The results are in...

You may recall that back on Wednesday I took Fedzilla to task for soliciting additional public comment on whether to build barrier islands off Louisiana to mitigate the damage done by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In the 24 hour period they received only about 700 comments, many anonymously. I'll grant I'm no scientist or geologist but the point I made in my comment (see page 166 here) was that the process is reversible. Given enough time and inattention, the islands would likely disappear on their own.

Look, every few years we pay millions to replenish the beaches in Ocean City and the Delaware resorts because the sand eventually leaches out to sea, so why not be expedient and try this solution? Barrier islands need not be permanent, and the failure of multiple efforts along the bottom of the Gulf to stem the tide means we're learning about all this by trial and error anyway.

One last thing. Those on the left who want to punish BP and the rig operators for their transgressions against Gaia need to consider that containing and cleaning up this gusher is not just costing BP and the taxpayers directly in terms of the actual spill, but that thousands of barrels of oil won't be sold by BP because they're instead leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. At a conservative estimate of 12,000 barrels of oil per day multiplied by the going price (about $75 a barrel) each day the well remains uncapped costs BP nearly a million dollars - obviously the figure is much more if the 100,000 barrel a day leakage number bandied about at the high end of estimates is accurate.

Moreover, their market capitalization has taken about a 1/3 hit as stock which was trading above $60 per share before the incident now lies south of $40 per share. Add to that the implied threat from Washington - "we will keep our boot on the throat" of BP - and the question may become one of BP's continuing to function as a business.

Obviously there's a lot of ecological damage, but the economic damage may eventually be more widespread. Making oil into the villain and giving in to the desire for punitive measures may eventually cost us over a million jobs, and no one else is making the break from oil exploration. Perhaps they know something we don't?