I am worried.
Not about the Gulf coast oil leak. It will stop. Sooner or later they will get this thing plugged or it will simply run out of oil, but it will stop.
Not about the clean up. It will take time and whether BP or the government or volunteers takes care of it, it will get cleaned.
Nor am I worried about the Gulf recovering. That also will happen. It may take many years, and may in the end be different than it once was but it will recover.
What I am worried about is that we will not learn our lesson. That the rhetoric about the need for jobs and the need of the meager oil reserves that offshore drilling has the potential to tap, will allow things to continue with relatively minor changes.
I already hear that they may allow new permits for shallow water drilling. Didn’t anyone notice that the last couple of oil rig accidents were in shallow waters? And that like this disaster they also took months to stop the flow of oil?
Just because it is 500 ft or less doesn’t mean that the oil companies are any more prepared to deal with an accident.
This accident should be Obama’s rallying cry, instead of allowing the opposition to turn this against him. He needs to use this opportunity to gain support for his green energy agenda. He needs to use this like Kennedy use Sputnik to spur our space program. He needs to use this to call on all Americans to cut our fossil fuel use to a trickle by the end of the decade. But more immediately he must call for a complete offshore drilling moratorium.
If the powers that be insist we need this oil too badly not to drill, a decent compromise would be to allow offshore drilling only when;
- 1. All available failsafes are in place (including a sonically activated disconnect) and are regularly checked and certified to be in working order.
- 2. That all liability limits are lifted.
- 3. They demonstrate that even if all their failsafes fail, they can stop the flow of oil within 24 hours (this can be done by requiring a relief well to be drilled simultaneously to the main well).
- 4. A strong government agency is created to do regular inspections, and also have the power to instantly shut down and fine any operation failing to meet safety protocols.
Only when all these criteria are met should we allow offshore drilling to continue.
