The other day my colleague Brad Johnson took the opportunity to remind us that when Barack Obama rather abruptly chose to emphasize his pro-drilling credentials he was at pains to repeat the myth that offshore drilling is a safe and spill-free enterprise:
I don’t agree with the notion that we shouldn’t do anything. It turns out, by the way, that oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills. They are technologically very advanced. Even during Katrina, the spills didn’t come from the oil rigs, they came from the refineries onshore.
It’s of course true that oil rigs don’t “generally” cause spills in the sense that on the vast majority of days there is no spill. The problem is that when spills do happen, it’s catastrophic. It’s never been accurate to say that hurricanes Katrina and Rita didn’t lead to drilling-related spills and now we’re seeing today once again that offshore drilling poses a clear and present danger to the surrounding ocean. If that were the only problem with drilling, it would probably be a problem worth living with, but given that there are many reasons to think we should be attempting to transition to a post-oil economy endangering the oceans to simply postpone adjustments that are needed anyway seems shortsighted.
Today, the White House says they need to put a hold on new drilling until we can investigate what happened, and White House environmental advisor Carol Browner seems to be indicating that the policy will be rethought.
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