BP Gusher, R.I.P., (4.20-9.19, 2010)
Yesterday, the 152nd day since the BP well first began gushing, its leaking pipeline was finally sealed for good. We hope.
The final tally was an estimated 205 million gallons of oil unexpectedly added to the Gulf of Mexico.
Left Over Boom
Yet yesterday’s news that a relief well had successfully tapped the leaking pipeline 13,000 feet below the surface five months after it was begun (the second well – remember the government “demanding it!” — was halted a few weeks ago, at 10,000 feet) was greeted around the world with little more than a yawn. Other stories now dominate the headlines ranging from Pakistani floods to fashion weeks, tea baggers to trapped miners and, in Louisiana, of course, all things Black and Gold.
But the mess in the Gulf is still a big story to many. Or it should be. Unless you believe that in retrospect BP chief Tony Hayward may have been right when he claimed back in May that the oil then spewing from the Macondo well would “be of little consequence.”
(For the rest of my dispatch, go to takepart.com)
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