The Gulf is Screwed

According to the NY Daily News (about as conservative a news source as you can find), the US government is no longer going to rely on BP's Gulf leak estimates. It's mind numbing that the Federal government ever did rely on BP's numbers. This might be an indication that the administration wants to hold BP's feet to the fire when it starts fining the oil giant. Any fines will be based on the total amount of oil leaked. The company's estimates have been embarrassingly low since the Deepwater Horizon rig first caught fire, and have come up against public sector and academic numbers from day one. With the end of the leak nowhere in sight, and the relief well far from being a sure thing, nobody really seems to know what to do. BP has only been collecting roughly half of what is leaking with a new "top hat" apparatus, if the new Federal estimate is anywhere near accurate. That would be hopeful news, but the new Federal estimate is that more than 1 million gallons a day is flooding into the Gulf of Mexico. BP's silly and obviously self serving statement late last month that the leak's size was roughly 210,000 thousand gallons a day seems to have convinced nearly everyone to stop taking them seriously. Meanwhile, the American people are beginning to see the repercussions of unregulated deep water drilling.

I'm pissed, but I don't know who to blame. I'm betting big oil lobbyists are at the root of the problem, but that's just my knee jerk reaction. Sooner or later I'm going to have to try and post a calm rant explaining why I distrust lobbyists. One way or another, someone has to be held accountable for this:

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Want to have some dirty fun? Play with this, and keep in mind that the Exxon Valdez spilled, best case scenario, about 11 million gallons. The USGS low ball estimate, as of this posting, is clearly out of date. We've already beaten the pants off that number with the Deepwater Horizon catastro****.