In a report dated 5/21/10 in the Times Picayune by Jonathan Tilove, oil industry representatives would like the moratorium lifted on drilling in shallow waters of the Gulf that was placed by the Obama administration to new offshore drilling until investigators find out what went wrong with the BP well explosion. According to the report, Louisiana U.S. Senators Landrieu and Vitter, and U.S. representatives Melancon and Scalise support the industry move.
They pointed out that shallow water drilling is safe for several reasons but no one pointed out that any explosion and leak would be much closer to the Louisiana shore line and spilled oil in the water of the Gulf would hit our shores much quicker than the BP spill. Also not pointed out was the fact that the BP spill happened over a month ago and the oil industry still has no equipment or method available to timely clean up the spilled water in the Gulf or stop the leaking of oil.
Scalise was quoted as saying, Secretary Salazar needs to understand the stark difference between deep water drilling and shallow water drilling. The problem is that Scalise and the oil industry who push deep water drilling as being safe never took into consideration those stark difference we are finding out in the BP spill. Scalise also took the position that the moratorium would result in thousands more jobs and billions more dollars being shipped to middle east countries that don't like us. Scalise needs a dose of truth serum. A record number of jobs and billions of dollars were sent to middle east countries on Bush's watch while Scalise was in congress with the record price of $150/barrel oil and $4.00/gallon gasoline.
One would think our delegation in congress would be pushing the oil industry to have a workable plan and equipment available to timely clean up any leaked oil in the waters of the Gulf and a way to cap off any leak timely. That does not exist today, even in shallow waters.
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