Drill Baby Drill...Yeah, right

Via Mother Nature Network: SPILL WATERS RUN DEEP: The well of a sunken offshore oil rig is gushing 42,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico daily, creating an environmental disaster in the wake of an explosion that sunk the rig last week and likely killed 11 workers. The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search for the missing workers Friday, following reports from surviving crew members that they were near the site of the explosion when it occurred. Meanwhile, response teams scrambled over the weekend to close the rig's leaking well using a robot submarine, necessary because the leak is under about a mile of sea water. After initial attempts failed on Sunday, officials with BP - which owns the rig - said they now plan to lower a large dome over the well, with the goal of funneling the oil up to a collection tank on the surface. High winds and waves have kept skimmer boats (pictured) from cleaning up more than about 48,000 gallons of oil from the surface, letting the oil slick grow to about 600 square miles, although the same weather conditions helped keep it safely away from the Louisiana coast. The slick is expected to remain at least 30 miles off shore for the next three days, but ecologists are worried how it could affect coastal marine life if the oil does eventually drift closer to land. The dome-lowering strategy was used to successfully close oil leaks on damaged oil rigs after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but BP officials point out it has never been used in water this deep before. (Sources: Houston Chronicle, Associated Press, Reuters)