. . . . June
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Gulf reopen for drilling as region suffers
CNN.com:
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Last week, the Obama administration announced that the deep waters of the Gulf are again open for drilling. That the BP oil disaster is continuing and will have lasting effects is unacknowledged.
The BP disaster was the largest oil catastrophe the country has ever seen, and the Gulf of Mexico and our communities have a long road to recovery.
Our friends in the fishing industry are still out of work, the effects of the spill on wildlife have not been fully assessed, the safety of our seafood is still in question and entire cultures are barely hanging on.
The administration says new rules and regulations will make deepwater oil drilling safer.
Although we welcome the new rules, we believe that they do not go far enough. There is little assurance that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, charged with enforcement, has the resources to hold the industry accountable.
Gulf Restoration Network believes further steps must be taken immediately to ensure the safety of oil drilling in deep off-shore waters. The government and the public need to stay focused on the disaster and environmental impacts that are just beginning to play out, continue to hold BP accountable and act to make sure this never happens again.
We hope the Obama administration approaches continued cleanup, regulatory reform and damage mitigation, none of which is even close to being accomplished, with the same urgency it has shown in efforts to reopen the Gulf to deepwater drilling.
BP's spill is only the latest and most visible evidence of the oil and gas industry's ongoing environmental destruction in the Gulf.
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