Worst oil spill in history
The spill began on April 20 when an explosion
rocked the “deepwater horizon,” an offshore oilrig
jointly operated by BP, Transocean Ltd., and
Halliburton. Two days later the oilrig sank, and a
broken pipe, 5,000 feet below the surface started
spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out
entire ecosystems.
BP, and the other companies are now facing criminal
negligence charges, but this hasn't stopped the
oil from washing ashore in beaches, marshes, and
fishing areas across Louisiana, Alabama, and
Florida. Although BP claimed in its application for
this project that it could quickly contain a spill
much larger than this one, all of BP's attempts to
plug the well have failed thus far, and they are now
suggesting that they won't be able to stop the oil
from spewing into the sea until August.
BP is under fire for deliberately choosing the
riskier option for sealing the well before the blast
occurred, according to a report in the New York
Times. In order to save money, BP officials chose
to use a casing pipe that had a higher risk of leaking
gas. Workers on the rig who survived said that
“hours before the explosion gases were leaking
through the cement which had been set in place by
Halliburton.” Investigators have said these leaks
were the likely cause of the explosion that sunk the
rig, and unleashed devastation on Gulf Coast
marine life and communities.
BP CEO Tony Hayward is enraging locals for
disputing their evidence of underwater oil plumes,
for arguing that the illness in oil spill clean-up
workers isn't linked to the toxic working environment
but that they have food poisoning, and for
making comments downplaying the devastation
such as “amount of oil being spilt is tiny compared
to the amount of water in the ocean.”