This disaster off the coast of Louisiana is the nightmare that those of us who are against offshore drilling feared would come to pass.
They are already comparing this to the Exxon Valdez.
VENICE, La. -- An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control with a faint sheen washing ashore along the Gulf Coast Thursday night as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.
Hours before the spill started washing ashore in Louisiana late Thursday, members of Congress issued new calls for Obama to abandon his plans for expanded offshore drilling, and White House officials conceded that the spreading oil slick could cause the president to rethink his position. "We need to figure out what happened," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "Would a finding of something possibly affect that? Of course."
The outlook in the Gulf of Mexico remained bleak in the wake of the April 20 explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and killed 11 workers. A change in the weather and choppy waters prevented a second burn of oil at sea and slowed efforts by a flotilla of ships to skim the oily mixture from the surface of the gulf, federal officials said. Continuing efforts to use remote-controlled robotic submarines to activate a malfunctioning blowout preventer lying on the sea floor in 5,000 feet of water failed.
I can't speak for everyone else who is against offshore oil drilling, but I can only bring my own reasons - the possibility of disasters like this. No, I don't trust the oil companies as far as I could spit. Combine that with the local industries that will be destroyed as a consequence- in this case, the fishing and tourism industries, and it's just not worth it.
But, the main reason why the oil companies can't be trusted, is because their is no monitoring apparatus in place by government to keep a control over the oil companies. I don't think folks truly understand how much Bush, The Evil One and their buddies absolutely GUTTED those in the government who would protect the environment. Not just the political appointees, but they proceeded with a systematic gutting of the 'permanent government' employees - those employees that keep the structure of the departments going, despite who is the President of the United States. They took flunkies from the oil industry, those who could care less about protecting the coasts, and only see them as a place to rape, pillage, plunder and make money, no matter what the costs to the peoples who would be effected if something would go wrong. AND, because of the way they cut corners, something WOULD ALWAYS GO WRONG.
MORE INSIDE
Posts
