Key Republican: Blow up the well

A Republican congressman suggested over the weekend that BP detonate dynamite to seal its leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Rep. Phil Gingrey (Ga.), who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee that grilled BP CEO Tony Hayward last week, said that he has had knowledgeable people advise him that the solution could cap the leak. 

“For the life of me, I can’t understand why BP couldn’t go into the ocean floor, maybe 10 feet lateral to the — around the periphery — drill a few holes and put a little ammonium nitrate, some dynamite, in those holes and detonate that dynamite and seal that leak. And seal it permanently,” he told Atlanta’s WABE radio. “And although I didn’t ask him that question yesterday — I think I had three minutes — if we get another bite at that apple, I’m going to ask that question, over and over again. What is going on here? I feel like, and I’ve had people advise me — people in my own district, by the way, who have a lot of experience in mining — say that this could be done.”

Multiple attempts to plug the well, which is spewing tens of thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf per day, have failed, which has BP and government officials scrambling for solutions. 

The relief wells intended to stop the leak are not expected to be completed until the end of the summer. 

Some have suggested that the United States set off a nuclear bomb near the well to plug it, as the Soviet Union reportedly did to stop oil leaks decades ago. But the government rejected that remedy earlier this month. 

(h/t Atlanta Journal-Constitution)