Why the deep water drilling moratium should NOT be lifted

Today a federal judge (who owns stock in eight oil companies or oil-related companies, including Transocean) overturned the President's 6-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling.

This moratorium affected only 33 wells. There are over 3,600 wells in the Gulf right now. All except for those 33 are still drilling, still producing oil. Yet those who are against the President's moratorium want everyone to believe that drilling has come to a standstill in the Gulf.

Let's get one thing straight -- oil spills happen all the time, you just don't hear about them unless they're catastrophic. We still don't understand all the reasons why the BP rig blew up, and I believe there were multiple reasons. We know what happened when it did, though. BP was completely unprepared to cap the leak or to clean up the spill. Due to the massive size of this spill we are using all the available resources we have to try to get it under control. If there was to be another large spill, there would be no resources available to fight it.

If an airplane were to crash because of a fatal flaw in the wiring, would the FAA not ground all the planes of that type until they were fixed? Absolutely. We have no idea right now, today, whether or not another one of those deepwater oil rigs could blow, but we know that it would be fatal if one did. As horrible as the environmental devastation happening in the Gulf right now is, let's not forget that 11 men died in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig.

It is unconscionable that this judge did not recuse himself from this case in light of his investments in the oil industry. He made a partisan, self-interested, and incorrect ruling today that I hope gets overturned on appeal.

Help the wildlife harmed by the oil spill!

As the Gulf oil spill gets worse and worse, so do the conditions for the wildlife who are caught up in the mess. If you would like to help but can't physically be there, consider giving a donation to a wildlife organization or some other environmental charity. I have been a member of the National Wildlife Federation for many years, but I donated some extra money in order to help them defray the expenses they are incurring by having to have people down there in the Gulf - especially knowing they will have to be there for many more months!

The National Wildlife Federation is at nwf.org. You could also consider donations to the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) or the Audobon Society.