--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: <snip> > Actually, I was the one who suggested that the oil spill > may end the debate about expanding off-shore oil drilling. > Here's my comment: "My take on the leak is that humanity > is too stupid and stubborn to see and adopt more > evolutionary, environmentally-friendly technologies > voluntarily, so we need very graphic, explicit lessons. > This one kind of ends the debate on off-shore drilling, > I'd say.
It gives "our" side more ammunition, but I don't know why you think it's going to end the debate. It would have been a lot more forceful a lesson if it turned out that nothing could have been done to prevent it. But lax regulation on the part of the government and lack of concern for safety on the part of the oil drillers appear to have been responsible. Those are potentially *fixable*. Not only that, it's entirely possible for the fixes to be largely cosmetic. Lots of opportunity for stern finger-pointing and grandstanding while not much actually changes. Let's not forget that less than a month before the disaster, Obama declared he was backing the expansion of offshore drilling. Now he's imposed a 30-day moratorium on approving new offshore drilling licenses. That's nowhere near enough time to accomplish the kind of overhaul that would be needed to make a repeat of the Gulf accident less likely. Plus which, the full consequences of the disaster won't be evident for quite some time. At best, I'd say it's *prolonged* a debate that was close to being won by the oil interests.
