BP's efforts to shut off its broken well

What happened

BP installed a new cap on its damaged Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico this week, while its primary relief well burrowed to within 30 feet of intersecting the Macondo nearly 18,000 feet beneath rock and sea. The new cap, 30 feet high and 160,000 pounds, fits the well more snugly and could, in theory, seal it completely. But first, U.S. officials told BP to provide evidence that closing the cap’s valves would not cause so much pressure to build up inside the damaged well’s casing that it would rupture, causing new leaks beneath the seabed. While talks and tests continued, up to 60,000 barrels a day of oil gushed from the well, unimpeded. Meanwhile, BP officials said the relief well might intersect the Macondo by the end of July, allowing engineers to plug the damaged well with heavy mud and cement.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced a new ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf. A previous ban based on water depth was overturned by a federal judge, so the new moratorium takes a slightly different approach, temporarily banning drilling by specific types of rigs and equipment. “I am basing my decision on evidence that grows every day of the industry’s inability in the deep water to contain a catastrophic blowout, respond to an oil spill, and to operate safely,” Salazar said.

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What the editorials said

“Who does the Obama administration think it’s kidding?” said the Boston Herald. Having had its “knuckles rapped” by a federal judge for overreaching with its first drilling ban, it now offers an “improved” moratorium that’s virtually identical. By taking a simplistic and alarmist approach, the government has idled 33 rigs in the Gulf, denying high-paying jobs to thousands of residents of an “economically devastated” region.

Economic hardship is inevitable, said the Chicago Sun-Times. “But if the massive plumes of oil soiling the Gulf aren’t enough reason to be overly cautious about deep-water drilling, we don’t know what is.” The spill—and “BP’s bumbling attempts to clean it up”—proves that a pause is “prudent.”

What the columnists said

When it comes to regulating the oil industry, little has changed since the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, said Joe Stephens in The Washington Post. After the Valdez’s oil fouled 1,200 miles of Alaskan shoreline, a commission found that “oil companies cut corners to maximize profits. Systems intended to prevent disaster failed, and no backups were in place.” All of that remained true two decades later, when safety shortcuts, poor regulation, and sheer arrogance led to the Gulf spill. The Obama administration should’ve broken the pattern, said Bradford Plumer in The New Republic. Instead, for political reasons, Obama actually called for more offshore drilling. Now, although deep-water drilling in the Gulf has been halted, hundreds of drilling projects in other waters “continue to go forward—even though many of them received the same thin scrutiny that Deepwater Horizon did.”

At least this long, national nightmare is almost over, said Brett Clanton in the Houston Chronicle. BP’s primary relief well, which it began on May 2, has nearly reached its destination. The final feet of precision drilling “will present a slew of high-tech challenges” as steering pads controlled by hydraulic pressure delicately zero in on the target. But with a little luck, BP might intercept the Macondo well next week, punch a hole in it, and then finally, permanently seal it.

The damage, though, has just begun, said Matthew Brown and Ramit Plushnick-Masti in the Associated Press. Devastating effects on the “marine food web” are now becoming apparent. Oil has been found inside the shells of young crabs, “a mainstay in the diet of fish, turtles, and shorebirds.” Near the well, researchers have discovered a “massive die-off” of pyrosomes, gelatinous organisms on which endangered sea turtles feed. Even the slick on the water’s surface is deadly, blocking sunlight necessary for phytoplankton, the “base of the food web.” As oil works its way up to fish and shrimp, the region’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry may suffer grave damage.