Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Much Worse Than Reported

Darkest day of oil nightmare!


I’m glad to hear that President Obama still believes that Domestic Oil Drilling is still an important of the country’s overall strategy for energy security.

Obama is dead on right on this issue and I fully support his position. Mark it down folks that I agree with the president because this won’t happen much again.

From The New York Post:

The disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill pushed into the Mississippi River Delta yesterday with high winds and rough seas complicating efforts to slow the toxic sludge's spread, as the first oil-slicked animals were found amid fears of an environmental nightmare.

Experts prepared for the worst as choppy seas threatened to force the goop deep into the marshlands along Louisiana's southern coast over the weekend and push oily water over the booms put in place to contain it.

"It's of grave concern," said David Kennedy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "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."

Among the developments yesterday:
* President Obama put all new offshore oil leases on hold for 30 days until safeguards are put in place, but indicated he did not plan to flip-flop on a drilling moratorium he recently lifted in other areas.

* Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said those responsible for the disaster -- which could surpass the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill as the worst in US history -- would be held accountable. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the federal government will continue to push BP -- the oil company that owned the rig -- for a strong response.

* In February 2009, BP wrote a report saying that an accident was "unlikely" to happen at the destroyed platform. Critics called it evidence the company wasn't prepared for the catastrophe.

* The governors of Louisiana and Florida declared states of emergency, mobilizing the National Guard as the oil made landfall. Massive military cargo planes were set to dump oil-dispersing chemicals on the spill.

* The first oil-coated bird -- a young northern gannet -- was saved and brought into an animal-rescue facility where its blackened wings were scrubbed with soap. Experts said the slick could devastate the Gulf's dolphin population, many of whom are giving birth now, and wipe out the endangered Kemp's Ridley turtle.

* BP began using underwater chemicals to break up the oil before it reaches the surface.

* Experts estimated the cleanup could cost $3 billion or more.

So far, 1.6 million gallons of oil have been released into the sea.

Officials say more than 5,000 barrels -- or 200,000 gallons -- of oil a day were continuing to bubble from a well beneath the Gulf that was ripped open following the explosion of an offshore oil rig on April 20 that killed 11 workers. But some industry experts said the spill could be even five times larger than those estimates.
Full story

Via New York Post


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