I live on the west coast of Florida and we are faced with not only environmental hazards but economic hazards as well because of this. Couple this spill with a hurricane that may be looming somewhere in the near future (June 1 starts hurricane season here), and this could have devastating consequences. Florida gets the majority of its revenue from fishing and tourism. This will crush an already weak economy here.
I’m not saying don’t ever drill...we need to drill...but we really have got to get some back up plans to back up plans to back up plans in place before we ever let this happen again. YOu would think after the Exxon disaster we would have figured out a contingency plan. Someone would have developed something that would stop this right away. This spill is devastating and it is sad to those of us who live along the coast and spend hour after hour on the beach every week. Recreational and commercial fishing will cease, God only knows for how long, putting people out of business. Crucial wildlife, coral reefs will die. Our waters and beaches will turn black, cutting tourism in half if not more.
This has been our biggest fear as far as drilling in the Gulf. This may take years to clean up and the environment won’t be the same. Trust me, I’m all for cutting the umbilical chord to Saudi and ME countries, but not at the risk of our oceans, our way of life, and our health. We must have all emergency bases covered. Even the Titanic disaster caused us to rethink the way we did things. We just need to do the same before we put more rigs out there.
Some of the initial oil spill control work was delayed by the Feds. There was a pre-approved plan for the controlled burns that the Feds delayed releasing.