The tragedy in Mississippi Canyon is a national nightmare. Eleven souls are lost. Why is there no televised memorial service for the fallen? President Obama, governors, officials should pay tribute. The offshore workers are no less important to their families, their industry and their country, than were the miners in West Virginia.

Even if, by the time you read this, the spill has been contained and BP’s Macondo well plugged, it will take the offshore oil industry years to overcome this. History tells us so. The public’s false and negative impressions, anger and mistrust toward the oil and gas industry are a legacy of other disastrous offshore spills as far back as 20 and 40 years ago.

We are all with BP now.

The May hearings and blame-game on Capitol Hill did further damage. The industry’s and offshore regulators’ dirty linen has been exposed and we are all reeling. Obama, who is becoming known as The Admonishment President, called the executives’ finger-pointing behavior “ridiculous.” Already the administration says it will reform the MMS, tighten environmental regulations and change permit procedures before offshore wells can be drilled.

Ironically, this disaster occurred about a week after the Houston Chronicle did a splashy front-page and video series on how high-tech and wonderful the deepwater industry is these days.

And it is. To produce about a third of America’s oil in such extreme circumstances, that push the technology envelope, is impressive.

Look at Shell’s Perdido drilling and production spar. This tour de force, in 8,000 feet of water, came onstream in the Gulf of Mexico only a few weeks ago, bringing first oil production from the Lower Tertiary trend to Shell and partners Chevron and BP (14 years after the block was first leased). Perdido is capable of handling 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The project intends to drill an even deeper well in 9,627 feet of water.

Perdido’s first oil was achieved after 10 million man-hours—without an accident.

Russ Ford, Shell’s technology vice president for the Americas, said at the time, “Producing oil safely and responsibly this far out and this deep should allay concerns about industry access to the 85% of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf that remains undeveloped.” Now, we are back to square one and behind the eight ball.

Petrobras, meanwhile, says it is on track to have the Gulf’s first FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading vessel) arrive on site this month in deep water.

All this gee-whiz progress will now be overlooked as the public and Congress see only the BP disaster. Indeed, one has to ask, why does BP, or any operator, work in these extreme water depths and not have an emergency response beyond Plan B? Why not station a cofferdam on a service vessel near the platform? Why not have alternative means of triggering the blowout preventer?

Three weeks after the spill, damage is still spreading. BP’s expenditures had reached about $350 million. In its 24/7 war room in west Houston, hundreds of experts from every major offshore player were working on solutions. BP was spending $6 million a day, but the results were embarrassing, as it tried half a dozen solutions, none of which worked.

Yes, we understand this accident is unprecedented, and it is a challenge to do anything in 5,000 feet of water. But this tragedy only reinforces the public’s deep mistrust of the energy industry and its lack of appreciation for its technical prowess, or for the energy it provides.

At press time, the response was ongoing. Some 1,304 National Guardsmen, and about 13,000 volunteers and people from a slew of state and federal agencies, were collaborating in the campaign to protect the shoreline and wildlife, reported the Unified Area Command in Robert, Louisiana. Its website (www.deep­waterhorizonresponse.com) has received more than 19 million hits since it was launched on April 23.

More than 520 vessels were on site, including skimmers, tugs, barges and recovery vessels to help the cleanup efforts—in addition to dozens of aircraft, remotely operated vehicles, and multiple mobile offshore drilling units donated by various companies. More than 1.4 million feet of boom (regular and sorbent) had been deployed, with approximately 1 million feet still available. Boom was flown in from Alaska and the North Sea.

Roughly 5 million gallons of an oil-water mix had been recovered.

In Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989, 200 miles of coastline were heavily or moderately oiled (meaning the harm was obvious), and another 1,100 miles had light sheen or occasional tarballs.

The Gulf spill is likely to be worse. For one thing, there are more than 9,000 miles of shoreline in the Louisiana-to-Florida region. For another, until the well is capped, this is a spill that renews itself every hour. Its ripple effects will continue for years thereafter.