Dew,
i have no doubt that bubba and jim-bob were able to get ~1/4 lb of used motor oil to wet ~1/4 lb of dried hay. However, I doubt if the approach would be helpful to the spill. The soggy hay-oil combination is probably at least 3/4 lb. Moving the hay in and the mess out would be a lot of trucks and a lot of EPA forms. The notion that it could be used for power is completely hair-brained. I'm also doubtful that the combined mess would bob around on the surface awaiting a sandrake or front-end loader.
Tar balls are mother nature's way of effectively doing the same thing but in neater form. After the volatile parts of the oil evaporate, the heavier fraction gets rolled around with sand, shells, and other organic matter to form a compact semi-solid which will be much easier to remove than hay matted with oil. This will be the mother of all tar ball farms but my speculative 2 cents is that dealing with those will be cheaper and more effective than the absorption/adsorption/wetting schemes i've seen so far.
The first DOE report on the accident is due out this Friday.
Charlie
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