54% of energy generated in the U.S. from Burning Dirty Coal, Petroleum, and Gas is lost.

We drill and spill and burn and pollute to get the energy and don't even use half of the energy that was generated.  

Charts of Energy and Consumption:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/chart-us-energy-use-reveals-oil-coal.php?campaign=weekly_nl

In addition,  the US currently uses about 19.7 million barrels of oil a day, 71% of which goes to transportation via cars, trucks, buses, airplanes. So, the longer we rely on the internal-combustion engine to fuel vehicles rather than electric cars, bikes and public transportation, the longer we stay dependent on drilling for those rapidly diminishing fossil fuels, which means more risky wells in deep water areas of the ocean and the inevitable occurrence of another disaster like the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

A whale skimmer

So perhaps with all the extra oil gushing into the Gulf since they removed the cap again, perhaps they should be putting to use giant tanker skimmer they are so skeptical about because it works better where there's a lot of fresh oil.  And maybe they are, but I have no way of knowing since the media does such a poor job of providing updates on details such as this.

Of course, there'd be more fresh oil concentrated in one place if they'd stop spraying toxic dispersant which are just making the problem worse.

Here are a few articles saying they've extended testing of A Whale.

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/a_whale_oil_skimmer_testing_ex.html

and
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0707/Oil-skimmer-A-Whale-gets-some-tweaks-in-bid-to-work-the-BP-oil-spill  which mentioned that it was able to keep skimming while the other boats quit due to rough seas, something television news programs have failed to mention.

Smaller members of the food web in the Gulf

I've been worried about crabs and other smaller creatures in the gulf. Was anyone doing anything to preserve them?  The shore birds can't come back if there is no food for them?  Can these things be spawn as they do in fish hatcheries? Can we get the fish hatcheries that now mostly breed fish for sport fishing and our food industry be converted to these now vital residents of the gulf? What about the live bait industry?

Today NBC had a report with Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute that didn't answer all my questions, but did mention the issue with the smaller creatures in the chain and that they were producing fish and coral for restocking.