The Motley Fool (www.fool.com) says it well:

[…] “whatever the cause, another more subtle loser whenever oil or product ends up where it shouldn't -- and especially when wildlife is affected -- is the entirety of the energy sector. Unfortunately, that will be true in the current case, even though the spill hasn't the slightest relationship to oil drilling or production. With crude prices spiraling toward $100 a barrel and an all-hands-on-deck effort needed to increase current production, this sort of inevitable publicity spillover will be anything but helpful.” […]