But look, they've done a bunch of vessel maneuvering and controlled burning and boom laying.
Developing dams, while also investing in wind, solar and geothermal energy, should create the ability to power a manufacturing boom without burning fossil fuels.
Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the federal on-scene coordinator for the gulf effort, said last week that in the past burns had been "effective in burning 50 to 95 percent of oil collected in a fire boom".
Our thanks go out to those groups and individuals laying out booms, dispersing agents, and burning oil, in an attempt to minimize the volume of oil that will make landfall.
Some booms are fire retardant and allow burning on the water, for example, while others actually absorb oil.
There was certainly a "boom", and some witnesses smelled gunpowder or burning.
On Wednesday evening, cleanup crews began conducting what is called an in-situ burn, a process that consists of corralling concentrated parts of the spill in a 500-foot-long fireproof boom, moving it to another location and burning it.
The process, called an in-situ burn, consists of corralling concentrated parts of the spill in a 500-foot-long fireproof boom, moving it to another location and burning it.
While drilling two relief wells to permanently seal its damaged well, BP has relied on inflatable booms, chemical dispersants, containment vessels and controlled burning to address the spill.
To be sure, sometimes these programs can backfire, such as when Burger King took its marketing department to Key Largo last year to walk over burning coals while Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" boomed in the background.
Measures taken included application of over 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersants sprayed on the ocean surface and injected near the well head, skimming oil from the surface, burning surface oil, and protecting coastal shorelines with containment booms.
