He hasn't shut down every single off-shore drilling rig operating under a US lease.
As of 2008, 72% of the crude produced in the Gulf comes from "Deep Water" (definied as 1000 feet or deeper) operations.
Also in 2008, the NYT reported on a political "split" in our approach to deep water oil drilling. During the debate between the GOP and Democrats over whether to open new areas to drilling or to expand drilling in already open off-shore areas (yeah, THAT was the extent of the "split"!), the Times zeroed in on the biggest problems:
And oil companies, amid a global drilling frenzy, are stretched so thin they will be hard-pressed to take on big new projects anytime soon. More than 400 major drilling and production projects are competing for engineers, rigs, seismic equipment and steel to build platforms, and the costs of doing the work have skyrocketed.
[snip]
The biggest problem is that much of the coastal United States, subject to a drilling ban since the early 1980s, has not been thoroughly explored for oil. Neither the industry nor the government has any definitive idea how much could be recovered.
You got that? The biggest problem with offshore drilling is we just didn't know where all that beautiful gooey black gunk was hiding! And I'm sure that lack of equipment at the height of the oil bubble had nothing to do with rushing out production rigs to the Gulf that didn't even have accurate blueprints, for example.
No mention by the Times of our total impotence to stop a geyser of spewing oil and methane. No mention by the Times of a total lack of preparation for accidents that have the potential to kill an entire ecosystem. Nope, the only problem 2 years ago was we just weren't sure if there'd be lots of oil, or lots and lots of oil!
But we are impotent. The last 36 days bear witness to that.
That we continue to allow the operation of over 175(PDF) of these deep water platforms is a testament to the insanity of our leadership.
Efforts to stop the oily onslought of death are our top priority in the moment. But where is the discussion of where we go from here? The US Gulf coast was just carpet bombed by BP, and our leadership hasn't even stopped issuing EPA-assessment-free permits to the murderes still with fresh blood on their hands.
Why is it acceptable to have one barrel of oil continue to ripped from a seabed that we are incapable of repairing? If this accident isn't significant enough to warrant a complete and immediate reassessment of the costs and dangers of exploiting fossil fuels, what is?
The deepwater oil drilling industry has proven itself to be beyond corrupt. They are rapacious sociopaths completely uncaring to any impact they might have beyond their profits. Why are we trusting any rig out there to be safely built and safely operated?
We have blithly accepted coal miners dying by the scores every year. We have blindly operated our nuclear facilities, letting suspected terrorists work at 3 of them. And now, in the face of an unending river of death spewing from the seabed, we are letting the pumps continue to suck up our next episode of planet-cide.
Most of the time, small moves are the best bet for bending the arc of justice. But when faced with the destruction of the entire ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico, the way of life for millions of people, the business of tens of thousands, and the health of every person breathing in that noxious concotion, small moves are bullshit.
SHUT. DOWN. THE. RIGS.
Give them 1 year to wind down operations, cement the wells, and decommission the rigs. The US loses about 25% of its oil resources. No way around that.
Then launch an immediate green energy infrastructure program in the Gulf Coast. If we're gonna take away a huge source of work, we need to replace it. Wind, solar and geothermal all require a huge committment of production and human power on our part - let's put those resources to work.
Am I wishing for a pony here? I don't think so. I'm wishing for a rational response to a disaster that isn't over, and won't be over even when that well is sealed.
The disaster will just be lurking at the hundreds of other deepwater wells we cannot seal when they explode.
* * * * * * * * * *
Small UPDATE
To address the common objection to my diary, namely that it would result in economic calamity, I submit this:
We would lose 12% of our total consumption.
We consume 7,140,000,000 barrels of oil a year (2008 number).
We produce 565,000,000(PDF) barrels per year (2004 number) in the Gulf.
The systemic, directed loss of 12% of our domestic supply would result in your apocolypse?
I doubt it.