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ORIGINAL POST
Exactly one year ago today, the Deepwater Horizon exploded in the Gulf Of Mexico killing 11 people, injuring 17 others and setting in motion an environmental catastrophe so enormous it's consequences are too disturbing for many to even think about.
The subsequent oil spill that followed is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. For three months crude oil oozed into our oceans totaling approximately 4,900,000 barrels of oil; that's 206,000,000 US gallons or 779,000 cubic meters, poisoning our planets delicate ecological balance in ways we are not full capable of predicting. Have we learned anything from this event? We shall see...
First a little BP history:
On March 23, 2005, a fire and explosion occurred at BP's Texas City Refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers and injuring more than 170 others. BP was charged with criminal violations of federal environmental laws, and has been subject to lawsuits from the victim's families.
On March 2, 2006 an oil spill was discovered at a pipeline owned by BP Exploration in western Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. About 212,252 US gallons were spilled making it the largest oil spill on Alaska's north slope in history. The pipeline was decommissioned and replaced. In November 2007, BP Exploration, Alaska (BPXA) plead guilty to negligent discharge of oil, a misdemeanor under the federal Clean Water Act and was fined US $20 million.
But those two events; though tragic, are pretty common knowledge. Here's something just came out. September 2008; 17 months BEFORE the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill, there was a previous blowout on a BP owned deep water drilling well in the Caspian Sea. Why isn't this event as well known as the others? Because BP completely hid it from congress and U.S. safety regulators.
A secret memo concerning the blow out reads
"Given the explosive potential, BP was quite fortunate to have been able to evacuate everyone safely and to prevent any gas ignition."If you would like more history on BP and it's shenanigans you can refer to and earlier blog post of mine: Could There Be Justice Concerning BP
Now to the present:
Mother Jones has a piece called 10 Reasons to Still Be Pissed Off About the BP Disaster. I'm only going to touch on a few points here but it's a great piece which I suggest you read.
1~ BP is gunning to get back to drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The first deepwater drilling permit to be issued went to (you guessed it) a well half owned by BP. On top of that, they are in negotiations with the U.S. government now to resume drilling at 10 deepwater wells in the Gulf this July.
2~ People are not only sick, some have died. There is actually an entire channel on youtube documenting one woman's struggle to get help for the multitude of health problems she and her former co-workers are now suffering after working to help clean up the beaches.
3~ Harm to sea life since the spill has been severely under reported.
4~ Elected officials have actually been exposed using money that should be going to help cleanup and victims for personal goodies like iPads and SUVs
5~ Congress hasn't changed a single law concerning drilling.
6~ GOP House members want more drilling off all our coasts with less environmental review.
7~ There issuing drilling permits even though the blow out preventers they deep water drilling rigs are STILL using DON'T WORK!
8~ BP is STILL blocking reporters from the beaches in order to keep them from exposing the tar balls washing ashore.
9~ COREXIT; the chemical dispersant used to hide the oil, is still washing up on the beaches.
Now let's see who's pockets BP has been lining.
So what has BP or the U.S. government learned about an ounce of prevention?
NOT A DAMNED THING! Not only have they NOT learned...THEY DON'T CARE!
If they cared they wouldn't be issuing drilling permits to rigs using the same faulty blow out preventers.
If they cared they wouldn't be using the money meant to help with clean up and medical care for a bunch of BULLSHIT!
If they cared congress would have changed at least ONE law concerning drilling.
THEY DON'T CARE!
THEY HAVEN'T LEARNED SHIT AND THEY DON'T CARE!
And when there's another blowout they won't care THEN! They won't care until we MAKE them care! This is OUR fault too.
We are...WE THE PEOPLE!and we the people have been so busy chasing the myth of the American dream they PURPOSELY keep just out of our reach to notice. AND WHEN WE DO notice we are too tired after working our multiple jobs to do anything about it.
Only we can stop this! We have to STOP voting for those who put our interests and safety second to their corporate donations. We have to STOP sticking our heads in the oil soaked sand and pay attention! We have to teach our kids about democracy and what it means to be a citizen of this country...and a patriot!
And most of all we have to let them know NOW that we are mad and we are not going to take it anymore.This is YOUR children's future on the line.
Years from now when you look at the FUCKED UP state of the world are you going to wonder if things would have been different if you had done something NOW! By then it will be to late.
BE ANGRY!
If not now, WHEN?
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