While BP is telling us that they need two days in order to figure out if the “Top Kill” operation was successful on the 40th day into the oil disaster, it just seems like more procrastination on the part of the energy giant. If they had tried sealing the wellhead at the start of this whole disaster, rather than trying to recover the oil, you would think we’d be further ahead than we are now.

With the release of these aerial photos of the oil leaking into the Louisiana marshes, one of the richest ecological areas of the United States, we have to take BP’s behavior as proof positive that the profit motive does not align with concern for the human condition or that of the environment. While CEO Tony Hayward may go before cameras and bellyache that he is torn up inside over the disaster, he isn’t torn up enough to actually commit company resources to properly cleaning up the beaches and marshes along the Gulf Coast, only to commit resources to capping the wellhead, which is clearly where BP thinks their responsibilities end.

In addition, the Obama administration’s reaction to the disaster has been surprisingly weak, with the President announcing little more than his dismay on a visit to the beaches of the Gulf Coast yesterday. While thousands of fishermen and other business people are suing BP for lost income, a bailout package that came so easily to Wall Street doesn’t look to be on the horizon for the people of Louisiana, some of whom depend on personal fishing for their everyday food. Let’s hope that such a package is simply late in coming, rather than not coming at all.

Sooner or later, someone has to take responsibility for the total cleanup of this oil spill; if I was in Vegas, I wouldn’t be laying odds on BP right now.

Tags: bp oil spill, day 40 oil spill, gulf oil spill

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