Lest I be thought alarmist, (me?), NBC Nightly News last night cited two experts, geophysicists or some such, who said that if BP can’t successfully cap its leak, oil will flow unimpeded into the Gulf of Mexico for our lifetimes and longer. BP’s top kill effort, today maybe, is given a sixty to seventy percent chance of success by its own engineers, and you have to worry that they’re putting a good face on it.
I’m not given to prayer unless there’s a direct and immediate benefit to me, but I’ll say a little prayer on this one. What’s to lose? I’ll also cross my fingers.
NBC also had a guest, the former president of Shell Oil, who said leaks like this are actually rather common. This one gets press because it’s here and already destroying vast wetlands and a fishing and tourism industry. The Shell guy said a comparable leak in the Gulf of Arabia a couple of years ago was treated by a fleet of supertankers which siphoned the leaking oil from the surface, separated it from the sea water, and headed for port and the refineries. He thinks we should be lining up tankers now.
I take it the Arabian leak was finally plugged, though it’s also the depth and cold that make our blowout particularly hard to stop.
Side bar: In his press conferences on this and other subjects, I notice that Obama’s hair is already turning gray, and not just a little. His has to be the toughest job in the world. Sadly, too many Americans expect him to fix every national problem in a matter of weeks, including a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico.
He's missing a photo-op: he should be standing on a shrimp boat wearing a mask and snorkle with a Mission Accomplished sign in the background.
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