President Obama has been criticized for the feds “slow” response to the oil spill; meanwhile BP has downplayed the disaster. Cheney let oil execs redraft the regulations; now we must clean up yet another Bush administration mess. BP paid $22 million in fines for hazardous waste dumping in Alaska (1990s), $303 million in fines for propane price fixing (October, 2007), and was fined $137 million for 800+ safety violations after a Texas oil refinery explosion (2005).
Obama says he erred in believing BP had their acts together for a worst case scenario. The Obama administration has now: 1) suspended planned exploration of two locations off the coast of Alaska; 2) canceled pending lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and proposed lease sales off Virginia coast; 3) extended existing moratoriums and suspended new permits for deepwater wells for six months; and 4) suspended action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama says oil will be part of our energy mix, but this tragedy is a “wake-up call” that our dependence on oil is not sustainable; we must focus our resources on renewable energy that will not only protect our environment, but will also “create a new, homegrown, American industry that can lead to countless new businesses and new jobs.” America, with our ingenuity, "know how" and "can do" spirit, can lead the world in renewable energy technologies. And Nevada, with our wide open spaces, can be a national leader, but we must invest now in education and retrain and diversify our workforce. Enough of this “no new taxes/drill baby/anti regulation” nonsense. Let’s clean up this mess and get to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment