It's a worst-case disaster at a calamitous time for President Obama — just as he was trying to persuade Americans of the need to step up offshore drilling.
That idea may now be one of the casualties from this Rhode Island-sized oil slick that threatens wildlife and beaches as well as tourism and the seafood industry along the Gulf of Mexico.
The political fallout began Monday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he was withdrawing his support of a proposal to expand oil drilling off the coast of Santa Barbara in exchange for help in bridging the state's $20 billion budget deficit.
California will find the money some other way, he said.
The governor, whose change of mind effectively kills the plan, said the environmental risks are too great. And, given the images emerging from the coastal regions, from Florida to Louisiana, it's hard to argue with him.
Nearly 3 million gallons or more of oil has spilled into the Gulf region since the April 20 blast that took the lives of 11 workers.
By comparison, when the tanker Cosco Busan hit a Bay Bridge tower fender in heavy fog in November 2007, 53,000 gallons of bunker fuel spilled into the bay, killing or hurting thousands of birds and disrupting commercial fishing and shorelines for miles.
The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that 200,000 gallons each day are spilling out into the Gulf region from this leak — three separate leaks, in fact. But officials say it's impossible to know exactly how much is leaking, and engineers are powerless to stop it.
Officials say it could take as many as 90 days to cap it. If so, this disaster could exceed that of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons off the Alaska coast in 1989. It's already approaching the size of the blowout off the Santa Barbara coast in 1969 which spilled 4.2 million gallons of oil into the ocean.
The public was led to believe something like this could not happen. In the event of an explosion, a "blowout preventer" would engage that would seal the well. But in this case, several triggers that were supposed to activate the system failed.
An investigation has already begun, and Obama has already said that no new drilling permits will be approved until its complete. But that's small comfort at this point.
This latest crude calamity is evidence yet again of the vulnerability of our natural resources to human error and the limitations of our ability to respond — despite all assurances — when something goes wrong.
All that's clear at this point is that 40 years after the Santa Barbara spill and 20 years after the Exxon Valdez, we still don't have this figured out. And the consequences of this disaster are just beginning to unfold.
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