Only An Expert

According to OregonLive, there is no longer any oil leaking from BP's Macondo prospect.

"I am very pleased that there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, I'm really excited there's no oil going into the Gulf of Mexico," Wells said.

The stoppage came 85 days, 16 hours and 25 minutes after the first report April 20 of an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill.

Now begins a waiting period to see if the cap can hold the oil without blowing a new leak in the well. Engineers will monitor pressure readings incrementally for up to 48 hours before reopening the cap while they decide what to do.

It's not clear how confident engineers are regarding the integrity of the casing under the BOP; this is the reason for carefully monitoring the pressure over the next two days. If the pressure at the wellhead does not reach the calculated value, and stays closer to the hydrostatic pressure at that depth, it would indicate that oil is still leaking in the subsurface. I want to be optimistic...

But given the massive miscommunication and outright dodging of communication that has taken place over the last three months, optimism is hard to come by. Laurie Anderson, on Letterman last night, sums up the gibberish of the language of news in our brave new world.