Oil has been spewing out into the Gulf of Mexico at an alarming rate soon after the oil rig, The Deepwater Horizon, first sank on April 20. Since then, an estimated 5,000 gallons barrels per day have been let loose into the Gulf, polluting ecosystems and putting commercial fisherman out of work. It is a situation that worsens with every day that passes.

Speaking on the Sunday morning television circuit, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said it could be 90 days before federal officials and BP, which was leasing the well when a fire broke out April 20, manage to stanch the oil–although he also said it could be stopped much sooner.

Much sooner, only if BP is able to quickly fabricate giant steel domes to be placed over the leaks, and only if the robots responsible for placing the domes can successfully do so in extremely murky conditions where visibility is limited. If this process is not completed soon, this will end up being the worst oil spill in American history, even eclipsing the Exxon Valdez incident in 1989. The local paper of New Orleans, The Times-Picayune, has a great animation of oil spill here.

This incident comes at a bad time for the Obama administration. He recently signed a bill allowing an increase in offshore drilling — and as exploratory drilling increases, accidents like these are likely to follow. Obama visited southeast New Orleans yesterday, telling those listening that, “BP is responsible for this leak. BP will be paying the bill. But as president of the United States, I’m going to spare no effort to respond to this crisis for as long as it continues.”

But Obama may have a larger crisis on his hands than he immediately realizes. As New York Times opinion column writer Stephen J. Dubner put it:

Could the Gulf disaster be just the kind of tragic, visible, easy-to-comprehend event that crystallizes the already-growing rush to de-petroleum our economy? As with TMI [Three Mile Island], it won’t do much to change the facts on the ground about how energy is made. But as we’ve seen before, public sentiment can generate an awful lot of energy on its own, for better or worse.

Comparing this oil spill, and the reaction that follows, to what happened on Three Mile Island may be a bit of exaggeration . . . or maybe not. We will wait and see.