David Walsh

WSWS

3rd July, 2010

For 75 days now, crude oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from the wreck of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. While BP and the US government have done everything possible to downplay and obscure the amount of oil that has spilled out, estimates range as high as 150,000,000 to 200,000,000 gallons. The consequences will be incalculable.

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Vicky Pelaez

POWERLESS humanity is contemplating day by day the intensification of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty days have passed since the collapse of the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon, which caused the biggest oil spill of the century, and the BP Corporation has still not managed to control the situation.

In reality, regardless of existing technologies, this oil company is not making an adequate effort, such as taking the advice of Russian specialists on how to stop the leak immediately and seal the oil pipe.

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Patrick Martin

WSWS

15th June, 2010

The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a corporate crime whose magnitude almost defies comprehension. The eventual cost—combining damage to complex Gulf and coastal ecosystems, wiping out of the fishing and tourism industries, and long-term health consequences for the population of the region—is likely to total over $1 trillion.

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Tim Dickinson

ICH

11th June, 2010

Source: Rolling Stone

On May 27th, more than a month into the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, Barack Obama strode to the podium in the East Room of the White House. For weeks, the administration had been insisting that BP alone was to blame for the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf – and the ongoing failure to stop the massive leak. “They have the technical expertise to plug the hole,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs had said only six days earlier. “It is their responsibility.” The president, Gibbs added, lacked the authority to play anything more than a supervisory role – a curious line of argument from an administration that has reserved the right to assassinate American citizens abroad and has nationalized much of the auto industry. “If BP is not accomplishing the task, can you just federalize it?” a reporter asked. “No,” Gibbs replied.

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