What oil spills?
How about 9.2 million gallons in the Post Katrina & Rita Gulf of Mexico region according to the Coast Guard? That’s not counting up to 3 million gallons released after a barge hit a sunken oil-rig in November (See Blue Notes #22). When I was in the Gulf a few weeks after Katrina I thought there would be major media coverage of the spills after the final human remains were collected, but for some reason this never happened. Now there’s a major pipeline spill on the Alaskan tundra in Prudhoe Bay (around 250,00 gallons that went undetected for days), a result of aging and corroding pipelines on the North Slope. And how has Congress reacted to these disasters? – With a major push to open up protected offshore ocean areas to new oil and gas drilling plus a new Senate budget rider to again try and open up the Arctic Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The latest scheme passed 51-49 on the night of March 16 (with democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana voting in favor). The proposal would crea
