From Sara Myers
Monroe
Here we go again....
After the largest oil spill in the world, BP is at it again. On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon exploded leaking 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was an environmental disaster impacting crucial marine and wildlife habitats. Three miles off the coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea, BP is moving a head with Liberty, another offshore drilling project. The project was halted by the Obama administration's moratorium on offshore drilling, but the Liberty is considered onshore, because BP built an artificial island with gravel.
In 2007, BP wrote its own environmental review and consultation documents related to the Endangered Species Act, which is coincidentally almost identical to the federal assessment of environmental consequences. A company should not do its own environmental reviews, because they tend to leave things out. The Beaufort Sea is home to seals, polar bears and the endangered bowhead whale. This precious habitat needs to be protected.
The Liberty involves the "extended reach" method, which is more prone to gas kicks that trigger explosions. BP has a response plan of "the worst case scenario" of 20,000 barrels per day leakage; we know that three times that amount is possible.
This plan is moving forward with untested technology, even more risky than the drilling in the Gulf. The repeat of environmental disaster is unnecessary. BP has invested more than $200 million dollars in this project, instead of destroying another marine habitat that money should be invested in restoring the first one.
Monroe
Here we go again....
After the largest oil spill in the world, BP is at it again. On April 20, the Deepwater Horizon exploded leaking 60,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico. It was an environmental disaster impacting crucial marine and wildlife habitats. Three miles off the coast of Alaska in the Beaufort Sea, BP is moving a head with Liberty, another offshore drilling project. The project was halted by the Obama administration's moratorium on offshore drilling, but the Liberty is considered onshore, because BP built an artificial island with gravel.
In 2007, BP wrote its own environmental review and consultation documents related to the Endangered Species Act, which is coincidentally almost identical to the federal assessment of environmental consequences. A company should not do its own environmental reviews, because they tend to leave things out. The Beaufort Sea is home to seals, polar bears and the endangered bowhead whale. This precious habitat needs to be protected.
The Liberty involves the "extended reach" method, which is more prone to gas kicks that trigger explosions. BP has a response plan of "the worst case scenario" of 20,000 barrels per day leakage; we know that three times that amount is possible.
This plan is moving forward with untested technology, even more risky than the drilling in the Gulf. The repeat of environmental disaster is unnecessary. BP has invested more than $200 million dollars in this project, instead of destroying another marine habitat that money should be invested in restoring the first one.
