Louisiana spill quickly worsening

Lots of things look very bad about the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill, starting with the fact that it can now be seen from space:

It is also five times larger than originally thought (and they have discovered a previously undetected third leak), only 16 miles off the Louisiana coast and expected to come ashore on Friday, the military has been called, state of emergency declared, and platform owner BP has already started finger-pointing at operator Transocean.

Meanwhile, Geoff Styles is, while still dignified, about as defensive as I have ever read him. For example, while it may be true that much more oil leaks naturally than from man-made spills, natural leakage simply does not cause the magnitude of environmental impact that I fear we will see shortly on the Louisiana coastline, so its relevance is negligible. His conclusions are more robust, but still optimistic - first, that

However we assess the cost of such spills when they happen, the benefits of offshore drilling are still compelling

... which is probably true, but could turn into political kryptonite depending on how badly this environmental disaster plays out. His second main conclusion is that

It is only right and fair for states like mine that are adjacent to the federal waters in which drilling would occur to share in the royalties this will generate. Politicians in inland states might see those royalties as belonging to the whole country, but their states won't bear any of the risk, no matter how small it might be before the fact.

This is very reasonable, but may not be very relevant for his home state of Virginia, among others, if this very visible accident swings the political tide against "Drill, baby, drill!" for the foreseeable future.