June 03, 2010
Editorial: Spill is outrage and opportunity
Published in Poughkeepsie Journal
The Barack Obama administration's handling of the nation's largest oil spill has been nothing short of abysmal, and this epic environmental disaster will undoubtedly lead to massive changes in how offshore rigs are regulated. If Americans needed any more evidence that the country is on an unsustainable energy path, this has to be it.
There is a palpable sense of outrage and helplessness watching BP's string of failed efforts to stop the leak — and the federal government's impotence to do anything about it. More than 40 days and counting, and the oil is still gushing into the water, into the wetlands, the marshlands and onto the beaches.
The hard reality is that neither the U.S. military nor NASA nor any other aspect of the federal government has "superior technology," in Obama's words, over BP to handle this spill. And the government grossly overestimated the oil industry's ability to cope with this worst-case scenario.
President Obama has conceded his administration should have moved faster to grasp the gravity of the situation. The administration now says it will launch a criminal probe into the origins of the rig explosion that started the spill.
Terrific. But the private companies involved in the operation deserve only so much blame. It is already obvious that federal government regulators had far too cozy relationships with the oil industry, that regulating and making sure good practices were in place before issuing permits were abandoned for the sake of royalties and the realization that America relies heavily on oil for energy.
Remarkably, after plan after plan to stop the leak has failed, BP is merely hoping to contain the well, to slow the spill, rather than cap it at this point. BP says a permanent fix won't be ready until August, when two relief wells are expected to be finished.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal recognizes that damage control is the best the government can do at this point and wants to build sand berms on the state's barrier islands to protect the coast from the massive slick. That is a sensible strategy, and yet here too, the federal government took far too long to respond to the governor's plan.
Meanwhile, the "drill, baby, drill'' crowd has been essentially silenced, and none too soon. The country simply can't "drill" its way out of the energy problem it will continue to face in the generations ahead. What's more, the federal government and coastal states are going to be much more reluctant to allow offshore drilling in light of this disaster. Alternative fuels — including wind, solar, hydro and biofuels — can't totally replace oil at this point, but the country can do a far better job of fostering those efforts through more ...
