Yesterday, Amy Merten of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, warned of the consequences of a lack of adequate research on how to deal with oil spills from offshore drilling in the Arctic. “We know that we will have a spill in the Arctic. It’s just a matter of when,” she said.
However, as big oil companies prepare to make huge profits from new offshore drilling operations in the U.S. Arctic, it’s going to have to be the American people, through the federal government, who pay for the costs of research into how to cope with the inevitable oil spills to come. That’s the word from the US Arctic Research Commission.
In fact, federal spending on such research is required by law. That law, however, has not been followed by either the Bush Administration or the Obama Administration. “The promise of a rigorous national research plan on oil spills, pledged by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 after the Exxon Valdez disaster, has fallen short,” says the Arctic Research Commission report released yesterday.
Isn’t it great when you can “game the system” to only work for you at the expense and suffering of all. Goldman Sachs (and others), Big Oil, Big Agri, and Big Pharma as well as the Big Banks have it this way – all while we’ve passed the carrying capacity of the planet! Amazing and dismal at the same time.
Meanwhile, here’s Obama on single-payer (the only real solution):
http://www.correntewire.com/print/22556
just another day and another corporate dollar.
why are we such chumps?