AP Photo

So—whew—the bleeding seems finally to have been staunched, three months after BP stabbed its hole in the bottom of the sea. It’s disgusting that it took that long to stitch it up, but there’s every sign that after the first few weeks everyone was working it, stat. BP tried “junk shot” and “top kill,” skimming ships and low risers; the feds went with daily briefings, multiple Cabinet secretaries, retired admirals. Some 17,500 National Guardsmen, 1,900 ships. Twenty billion dollars. “From the beginning,” said the president, “we have worked to deploy every tool at our disposal to respond to this crisis.”

Which was only right—every day that passed saw more oil spew into the Gulf. Time was of the...