Can't stop the spill, stop us

We can't clean it up.

That's what I learned Tuesday. Even if all the scientific models are spot on and the booms are put in the right places and we spent unlimited amounts of money, we'd be lucky to clean up 20 percent of the tens of millions of gallons of oil fouling the Gulf of Mexico.

So says Doug Helton, head of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration team of federal scientists in Seattle that is trying to track and predict where the largest oil spill in U.S. history is going.

"It's frustrating," he said. "The public has an expectation that with technology we can solve the problem. We know we can't."

I met Helton at a media briefing held by NOAA's Emergency Response Division, based in Seattle, which serves as the lead science team for major spills across the country.

He described the spill response right now as a sort of triage. There's no way to protect the entire shoreline — there aren't enough booms in the world. So the goal is to try to protect the most valuable wetlands, the most fragile fishing grounds.

The lion's share of the oil, though, is just part of the Gulf now, until it degrades naturally. We're powerless to get it out.

What struck me listening to Helton and other scientists talk about the spill is the degree to which we seem helpless before this godawful mess.

Nobody so far can stop the leak. We can't clean much of it up. We're not entirely sure where it's going, especially the huge plumes of oil droplets beneath the ocean surface.

We don't even know how much oil is coming out of the pipe.

What if, in the face of the biggest environmental disaster of our lifetimes, there's just nothing to be done?

It's hard to take. Doubly so because this oil spill is unique only in size (and even there it's not unprecedented). It's apparently the accepted norm that we can clean up only 20 percent of an oil spill.

The point being: As helpless as we are at the moment, we knew all along this was going to happen.

So if this one can't be stopped, why not stop the next one?

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, when asked about this at the NOAA briefing, said she has demanded immediate inspections of all current offshore rigs. She's also proposed to permanently ban oil drilling off the Washington coast.

Both are fine ideas. But neither goes anywhere near far enough. What we need, at a minimum, is a national drive to get Americans to use less oil.

How about this: In memoriam to the dying Gulf, the federal government raises the gas tax by a penny per gallon every month for 10 years. Consider it a fee for what's just been done to the Earth.

Because the gas tax is phased in, people would get plenty of time to adapt by driving less, transferring to more fuel-efficient cars or moving closer to work.

The money raised (a couple hundred billion dollars annually at the end of the 10 years) could be used at first to help the Gulf states. Then, for Tea Party priority No. 1: Paying down the federal debt.

We'd use less oil. We'd shore up government finances. In one bold swoop we could start healing two of our biggest self-inflicted wounds.

Is this going to happen? I doubt it. Because it would cost. It would take leadership — somebody asking us to sacrifice and pay our bills instead of more something for nothing.

But look at what is happening in the Gulf. We can't stop the spill and we can't clean it up. There's a price being paid here much dearer than money.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Sunday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.