[classicman]

Interesting theory glatt... how is the fact that the flow increased substantially because of an effort to contain it?

Dr Ira Leifer , a researcher in the Marine Science Institute at the University of California who is a member of the technical group, said that the oil company’s operation to cut the leaking pipe and cap it with a new containment device last week may have increased the surge of oil not by 20 per cent, as BP and the White House had warned may happen, but several times over.

“In the data I’ve seen, there’s nothing inconsistent with BP’s worst case scenario,” he added in comments to McClatchy newspapers, stating that the previous 12,000 to 25,000 barrels a day estimate had simply been the “lower bound” estimate.

BP’s “top kill” effort two weeks ago to stem the flow by firing mud and junk into the well appeared to have stepped up the rate of the leak, Dr Leifer said.

Additionally ...

The company’s 2009 response plan setting out what it would do in the event of a leak in the Gulf of Mexico was seriously flawed, it emerged today, and showed a lack of understanding for the environment in which it was drilling.

One of the wildlife experts it listed in the plan as a potential adviser died in 2005. Under the heading “sensitive biological resources,” the 528-page document lists marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals — none of which are found anywhere close to the Gulf.

The names and phone numbers of several marine life specialists to which it would turn for help are out of date, and marine mammal assistance services that it names are in fact no longer in service.

Yet the document was approved by the federal government last year, prior to the Deepwater Horizon rig starting drilling on the Macondo well, despite vastly underestimating the potential impact that an accident might yield, even based on a leak ten times worse than the current spill.

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Grrrr!