BP oil spill still gushing into the Gulf, Obama getting aggressive

BP is still scrambling to plug its oil spill which has allowed somewhere around 5,000 barrels of oil per day for the last 5 weeks to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. Wednesday it’s planning a new tactic which involves pumping drilling fluids into the well. Those fluids are heavier than the crude oil and theoretically would exert enough pressure to stop the leak. So what’s the problem?

This tactic hasn’t ever been tried a mile underwater which adds a certain amount of complexity and imprecision as humans control robots that are doing the work. Also pumping the drilling fluids downward until it meets the upward flowing crude oil will create additional stress on the pipelines. Too much stress and the pipe could rupture, further complicating matters. BP and government scientists are doing what they can to test the procedure prior to moving forward.

The approach is known as "top kill” in the industry and oil experts are predicting a 50-50 chance that “top kill” will effectively seal the well. Those odds aren’t preferable given the already dire effects on the environment but no better approach is surfacing.

Obama is certainly feeling pressure from a public rapidly losing confidence in BP’s ability to plug the oil leak. He told some of his aids to “plug the damn hole” according to Reuters. New information beginning to surface on the relationship between oil drillers and the agency that’s supposed to be regulating them, suffice to say it was a cozy one.

More people are looking toward the government to take over during this crisis and Obama seems to agree, though BP’s expertise is still very necessary. BP’s stocks are suffering horribly and its future is all but certain; the same could be said for sections of wildlife that called the Gulf of Mexico home, and for the people whose livelihoods are ruined because they can’t fish.

Let’s hope that humanity has learned a strong lesson from this embarrassing mistake.