Environmental Law

Overwhelming stench from monstrous stain on the sea - Times Online

By STEPHEN HOLZER

Only from the air can the enormity and hopelessness of the situation be comprehended. Even before Lieutenant Rene Baez of the US Coast Guard lowers the ramp of the surveillance aircraft in which we are flying, opening up the cabin to a rush of air from the Gulf of Mexico 1,500ft below, there is no mistaking the smell of crude oil.

via www.timesonline.co.uk

While the mainstream media won't discuss much of this point, the columnist and TV commentator Charles Krauthammer has pointed out that one reason for risky offshore drilling is the refusal of the government to permit more on-shore drilling. In the case of a disaster on land, the technoloigies for capping the oil spill are wll-developed and relatively easy to implement. However, because places like Anwar are off limtis, oil exploration has been driven to places like the Gulf-where, as we see, the ability to respond to a deep underwater spill is at the frontier of technology.

Instead of just casting blame on others, the federal government needs to engage in an honest doscussion of the failrue of its limtiation on the expansion of terrestrial drilling.

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on June 01, 2010 (boomark / email).