United States

Deepwater Horizon oil spill

In the spring of 2010, one of the Obama administration’s big economic initiatives, the financial rescue of General Motors, bore fruit as the automaker recorded its first profits in three years. In general, the U.S. economy seemed to be rebounding—if slowly. However, as the summer approached, unemployment stagnated at near 10 percent. Although the Republicans and some economists criticized the economic stimulus as ineffective and predicted the onset of another recession, others argued that it may have added more than three million new jobs.

Responding to the banking and finance meltdown that had precipitated the economic downturn, Congress in July enacted comprehensive financial regulations. However, the headlines in spring and summer were dominated by another event, a massive oil spill some 40 miles (60 km) off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico (see Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010). The spill, which dragged on for months, began in April with an explosion and fire on a deepwater drilling platform that then collapsed, spewing oil that endangered marine life, fouled beaches, and brought a halt to fishing in a huge area. Something of a national malaise set in as the ongoing efforts by BP, the well’s owner, to contain the spill proved largely futile, and the disaster escalated to become the worst marine oil spill on record. By the time the well was capped and the spill brought under control in July 2010, an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil had been released into the water.