Guard watches coast for oil slick's first wave

[CRedskinsRule]

The relief well (the only way that for sure will stop the flow) was going to take a while no matter what.

Try to look at it this way. If they could have stopped the leak the day it happened, they would not have lost any oil, not paid for nearly as much cleanup, not faced nearly the governmental inquest that is now going to happen, and could have drilled the relief well at whatever pace worked. They still would capture all the oil, because as soon as the flow is capped it's not going anywhere until someone pumps it out.

Any oil that flows out unstopped is lost revenue, if they jam up the tube, they would have saved themselves much money, from oil lost, cleanup expenses, and whatever media/govt/public backlash may come.

I don't think it is quite as easy to plug this up as you seem to think it is.