BP Well Plugged Permanently : NPR

A permanent cement plug sealed BP's well nearly 2.5 miles below the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico, five agonizing months after an explosion sank a drilling rig and led to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the federal government's point man on the disaster, said Sunday BP's well ``is effectively dead.'' Allen said a pressure test to ensure the cement plug would hold was completed at 5:54 a.m. CDT.

BP Well Plugged Permanently : NPR

Alaska's present, after 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, might be Gulf Coast's future | NOLA.com

Alaska's present, after 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, might be Gulf Coast's future | NOLA.com

Scott Threlkeld, The Times-Picayune
A sheen of crude oil floats to the surface in a freshly dug hole on the rocky beach at Eleanor Island in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Crude oil from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill remains below surface rocks on the island.The super tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on in Prince William Sound, spilling more than 11 million gallons of crude oil.
An official from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game emerged with a flier and tacked it to a bulletin board. The news was good: sockeye salmon were plentiful enough to be harvested for a 12-hour period.

On a chilly, drizzly recent June afternoon in Cordova, Alaska, the town's fishers gathered for an important announcement.

Louisiana Wants U.S. Help, and Its Own Way - NYTimes.com

Louisiana Wants U.S. Help, and Its Own Way - NYTimes.com: "But interviews with more than two dozen state and federal officials and experts suggest that Louisiana, from the earliest days of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico, has often disregarded its own plans and experts in favor of large-scale proposals that many say would probably have had limited effectiveness and could have even hampered the response.

The state’s approach has also at times appeared divided: while some state officials work alongside the Coast Guard and BP every day, others, including the governor, have championed a go-it-alone approach.

Such a stance is popular in a place justifiably skeptical of federal disaster response after Hurricane Katrina. The federal response, at times slow and disorganized, has been a matter of grave concern to this state, with its fragile and complicated coastline."

As Jindal Criticized Federal Bureaucracy, Louisiana Guard Troops Sat Idle - ProPublica

Nearly two months after the governor requested—and the Department of Defense approved the use of 6,000 Louisiana National Guard troops—only a fraction—1,053—have actually been deployed by Jindal to fight the spill.

As Jindal Criticized Federal Bureaucracy, Louisiana Guard Troops Sat Idle - ProPublica

Oil Spill 'Too Much' for William Allen Kruse, Skipper Who Committed Suicide

wo weeks after he was hired by BP to help with the oil spill cleanup, William Allen Kruse killed himself.

The 55-year-old charter boat captain shot himself in the head Wednesday morning as he prepared to spend another day skimming oil off the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, clearing the spill that threatened to destroy his livelihood and community.

Oil Spill 'Too Much' for William Allen Kruse, Skipper Who Committed Suicide

Governor Piyush Jindal - video

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