You may be interested to know that the tactics used to contain the oil spill 2 years ago in the Gulf were the same tactics used in 1979 for a spill off the coast of Mexico.  Didn’t work either time.  Congress has done absolutely NOTHING to ensure this doesn’t happen again…not one bill has been passed, not one regulation has been changed.  Big Oil has made a token effort…they now have more of the same stuff that didn’t work before…

Lawmakers earned low scores from The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill for not enacting safe-drilling legislation. President  Obama created the commission after the April 20, 2010, blast that killed 11 workers, sank the rig and spewed 4.9 million barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico.

Not surprisingly, Congressional Republicans blame Obama administration for slowing the issue of drilling permits and delaying exploration off Alaska’s coast, a U.S. offshore prospect that may have the second-biggest reservoir after the Gulf of Mexico. How expanding drilling would help enact safety precautions I don’t know.  As of now, Big Oil has NO IDEA of how to deal with oil spills effectively.  All their resources go into developing new drilling techniques, not in addressing the damage left behind from that drilling.  And it’s not only damage from crude oil spills that we have to worry about…there is FRACKING and Tar Sands being pushed by GOP that result in even MORE toxic waste.

FRACKING uses a (secret) combination of chemicals to aid in the extraction process – toxins that usually wind up polluting ground water, soil and air quality.  The Keystone XL Pipeline will transport highly toxic tar sands the from Canada to the Gulf, over America’s heartland and vital aquifers necessary for agriculture, drinking and anything else that requires water. This toxic mix has the consistency of peanut butter mixed with sand and is highly corrosive and has compromised the pipe carrying it in many areas already.

At least 90% of the fresh water used in the oil sands ends up in ends up in tailing ponds so toxic that propane cannons are used to keep ducks from landing. Processing the oil sands uses enough natural gas in a day to heat 3 million homes. The toxic tailing ponds are considered one of the largest human-made structures in the world. The ponds span 50 square kilometers and can be seen from space.-Producing a barrel of oil from the oil sands produces three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a barrel of conventional oil.

But I digress. It just strikes me as crazy to even consider more dangerous drilling for a something that we should be moving away from – fossil fuel.  Especially considering that the Oil Industry has no idea, and doesn’t seem to be inclined to research, HOW TO DRILL SAFELY and CLEAN UP SPILLS or CONTAIN TOXIC BY-PRODUCTS of their drilling; even in this time of obscene profits for Oil Companies.

And since the GOP is in the pocket of Big Oil, we can expect no help from Congress either.  We are on our own on this America and we need to ACT.  It’s been over 20 years since the EXXON Valdez and the Alaska coastline and fishing has yet to fully recover.  The Gulf may NEVER

Related articles

• 2 years later, fish sick near BP oil spill site. (thetruthiswhere.wordpress.com)
• Riki Ott: “Making It Right” After BP Oil Disaster Is Up to Us – Not BP (huffingtonpost.com)
• More Oil Spills Since The Gulf (bfreenews.com)
• Scientists: Fish are sick where BP’s oil spill hit (dawn.com)
• Five Reasons We Can’t Forget About The BP Oil Disaster (thinkprogress.org)