This is a major disaster:
Officials worked Sunday to try to stop oil leaks coming from the deepwater well drilled by a rig that sank last week near Louisiana, but they acknowledged that it could be months before they are able to stem the flow of what is now about 42,000 gallons of oil a day pouring into the Gulf of Mexico.
The response team is trying three tacks: one that could stop the leaks within two days, one that would take months and one that would not stop the leaks but would capture the oil and deliver it to the surface while permanent measures are pursued.
Officials determined through weather patterns that the sheen of oil and water, now covering 600 square miles, would remain at least 30 miles from shore for the next three days. But states along the Gulf Coast have been warned to be on alert.
I’ve actually been following this off and on the past couple of days and forgot to write about it, and while it is a disaster, I will say that the BP folks either have a very good PR team or are actually very sincere about cleaning up the mess and mitigating the damage. Or both. I remembered reading some quotes and thinking there was no attempt at blameshifting or shirking responsibility, just point by point outlines of what they were doing to try to contain the mess.
Not that that makes this less of a disaster, but that was the impression I got from the BP folks.