Excerpt:
According to the AP via Yahoo news, the edge of BP’s oil slick in the Gulf has moved to within seven miles of the beaches of Pensacola, Florida.
Officials said the slick sighted offshore consisted in part of “tar mats” about 500 feet by 2,000 feet in size. The wind has shifted and is now blowing the huge oil slick towards Florida.
Forecasters said the oil would probably wash up by Friday, threatening a delicate network of islands, bays and white-sand beaches that are a haven for wildlife and a major tourist destination.
Meanwhile, MSNBC reported today that BP’s seventh attempt control the leak a suffered a setback when a diamond-tipped saw was snagged in the pipe that is spewing oil. CNN, however, recently reported that the efforts to cut the pipe were successful and the next step will be placing a funnel-like cap over the pipe in order to siphon oil to tankers on the surface.
The operation, however, carries the risk that the flow of crude from the ruptured well could increase by up to 20 percent once the damaged riser is cut away. That appears to be the case, as live video feed showed a new flow of oil emerging after the remote-controlled submarine successfully cut into the well’s riser pipe. If the cap works, then most of the gushing oil can be captured until two relief wells can be completed in August. If it fails then the leak will be worse, much worse, for two more months.
BP’s approach to handling the disaster has led some to question their motives. Mike Adams, writing for Natural News poses a fundamental question: Is BP trying to cap the well or keep it flowing? According to Adams, who spoke to several people who have a work history with BP, “two of them told me they are certain that BP is not trying to stop the oil coming out of the well What they are trying to do, I was told, is save the oil well so that they can capture the oil and sell it.”
This claim stands in direct contradiction to what BP says. The company insists it is trying to stop the flow of oil from the well. But if one considers BP’s actions, they suggest that what they are really trying to do is siphon off the gushing oil so it can be pumped to a tanker ship and sold as crude.
Some scientists claim that this approach could lead to months, if not years, of oil leaking into the Gulf. Bloomberg also reports that Dan Pickering, the head of research at energy investor Tudor Pickering Holt & Co. in Houston, said, “The worst-case scenario is Christmas time, this process is teaching us to be skeptical of deadlines.”
Another scientist who appeared on NBC’s the Today Show has an even more dire prediction. Physics professor Michio Kaku said that oil could gush from the leaking BP deepwater well for years.
“So this could be spewing oil for months. Could it last for a year?” asked Lauer.
“It could last for years, plural. Okay? If everything fails and all these different kinds of relief wells don’t work, it could be spewing stuff into the Gulf until we have dead zones, entire dead zones in the Gulf. For years,” Kaku said.
Read more, get links and a video clip here: Orlando Independent Examiner: Oil slick within seven miles of Pensacola beaches, scientist says leak could last for years