My two cents worth…
Lookit, this thing is an absolute disaster, a man-made disaster, for everywhere the Loop Current and Gulf Stream touches. Fishing/oystering/scalloping in the eastern Gulf will be a thing of the past for about 25 years.
Tarballs on east-coast beaches aren’t anything new; lots of tar and tarballs on beaches in Ireland will be impressive.
BP and the operators of the Deepwater Horizon cut corners; the DoJ criminal investigation will certainly find that. Of course that happened; it’s not much different than driving 65 in a 55 zone….until you crash. Everyone does it.
BP stock has taken a $30bn hit. I hope no one owns a significant amount of BP stock or any oil-company stock. There’s going to be a shaking-out.
But you know what, really, no one’s to blame. Not the execs who were going slightly over the speed-limit and certainly not the crew, many of whom died on the rig. It’s just plain bad luck. Maybe shockingly huge bad luck, but bad luck just the same.
You could try blaming the politicians who allowed deepwater gomex drilling, but if they hadn’t you’d be blaming them for somewhat higher gas prices at the pump. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but most of that blame falls on you and me for wanting to, expecting to, hop in our cars and run to the corner store.
That’s right boys ‘n’girls, we have met the enemy and he is us! (Walt Kelly, Pogo)