In case you haven't seen it and you still need to fill your daily quota for helpless outrage, here is the first video of the source of those 4 million gallons of toxic crude oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico from BP's broken oil well. There is no sound, so don't worry about your screams of rage drowning out any edifying commentary. (SPOILER ALERT: At the end, it just keeps gushing.)
Boing Boing's Maggie Koerth-Baker, who posted the video yesterday, writes, "The Joint Investigation Committee says that you're looking at both oil and gas coming out of the broken pipe. Bit of conjecture on my part: I think what we might be seeing here is a methane gas bubble briefly interrupting the flow of oil, which is pretty eerie to watch, given that this was also the cause of the explosion that lead to the oil spill in the first place." And here's another showing the futile attempt to lower a giant containment dome over the leak.
Yesterday, for the second straight day, a House subcommittee questioned executives of the four companies at the heart of the accident. According to confidential corporate documents released by Congress, the 450-ton blowout preventers—which were supposed to shut off the oil flow in the event of emergency—were plagued with bad wiring and even a dead battery. "The blowout preventer apparently had a significant leak," said Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.). "This leak was found in the hydraulic system that provides emergency power to the shear rams, which are the devices that are supposed to cut the drill pipe and seal the well."
"This catastrophe appears to have been caused by a calamitous series of equipment and operational failures," said Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "If the largest oil and oil service companies in the world had been more careful, 11 lives might have been saved and our coastlines protected."
So what's next? Yesterday Energy Secretary Steven Chu emerged from a meeting with BP execs to tell reporters he was mysteriously hopeful that after more than three weeks of failure, the spill could be stopped. "Things are looking up," Chu told reporters. "Progress is being made." But when pressed to explain the reasons for his optimism, Chu said, "I’m feeling more comfortable than I was a week ago." It will take several months for BP to dig "relief wells" to stop the spill, but other options under consideration—ranging from a "junk shot" to bringing in a second blowout protector—could stop the spill sooner. Maybe even with in a few weeks! Then again, maybe not. Sorry dolphins, our bad.
