Crude oil circulating in the Gulf of Mexico from an explosion last month has entered the Loop Current that runs counterclockwise around the tip of Florida. The word comes from the European Space Agency that looks at the earth from space via ESA satellites, according to a report. This is the first visible proof that oil has reached the current.
There was hope Florida might be spared, but entry into the Loop means the oil is likely to reach our shores within six days. The Loop waters are warm and intense and will force the mixing of oil and water. The fear is that it will remove the oil from the surface and make it more difficult to see from space. The Loop Current enters the Gulf Stream, which is the most important ocean current system in the northern hemisphere. That has everyone fearing that the crude oil in Florida could end up traveling up the East Coast. No one really knows what will happen in this unprecedented environmental disaster caused by U.S. consumer’s reliance on crude oil and the greedy companies that pushed the limits of their capacity to try and deliver it.
Ironically, BP had executives on the deck of the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon off-shore oil rig on the day that it exploded April 22 killing 11 workers. They were there to sign off on a job well done with no casualties after seven years in operation. Instead 210,000 barrels of crude continue to spew in the Gulf every day as the company still has not figured out how to reverse the mess and retrieve the crude. With nothing certain here, some experts say the rate flow cold be far in excess of what BP says and at ten times that much. Florida oil spill attorneys will continue to monitor the latest updates regarding clean-up of the spill as well as providing potential solutions to economic loss and damage.
