A clear and present danger

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

Tonight on the broadcast we will call your attention to a drama (and a tragedy) unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.  First, there are the families with loved ones who are not coming home from that platform.  Offshore oil drilling is a tough job—long stretches at sea and away from home, and the constant threat of danger.  And now the focus turns to the environment—and a constant danger, as long as we have to extract oil from the bottom of the sea: that un-capped well is belching an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude oil into those ocean waters each day.  While there is a projected plume as the flow takes it north toward land, and while landfall is still days away, this is a race against time in these fertile waters.  I suspect it will focus renewed attention on drilling and energy policy.  We're watching it all.