Just saying, or thinking out loud.
Why are they drilling almost a mile down, which, when something like this happens, is a lot harder to fix?
Answer: Because environmentalists have made it impossible to drill inshore, on the continental shelf, where it is easier and safer.
Will this disaster destroy the environment long term?
Answer: The German U-boats at the beginning of WWII, Operation Drumbeat, sank tanker after tanker off of the coast of Florida, the UK. etc. The Ocean has a way of cleaning this up chemically. It does take time, but Florida, et. all, was not destroyed.
There are other countries, Cuba among them + China who will take over and drill in these areas if the USA does not. The drilling will not stop. The only question is the price of gasoline.
Environmentalists who protest this should: first be required to practice what they preach
1) They did not drive to a rally while living in an urban area with mass transit. (In distinction from Montana etc.)
2) They have a means to prevent any drilling by anybody in the Gulf, not just the USA, such as other nations.
3) They have no plastic which comes from oil in their house, office, car, kitchen or school for their children. They actually heat their home without the use of any fossil fuel, including natural gas, coal, oil etc.
4) They wear no clothes or posses other items from an oil distillate, nor any medication derived from it, including a computer or most modern prescriptions.
If they fail this test, then they are phony, whether personally, in the news, etc. and should be branded as such, preferably with a melted plastic spoon from their own kitchen.
A tanker is an atom on a molecule in a drop in a bucket compared to this.
BUMP to all your ideas!