why are we building firetrucks on the way to the fire?

so... bp tried to stop the oil leak once again... and failed. So, now they say that the only reasonably sure way of stopping the leak is to drill 2 relief wells that will meet up with the current well below the leak and then siphon off the oil going into the damaged leak. That way, they'll be able to cap the old well (because there won't be the upward pressure of the oil blowing the cap off. )

I hope that this will work; too bad that bp estimates that these wells won't be completed until August!!

That's alot of oil!

I would like to know why BP was not required to drill these wells BEFORE the federal govt. allowed this drilling operation to go online?

bp assured the regulatory agencies that they had effective safeguards against any oil leak and should those safeguards not work, they had IN PLACE systems that would stop the leak and fix the pipe. Obviously, they lied.

It cannot be blamed on the lack of technological expertise; they knew that these relief wells would be a way to address the problem. So why not?

So now, all of Louisiana (and the rest of the Gulf Coast) is on fire (figuratively) and bp is building the firetrucks and researching ways connect the firehoses to the fire hydrant!!