000-gallon oil spill down near Bakersfield? State regulators refer to it as a “surface expression.”
If you include the water and other gunk that were forced up to the surface it’s about 800,000 gallons, but Chevron and the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) are still trying to figure out just how much “expressed” onto the surface.
I have a sick fascination with pleasant-sounding euphemisms for bad things.
Chevron has called the spill a “seep” and mentioned “fluids to the surface,” while state regulators seem to use the Orwellian “surface expression” term.
At least no one is calling it “misplaced energy” … yet.