BP won’t blow up well ‘cause they don’t want to blow up profits?

A Business Insider.com columnist makes an interesting case that BP could blow up the Deepwater Horizon well—but won’t—because they still plan to make a lot of money off of it.

Megan McArdle cites information (admittedly secondhand) from an industry expert supporting blowing up the well because it’s been done successfully before. McArdle speculates that the reason BP won’t consider this is because once it’s done the well can never be tapped again. Therefore, BP has a lot to lose.

She advocates for the federal government to step in and blow it up but isn’t certain whether they have the expertise to do so. They could, she argues, hire experts from another oil company.