Oil's Well That Doesn't End Well For This Oil Well, Part 3

As bad as the Deepwater Horizon disaster is, some estimates are that the existing spill is far worse than originally thought, meaning that the flow rate is much higher than BP is willing to say.  And that means we may already be approaching Exxon Valdez-level in the disaster column and still have a long cleanup ahead.  Think Progress:

The catastrophic gusher of oil unleashed by the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig last week is on track to quickly exceed the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, an independent expert warns. An explosive burst of oil destroyed the exploratory rig 41 miles off the Louisiana coast on the eve of Earth Day, killing 11 workers. After the shattered hulk of the rig sank to the ocean floor a mile down, the pipeline continues to spew oil that has now reached shore, with an end weeks or months away. John Amos, the president and founder of the nonprofit firm SkyTruth, “which specializes in gathering and analyzing satellite and aerial data to promote environmental conservation,” estimated from satellite photos that the calamity is increasing at a rate of 850,000 gallons (20,000 barrels) a day:

That’s right: more than 6 million gallons spilled into the Gulf of Mexico so far. This, and other radar images that SkyTruth is getting, confirm what we’ve seen on the NASA/MODIS images so far, and support our conservative calculations showing that in the first week of this spill at least 6 million gallons have entered the Gulf. That’s a spill rate of at least 850,000 gallons (20,000 barrels) per day, 20 times larger than the official Goast Guard estimate of 42,000 gallons per day.

By today, about 7 million gallons will have been spilled, taking the Deepwater Horizon disaster more than halfway to the 1989 wreck of the Exxon Valdez, which dumped 11 million gallons into Alaska’s Prince William Sound — one of the nation’s worst environmental disasters. This catastrophe — which occured as Halliburton was cementing the well — will exceed the scale of the Exxon Valdez within a week.

And the best part is that it may take weeks or longer to cap the well, because nobody seems to have any idea how to fix this problem.   If this thing really is that bad, to the point where it's spewing near a million gallons a day into the Gulf, it may cause untold damage to the Gulf coastline, to shipping, to wildlife, to people, to the economy, and cause all kinds of havoc down the road.

Finally, a big "screw you" to every Republican out there now screaming for Obama and the government to "do something about this" and to "save us".  Yes, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, I'm looking at you.  For the last sixteen months the GOP has been screaming that government is evil, that it is the problem, that we need less regulation in order to be more productive, more profitable, and that rules and oversight aren't needed because the free market will take care of things.

Well folks, the hand of the free market just ripped a wellhead to pieces and is completely screwing over the Gulf.  It's going to cost several billion dollars to fix.  I'm sick of people saying that the magical free market will be responsible and keep anything bad from happening.  Well guess what?  The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, this oil rig nightmare, and our economy back in 2008, they all got "fixed by the magical free market" where deregulation caused untold damage to our economy and hey, even killed people.

And now the Republicans are demanding that the government "fix the problem"?  Screw you guys.  Government is a lumbering vampiric dinosaur to you morons until you need the government to solve your problems for you.  Then it's "I demand the government does something about this!"  And it's the same Teabagger assclowns doing the loudest yelling and screaming.

Hypocritical assholes.  Jindal, get your ass in gear and a mop and bucket and clean up your own mess.  State's rights!  Tenth Amendment!  Don't Tread On Me!  Hey Teabaggers?  Get out there on the coast and help him since you hate the federal government intruding in a state matter so dearly, you hate Washington's beltway interference.  Start scrubbing.

Government is the "greatest evil of all" until a real evil pops up, an environmental disaster caused by corporate greed.  Suddenly for you guys it's nanny state time.

Assholes.  All of you.  Next time you chuckleheads want to drill baby drill, head down to a library and drill into a couple of books, educate yourselves, and stop being such ignorant morons.