Flames on the Horizon

The oil rig Deepwater Horizon

While it's far too early to know exactly what events led to the explosion, fire and sinking of the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon - you'd be hard pressed to come up with a bigger black eye for offshore drilling.

Consider:

• Eleven people are missing and presumed dead
• This occurred less than 50 miles from shore.
• The oil rig is state of the art, with a replacement cost of well over a half a billion dollars.
• The wellhead is continuously leaking thousands of barrels of oil a day.
• The preferred method for sealing the leak could take months.
• The resulting oil slick is headed into the delta of the most significant river in the country
• The oil slick will be set on fire - to reduce it by 3%.
• Offshore drilling is regulated by the (utterly disgraced) D of I Minerals Management Service.

Check out The Big Picture's post on this They have some commentary and some photos of the rig and the fire that help you appreciate the size of this mess.

That's not to presume corruption or ineptitude played a role. What happened may very well have been unavoidable.

-But the visuals are just unbelievably bad.