It appears that the early estimates of the amount of crude pouring into the Gulf of Mexico from the gusher caused by the collapse of the Deepwater Horizon rig are woefully inadequate. It could be ten times worse than has been reported. Nobody knows for sure.

BP  was given an exemption from rigorous environmental and safety studies on Deepwater Horizon by BrandObama, and got the green light to proceed last year. Now we have an exploded and collapsed drilling rig and an unprecedented environmental disaster on our hands.

Fingers are being pointed, blame is being shuffled around, asses are being covered, but the fact remains. We have a major deepwater blowout in the gulf and

nobody has a clue about how to stop it.

They’re grasping for straws. They tried robots to shut off the flow. Didn’t work. They tried putting a dome over it with plans to pump the oil out. Didn’t work either. They want to try plugging the pipe with shredded tires and golf balls and capping it with concrete. We’ll see how that plays out. They simply don’t know what to do. The only thing the major players –  BP, Halliburton, Transocean, and maybe DC — can agree on is making sure their liability remains capped at a ridiculously low amount. In the meantime the gulf is taking a hit like we’ve never seen before.

Yet plans for offshore drilling remain on the table. Plans for the gulf waters are temporarily on hold, but not so the arctic, a far more fragile place. Drilling could start in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas as early as July. The consequences of a blowout there, or even a smaller spill, are nearly unthinkable. There are no known methods for cleaning up a spill in frozen waters.

It may be true that of all the offshore rigs working, only a miniscule number experience a blowout or major spill. But seriously, how many of these does it take? And as drilling activities increase, there will be more of them. To me the question remains — is this really where we want to go?

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Evening, Diamond Peak, Blue Mountains

I’ll take a moment here to pass on a few action links that came in my inbox today.

We all know about the collapsed oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, and the 42,000 gallons a day of crude that are gushing into the Gulf waters. If it reaches the Gulf Coast shores it will be catastrophic. This is in warm water where spills aren’t unknown. Yet this one is so deep, about 5000 feet, that containment efforts so far have been futile.

Now imagine such a mess in arctic waters where there are no known methods for dealing with a spill, let alone a deep water gusher. Catastrophic wouldn’t begin to cover it. Yet the Obama administration is continuing with their plans to allow drilling in the Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea as early as this summer. Dept. of Interior is taking public comment on this only until May 3. You can add yours right here.

Oregon Wild passed on a piece about the wilderness proposal by the Forest Service for the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. It appears that out of roughly 1.8 million acres of National Forest land suitable for wilderness designation, the Forest Service calls for designating only about 16,350 acres of it. Can you say inadequate?  Sure you can. You can do so here and add your voice to tell the FS that their proposal is a joke. Speak up for the Blues.

In 2008, candidate Obama promised to support and strengthen the  moratorium on killing whales that has been in effect for more than 20 years. Yet the administration now supports the International Whaling Commission’s plans to drop the moratorium and allow commercial whaling  to resume. You can click here and tell Obama to keep his promise to save the whales.

Alrighty then. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.

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• Commission proposes limited commercial whale hunts (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

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