BP Has Failed; Blow Up the Well

BP isn’t even trying to stop the oil leak anymore—Tony Hayward admitted as much to Congress last week. The company is content to wait months for its relief wells to come online. So enough is enough: It’s time to take this situation out of the bumbling hands of BP, and the overmatched Coast Guard, writes former nuclear submarine officer Christopher Brownfield in the New York Times. It’s time to let the Navy blow up the well.

Unlike the Coast Guard, the Navy has the resources to close the leak—including submersibles that can gather detailed information, and explosives experts with “vast knowledge of underwater demolitions.” Drill a hole alongside the well, fill it with conventional explosives, and let the shockwave collapse rock onto the leak. “A few people have even called for using a nuclear device. But that would be overkill,” Brownfield writes. (He neglects to mention that he’s one of those people, and that the government has ruled it out.) Conventional demolition could close the well, and make President Obama look like a real leader in the process. (More Gulf oil spill stories.)