People sympathetic to big oil companies such as BP say that no one could have predicted a big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “Accidents happen,” they say. That’s just how things are. There’s nothing that can be done. Let’s all move on to more important news, like Lindsay Lohan’s latest whatever.
There are 5 members of the House of Representatives who know better. Last year, on January 28, U.S. Representative Lois Capps introduced a resolution that warned Congress and the rest of the USA of the kind of consequences that could be expected if our nation did not act to move away from its overuse of fossil fuels. H. Con. Res. 32 read,
“The 40th anniversary of the oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, should be remembered as an ecological and economic disaster that triggered major environmental legislation and helped launch the modern environmental movement; and this anniversary is a timely reminder of the critical importance of moving our economy away from its crippling dependence on fossil fuels and towards a clean, renewable energy future.”
In addition to Representative Capps, the following members of Congress co-sponsored the bill:
Anna Eshoo
Sam Farr
George Miller
Lynn Woolsey
What do these members of Congress have in common? They all represent districts on the California coast, where people still remember the impact of the Santa Barbara spill.
No one else in the House of Representatives supported the resolution. It wasn’t passed. It didn’t even get out of committee.
Don’t let any politician from Washington D.C. tell you that they didn’t have any warning of what was to come. Congress had a reminder of the danger of an oil spill just a little over a year before the Deepwater Horizon disaster began. Almost everyone in Congress ignored that reminder.
Another congressional resolution was passed by both Houses of Congress shortly after the introduction of the Lois Capps oil spill resolution, however. The resolution that passed was H. Con Res 37, which authorized a Greater Washington Soap Box Derby to take place on Capitol Hill.
I would like to think that the U.S. Congress understands by now that the danger posed by oil spills merits greater attention than soap box derbies. I’d like to think that, but given the lack of serious action by Congress so far in response to the Deepwater Horizon crisis, I’m not convinced that this redirection of attention has yet taken place.
Politicians are concerned for their seats and the keeping thereof. They don’t think about the inter-relatedness between oil spills, wetland infiltration, groundwater pollution, and such consequences as bird, fish and plant life destruction. It’s somebody else’s problem (generally, unless it’s in THEIR district).
The oil spill is moving up the East coast via the Gulf Stream. Let’s see how far it spreads (ironic would be if it extended all the way to BRITAIN).
If it didn’t involve burning a lot of fossil fuels to do it, I would go get a bucket of oil from the Gulf Coast shore, and walk up to BP headquarters in London to deliver it to their doorman.
Of course, it’s not just BP that’s the problem. It’s the entire oil industry, and its risky practice of offshore drilling.
I hate the word “widget,” but I’ve just added one to the right-hand side of the page: live video of the oil spill, with PBS’ rough tally, updated constantly, of the size of the spill to date.
Yeah, and look at that black sludge just POURING out.
While I coached my daughter at tee ball for an hour, tens of thousands of gallons of oil poured into the gulf.
and, apparently, the darker color suggests that the oil now surging into the Gulf of Mexico is getting progressively more polluting as the days go by. BP, predictably, says it’s nothing to worry about.