Oil Spill Fix Is Looking Slippery

The oil that gushed from BP's busted well in the Gulf of Mexico has dissipated, but BP's fanciful claims about the crisis show no sign of stopping. The company that issued ridiculously low estimates of how much oil had spilled — even insisting early on that NO OIL at all was leaking — lately has been dodging questions from federal investigators.

The questions arose last week when the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement held hearings in Houston to try to determine what caused the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon to go up in flames. The April 20 explosion triggered the massive oil spill.

Mark Hafle, a BP drilling engineer who was considered a key decision-maker on the Deepwater Horizon, ducked the panel's questions. He flat-out refused to testify.

Another key figure, BP Senior Vice President Kent Wells, muddied the issue of who was in charge of safety on the doomed rig. "Our (corporate) culture is meant that everyone is supposed to feel responsible," he said.

Translation: Everyone is responsible, so no one is responsible.

None of this is surprising.

Mr. Wells' fuzzy answer to the simple question "Who's in charge?" is exactly what we would expect from an industry giant trying to minimize its culpability in an environmental disaster.

Far more troubling is BP's apparent uncertainty about whether to proceed with plugging the wounded well by using one or two "relief wells" drilled deep into the Gulf floor. Ever since the crisis began, experts have agreed that a relief well would enable BP to finally, completely, permanently choke off the oil spill.

Now, suddenly, Mr. Wells isn't so sure. He said there are "multiple options" for stopping the oil. He said relief wells are "the ultimate backup if everything else fails."

Soon after, a BP spokesman assured us the government and BP "remain aligned regarding relief well plans."

Sure hope so. We've already seen BP's slippery responses to serious questions. We'd hate to see BP work toward ending this summer-long nightmare ... and then let the opportunity slip away.

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