Photo Courtesy: AP

A new, higher estimate of the amount of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico was released late yesterday, confirming a dubious fact. The Gulf oil spill is now the worst unintentional spill in history.

Nearly five million barrels, or more than 205 million gallons of oil have spilled into the Gulf since Earth Day, some 106 days ago. Scientists have said that the spill rate has decreased in recent weeks, from a height of about 62,000 barrels a day. BP said it captured 800,000 gallons already.

These marks just the latest increase in estimates, which some may recall began at just 1,000 barrels each day. The previous largest unintentional spill was the Ixtoc spill in 1979, also in the Gulf, but in Mexican waters.

The estimates hold great significance for many reasons, but the most expensive of those is in fines incurred by BP. Law requires that liable companies pay a per-gallon fee for all spilled oil. Several scenarios could play out here, as reported by The New York Times.

As the estimates of the number of barrels spilled increases, so, too, do the penalties under the Clean Water Act, which calls for fines of $1,100 per barrel, or $4,300 per barrel if the government finds that gross negligence led to the spill.

At 4.9 million barrels, that means that the total fine could be $5.4 billion — and, if gross negligence led to the spill, $21 billion. If BP successfully argues that the 800,000 barrels it has recovered should mitigate the penalty, then the figure drops to $4.5 billion and $17.6 billion, respectively.

This morning BP announced that it had repaired the cap on the well and is ready to resume testing in preparation for a “static kill”. The oil giant hopes this will stop the flow of oil for good, by sealing the well.

If successful, the efforts of so many in the region can turn to what is likely to be a years, if not decades, long cleanup process. BP will incur costs in the billions, while being responsible for getting the remaining oil out of the water. Worse, however, are the lives and livelihoods that have been destroyed and now must be rebuilt.

In response to the spill, Congress had been taking up legislation that would mark the biggest overhaul of the oil industry in decades. Per usual form, that legislation passed the House, but is expected to stall in the Senate tomorrow.

The Senate appears ready to go to its August recess, more than a year after the House passed comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation, without ever even considering a like bill.

Senate staffers expecting a typical morning commute were in for a surprise yesterday when they stepped out of Union Station and into a Big Oil Carnival.

While our literal Big Oil Carnival — complete with oil-themed midway games, Tony Hayward clowns, and an enthusiastic, stilt walking Uncle Sam — may have been out of the ordinary, it should have felt familiar for anyone who works on Capitol Hill.

The unfortunate reality is that every single day in the U.S. Senate is a carnival of Big Oil.

At every opportunity, a minority of Senators who are in the pocket of America’s largest polluters choose political games and obstruction over working together to solve America’s energy and climate crisis. As a result of their actions, the big polluters will continue to reap record profits at the expense of Americans.

Even before a BP oil well started gushing millions of gallons into the Gulf, a comprehensive climate and energy bill which breaks America’s oil addiction and curbs carbon pollution was a common sense and critically necessary policy.

Now, as we witness the worst industry-caused environmental catastrophe in our history, the deadliest coal mining disaster in 40 years, and sweat through the hottest first 6 months of any year on record, it should be a no-brainer.

It’s time to end the CarnivOIL in Congress. The Senate can no longer play games with our clean energy future.

Today, Big Oil can continue to celebrate their victory over clean energy. However, Senators should know that as long as they fail to act, America’s energy crisis won’t just go away…and neither will the generation of young people fighting for a clean energy future.

Uncle Sam MCs at CarnivOIL

Tony Hayward Knocks Out a Crab

See more photos from CarnivOIL

Big Oil: Keeping America dependent on oil since 1875 and celebrating victory over America’s clean energy future.

Big Oil: Keeping America dependent on oil since 1875 and celebrating victory over our clean energy future

Join Big Oil’s Celebration: America, Still in the Hands of Polluters and Petrodictators

The US Senate’s historic failure to bring a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill to the floor is reason to celebrate if you profit from America’s oil addiction. As a result of this week’s historic failure, we present “Carnivoil”: the Greatest Addiction on Earth – celebration of America’s addiction to oil with an outdoor midway-style carnival complete with games, concessions, and some Big Oil-style celebrating. Step right up! Don’t be afraid. See the world’s biggest polluters – by looking behind the curtain.

Games will include the Petroleum Wheel of Doom, Oil Executive Boxing and the Big Oil version of the famous Hammer game. The event highlights Big Oil’s success in pocketing the US Congress, while blocking progress toward a clean energy future.

WHAT: Carnivoil: The Greatest Addiction on Earth: complete with games to celebrate Big Oil’s success
WHEN: Tuesday, July 27, 2010
TIME: 8-10 am
WHERE: Columbus Circle, Outside Union Station, Washington DC

The first question moderator Frank Sesno asked in yesterday American Clean Energy Now Town Hall was as simple, but important one.

“How many of you are from outside Washington, outside the beltway?” Nearly every hand in the audience went up.

And that was the importance of the town hall, headlined by a speech from Senator John Kerry, voices from the national security, business, energy and labor sectors. This town hall was about 200 real Americans, in Washington to tell their Senators that America needs comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation.

From the steelworker, who when asked if this bill would cost jobs said not on her watch, to the businessman from Dow Chemical, who said the legislation will create millions of jobs, the message was clear: in a struggling American economy, this bill is about jobs.

It is also about national security, as a retired Air Force Lt. General and a veteran of the Iraq war, sitting next to Senator Kerry, made clear. And it was Kerry who made the simplest statement on the subject, saying that the U.S. spending $1 billion overseas for oil everyday is, “crazy.”

Yes, Senator, it is. As is our reliance on oil in general, which leads to these vast overseas expenditures, as well as devastating environmental disasters that put livelihoods at risk. So is our reliance on coal, a dirty, destructive industry led by a CEO who called an explosion in his mine in April that killed 29 workers “an act of God,” and not one of negligence.

And it is crazy to look at a piece of legislation with the ability to move our country into the 21st century economy that workers across America need and not immediately call for its passage. Americans from across this great country came to Washington yesterday to say just that.

Watch Senator Kerry and check back for more videos throughout the day: