A quote of the day

Again, from the TIME magazine website:

I don't think there is any doubt, unfortunately.

-- Carol Browner, White House energy adviser, saying the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is the worst spill in U.S. history

I wonder what the true long term consequences of this will be. I am so far persuaded that they will be quite dire.
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UPDATE: Please go right now and read an AP article entitled "Workers describe failures on oil rig". Here's the first part:

As the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig burned around him, Chris Pleasant hesitated, waiting for approval from his superiors before activating the emergency disconnect system that was supposed to slam the oil well shut at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

The delay may have cost critical seconds. When Pleasant and his co-workers at rig owner

Transocean finally got the go-ahead to throw the so-called deadman's switch, they realized there was no hydraulic power to operate the machinery.

Five weeks after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers, the blown-out well continues to gush oil, pouring at least 7 million gallons of crude into the Gulf.

Dozens of witness statements obtained by The Associated Press show a combination of equipment failure and a deference to the chain of command impeded the system that should have stopped the gusher before it became an environmental disaster.

There's more. And it's both painful and disturbing. Very.
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