Editorial June 15th 2010 from Editorial Director Betsy Cooke.

    The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a huge environmental challenge but there is reason for hope. If British Petroleum and the US government will permit common sense and Yankee ingenuity to play a bigger role, the result could be a far better clean-up of the Gulf than was possible in Alaska 20 years ago.

    The first priority is for BP and the President to focus solely on stopping the leak and cleaning-up the mess. Political posturing and "ass kicking" are counter productive.

    It appears that people from outside the oil industry and government have many viable ideas for cleaning-up the mess. For example, conventional oil absorption booms have limited effect  in rough water. One Alabama community proposed using barges as a temporary breakwater so the booms could work in the calm water inside the breakwater. Both BP and the federal government rejected the idea, so the tiny community acted on its own. Its idea protected its beaches and other communities are now creating barge breakwaters of their own – still without help from BP or the US government!

    Respected news outlets are reporting on a wide array of apparently effective techniques for cleaning up the oil. Advocates of those ideas  include highly respected scientists and people from other industries that use clean-up techniques they believe are also capable of capturing oil.

    Many clean-up techniques apparently absorb oil quite effectively, including some that prevent the treated oil from sticking  to bird feathers. Not all of those processes will work on the vast scale needed in the Gulf. Nonetheless, we are troubled that advocates of these ideas have a recurring complaint:  neither BP nor our government is willing to talk with them or test their ideas. Why?

    By refusing to consider and test the barge breakwater and other ideas being advanced by responsible, outside parties, BP and the federal  government are failing to meet their obligations and making it harder for others to fill the breach. They have become an important part of the problem – rather than the solution.

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