Topical Blog

On the same day Earth Day enthusiasts called for a cleaner earth, an oil rig burned 50 miles off the coast of New Orleans, causing alarm for a potentially massive oil spill. The oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, belonging to the company British Petroleum (BP) burned violently from Tuesday night into Thursday, eventually sinking into the Golf of Mexico.

The sinking of an entire oil rig poses a horrendous environmental threat; Coast Guard officials have stated the sunken rig may expel up to 336,000 gallons of crude oil a day. In addition to the environmental disaster, there includes the human factor.
As of Friday, the coast guard has given up the search for 11 missing workers from the oil rig.

The sinking of Deepwater Horizon comes less than a month after the Obama administration proposed opening nearly 167 million acres of ocean for offshore oil drilling. President Obama’s expansion of offshore drilling includes much of the east coast, from Florida to New Jersey, and portions of northern Alaskan seas.

While Deepwater Horizon’s sinking is not directly related to the areas of President Obama’s oil drilling expansion plan, it does have already skeptical opponents pointing to the environmental risk oil drilling presents. It should be important to note that President Obama’s plan recognizes this risk, and would assess potential risks and benefits of any offshore site before drilling is pursued. However, in the eyes of many environmentalists (including myself), President Obama’s proposal fits right into the Republican “drill baby, Drill!” agenda.

It will be interesting to see whether this tragedy will be pulled into the oil drilling debate, as it proves a perfect example as to what’s wrong with oil drilling.
Drilling for oil off our shores in efforts to fuel a growing demand is just a quick solution to a growing disaster. America desperately needs to divert the money we spend finding oil, and use it for alternative forms of energy. Oil drilling and shipping poses too much of an environmental threat to endure as Americas primary energy source. In addition to the environmental threat, oil rigs can be dangerous to its workers, and accidents like Deepwater Horizon's are not uncommon.