El derrame de petroleo de BP

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/05/oil_reaches_louisiana_shores.html

It's been over a month since the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico...it happened actually pretty soon after Obama announced an expansion of offshore drilling. Looks like that is officially on the backburner, although the MMS still has been granting permits to go forward and drill in new places in light of this disaster. The oil spill has reached Louisiana and looks like it's headed for Florida now, because scientists have discovered another plume in the ocean.

BP is in charge of cleaning up the mess and stopping the oil from continuing to flow. The government hasn't been really active in this process, saying that BP has the technology and expertise. But really, after multiple failed attempts, like releasing bioaccumulative disperants that are banned in Europe and trying top kill (trying to stop the leakage with mud and concrete and pretty much garbage), not to mention the security failures in the first place, I don't think the corporation knows what's it doing either. BP has also been trying to cover up the extent of the damage like underreporting the average gallons spilt a day and how much shoreline of Louisiana has been damaged. It's really bad timing especially because of the whole marine breeding season. I won't be suprised if dead zones have already ended up forming.

This whole scenairo is just plain eerie as I read Jared Diamond's Collapse. It's an ecological nightmare, brought about human forces to extract resources. The government needs to step in and regulate and appoint a taskforce of the top scientists from universities to solve this problem and deploy the armed forces to clean up and build infrastructure. It's incredibly frustrating when the EPA cannot even regulate or stop BP's actions as these weeks go by. The government has the power to make the case for regulation and safety, but it is difficult to accomplish when this "cozy relationship" is just a very uneven balance of who has the power.