From the New York Times:
There’s a world of difference between the impact of an oil spill and a deadly hurricane. And the White House hopes it stays that way.
As President Obama, who will visit the Gulf region on Sunday morning, has stepped up his administration’s response to the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, ordering a moratorium on new offshore drilling leases and dispatching cabinet secretaries and cargo planes to the region, the White House is also trying to avert the kind of political damage inflicted on former President George W. Bush by his administration’s slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
Based on what I’m reading, this oil spill may be significantly worse than Hurricane Katrina if the wellhead is lost. The president is smart to visit the region tomorrow. And he better do more than just fly over the Gulf of Mexico. This is potentially the biggest environmental crisis of our generation. We could lose more than half of our nation’s seafood and 40% of our coastal wetlands. Louisiana’s economy will be utterly devastated and it will start falling into the Gulf as mass erosion events take place in each hurricane season.
Unless they cap this well soon, this is going to make Katrina seem like a walk in the park.
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