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No remedy in sight, President Barack Obama on
Sunday warned of a "massive and potentially unprecedented
environmental disaster" as a badly damaged oil well a mile deep in
the Gulf of Mexico spewed a widening and deadly slick toward
delicate wetlands and wildlife. He said it could take many days to
stop.


      Obama rushed to southern Louisiana to inspect forces arrayed
against the oil gusher as Cabinet members described the situation
as grave and insisted the administration was doing everything it
could. Then he took a helicopter ride over the water to view the
30-mile oil slick caused by as much as 210,000 gallons of crude
gushing into the Gulf each day.


      The spill threatens not only the environment but also the
region's abundant fishing industry, which Obama called "the
heartbeat of the region's economic life." 


As of now, it appeared
little could be done in the short term to stem the oil flow, which
was also drifting toward the beaches of neighboring Mississippi and
farther east along the Florida Panhandle. Obama said the slick was
9 miles off the coast of southeastern Louisiana.

      BP Chairman Lamar McKay raised faint hope that the spill might
be stopped more quickly by lowering a hastily manufactured dome to
the ruptured wellhead in the next six to eight days, containing the
oil and then pumping it to the surface. Such a procedure has been
used in some well blowouts but never at the mile-deep waters of
this disaster.


      The leaking well was not only an ecological disaster but a
potential political hazard, as well, depending on how the public
judges the Obama administration's response. In 2005, President
George W. Bush stumbled in dealing with Hurricane Katrina in the
Gulf and left the impression of a president distant from immense
suffering. His presidency never recovered.


      Obama vowed that his administration, while doing all it could to
mitigate the disaster, would require well owner BP America to bear
all costs. 


"Your government will do whatever it takes for as long
as it takes to stop this crisis," he said.


      "BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill,"
Obama said after a Coast Guard briefing in Venice, a Gulf Coast
community serving as a staging area for the response. He stood
before cameras in a heavy rain, water dripping from his face.


      The president also stopped to talk with six local fishermen and
said the challenge is "How do we plug this hole?" After that, he
said, protecting the estuaries would be the next priority.


      "We're going to do everything in our power to protect our
natural resources, compensate those who have been harmed, rebuild
what has been damaged and help this region persevere like it has
done so many times before," Obama said.


      Arriving in New Orleans, the president shunned helicopter travel
because of a threat of tornadoes and drove to Venice to tour a
close-to-the-water staging area where the government and BP were
trying to keep the slick from causing even more damage.


      Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said any comparison
between the ruptured BP oil well and Katrina was "a total
mischaracterization" and that the government had taken an "all
hands on deck" approach from the beginning.


      Administration officials have been at pains to explain that
Obama's late March decision to expand offshore oil exploration
could be altered as a result of the spill and that stricter safety
rules would doubtless be written into leases.


      In reality, oil companies and the government lack the technology
to prevent the damage from a well gushing masses of oil, killing
wildlife and tainting a delicate ecosystem. The oil washing ashore
could ruin the coastal fishing industry.


      While the government has mobilized masses of equipment to scoop
up, burn and block the oil from moving ashore, the tools to contain
the ecological and economic damage washing toward the coast were
akin to big-game hunting with a pellet gun.


      Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant, said the volume of
spewing oil could climb to 100,000 barrels a day in the event of a
total wellhead failure, a much greater breach than is believed to
exist now. He spoke to the obvious urgency of stopping the flow of
crude.


      "The difference between 1,000 and 5,000 barrels a day (original
estimates), when you look at the potential discharge of 100,000,
leads me to believe that there are a lot of inaccuracies associated
with trying to estimate flow from a broken pipe at 5,000 feet,"
Allen said. "That's the reason it's so very, very important we
focus on stopping this leak right away."


      White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters with the
president that Obama was briefed on the spill for 50 minutes during
the flight from Washington by homeland security and
counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and energy adviser Carol
Browner. Chief of staff Rahm Emanuel rounded out the presidential
party.


      Gibbs said Brennan and Browner went "through a series of
scenarios," while Obama wanted to know "what was the latest on
our first, our biggest priority, which is capping the well."


      Interior Secretary Ken Salazar tried to assure Americans that
BP, rather than taxpayers, would pay for what will likely become
the nation's worst oil disaster.


      The bill is going to be an extraordinary hit on BP's bottom
line. The sea shore and the animals and fishermen who depend on
them will pay, perhaps, an even heavier cost.
      

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Environmental News

President Barack Obama on
Sunday warned of a "massive and potentially unprecedented
environmental disaster" as a badly damaged oil well a mile deep in
the Gulf of Mexico spewed a widening and deadly slick toward
delicate wetlands and wildlife.

Obama to do everything 'humanly possible' on spill

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