Must-Read on the Gulf Oil Spill

(Left, the ore carrier Dong Fang Ocean in December 2009; Formerly known as the Exxon Valdez, it's new name is rather Dickensian.)

A Mr. Wohlforth's must-read on oil spills. The truth is that we cannot effectively clean them. The moral effort is in protection and wise energy policy.

The extent of the failure became clear when I learned that cleanup workers were being sent out on boats so we could see them depart for work on the beaches, but then they never went anywhere. Without equipment or a plan, they drifted aimlessly in the harbor until they could be seen to return after a day’s work.

When reporters blew the cover on that ruse, the recovery crews began voyaging to oiled shores with rags. I spent a day with workers who sat on a beach rubbing pebbles one at a time. They made careful little piles of their cleaned rocks, perhaps so they would have some sense they were accomplishing something amid the 40 million liters of spilled crude that spread over more than 1,500 kilometers of shoreline.