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Landry said crews were continuing efforts to clean up a 1- by 12-mile-long oil slick spreading through Gulf waters 40 miles offshore.

She said crude oil did not appear to be leaking out of the wellhead, located 5,000 feet below the water's surface. But remote vehicles will continue surveying the scene, she said.

"We are at the ready to respond should something happen," she said. "We're going to be very forward-leaning. We can't back off from this at all."

The Coast Guard is still attempting to locate the rig, and two nearby underwater pipelines -- one owned by the Shell oil company -- have been shut down in case there is a collision, Landry said. The closest other rig is more than eight miles away, she said.

BP officials said Thursday they did not know whether oil or fuel was leaking from the sunken rig. But BP Vice President David Rainey said, "It certainly has the potential to be a major spill."

Crews had recovered 181 barrels of an oil-and-water mixture by midday Friday, Coast Guard Petty Officer Ashley Butler said. Some of the oil had evaporated from the water's surface, she said, but about 200 barrels remained.

The Coast Guard said it was also keeping a close eye on activity underwater.

It would take about nine days for the oil to reach the shore, but the Coast Guard plans to clean up any spills before that happens, Butler said.

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The rig had been drilling for oil in its current location since January, said Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for Minerals Management Service.

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Obama’s March 31 decision to open up large parts of the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and Alaskan coastlines to offshore drilling wholly ignores a host of recommendations regarding drilling made by the nation’s premier scientific agency for oceans, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

The decision to open up vast areas for exploration and drilling is wrong for many reasons. Fundamentally, drilling fossil fuels in the name of clean energy is inherently contradictory and morally wrong. Because actions speak louder than words, the decision also sends the wrong message to the American public: "we can drill our way out of the crisis" no matter what Obama says in speeches.

Despite the administration’s claim that the drilling plan is not horse trading for votes on a climate/energy bill, most mainstream media opinions see the decision as political, not policy. Looking only at policy grounds, science favoring further study and protection has been ignored by the Obama administration’s rush to drill.

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John Jelks is a marine geologist who spent over 10 years in the 1980s and early 1990s working as a Houston-based contractor for major oil companies on oil drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

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One practice that bothered me was that all of the garbage generated by daily human activity was simply thrown off the rig (refuse from cooking, cleaning, equipment maintenance). Bear in mind that the working and living space on these drilling platforms is extremely confined. This garbage dumping occurred daily.

The other practice that bothered me was that the drilling mud coming back out of the hole ended up in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the mud came up to the platform so that rock chips could be analyzed, but most of the mud was dispersed out into the Gulf. Onshore, it is placed into mud pits. Offshore, it is simply released into the water.

Flying to the offshore platform by helicopter, I could see a plume of sediment moving down current, especially with wells drilled in shallower depths. This practice of dumping mud occurred for the duration of drilling.

Relating to the proposed drilling offshore of Florida, even minor silt deposition will kill any living reef.

Florida’s beaches would definitely be at risk from major oil spills and contamination from hurricane-wrecked oil rigs and broken underwater oil pipelines. Even if there is no drilling mud leakage or trash tossed off the rigs, there would still be accidents caused by humans and equipment failure that would result in oil spills. The oil pumped from the Gulf of Mexico is heavy crude oil, the kind of oil spill that will float on top of the water until it washes up on some beach.

Hurricanes would cause widespread oil rig damage and breaking of underwater oil pipelines. Offshore drilling proponents claim that there were no spills caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I urge people to read the federal government’s own report (15MB pdf) on what happened when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit land near Louisiana. Focus on Chapter 7, which outlines damage to the petroleum infrastructure, and Chapter 6, which lists the 124 resulting oil spills.

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MyFox Tampa BayReports Says Florida Has Little Oil OffshoreWCTVReporter: AP Florida waters would supply the United States with oil for less than a week and have no discernible effect on the price at the pump.

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Realistic estimates show that there may be approximately 2 billion recoverable barrels of oil off the Atlantic Coast, enough for just 100 days supply at the current rate of use. At current prices, it does, however, represent $170 billion in new revenue for global oil behemoths.

And for customers? The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that even with all offshore areas open to drilling, gas prices would be just 3 cents lower per gallon in 2030 than otherwise, and still much higher than today. Accessing this supply means a lot of profit for Big Oil, but very little benefit for customers.

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The Energy Department put it at 18 billion a few years ago. Popular Mechanics reports an estimate of 19 billion.

Regardless, it's about double of what's estimated in ANWR.

So, if lifting the moratorium on most offshore drilling has double the impact on price as lifting the ANWR ban would, that's only $1.50 off the price of crude per barrel. Combined with ANWR, it's $2.25.

Again, by 2025. Again, little to no impact on the price at the pump, today or tomorrow. Lowering the price of crude oil per barrel by $1 is roughly equal to a reduction in price at the pump of 2.5 cents per gallon. So lifting all of the above moratoriums, lowering the price of crude by $2.25 per barrel, would lower the price at the pump by less than 6 cents by 2025.

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And that's the sum total of your argument. You can't offer up any substantive, reasonable reply, other than dole out insults and dismissive, personal comments. Quit making up shit. Either show some evidence or admit you can't.

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