Last week an oil platform off the coast of Louisiana caught fire and tipped over into the ocean. Immediately concerns were voiced about both the cost of oil and the environmental impact of such a larger oil spill. Now it seems the Coast Guard is considering an interesting option to clean up the oil…burning the surface oil.

BP Plc, owner of the well, is spending $6 million a day trying to clean up the spill and stop the underwater flow, which continues at rate of about 1,000 barrels a day.

“We are possibly 90 days out from securing the source permanently,” Landry said. “Burns can be very effective in providing a marked and significant decrease in the amount of oil contained in a spill area.”

The Deepwater Horizon, the name of the platform, is now on the horizon of deep water, eh? It’ll be interesting to see how badly this effect oil prices, if at all.

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Walmart’s CEO, Mike Duke, is the leader of one of the largest and most successful companies in the world. No pressure, right? The good news is, he gets compensated accordingly. Although his salary plummeted by 34% this year, he still made out alright.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Mike Duke received compensation worth $19.2 million in fiscal 2010, according to an Associated Press calculation. That’s down 34 percent from 2009, when he got a hefty stock award in connection with his promotion to CEO.

Duke, 60, became CEO on Feb. 1, 2009, the first day of the company’s fiscal 2010, succeeding Lee Scott. In fiscal 2010, he received a base salary of $1.2 million and a performance-based cash bonus of $4.8 million, according to a filing it made Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He received $193,808 in above-market interest credited on deferred compensation under Wal-Mart Stores’ non-qualified deferred compensation plan.

The bulk of his pay came in the form of stock valued at $12.7 million at the time it was granted.

He also received other compensation worth $318,218, including $162,423 for the company’s contribution to a supplemental executive retirement plan, $85,637 for aircraft use and $45,403 for deferred compensation plan incentive payments.

Walmart has made impressive gains in market share during the recession, but like any business it has not done as well as it would have otherwise. Still, you have to appreciate the sort of innovation that allows a company to out-compete its peers during a downturn.

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