An inexperienced President facing political pressure to secure the nation's future energy supplies gives the nod to an industry who's environmental record is checkered with accidents. The industry rewards his misplaced confidence by causing an unmitigated ecological disaster of biblical proportions.
Forty-four took more campaign money from BP than John McCain did. When boosterism replaces good government, this what you get. Claiming offshore drilling is safe and environmentally benign is to be dangerously ignorant of the facts or is simply a industry sales pitch. The offshore drilling moratorium* was imposed for good reasons. Americans became concerned that their beaches, fishing spots and seafood would be covered in smelly, sticky ooze from coast to coast. Since April 22nd when the drilling platform
Deepwater Horizon collapsed in flames, it has leaked an estimated 3 million barrels of crude oil into the sea. The calamity in the Gulf of Mexico will have adverse effects lasting generations, just as the Exxon Valdez spill still affects the lives of Alaskans twenty years later. Until the government comes up with a way to make offshore drilling safe, and it's inevitable environmental impacts minimized, it should not allow new drilling on the OCS.
Hope is with BP as it positions
the cofferdam [photo] to capture most of the oil gushing out of the damaged well. If it works, the Gulf coast may be spared another huge disaster. If it does not work, the relief well being drilled is the last desperate option. No one wants to contemplate t
he Russian suggestion to use a subsurface nuclear detonation to bury the runaway well. In the face of the
Deepwater Horizon calamity that is slowing turning the northern Gulf of Mexico into a smelly, scum ridden, toxic lake, perhaps Congress will be motivated to spend the $54 billion it plans to give to another subsidized polluter, the nuclear power industry, on building a green energy economy. You may not be able to drive a 11mpg SUV anymore, but your children will thank you.
*On January 28, 1969, Union Oil's Platform A experienced an uncontrolledblowout in southern California's Dos Cuadras field that lasted for approximately eight days. The spill of approximately 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil affected over forty miles of coastline. Several environmental laws were passed at the federal and state levels following the blowout, including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Future OCS and state tideland leasing would require a formalized environmental review process. www.countyofsb.org/energy/information/history.asp
[L photo: Vets rehydrate a gannet that was covered in oil. The spill has reached the Chandeleur Islands, the nation's second oldest wildlife refuge, off the coast of Louisiana. UK First Post]
