ABSTRACT
On April 22, 2010, an explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico sent millions of gallons of oil spilling into the waters of the Gulf. Eleven workers were killed and the oil rig sank. Somewhere between 5,000 and 60,000 barrels a day spilled for months. By all accounts, this was a historic environmental disaster and its effects are expected to last for many years. In 5,000 feet of water, it was one of the deepest offshore wells ever built, making the challenge of capping the well especially difficult because of its depth. Inadequate technology and inexperience at working at that depth contributed to the delays in capping the well. The consequences of the spill promise to be dramatic in both the short term and long term, and to raise important questions about the demand for oil, the extent to which oil companies will go to find this increasingly scarce resource, the safety of offshore drilling, and the environmental effects on a fragile ecology, a fishing-dependent economy, tourism, and wildlife. There are important social and political ramifications resulting from this spill, from the effects on local culture and politics to larger questions about dependency on oil for much of our energy, transportation, and industry.
