Just wonderful - Deepwater Horizon's stepchildren

Turns out there are a lot of other potential problem spots in the gulf. How many? How about 27,000 give or take a few... From NOLA and the Associated Press:

27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in Gulf of Mexico ignored by government, industry
More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one -- not industry, not government -- is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

The oldest of these wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising the prospect that many deteriorating sealing jobs are already failing.

The AP investigation uncovered particular concern with 3,500 of the neglected wells -- those characterized in federal government records as "temporarily abandoned."

Regulations for temporarily abandoned wells require oil companies to present plans to reuse or permanently plug such wells within a year, but the AP found that the rule is routinely circumvented, and that more than 1,000 wells have lingered in that unfinished condition for more than a decade. About three-quarters of temporarily abandoned wells have been left in that status for more than a year, and many since the 1950s and 1960s -- even though sealing procedures for temporary abandonment are not as stringent as those for permanent closures.

As a forceful reminder of the potential harm, the well beneath BP's Deepwater Horizon rig was being sealed with cement for temporary abandonment when it blew April 20, leading to one of the worst environmental disasters in the nation's history. BP alone has abandoned about 600 wells in the Gulf, according to government data.

Nuclear now more than ever. Drill on land, drill close to shore. Solar and wind are nothing but expensive feel-good options. The Federal subsidies that are required to make these industries economically viable could be much better spent on insulation, heat pumps, window retrofits, etc... For small energy, conservation is king. For big energy, the new nuclear plants (thorium and fusion) are the way to go. A big tip of the hat to Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing for the link.