BP'S LATEST FIX WON'T WORK

"BP made promising strides in its latest bid to capture some of the oil spewing from its ruptured deep-sea well in the Gulf of Mexico, while President Barack Obama called off an overseas trip and prepared for another visit Friday to the spill-stricken U.S. Gulf Coast.

After failing days ago to plug the well, BP managed Thursday to shear away the gushing well pipe a mile below the ocean surface, then lowered a containment cap over the jagged hole left atop the crippled wellhead assembly in its latest bid to curtail the oil flow.

The placement of the cylindrical apparatus was confirmed by the U.S. disaster response chief, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, in a statement describing the move as a "positive development" but "only a temporary and partial fix."
MSNBC

So, after listening to the guys from BP tell us that the sawcut was necessary so that the pipe would be smooth and clean for the connection to be made, they ripped the top of the pipe off with a pair of shears. Now they're telling us that this just might work. Whatever.

The ugly reality is that this cap is supposed to hold back and then redirect enormous amounts of pressure, a task difficult enough in perfect conditions. Anyone that is familiar with tools and how they work knows that using shears to cut a pipe will leave the pipe ragged and out of round. Not exactly the perfect conditions one would want to try to cap this thing. Have you ever tried to get household plumbing put back together when the pipes are deformed? Good luck. Even if you can get the connection made its hold is tenuous, at best.

So we'll hear talk about things maybe going well over the next few days; wishful thinking on the part of the government and BP. Then we'll be told that yet another fix has failed and the oil is spilling faster than before into the Gulf. Of course, some solutions won't even be considered, like the possibility that it may be possible to seal the hole with a nuclear device.

All the while, keep in mind the very real possibility that the broken pipe we keep seeing and trying to repair is not the source of the majority of oil flowing into the gulf.

Pray, pray, pray!!