I saw this in the Saturday NY Times...on my way back east from Santa Barbara. For whatever it is worth, on Friday, I think, maybe Thurs, I noticed a pretty strong oil smell on campus. But, that often just depends on the wind, as there is one of the largest natural seeps in the world just SW of campus. The article suggested that it was from land, coming down the rivers, but I would not rule out a natural ocean seep or tanker or whatever.
By the way, I was lucky to get home to suburbia yesterday....ours was one of very few flights to arrive Friday about 3:30 PM...poor visbility, snow covered runway....then an hour+ wait because the drive to the airport was 2 hours rather than 45 mins, and the drive home was 2 1/2 hours on back roads because we thought the highway might be closed....but, I would call the New Jersey blizzard state of emergency a big over-reaction...there were no blizzard conditions in New Jersey or New York, with the possible exception of Long Island...we got a foot of snow, it is now windy enough for blizzard conditions, but the snow came before the wind. Now Jan 1996 here and Feb 6 1978 in Rhode Island...those were blizzards....I was in each. Today's may exceed 1978 in southern Rhode Island and Cape Cod...because the worst of 1978 was northern Rhode Island and parts of Massachusetts...Rhode Island was closed for almost a week...really.
Chris