It saddens me greatly to report this.
An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and drifted inexorably toward the Gulf Coast on Thursday as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.
The spill was both bigger and closer than imagined — five times larger than first estimated, with the leading edge just three miles from the Louisiana shore. Authorities said it could reach the Mississippi River delta by Thursday night.
"It is of grave concern," David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told The Associated Press. "I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."
The oil slick could become the nation’s worst environmental disaster in decades, threatening hundreds of species of fish, birds and other wildlife along the Gulf Coast, one of the world’s richest seafood grounds, teeming with shrimp, oysters and other marine life.
The leak from the ocean floor proved to be far bigger than initially reported, contributing to a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina. President Barack Obama dispatched Cabinet officials to deal with the crisis.
Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, worried that his livelihood will be destroyed. He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.
"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren’t proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."
The Coast Guard worked with BP, which operated the oil rig that exploded and sank last week, to deploy floating booms, skimmers and chemical dispersants, and set controlled fires to burn the oil off the water’s surface.
The Coast Guard urged the company to formally request more resources from the Defense Department. A BP executive said the corporation would "take help from anyone."
Government officials said the blown-out well 40 miles offshore is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated — about 5,000 barrels, or 200,000 gallons, a day.
At that rate, the spill could easily eclipse the worst oil spill in U.S. history — the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989 — in the three months it could take to drill a relief well and plug the gushing well 5,000 feet underwater on the sea floor.
Ultimately, the spill could grow much larger than the Valdez because Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold many times more oil than a single tanker… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Raw Story>
What now? Spill Baby Spill? BP is responsible. They have to pay for it. But the blame goes beyond BP:
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20 Responses to “Oil Spill Much Worse Than We Thought”
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I just saw Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) on CNN. Sen. Nelson is pushing back at the Obama administration’s five year plan to allow and expand offshore drilling (Barack should have known better- if its a Palin idea it has to be fundamentally screwed up).
Time to rethink this one, Mr. President.
Dean Blanchard, one of the leaders of Louisiana’s shrimp industry, called out BP this morning for not utilizing local people, those who know the waters, to help in the effort to contain the spill.He did lay the onus on BP, saying they were motivated by sheer greed. This was to be the start of the Louisiana shrimp harvest- and now they’re facing economic ruin.
It’s ironic that the Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service was to have their 2010 SAFE Awards on Monday, May 3 in a conference in Houston. The awards have been postponed to a later date
Somehow I think there is no award fro BP this year. I opposed Obama’s plan to expand drilling. I still do. I understand he’s rethinking it. Using local people makes sense to me.
I hope BP gets fined out of existence for them. I don’t buy from them, but for a different reason. When I was pregnant, I drove about 45 mile from my home to work, usually having to pee at least 3 times on the way. BP is the only gas station that wouldn’t allow me to use the bathroom. I threatened to pee in their parking lot; once I lifted up my skirt to show that I was serious, they let me use the employee bathroom. Assholes.
Lisa, I don’t care if they are fined or not, as long as they are required to pay for 100% of the containment effortrs, to pay for 100% of the repair of ALL the environmental damage they have caused, even if it takes a century, and to pay for 100% of the lost salaries to local workers, lost revenues to local businesses, and lost local, state and federal tax receipts.
Lisa good for you, that’s something my wife would do.
Has anyone noticed that those aweful commercials on TV about oil drilling have gone away (for Now). That woman walking so fast and determined like a car salesman telling viewers how safe,how far reaching oil wells were. Why we would hardly know they were there, they had far reaching tentacles so one well would do the job of many.
At the end of the propaganda, she would proclaim ,Jobs, prosperity, security,
FOR AMERICA.
I hope she was on that platform when it blew……. Harsh Huh?
Tim I noticed that. In Lisa’s honor, we should rename the company BPee.
What an absolute and wholly unnecessary disaster. It is a shame that the Obama administration has bowed to the demands of big oil and conservative Republicans by allowing increased offshore drilling. This will be the price for that bad decision. I guess the only time Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, John McCain, and all the other short-sighted conservative Republican and teabagger assaholes who are proponents of :drill, baby, drill!” will finally get the message is when crude oil coats their sidewalks and lawns, pours out of their showers, and backs up through their toilet bowls. These people especially, but also the rest of the country as well, have got to get a clue on oil consumption, and SOON!
Well said, Jack.
Lisa G, good for you! Everyone in that industry should be peed on anyway! 🙂
Tim, I agree that those pro-drilling commercials are disgusting and full of crap. I am sooooo sick of the steady stream of lies and propaganda we get on TV and in print from the oil industry, the coal industry, insurance companies, banks, and pharmaceutical companies! I wish these bastards of bullshit would cease and desist!
Jack, I think we need to see a ‘truth in advertising’ law. 90% of current the ads for everything would be gone.
Oh shit.
And why, to the last minute is BP still ordering Coast Guard Rear Admirals and Presidents around?
Just when Mr. Obama was doing so well.
Got imPalined. Drill, baby, drill.
Ivan, I understand he is rethinking the policy.
Sarah Palin should have to say Drill, Baby, Drill directly to the faces of the family members of the 11 Rig Workers who died.
Gene, I fully agree.
If this spill serves to turn Obama’s course on off-shore drilling, then some good is done. It’s still an unmitigated disaster which should result in criminal charges against the BP execs who did not have sufficient safeguards in effect for this deep of drilling. We can only hope that they’ll get this thing capped, but it may take far too long.
I wonder if Bobby Jindal is happy with drill-baby-drill now? I don’t know if he ever said this (or words to that effect), but he sure went along with the assholes that did.
Marva, the GOPers are still defending it. Obama is less so.
It is heartbreaking, especially since it will affect New Orleans and their surroundings, after all they went through from Katrina. Now this. I do think Obama said today he would have this investigated thoroughly and there would be no new drilling at this time until it could be proven safe.
He did, Mimi. But did he mean it? I don’t see how it can be proven safe.
And who is in this disaster up to their necks? Of course: Halliburton.
All those MSM wise men predicting a Rushpubliscum revival need to look real close at the Gulf and Arizona. I suspect the future of the Rushpubliscum Party is going to burn up in Arizona, and sink to the bottom of the Gulf in a big ball of glop.
Good point, JR. The Repuglicans are shooting themselves in the arse in a way that puts Dem circular firing squads to shame.