environmental impact of offshore oil drilling

In two previous congressional hearings, Landrieu minimized the chance of such a massive accident occurring on an offshore oil rig and also downplayed the impact of any oil spill, saying it would hardly fill one-third of the reflecting pool outside of the Capitol.

At a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last November to discuss the environmental impact of offshore oil drilling, Landrieu dismissed concerns about the chances of a blowout -- which occurred off the coast of Australia last August -- happening in the Gulf of Mexico:

it was the largest spill in Australia's history. It's true. It leaked 823,000 gallons of oil. As Mr. Cruickshank testified, it wouldn't even be allowed in this country because it doesn't stand up to our strict environmental rules.

But let's say we had messed up and allowed it to produce oil off of our shores, it would be one-third of the amount necessary to fill the Reflecting Pool outside of this Capitol. It's the largest spill in the history of Australia. It's a pretty long history. The rig that blew didn't meet our standards but if we had it slip through and we had allowed it to drill, the oil that spilled would fill up a third of the Reflecting Pool.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill could be leaking at a rate of 25,000 barrels a day, five times the government's current estimate, industry experts say.
It is gonna need a timeline of misinformation on this event. Every day we learn that what we learned yesterday wasn't true and that the truth is worse.
The worst-case scenario for the broken and leaking well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico would be the loss of the wellhead currently restricting the flow to 5,000 barrels -- or 210,000 gallons per day.

If the wellhead is lost, oil could leave the well at a much greater rate, perhaps up to 150,000 barrels -- or more than 6 million gallons per day -- based on government data showing daily production at another deepwater Gulf well.

By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill was 11 million gallons total. The Gulf spill could end up dumping the equivalent of 4 Exxon Valdez spills per week.
don't know how to comprehend 6 million gallons per day as compared to 210,000 gallons per day as it can be understand that the latter is plenty bad enough. But there are two items in this worst-case-scenario description that should be very alarming right off the bat.
"The loss of a wellhead, this is totally unprecedented," said (former NOAA official Ron) Gouget. "How bad it could get from that, you will have a tremendous volume of oil that is going to be offgassing on the coast. Depending on how much wind is there, and how those gases build up, that's a significant health concern."
"Offgassing" sounds very unpleasant and it raises the possibility in my mind of evacuation or relocations of a very large number of coastal residents which... well that's pretty darn apocalyptic right there.

Minerals Management Service data indicates that the deepwater Thunderhorse production platform, also owned by BP, has produced up to 150,000 barrels per day.

The company currently still entrusting with the bulk of the clean-up operation here named a piece of equipment Thunderhorse which sounds like a pet name Alex Rodriguez would keep for himself.