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Waterkeeper Alliance Calls For Smarter Response To BP Disaster
WATERKEEPER TO BP
DISASTER Local
Waterkeepers Continue to Fight BP Oil’s
Impacts
on Gulf Coast “The BP disaster,
which began two days before Earth Day, 2010, is
already
the worst oil spill in US history and it’s on
its way to becoming the worst oil
spill of all time. “This event
graphically illustrates that the cost of an
energy system
based on fossil fuels is too high.
Simply put, their extraction and use are
causing too much damage to the
environment and our communities. “It’s at this time
that we, as a nation, have to see that neither
our energy
independence nor our environmental and health
safety are served by our
addiction to fossil fuels.
There has
been no better moment than now to swiftly
transition to green, renewable energy
sources. “Every day, we are
greeted with new outrages, with damning
revelations of
corporate arrogance and bureaucratic lack of
will and incompetence.
BP never prepared for the possibility of
a
disaster, never considered the impacts of
drilling this deep, and won’t be
transparent with the government or the
public.
There have also been poor actors on the
government side, where drilling
and extraction regulations have gone
unenforced, and oversight of offshore
wells has been completely inadequate, conducted
by a federal agency that is
ethically compromised and morally
bankrupt. “What must we do
until we can transition to cleaner energy?
“First
of all, Waterkeeper urges President Obama to
declare a state of national
emergency in the Gulf, allowing the Administration to
assert more control over the crisis and force
more accountability and
transparency from BP.
It’s time that we
see what progress we can achieve with BP in a
harness, instead of the driver’s
seat. “While we applaud
the President’s prudent continuation of a ban
on new
drilling, Waterkeeper Alliance most urgently
demands immediate across-the-board
implementation of the maximum achievable safety
technology on all offshore
exploration, development and production
facilities, devices, and operations. “We also call for
the Obama Administration to prosecute BP and
its
executives to the fullest extent of the law for
their criminal sidestepping of
federal laws. We
further call for BP and
other oil companies to be held fully
accountable for the costs of cleanup from
their spills, as well as the costs of
rebuilding destroyed
communities, replacing lost livelihoods
and remediating environmental
damage.
“Finally, the government also needs
to more
effectively handle its responsibilities.
The Obama administration must
fulfill its promise to overhaul the
Department of the Interior’s Minerals
Management Service. EPA and
NOAA must
take more active oversight roles, and other
agencies must work diligently to
protect the people of the Waterkeeper Alliance is a
global environmental organization uniting more
than 190 Waterkeeper programs
around the world and focusing citizen advocacy
on the issues that affect our
waterways, from pollution to climate change.
More information can be found at www.Waterkeeper.org. To see what MEDIA
CONTACTS: Sakura Amend for
Waterkeeper Alliance: 212-576-2700, ext 237
samend@goodmanmedia.com # # #