I'm very surprised no one has posted this (if someone did, sorry for the double post)

The catastrophic explosion that caused an oil spill from a BP offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico has reached the shoreline early Friday morning. The leak is currently releasing 5,000 barrels of oil per day, and efforts to manage the spill with controlled burning, dispersal and plugging the leak were unsuccessful Thursday. This oil spill is on track to become the worst oil spill in history, surpassing the damage done by the Exxon Valdez tanker that spilled 11 million gallons of oil into the ecologically sensitive Prince William Sound in 1989. Unlike the Exxon Valdez tragedy, in which a tanker held a finite capacity of oil, BP's rig is tapped into an underwater oil well and could pump more oil into the ocean indefinitely until the leak is plugged.


Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/30/louisiana-oil-spill-2010_n_558287.html#s86611 (tons of pictures in that article as well)

Heard Obama is going there today. Hope he brings a cork.

How strange that only a couple of weeks ago Obama was saying he plans to drill more offshore.
How well is that sitting now....

I wonder if this was brought up at the Obama roast last night.

I find this to be such bullshit. It's been going on near 2 weeks now and the oil STILL is heading towards land. LA, MS, AL, and FL; we're all affected. Our beaches, our marshes, our wildlife.... This is so beyond fucked up. >_____<

I'm waiting for the Mobile Estuary to be calling for volunteers; this has to be stopped. Me and a bunch of friends really wanna get out there and help w/ the clean up.

I completely agree. :-( It's not just a ship carrying oil that exploded - the rig itself exploded and the pipe is now leaking oil from Earth into the ocean. They said it might take up to 3 months to find a solution.... Way too long, in my opinion. :(

My roommate says the world's definitely going to end in 2012 because all of the horrible things that are happening.

Exactly. All the oil STILL spilling out and killing our precious marine life... it's just all kinds of fucked up. >_____< Once the volunteer call comes out for AL I'm going.

I wish I lived close enough to be able to volunteer. Knowing all of the precious animals are dying and aren't yet getting the help they need makes my stomach twist.

Yeah I just can't believe it. :( 1 of the groups I'm in on fb posted a pic of 1 of the seaturtles that died b/c of the oil and I couldn't even look at it. It's horrible.

Anyone know how the explosion happened??

I don't think they know that yet-just that there weren't any warning signs to the workers aboard before it happened. :(

I think the cause of the explosion is still under investigation. However, in an article I read on yahoo said there are several lawsuits filed that claimed it was workers from Haliburton not capping (cementing) the well correctly. I guess that cementing was a factor in 18 out of 39 Rig incidents that were examined (from 1992 - 2006).

I was told that the explosion was caused by faulty equipment, which should be blamed on the Bush Administration. Because they removed all regulations on the oil companies so they didn't have to adhere to strict standards and didn't need to replace faulty equipment. This is solely the fault of the Bush administration. BP shouldn't be the only one held accountable. The Bush admin should be held accountable too.

that has got to be one of the most pathetic things I have heard in a long time

Hahahaha CONGRESS passes laws not just the president. Geez. I very much disliked bush but damn, people need to blame the people at fault, not just point the finger at Bush and his cabinet and say "it was all them".

It's terrible. The Gulf Coast is important to so many in multiple states. It's scary to think how long it may be before they can stop the leak, much less recover...the impact is going to be so large. :( The method they are using to try to contain it hasn't even been proven to work in such deep waters. :-/