There is never a good time to have an oil spill, but March 29 was either a great or terrible time for such an event, depending on your perspective. The rupture of the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline near Mayflower, Ark., occurred at a time when public-relations efforts by the petroleum industry were already at a fever pitch with the trial of BP, criticism of the domestic shale gas boom, arctic drilling efforts, and pending approval of the Keystone XL pipeline all getting exposure in the media.
