Here is some much-needed good news concerning the oil spill in the Gulf.
LA Times: Officials are cautionary but say drilling fluid has blocked oil and gas temporarily. Engineers plan to begin pumping in cement and then will seal the well.
Reporting from Houma, La. —
Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.
The "top kill" effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.
Once engineers had reduced the well pressure to zero, they were to begin pumping cement into the hole to entomb the well. To help in that effort, he said, engineers also were pumping some debris into the blowout preventer at the top of the well.
As of early Thursday morning, neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet, pending the completion of the cementing and sealing of the well.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this method proves fully successful. Now that things are looking like they are getting under control, heads are starting to roll.
Michelle Malkin: News leaking ahead of President Obama’s scheduled 12:45pm Eastern press conference today: the first head has been delivered.
Via AP:
Democratic sources say the Obama administration has fired the head of the U.S. Minerals Management Service in response to blistering criticism over lax oversight of offshore drilling.
The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity before the official announcement, tell The Associated Press that President Barack Obama will announce the decision Thursday.
Given how terribly this spill has been handled, I would expect a long list of heads to roll from both BP and the government. Let’s see if Obama will start thinning the herd of incompetents and throw Ken Salazar out the door.
Via: Memeorandum
Via: The LA Times
Via: Michelle Malkin