Earth Protect Blog

The Press-Register of Mobile, Alabama discovered new BP oil seeping just a mile from the site of last summer’s debacle.  BP wasted no time at all in claiming that the oil wasn’t theirs… but the facts prove otherwise.  The fingerprint is clear, as is the location of the oil — exactly where one would expect it to be as it rose up from a mile deep.  Then there’s the use of Corexit itself, a solvent which has been banned in the UK, and proves far more dangerous than the oil itself.  Corexit is clearly implicated in the deaths of well over 100 dolphins this spring — an that’s only those who made it to the beach to be counted.   Think back on the way that BP tried to cover up the damage and dodge responsibility at every opportunity.  It’s clearly time to change the way that oil companies are monitored, and the way that their messes are cleaned up.

With the clear understanding that removing a natural resource for personal/corporate profit is decidedly a privilege and not a right, Protect The Ocean calls upon Congress to impose the following procedures and processes on ANY oil drilling,  (and especially those occurring under water):

• There shall be frequent independent monitoring of all activities, operations and well sites (including those supposedly capped off.)
• Oil companies shall have no involvement, direct or indirect, in the clean-up operations or oversight, but shall provide complete cooperation and compliance.
• The responsible oil company shall bear all costs of inspection and clean-up, and shall not be allowed to employ tax credits to do so.  If the company’s responsibility is greater than its assets, each other oil company with operations in the U.S. shall bear a proportionate portion of the costs of cleanup, and no further operations will be allowed by a company until that company’s portion is paid.  (This will push them to police themselves as well.)
• Any time any operation is determined by investigators/monitors to be deficient or presenting unacceptable risks, that operation shall be halted immediately, and immediate appropriate steps taken to alleviate the potential damage to personnel and the environment.
• The purpose of these collective actions is to eliminate any threat or harm from the harvesting of oil from the planet.  This is the single highest priority.  All other considerations shall take a lesser position beneath that goal.  If oil cannot be gotten without damage, then permission to attempt to gain that oil shall be withheld immediately and until such time that convincing evidence is presented that a solution to that danger has been found.

Click here to sign the petition being sent to Congress and the President.