Always have and always will.

Editor,

The enormity of this disaster is staggering.

Worst case leak rate (60,000 barrels per day) times best case time to drill a relief well (90 days) times 45 gallons a barrel equals 243 million gallons of oil spilled. That's more than 20 times as much oil as was spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster (10 million gallons).

If there is one lesson in this for free-market no-government Republicans it is this: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

By which I mean: government regulations that force (yes, force) corporations to spend what is necessary up front to install safety devices, for example, like the $500,00 shut-off valve BP was able to lobby itself out of having to install, always have and always will achieve what "efforts to control the damage to its reputation as a corporate citizen" never have and never will.

re: "Amount of Spill Could Escalate, Company Admits" (5/5/2010)