Offshore oil drilling

The Coast Guard is considering burning off some of the oil that has spewed from an underwater well once attached to an oil rig that exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico.

The well has been gushing oil at about 1,000 barrels — or 42,000 gallons — a day since the rig sank last week in what is now being considered a "significant" spill, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Prentice Danner, a Coast Guard spokesman.

. . . If the oil reached Louisiana, it could be devastating not just for the wildlife and coastal ecology of the state, but for fisheries, oyster beds and other livelihoods, said Mark Davis, director of the Institute on Water, Resources, Law and Policy at Tulane University. "There will be a chain reaction of impact," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-04-27-oil-leak_N.htm

Wasn't it only weeks ago that most of our coasts were opened to offshore drilling, because it was allegedly now so safe?