What we really need now is assurance that the BP will be treated like the criminal it is. Everthing they have should be impounded and held until the cost of cleaning this mess is met.

It may take decades for the fisherman to get their jobs back if ever. In that time they should be paid out of BP funds the income they would have reasonably been expected to make. The tourist industry is likewise going to suffer great losses.

All this because an industry decided profits trumped safety and that they had paid off the politicians and regulators so that they could ignore the regulations on safety. Well they didn’t pay off the American People. Send BP to hell, where they belong.

Here’s a good idea for stopping to the release of crude oil into the Gulf.  We should deploy something resembling a sturdy hot air balloon in the water above the main leak site. The balloon could be secured with 15-20 ropes to anchors arrange in a circle around the leak site on the sea bottom. Crude oil and gaseous methane rising from the leak would fill the balloon in the same way that rising hot air inflates a hot air balloon. A large-bore steel pipe could be erected vertically from the sea bed near the leak, with an open top end located near the center of the collected oil above. This pipe would be used to pump the oil and gas away to ships at the surface. Electric heating would be used to avoid the buildup of gas hydrate crystals inside the pipe. The rate of removal would be large enough to prevent the overfilling of the balloon and the resulting leakage of oil out around the open base. A minimum amount of oil and gas would be maintained in the balloon, in order to keep it buoyant and centered above the leak. This temporary arrangement could be operated continuously until more permanent solutions, such as a relief well, are successfully completed.