New Orleans Oil Spill Proves Danger of Offshore Drilling

There’s been a lot of talk since President Bush and John McCain’s proposal to end the offshore drilling ban about the feasibility and potential dangers of the plan. It’s proponents have been especially fond of citing the data that suggests that oil spills are a thing of the past, recent disasters in San Francisco and Hurricane Katrina notwithstanding.

I hope the oil spill in the Mississippi river near New Orleans puts all of that to rest.

The optimists have already rolled out their shiniest version of events:

The spill is much smaller than the ones that followed Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when the Coast Guard estimated that more than 7 million gallons of oil were dumped into the Mississippi and nearby waterways.

That’s right: the GOOD news is that it’s smaller than 7 million gallons. In fact, it’s only 416,000 gallons. However, that’s a lot more oil than you might think.

For 416,000 gallons, you can:

• Cover 90% of the Mississippi river, even at it’s widest point
• Cost the area $275 million dollars a day
• Require 104,000 feet of containment sheets