There is a darn good reason why we don't drill for oil off our coasts - The 1969 Santa Barbara Oil Spill, that was caused by an oil company rupturing the sea floor! The oil companies had their shot and they blew it! They proved to be highly untrustworthy; And our Government proved to be just as untrustworthy in their oversight of them.
I find it disturbing in the extreme that Bush, the same '60s slacker who's idea of social conscience was college alcohol abuse and avoiding Vietnam, has now decided it's time to overturn the national environmental conscience created in 1969 by the Santa Barbara oil spill.
A little history lesson folks -
The '69 Santa Barbara Oil Spill
THE BIG SPILL
January 26, 1989 The Santa Barbara Independent, By Nick Welsh
source: http://www.es.ucsb.edu/... (current as of 5/03)
Workers on Union Oil's Platform A were pulling the drilling tube out of well A-32 at 10:45 on Tuesday morning, January 28, 1969. The tube was stuck, but they kept pulling anyway, for another 450 feet. In the process, they dislodged critical drilling mud, and all hell broke loose. Gas and mud from 3,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface shot into the air, splattering the panicked workers on the platform with grease and grime. They managed to plug the well, but nothing could control the oil and gas. Eight hundred feet away from the platform, the sea boiled furiously. The oil had burst through its fragile geological formation, ripping five long gashes through the top of the ocean floor. At least 77,000 barrels escaped in the first 100 days of the spill.
The Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969 remains a morality tale all the more tragic because it could have been avoided. In short, the federal agency regulating offshore oil production-the United States Geological Survey-granted Union Oil, an oil company with a reputation for cutting corners, permission to waive federal safety regulations when drilling in an oil formation that was known to be extremely volatile and fragile.
THE OIL SPILL HEARD 'ROUND THE COUNTRY!
January 28, 1989 Los Angeles Times, By Miles Corwin
source: http://www.es.ucsb.edu/... (current as of 5/03)
SANTA BARBARA - From a large crack on the bottom of the Santa Barbara Channel, about 5 miles off the coastline, a few barrels of oil bubble to the surface each day. The slick and the nearby Unocal Corp. drilling platform Alpha are the last visible vestiges of the worst oil spill in the nation's history.
Twenty years ago today, on Jan. 28, 1969, a "blowout" erupted below the platform and, before it was plugged, more than 3 million gallons of crude oil spewed from drilling-induced cracks in the channel floor. For weeks national attention was focused on the spill's disturbing, dramatic images. Oil-soaked birds, unable to fly, slowly dying on the land. Waves so thick with crude oil that they broke on shore with an eerie silence. Thirty miles of sandy beaches coated with thick sludge. Hundreds of miles of ocean covered with an oily black sheen. But the spills impact went far beyond the fouled beaches. The disaster is considered to be a major factor in the birth of the modern-day environmental movement.
It was the Spark "The blowout was the spark that brought the environmental issue to the nation's attention," said Arent Schuyler, lecturer emeritus in environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara. "People could see very vividly that their communities could bear the brunt of industrial accidents. They began forming environmental groups to protect their communities and started fighting for legislation to protect the environment."
So, what exactly has changed in 40 years?
Price? Before you (or our government) starts spending those gas savings, you better look up the cost of a million gallon spill off the coast of Florida or California! What you save in 5-10 years when the oil starts flowing might just get spent sooner on cleanup costs.
Technology? Maybe, but the Santa Barbra spill was caused by people taking shortcuts. I haven't seen alot of advancement in "competence in using technology" these last 40 years.
Our government's oversight in important matters?
Oil company's environmental concern?
The only thing that has changed in 40 years is the Republican party's willingness to use any emergency or disaster to bully Americans into following their agenda
By the way, because of the Santa Barbara spill, it was President Richard Nixon who reduced the special tax breaks for the oil industry and paved the way for his decision to sign the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) on January 1, 1970.
The law stipulates that the environmental consequences of federal projects be considered before the appropriate federal permits are issued, requires that public hearings be held, and that the public be given access information previously viewed as the property of the developer.