Gulf Oil Spill is now bigger than Exxon Valdez

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gulf_oil_spill

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COVINGTON, La. – An untested procedure to plug the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico seemed to be working, officials said Thursday, but new estimates from scientists showed the spill has already surpassed the Exxon Valdez as the worst in U.S. history.

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This is so messed up. I hope BP suffers and they are put out of business. They should be extremely heavily punished. I used to go to BP all the time to fill up my car since there is one a few blocks away from my house and now I'm boycotting it and I see a lot of people in my neighborhood are doing the same.

BP made a mistake and yes they should be severely punished and fined but they shouldn't be put out of business.

I say let BP pay for the costs to clean up the mess and force BP to help the coast states to repair their shorelines.

But eh the president deserves a lot of blame for not doing more to solve the issue. He should of acted quickly and he should of went to the gulf coast and made the oil spill a priority. What has he been doing lately?

This is Obama's Katrina and just like how Bush was hated so will Obama be hated.

Are you boycotting only bp? Because that's just silly if you are. First it was an accident caused by improper safety precautions. Second you should give up buying oil forever because BP isn't the only company that owns oil rigs. Although I agree that BP should be punished because this by far is one of the most horrible environmental disasters in decades, but the system is set up in such a way that they'll probably get a slap on the wrist and maybe a hefty fine which will barely hurt their bottom line.

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Originally Posted by Groteske

BP made a mistake and yes they should be severely punished and fined but they shouldn't be put out of business.

I say let BP pay for the costs to clean up the mess and force BP to help the coast states to repair their shorelines.

But eh the president deserves a lot of blame for not doing more to solve the issue. He should of acted quickly and he should of went to the gulf coast and made the oil spill a priority. What has he been doing lately?

This is Obama's Katrina and just like how Bush was hated so will Obama be hated.

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Since when is forming a complete, new, executively funded bipartisan commission not doing a "lot" to stop the oil spill? I do agree with the fact that him pretty much opening the door to offshore drilling is something that should have been criticized even further before this incident, but I don't see anything wrong with what he's doing otherwise to take the steps necessary to completely isolate the damage and prevent something like this from ever happening again.

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Originally Posted by Bryan

Since when is forming a complete, new, executively funded bipartisan commission not doing a "lot" to stop the oil spill? I do agree with the fact that him pretty much opening the door to offshore drilling is something that should have been criticized even further before this incident, but I don't see anything wrong with what he's doing otherwise to take the steps necessary to completely isolate the damage and prevent something like this from ever happening again.

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Oh please a commission? That's to stop future spills of this magnitude from happening not solving the problem right now. He needs to get on the current spill. Making a commission is good press but it doesn't help the current problem.

The time for committees and hearings is for after the spill is capped, not while it is still ongoing.

It was an accident not like they ment to do it.
I don't belive they should get fined as they are trying the best they can to stop it.

Also who would fine them?

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Originally Posted by Alivada

It was an accident not like they ment to do it.
I don't belive they should get fined as they are trying the best they can to stop it.

Also who would fine them?

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They need to be fined to assist in the clean up. Unless you want tax payers to front the bill for BP's mistakes? Plus when big corporations receive a hefty fine they usually remember the loss. This oil spill will effect BP on many levels mostly because of consumer disgust but people living on the gulf coast need to see BP be punished or they will lose a lot of trust in the government and perhaps the democratic party.

They're not doing enough. They should be multi tasking by cleaning up the shoreline and also saving local animal life in the area which they are half-assing. It was a preventable accident for those of you saying it was just an accident

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Originally Posted by Alivada

It was an accident not like they ment to do it.
I don't belive they should get fined as they are trying the best they can to stop it.

Also who would fine them?

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Hmm... The accident was caused by pure negligence though. That is my main gripe. These companies keep finding ways to drill deeper, but are not prepared for the disasters that can happen because of it. It's like the lit a city on fire and only had a bucket of water on standby to put it out.

BP was not the only company invovled though, and the main culprit here is a company called Transocean. Although BP allowed the oversight on safety because they just didnt care. A lot of blame to go around.

To those blaming the president. What is it that he can really do? One of the things I have been reading is that if he gives aid to BP that it could possibly get rid of their liability. Not to mention that the only people who have the technology to fix these problems... is the oil companies themselves. We could send in the coast guard, the navy, the air force... w/e, but they wouldn't know what to do to fix the damn leak.

I wish everyone here would do a little bit more research before throwing around crazy accusations. There is a lot more going on under the hood the what the media cares to tell you.

well atleast it was only a prospecting rig so it wont affect oil prices...

The oil spill may be larger, but you also have to realize that it is a completely different type of oil. The oil in Alaska was very sludge-like. Plus it is obviously very cold there making it a lot harder to clean up. The oil in the gulf coast has very low viscosity when it comes to oil. Although, at the same time, the gulf coast oil has chemicals in it that are slightly more dangerous to animals. They will survive, they just won't have as many offspring.