"It is of grave concern. I am frightened. This is a very, very big thing. And the efforts that are going to be required to do anything about it, especially if it continues on, are just mind-boggling."
- David Kennedy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Oil is now hitting the Louisiana shore. It should be on Mississippi's coast by Saturday. At this rate, AP is reporting the spill "could easily eclipse the worse oil spill in U.S. history - the 11 million gallons that leaked from the grounded tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989." This is because it could take up to 3 months to drill a relief well and Gulf of Mexico wells typically hold much more oil than a single tanker.

Consider the natural resources at risk, the commercial interests at stake, the tourism impacted and the myriad of other areas which may be detrimentally impacted. Generations of harm. Billions and billions of dollars lost. And, why? I'll bet a dime-to-a-dollar that the blow-out was caused by the combination of human error, insufficient procedures to manage the occurrences leading up to the disaster and perhaps mechanical failures. But in the end, as so often it seems, the answer will be rooted in corners cut to save insignificant amounts of money.

You heard it here first.