It's the biggest oil spill ever on the tundra of Alaska's North Slope: 267,000 gallons of thick crude spread over two acres in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield complex.

BP (formerly British Petroleum) said the oil leaked from an aging, corroded pipeline and went undetected up to five days.

Not cool.

If the industry really wants Congress to approve new drilling opportunities in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore areas of the continental United States, it had best find ways to avoid such incidents.

The Prudhoe spill is far smaller than the 11 million gallons dumped in Alaska's Prince William Sound by the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989.

But it just might be large enough to give Big Oil some fresh political headaches in Washington.

— Fort Worth Star-Telegram