BP Mulls Its Next Move as Oil Gusher Persists
At least 200,000 gallons of oil spurted into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday. Another 200,000-plus will spurt today. BP has yet to find a resolution to this crisis which has lasted three weeks. And the massive slick is on the move.
The huge slick from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatened Louisiana shores west of the Mississippi Delta on Monday as BP Plc said it was trying multiple options to control the leak, without being sure that they would work.
Fears mounted of a prolonged and growing environmental and economic disaster for the U.S. Gulf Coast after a weekend setback in an initial undersea move by the oil giant to contain the spill, which could become the worst in U.S. history.
I think we’re well past that point. James Fallows illustrates well just how big the floating oil slick is currently, which you must take in the context of the fact that it expands by at least 210,000 gallons every single day. Overlaying the slick on entire large metro areas shows its expansiveness.
As oil is expected to make a big landfall in the next 24 hours, now Bobby Jindal wants to build up barrier islands on the Louisiana coast. This wasn’t such a concern when environmentalists called for it to slow down hurricanes. But when a gargantuan oil spill will hit the coast in a day, surely we can dredge the entire Mississippi River on a moment’s notice. That’s American organizational planning for you, Southern Republican-style.
Among the next set of strategies for BP is the “top kill” solution of injecting mud or cement into the well, and the “junk shot” solution of… injecting rubber into the well. The entire idea is to basically clog the leak. There’s one hazard associated with that:
The danger with such maneuvers, Suttles said Saturday, is that they could potentially damage the blowout preventer and cause a complete loss of well control that could intensify the leak by an order of magnitude. Oil company officials had told members of Congress that 40,000 barrels of oil would likely spill every day if the well became a gusher.
Given BP’s track record so far, do you really want to trust them with this solution?
UPDATE: Paul Krugman is very good on this today.
BP Mulls Its Next Move As Oil Gusher Persists
At least 200,000 gallons of oil spurted into the Gulf of Mexico yesterday. Another 200,000-plus will spurt today. BP has yet to find a resolution to this crisis which has lasted three weeks. And the massive slick is on the move.
The huge slick from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill threatened Louisiana shores west of the Mississippi Delta on Monday as BP Plc said it was trying multiple options to control the leak, without being sure that they would work.
Fears mounted of a prolonged and growing environmental and economic disaster for the U.S. Gulf Coast after a weekend setback in an initial undersea move by the oil giant to contain the spill, which could become the worst in U.S. history.
I think we’re well past that point. James Fallows illustrates well just how big the floating oil slick is currently, which you must take in the context of the fact that it expands by at least 210,000 gallons every single day. Overlaying the slick on entire large metro areas shows its expansiveness.
As oil is expected to make a big landfall in the next 24 hours, now Bobby Jindal wants to build up barrier islands on the Louisiana coast. This wasn’t such a concern when environmentalists called for it to slow down hurricanes. But when a gargantuan oil spill will hit the coast in a day, surely we can dredge the entire Mississippi River on a moment’s notice. That’s American organizational planning for you, Southern Republican-style.
Among the next set of strategies for BP is the “top kill” solution of injecting mud or cement into the well, and the “junk shot” solution of… injecting rubber into the well. The entire idea is to basically clog the leak. There’s one hazard associated with that:
The danger with such maneuvers, Suttles said Saturday, is that they could potentially damage the blowout preventer and cause a complete loss of well control that could intensify the leak by an order of magnitude. Oil company officials had told members of Congress that 40,000 barrels of oil would likely spill every day if the well became a gusher.
Given BP’s track record so far, do you really want to trust them with this solution?
UPDATE: Paul Krugman is very good on this today.
