Recent articles in the NYTimes and Huffington Post recall the stupid chanting that, two years ago, accompanied the Republican candidates as they traveled around the country. Now, as we watch an unending stream of oil destroy the southern coast of America, home to upwards of 40% of our fisheries, it seems like a dream of a crack addict. And Sarah Palin and the others want to blame Obama. Puleeeze….
I am not against drilling for oil, but the imbecils who deregulated this industry and allowed the oil companies to call the shots, ought to have their massive wealth stripped from them to pay for the cleanup, and then put them in stocks in a public place near the Gulf, so the folks down there can take some revenge. It won’t bring back the shrimp (which are likely to be wiped out by this, goodbye Forest Gump), nor the turtles, nor the millions of migratory birds that may die between now and next year, nor the other fish and not the bottle nosed dolphins, who are trying to breed there right now. But it will make us feel a bit better.
All of us expect that our heart defibrillators, our medicines, and our cars, are regulated enough to not allow the equivalent of this fiasco to happen to you. It’s time to demand regulation that will never allow this to happen again. Do we really want to be wading around in a dead sea of oil? Do you think it couldn’t happen here? Hundreds of freighters pass through the Strait yearly. It will only take one. The rescue tug at Neah Bay can’t be everywhere at once. It’s a long ways from Neah Bay to the turn at Admiralty Inlet. 85 miles to be exact. At 10 knots that’s what, 8 to 9 hours without a bad tide? And we haven’t yet discussed that in 2012, with all oil tankers finally having double hulls, the escort tugs will be ended, unless we demand they remain. To think that a double hull will protect from any and all groundings is naive, at best. Demand proper protection of our waterways while we still have a chance.