Roll On, Oil River

I haven't said much about the continuing Gulf oil spill.

The Exxon Valdez spill was a big disaster because it was close in to a pristine Alaskan estuarine system. The fact is though, that the Valdez spill was always limited in scope to the amount of crude in the hull of the ship, as large as that was. The oil in question was easily accessible on the surface, in a sheltered bay and was not escaping under high pressure along with huge amounts of natural gas or mixed with millions of gallons of equally toxic chemical dispersant, a mile beneath the surface.

The current BP Gulf spill continues unabated after months. The potential for further leakage is unlimited. The ability of BP to do anything about it is questionable. Even their access to the leaking wellhead is limited due to the extreme depth, currents and weather conditions. Now, hurricane season is fast approaching.

It's mostly Republican government down there. They're apologizing to BP for being roughed up by the Feds, cautioning against penalizing the company unduly and even saying the spill isn't really much of a problem. Some have  claimed that the spill is a "natural occurrence" that could have happened without drilling.

If that's the way they feel down there, fine. If there is damage or blame to be placed for it, it is with the Obama administration for allowing the deregulation and lax oversight of offshore, deep water drilling to continue after the oilman's bacchanalia that was the Bush 43 administration ended, right? The obvious answer is to vote the Republicans back into power next November and dump Barry in 2012. Makes sense to me.