Double the Oil, Double the Problems

It’s a doubly bad day for news regarding the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico: Scientists have doubled their estimate of the amount of oil gushing into the Gulf every day, and BP announced it will not have the leak sealed before August.

New estimates put the daily flow at 40,000 barrels, meaning that as much as 84 million barrels of oil have leaked into the Gulf since a blast destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20. —JCL

Los Angeles Times:

Government scientists said Thursday that as many as 40,000 barrels of oil have been flowing daily from the blown-out BP well, doubling earlier estimates and greatly expanding the scope of what is already the largest spill in U.S. history.

The new figures could mean 42 million to 84 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on the night of April 20 — with the lowest estimate nearly four times the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill.

The flow estimates were released by Marcia McNutt, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, and do not count any increases that may have occurred since the cutting of the well’s riser pipe, a step that was expected to boost the flow.

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White House / Chuck Kennedy

It just keeps on coming: An aerial view of the southern Louisiana coast taken from a helicopter carrying President Barack Obama in late May.