Florida senator thinks oil flow won’t be halted until August

BP’s latest effort involves an attempt to
cut the well pipe to more cleanly fit a temporary cap over the leak,
a temporary fix until the relief wells can be finished, which is
estimated to happen in August. Efforts to use a diamond saw to cut the
pipe were suspended on Wednesday evening, and now the company is
using giant “cutters” to cut the pipeline.

That effort came after the “top kill” procedure, using heavy drilling mud and cement to try to plug the ruptured well, failed last week.

Nelson said that if the crisis goes unresolved until August, the magnitude of the spill would dwarf the Exxon Valdez incident. Federal officials say the spill has already become the largest in U.S. history.

The
Florida senator wrote President Barack Obama this week to formally
request that the president authorize a military takeover of the
efforts. Nelson said the Defense Department was best suited to deploy
the massive amounts of skimmers and booms needed to prevent oil from
coming onshore in Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere.

“What I’m
saying is, if you’re looking at this all the way to August, and maybe
beyond, we better get ready because it is now bearing down on our
beaches, and that’s where I’m going today,” Nelson said.

Ben Geman contributed.

Cross-posted from the Briefing Room.