For God's Sake, It's Still Gushing...

It is utterly inconceivable that in this day and age of technology we still have a gush of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. Now, the situation is made even worse by Hurricane Alex, listed as a category 2 whipping up waves that inhibit the clean up. Can this oil spill get any worse? Apparently so, according to articles posted this morning from the Associated Press and Reuters. The spill will break the record by surpassing the 140 million gallon mark. Not a record that should have been broken.

Read excerpts from today's news on the oil spill.

BP spill nears a somber record as Gulf's biggest
By TOM BREEN and SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press Writers

NEW ORLEANS – BP's massive oil spill will become the largest ever in the Gulf of Mexico by Thursday based on the highest of the federal government's estimates, an ominous record that underscores the oil giant's dire need to halt the gusher.

The oil that's spewed for two and a half months from a blown-out well a mile under the sea is expected to surpass the 140 million gallon mark, eclipsing the record-setting Ixtoc I spill off Mexico's coast from 1979 to 1980. Even by the lower end of the government's estimates, at least 71.2 million gallons are in the Gulf.

The growing total is crucial to track, in part because London-based BP PLC is likely to be fined per gallon spilled, said Larry McKinney, director of Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi's Gulf of Mexico research institute.

To read more, click here.

BP oil spill cleanup work hampered by hurricane
By Ernest Scheyder Ernest Scheyder – Thu Jul 1, 6:16 am ET

VENICE, Louisiana (Reuters) – Hurricane Alex slowed oil clean-up and containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico, with any permanent fix to BP Plc's ruptured deep-sea oil well still several weeks away.

The hurricane made landfall over northeastern Mexico late on Wednesday, its high winds and the rough seas delaying the British energy giant's plans to expand the volume of oil it is siphoning from the leaking well.

Alex is forecast to dissipate over Mexico in the next day or two.

The bad weather also threatened to push more oil-polluted water onto the shoreline of the U.S. Gulf Coast and forced the halting of skimming, spraying of dispersant chemicals and controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface, officials said.

The worst oil spill in U.S. history is in its 73rd day. It has caused an environmental and economic disaster along the U.S. Gulf Coast, hurting fishing and tourism industries, soiling shorelines and killing wildlife.

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of the Associated Press.

Comments

[Nursing tank]

indeed, a tragic story it was. A federal court order last week blocked the government's initial ban on drilling exploratory and development wells in waters more than 500 feet deep, and a revised plan could still face legal challenges.