Below is off MSNBC website. Do we need any more reasons to heavily invest in Biofuels? A 5% biodiesel nationwide mandate and an ethanol mandate. Congress needs to grow some coconuts and pass something like this. The biofuels are biodegrable for goodness sakes.
Oil spewing from well near Louisiana marsh
20-foot-high plume seen; tug boat hit well before dawn, officials . Chris Roberts
Oil spewing from a busted wellhead is seen Tuesday in the distance off the Louisiana coast.NBC, msnbc.com and news services
updated 13 minutes ago
Share Print Font: +-Adding insult to the Gulf's injury, a wellhead hit by a tug boat is now spewing oil near a Louisiana marsh area, officials said Tuesday.
The oil is shooting up 20 feet into the air, the office of Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser said.
"We cannot catch a break," Deano Bonano, Jefferson Parish emergency management director, said in a note to parish officials.
The well is in inland waterways on the border of Plaquemines and Jefferson parishes, about 65 miles south of New Orleans; it's marsh area not accessible by road.
Jefferson Parish Councilman Chris Roberts was quoted as saying by WWL-TV in New Orleans that "there is a pretty good amount of oil flowing there." He did not have a more specific estimate.
Jefferson Parish officials said emergency crews were at the site assessing how to deal with the spill.
They added that the tug boat hit the well before dawn. The tug boat captain immediately notified officials, and another boat later called in the leak.
Oil and natural gas from the ruptured well is seen Tuesday near a Louisiana marsh area.Officials fear the well is also leaking natural gas since boats reported seeing a gas cloud near the wellhead.
It was not immediately clear who is in charge of operating the well.
NBC News producer Mary Murray contributed to this report.