Oil is on everyone’s minds these days. The gusher in the Gulf of Mexico is the worst environmental catastrophe our country has ever had to deal with. The oil spill has now been going on over two months with at least another month or more to go before it can possibly be stopped. President Obama has issued a six-month moratorium on deep well drilling in the Gulf. That means that thirty-three oil drilling projects have been put on hold, meaning job losses for all of those workers. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have strongly urged the President to back off that moratorium. Although he has not, a federal judge in New Orleans has ruled that he must.
I have friends on both sides of this argument. Frankly, I can’t believe we would even consider continuing to drill under the circumstances. Not only BP but also the other major oil companies have all admitted that they have no solutions for a disaster like this one. The argument that convinces me that the oil drilling should be suspended is based on what happened when the Challenger blew up in space, killing the astronauts aboard that spacecraft. Did we simply keep moving ahead with the space program before we found out what measures needed to be taken before we risked another space flight? Absolutely not. Scientists and technicians at NASA worked hard to find the root cause of the disaster and only after they were convinced that space travel could once again be done safely did they okay the resumption of flights. Greed is not worth losing more human lives or more of our precious environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment