Disasters

Impacts of the Gulf oil spill on wildlife, beaches, and tourism continue to spread.

"During President Obama's visit to the Louisiana coast, he got an earful from local officials about his six-month moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Many people -- from work boat captains to offshore caterers -- say shutting down the industry for that long could be a bigger economic blow to the region than the oil spill itself."

Oil spill National Incident Commander Adm. Thad Allen has put out a written directive that news media have "uninhibited access" to spill response operations unless security or safety problems prevent it. It is not clear whether his order will have any impact on BP.

"An Indian court Monday convicted seven former senior employees of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary of 'death by negligence' for their roles in the Bhopal gas tragedy that left an estimated 15,000 people dead more than a quarter century ago in the world's worst industrial disaster."

"President Barack Obama said Saturday that he will stand with Gulf Coast residents 'until they are made whole' from the oil spill catastrophe."

Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told reporters yesterday that funding cuts in recent years for instrumental ocean observation programs have left scientists trying to track the movement of spilled oil partly in the dark.

"If you happen to be wondering if it's any easier to get access to an oil-befouled public beach/wildlife refuge near Grand Isle, Louisiana, if you're teamed up with a fancypants PBS producer, I scouted out the answer today: No."

A computer simulation by the National Center for Atmospheric Research illustrates a scenario -- which some consider likely -- in which oil from the BP Gulf spill could spread as far north as Cape Hatteras by July.

"BP, already bedeviled by an out-of-control well spewing millions of gallons of oil  into the Gulf of Mexico, now finds itself with one more problem: Tony Hayward, its gaffe-prone chief executive."