Oceana Reacts to DOI’s New Offshore Oil & Gas Drilling Regulations
Press Release Date: September 30, 2010
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Contact:
Anna Baxter | email: abaxter@oceana.org
Anna Baxter
Oceana’s Jacqueline Savitz offers a reaction to Department of Interior Secretary Salazar’s announcement of new offshore drilling regulations:
“While we commend the Obama Administration’s efforts, these new regulations will not prevent another oil spill.
The BP disaster occurred because standards were not met and monitoring and inspections were too lax. While stricter standards might help, adding them ignores the fact that there is simply no guarantee they will be followed. The BP disaster revealed that conditions are unpredictable and companies take shortcuts to increase profits.
We will never be able to predict when another spill will happen. But we do know that offshore drilling is a dirty and dangerous business and that spills occur. It is not a question of if, but when the next blowout, fire or spill will occur.
Without a government inspector on every rig, approving every step of every process, it will be impossible to ensure standards work. Moreover, doing so would be very costly.
Oceana urges the Administration to protect the health of our oceans, fisheries and tourism economies by continuing its offshore drilling moratorium and extending it to shallow water drilling,” said Jacqueline Savitz, senior campaign manager, Oceana.
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