No matter how much BP is spending on lobbying and public relations (and it's a lot), the actual story of what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico just never seems to get better. It gets worse. And, even the worst-case scenarios aren't worst-case enough. Joel Achenbach captures that reality:
An enduring feature of the gulf oil spill is that, even when you think you've heard the worst-case scenario, there's always another that's even more dire.And, let's be clear. Many of the "alarmists" were warning of this type of catastrophe for years. But, their concerns were dismissed by many in power, including the President.
The base-line measures of the crisis have steadily worsened. The estimated flow rate keeps rising. The well is like something deranged, stronger than anyone anticipated. BP executives last month said they had a 60 to 70 percent chance of killing it with mud, but the well spit the mud out and kept blowing.
The net effect is that nothing about this well seems crazy anymore. Week by week, the truth of this disaster has drifted toward the stamping ground of the alarmists.
This thing is so far from over.
