BP: "...very responsive and responsible spillers"

Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry marshaled the Coast Guard, the federal on-scene coordinator of the massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast, and said, “BP, from Day 1, has attempted to be a very responsive and very responsible spiller.”

A week later and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano calls it  “a spill of national significance” and creates command posts in Louisiana and Mobile to manage the impact along Alabama, Mississippi and Florida coastlines.

The US Air Force sends two C-130 planes to Mississippi to await orders to spray chemicals on the spill.

The US Navy marshals more than 1,000 people, scores of vessels and aircraft, plus 50 contractors, 7 skimming systems, and 66,000 feet of inflatable containment boom.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana declares a state of emergency and requests the participation of the National Guard.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar orders an immediate review of the 30 offshore drilling rigs and 47 production platforms operating in the deepwater Gulf, and plans to send teams to conduct on-site inspections.

The White House's senior advisor David Axelrod and Good Morning American announce no new offshore drilling until there is an “adequate review...No additional drilling has been authorized and none will until we find out what happened here and whether there was something unique and preventable here.”

BP, meanwhile, markets its business: “Beyond petroleum ...sums up our brand in the most succinct and focused way possible. It’s both what we stand for and a practical description of what we do: take concrete actions to push traditional boundaries and meet the challenges of our time in a sustainable way.”

Don't forget that, amid the spreading disaster and unctuous officials, 11 people are still missing, presumed dead – and that BP said the spill would amount to about 1,000 barrels a day, then upped that amount to 5,000 barrels ( that is, more than 200,000 gallons) a day.

Soon we will learn the spill and its effects are far larger than stated ...then we'll learn the monetary costs of the clean...and it will be accepted that We, the people, will foot the financial and  environmental bill.
And, thanks to Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, BP can add another phrase to their brand message: “we are a very responsive and responsible spiller.”

This picture illustrates one good reason to keep the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole, and the nuke in the juke.

 Horizon Deepwater Blowout (Photo: U.S. Coast Guard)