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Oil Danger and the Gulf Coast

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A coastal crisis unfolds, as the Gulf braces for the oil slick. We look at the threat ahead, and the impact on national oil policy.

Workers secure oil retention booms to the shore in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
Workers secure oil retention booms to the shore in Bay St. Louis, Miss., Sunday, May 2, 2010. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)

Now it’s a face-off in the Gulf of Mexico: the unslowed gushing of a deepwater oil well, against the environment and economy of a huge chunk of vital American coastline.

And maybe Americans are coming face-to-face again with the implications of a fossil fuel-driven national life.

The robots undersea have not stopped the oil. The booms on high seas have not stopped the slick. The fishermen see what’s coming and shake their heads.

It could get much worse before it gets better. And it’s bad now.

This Hour, On Point: calamity and offshore oil in the Gulf of Mexico.Guests:

Jeffrey Ball, environmental editor for the Wall Street Journal. Read his new piece, "Disaster Invokes the Spector of Valdez."

John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

Lisa Margonelli, director of the New America Foundation's Energy Policy Initiative and author of "Oil on the Brain: Petroleum's Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank." Read her editorial in the New York Times, "A Spill of Our Own."

Aaron Viles, campaign director for the Gulf Restoration Network.

This program aired on May 3, 2010.

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