Hello. You would think that after witnessing the worst environmental disaster in most of our lifetimes that people would finally realize the dangers and say, "hey - let's step back and maybe rethink this before we drill anymore".
According to a Parish president, the recent oil drilling moratorium is just more than Louisiana can bare:
Charlotte Randolph, president of LaFourche Parish, said she spoke to Obama in person during his visit to the oil-stricken region Friday.
"I expressed to the president that we are dying because of the oil spill, but if he allows this suspension to happen it will kill us," she told reporters Saturday, noting that her parish has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.
"First I'm hearing from fisherman who are dying because of the oil spill," she said. "Now I'm hearing from the oil and gas industry and all of those associated services that they will be put out of business."
LA Parish Article
Thinking to myself well, this is just one isolated self serving politician who big oil has bought and paid for. Then I found another article pretty much saying the same thing:
HOUSTON—Many local jobs will be lost as President Barack Obama shuts down operations on 33 deep-water-exploratory rigs in the Gulf.
Of all the deep-water rigs or drilling ships that are currently in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 of them are owned by Transocean—the same company that owned the Deepwater Horizon. Six are owned by Nobel, six by Diamond Offshore and two by Ensco.
All four companies’ deep-water operations are based in Houston.
Job Losses - Texas
I in no way want to minimize the job loss here but the focus on job losses when faced with a catastrophe of this magnitude seems....almost pathological.
There are so many more articles out there - CNN Money had one up titled "Oil Industry Lashes out at Ban" and the WSJ and Forbes are joining in.
This is only going to escalate in the coming weeks and months and I'm really hoping that we on the progressive side will be able to stand our ground against the short term thinking of people who are willing to ignore the dangers for short term gain.