Coast Guard Rear Admiral Mary Landry admitted tonight that the BP oil drilling disaster is pumping over 200,000 gallons of oil a day into the Gulf. Given that the rig sank on the 22nd, we can now estimate that somewhere close to 1.5 million gallons of oil have been released into the Gulf. This spill will likely be bigger than the Exxon Valdez, if we estimate the time to drill the relief wells and seal the cavity at a hopeful 10 weeks. I’ve learned that there was a dispute between resource agencies in the joint command center and BP over the spill estimate, and has been brewing for days. This underscores our concerns that BP is influencing this spin on this oil drilling disaster, and obfuscating the truth to protect their brand. We remain terrified about the impact of this disaster, as it’s clear that there are not enough containment resouces (such as miles of boom) to effectively protect the Gulf coast.Aaron Viles is GRN’s campaign coordinator
