The Gulf Oil spill is now of epic proportions.\u00a0 If you want to blame it on anyone besides BP, blame it on the Republican dislike of energy regulations, especially of the last administration.\u00a0 Dick Cheney and the Bush administration had a hand in incredible disaster.\u00a0 “. . . . yet another classic example of Bush\/Cheney Era deregulation wreaking havoc on the planet.” \u00a0\u00a0 Via Daily Kos:<\/p>\n
Mike Papantonio, an environmental lawyer on the Ed Show just now: An ‘acoustic switch’ would have prevented this catastrophe – it’s a failsafe that shuts the flow of oil off at the source – they cost only about half a million dollars each, and are required in off-shore drilling platforms in most of the world…except for the United States. This was one of the new deregulations devised by Dick Cheney during his secret meetings with the oil industry at the beginning of Bush’s first term.<\/p>\n
Here is the link to the clip from the Ed Show: http:\/\/www.msnbc.msn.com\/id\/21134540\/vp\/36879861#36879861<\/a><\/p>\n This reinforces the post below about the lack of backup safety measures on oil rigs. This lack of an acoustic switch was not an accidental oversight; it was left off oil rigs operating in and near the U.S. quite deliberately.<\/p>\n How bad is this oil spill?\u00a0 The oil is now washing up on shore and the slick itself has tripled in size, as seen from space.\u00a0 BP is already being accused of downplaying the severity of the disaster.\u00a0 Watch 10 minutes of CNN today and you will see worry and anger on the faces of people in the Gulf Coast region, including the worry and anger on the face of Republican Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana.\u00a0\u00a0 (pictured on the right).\u00a0 Jindal said this isn’t just a threat to the environment of the region, but a “threat to our way of life.”\u00a0\u00a0 That’s a little more serious than people like Sarah Palin can comprehend.<\/p>\n More on the growing oil spill, including recent photos, can be found here.<\/p>\n Climate Progress is calling this “Oilpocalypse”, and I don’t disagree with that title at all.<\/p>\n It will be the biggest energy and environmental news story for the foreseeable future.\u00a0 Eleven people are already dead and\u00a0if yesterday\u2019s Wall Street Journal story, \u201cExperts: Oil May Be Leaking at Rate of 25,000 Barrels a Day in Gulf\u201d (subs. req\u2019d, excerpted below) is accurate,\u00a0then the scope of the environmental disaster is far beyond anything we\u2019ve imagined.<\/p>\n I don’t think anyone alive today has witnessed fossil fuel-caused destruction like this before, unless you count how the burning of it is also destroying our climate and lessening the ability of all conscious life on earth — not just us — to survive in the future.<\/p>\n We really do need to move Beyond Petroleum, starting now.\u00a0 As BP’s shares continue to dive on the stock markets, it’s time for the U.S. to seriously invest in renewable energy for the future.\u00a0 Enough of this fossil fuel use.\u00a0 We are smarter than [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Gulf Oil spill is now of epic proportions.\u00a0 If you want to blame it on anyone besides BP, blame it on the Republican dislike of energy regulations, especially of the last administration.\u00a0 Dick Cheney and the Bush administration had … Continue reading