BP thinks the latest Gulf oil is coming from a leaky dome. According to a statement released Thursday afternoon, the sheen discovered above the Deepwater Horizon on Sept. 16 is seeping small globules of oil out of a containment dome that was used in one of the company's many ineffective attempts to cap the Macondo well. The structure is not currently in use, BP said.

It's like 2010 all over again at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, as robots, BP, Transocean and the Coast Guard are getting ready for a reunion in the Gulf. The two companies are getting set to use the underwater Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and satellite technology to get a bead on the size and source of the oil sheen that's hovering above the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

by Chase Lowenstein

Once again, the U.S. Coast Guard is scrambling to make sense of recent releases of oil in the Gulf. The source of the latest sheen, which appeared near the site of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, remains a mystery. But the USCG is investigating the oil to attempt to determine the cause.

BP used dish soap to make oil disappear when it was still in the water. Now that the oil is still appearing on beaches, the British oil giant is looking take a page out of the book of human soap Neutrogena. The company wants to give Louisiana beaches a deep clean. The giant oil company is asking permission from the Coast Guard to dig 4-5 ft. below the surface to clean tar mats and tarballs from the Big Oozy that were discovered last week on a stretch of Louisiana beaches from Port Fourchon to Elmer's Island. The state closed that stretch after the new oil was found.

A week after a legal basting by the feds that makes a settlement for the Deepwater Horizon disaster seem unlikely, BP is making good on a plan that would free up money to pay penalties and cleanup costs. The company announced it was making good on a plan to sell off $5.5 billion if Gulf oil assets Monday morning. The British oil giant is selling its stake in three operational oil drilling areas to Plains Exploration and Prodcution Co., according to a statement released this morning. The sale of the assets is widely believed to be necessary for the company to cover the Big Oozy cleanup. However, BP didn't say as much in their statement.

Isaac may have rolled out the tar mat. On Tuesday, the state announced it was closing a dozen-mile area of coastline between Port Fourchon and Elmer's Island because a new tar mat has emerged in the Gulf of Mexico, and a "large concentration" of tar balls are washing up on the beach. The state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries didn't pin the oil to the Deepwater Horizon and BP, but said it will test the petrol to determine the source.

It's more than two years since the Deepwater Horizon blew, but the damage it caused is still oozing into local politics. When it comes to cleaning up, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is telling the Coast Guard they shouldn't be packing up their things and leaving the shore just yet. Landrieu sent a letter to Commandant Robert Papp today requesting that the Coast Guard stay on the Louisiana coast. In the letter, Louisiana's senior senator calls on the Coast Guard to keep monitoring beaches for new oil, clean up submerged tar mats and clean up boom anchors that are getting in boaters' way off the Coast.

Last week, we learned dispersants could have played a role in disrupting the Gulf ecosystem after the Big Oozy. Now, a cadre of environmental groups want to make sure that if there is another disaster, the effects will be known before the oil starts leaking. In a lawsuit filed agaist the feds Monday, the group that includes the Sierra Club, Gulf Restoration Network and Louisiana Shrimp Association, argues that the federal government did not understand the effects dispersants would have on the environment before spraying it into the Gulf.

by Mary-Devon Dupuy

Back during the Big Oozy, BP touted their use of dispersants to make the oil go away, but skeptics questioned wihether the chemicals would have lasting impacts on the Gulf's ecosystem, and the health of the people who live on the Coast. On the ecosystem front, a new study from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab indicates the skeptics were on the right track. The study, released yeterday, concluded that dispersants disturb marine food chains and ultimately do more harm than good for the Gulf.

When dead dolphins starting washing up on Gulf Coast beaches last year, everyone started crying oil. But a new paper in the journal PloS ONE suggests there was another factor that might have been the ultimate cause of death. Cold water in the Gulf that flowed from the spring snowmelt might have been the final straw for the 186 dolphins - including 86 infants - that died over the first four months of 2011.