Well, disappointment and disgust, too. This Gulf of Mexico disaster is going to have a tremendous negative impact on the wildlife, on the eco-system, on employment, on the economy. What it will do to fishing and tourism, and even the lives of people who live along the coast is just devastating, and the clean-up will not be easy with the sheer volume of crude they are talking about.
Document: BP didn't plan for major oil spill
MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER — British Petroleum once downplayed the possibility of a catastrophic accident at an offshore rig that exploded, causing the worst U.S. spill in decades along the Gulf coast and endangering shoreline habitat.
In its 2009 exploration plan and environmental impact analysis for the well, BP suggested it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious damage to beaches, fish and mammals.
At least 1.6 million gallons of oil have spilled so far since the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, according to Coast Guard estimates. One expert said Friday that the volume of oil leaking from the well nearly 5,000 feet below the surface could actually be much higher, and that even more may escape if the drilling equipment continues to erode.
"The sort of occurrence that we've seen on the Deepwater Horizon is clearly unprecedented," BP spokesman David Nicholas told The Associated Press on Friday. "It's something that we have not experienced before ... a blowout at this depth."
Amid increased fingerpointing Friday, efforts sputtered to hold back the giant oil spill seeping into Louisiana's rich fishing grounds and nesting areas, while the government desperately cast about for new ideas for dealing with the growing environmental crisis. President Barack Obama halted any new offshore drilling projects unless rigs have new safeguards to prevent another disaster.
10 Animals Most at Risk from Gulf Oil Spill
(Just click on the link for the list and photos of the magnificent species that are at risk. It's just heartbreaking.)
Louisiana shrimpers sue BP over oil spill
The suit was filed on behalf of two commercial shrimp fishermen named in the suit, and all other coastal Louisiana residents whose livelihoods are threatened by the spill.
The Coast Guard estimates that 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) of crude oil a day is gushing from the sea floor where the blowout occurred, and authorities have said it could take weeks to cap the leak as BP mounts what it calls the largest oil spill containment operation in history.
The suit names as defendants BP, which holds the lease to the offshore well; Swiss-based Transocean Ltd (RIGN.S) (RIG.N), owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that exploded in flames on April 20 and collapsed two days later; and Halliburton Energy Services Inc (HAL.N), which the suit says was engaging in cementing operations of the well and well cap.
The complaint says Halliburton "improperly and negligently performed these duties, increasing the pressure at the well and contributing to the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill."
Anyone who wants to still put forward "Drill, baby, drill" is just mining an empty hole. Eleven oil riggers lost their lives in the pursuit of oceanic black gold--and a whole lot of damage will be done before this is over. It always was overly-simplistic. It was always a joke--oil is fungible. It can be sold to anyone, whether it was drilled here or not, because the companies doing it are international, so it doesn't really even benefit the US, especially. The process isn't entirely safe, and it isn't especially clean. And the effort that goes into extracting it from difficult and dangerous areas would probably be better put into something that doesn't screw with our environment in the long term with global warming, or fuck (and I strongly mean fuck) up our ecology and economy with careless disasters. The alleged "profit" from drilling is absolutely bullshit when weighed against the cost of something like this.
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