[O] Oil Leases

Dear Friends,

The Obama Administration has decided to sell more oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico.  The following is from a story in The New York Times (here).

Making good on a promise, the Interior Department announced Friday that it had scheduled its first sale of offshore oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico since the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year. But it is changing some of the rules to ensure that leased parcels are actually drilled and not hoarded.

For reasons that I cannot understand, President Obama continues to provide the oil and gas industry with more opportunities to pollute our planet.  At a time when we should be focusing on alternative sources of energy and energy conservation, President Obama continues to try to win support from the oil and gas industry by letting them drill where ever they want to.

The oil and gas industry continues to claim that they can stop leaks and blowouts but all the evidence is to the contrary.  The following is from a story from the Guardian (here):

Shell admits risk of further North Sea oil spill

The final amount leaked could be four times the volume that has spewed into the sea in the past week

• Fiona Harvey, environment correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 17 August 2011 21.41 BST
• Article history


The Royal Dutch Shell platform Gannett Alpha in the North Sea. Photograph: Ho/Reuters
If efforts to dam the Shell oil spill prove unsuccessful the final amount of oil leaked into the North Sea could be four times greater than it is at present, the company admitted on Wednesday.
More than 200 tonnes of oil have already poured into the sea, with unknown effects on marine life, making it the worst spill in UK waters in the last 10 years. But Shell has estimated there could be up to 660 tonnes still in the affected pipeline.

You will of course remember from my earlier post (here) that Shell is the company that the Obama Administration is preparing to permit to drill in the Arctic Ocean. 

All I can think of is "When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?" from the song by Pete Seeger, "Where have all the flowers gone?".  For those of you that do not know the song here is a link to the words.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal