Do we not get upset with the potential prospective of 11 bodies washing ashore?
We need energy, but we need it extracted safely. Safety cuts into profits, so it doesn't get the investment we deserve. Until they can figure out a way to make sure companies toe the line (look at the oil spills, coal mine collapses, Marcellus Shale misteps (see "Cabot in Dimock, PA)), then we shouldn't be encouraging these ventures. The environmental damage is a true tragedy, but the victims of these incidents are simply victims of criminal negligence and worse.
"Drill, baby, drill" gets followed shortly by "Spill, baby, spill". If you're lucky, it's only oil or coal sludge. In too many cases, its blood that's getting spilled.
The Obama Administration has increased the federal government’s involvement in helping BP try to contain, clean, and stop the oil spewing from the undersea well involved in the recent Deepwater Horizon accident.
Burning, booming, doming, dispersing, skimming, drilling—you name it—is being executed by the response effort, which now includes BP, Transocean, the Coast Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Departments of Defense, Interior, and Homeland Security.
But will the leak influence Obama’s recent decision to nix the ban on offshore drilling for much of the East Coast and Alaska?
Reuters quotes White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs:
Could that [the determined cause of the accident] possibly change his viewpoint? Well, of course.
I think our focus right now is: one, the area, the spill; and two, also to ultimately determine the cause of it and see the impact that that ultimately may or may not have.
In numerous news reports, Governor of Florida Charlie Crist has stated his change of heart on the oil extraction practice:
It’s clearly not clean enough after we saw what we saw today—that’s horrific—and it certainly isn’t safe enough. It’s the opposite of safe.
Meanwhile, longtime offshore drilling opponent Florida’s Senator Bill Nelson has introduced legislation that would temporarily bar the Obama Administration from expanding offshore drilling, including seismic testing and exploratory operations, into new areas. There is also a Congressional investigation into the incident.
According to NOAA, the well is leaking 5 times more oil than previously thought. This amounts to 5,000 barrels each day.
As brown ribbons of crude spread more than 150 x 30 miles across the Gulf, drifting closer to shore and nearing the Mississippi Delta, they bring ecological and economic disaster to fishing, tourism, and wildlife communities.
As of last night, the oil had reached within three miles from land, with reports of clumps of oil already washing ashore.
Top Image: Flickr/DigitalGlobe-imagery
Bottom Image: NOAA
