The Exxon Valdez was not that bad of a spill.  It was aggravated by the remoteness, but the sound has almost completely recovered.  As will the gulf.  God pumps that much oil into the gulf through natural fissures every day.

This disaster should not force a rethink on the issue. The only way forward is to ensure that the Middle Esat does not hold the rest of the world to ransom over oil. Where will the oil-sheikhs be 20 years hence when they run out of oil. Terrorism will also end.

The US government is a reactionary government. This incident will set back domestic drilling. Two groups are salivating over this spill, the uber-environmentalists (because it will make advancing their ultimate agenda easier) and OPEC. Obama wants higher fuel prices, he said as much himself. I don't believe we will have to wait long for an answer.

I don't want to see things like this happen, but here's what is bugging me. Why is it taking so long for action? The platform fire occurred on the 20th of April...why wasn't equipment gathered up in anticipation after the rig fire was extinguished (it eventually sank)? It seems to me a few well places explosives could seal the well. It took 9 days for the oil to reach the shore. Greenpeace could not have planned the governments inept reaction (for anti-drilling impact) better. Every oil skimmer in the gulf could have been there with that amount of time.

Bahu,

As much as we disagree, these type of replies makes me see you as more of an American than many Americans.  You are far too liberal for me, but you see something in America that most haters of America refuse to see.

Please, as much as we disagree, do not stop posting.  I see hope for the world in people like you.

As for the comment itself, it will not be 20 years.  It will be a lot longer.  Only because technology will keep oil cheap for as long as possible as it is cheap.  And reserves grow because we can drill better.

The next century will see us starting to wean ourselves.  ONly because it is uneconimical to use it for space.

I just said that they should set the oil spill on fire... though in all likelihood that's not the best solution...

But why would we stop drilling?  The US is already grossly dependent on other countries for its continued existence - we don't need to increase that dependency any further.

Of course, other countries are somewhat dependent on us, too, but that just means that the US is taking the rest of the world down with it.

Or maybe I'm too much of a doomsayer and the US is fine, and the world is fine, and we shouldn't worry about funding harmless "terrorists" by driving to work every day.  That seems a bit naive to me, even though my country is currently run by people who think exactly like this.

Actually, that is one option in the oil spill play book. This is exactly what should have been done once the rig sank IMO.