Looking back at the gaff in the Gulf

It’s been a half-year since the Deepwater Horizon exploded, with tragic loss of life and immense consequences for the residents of the Gulf of Mexico and its coastlines, both human and wildlife. This story from today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune took a look back at the incident, and considers the ongoing environmental impact. Click here to see the story.

Less than six months later, the ban on deep water drilling is lifted. The White House has put new restrictions and rules in place, but there is no longer a moratorium on deep water exploration or drilling; see this story from the New York Times (last week) for details. I cannot fully understand why the practice is safer now than when things flew utterly out of control six months ago (they must be some darn good new rules), but I hope they know what they’re doing. Click here to see the NY Times story.

New tools to help contain future disasters. Another story—this one from the Associated Press via the San Francisco Examiner—explains that industry experts have developed a new method of containing similar deep water oil spills in the future. Actually, rather than a “new” method, perhaps I should refer to it as simply, “a method.” After all, there was no “Plan B” when the BP well started spilling. But instead of sounding too cynical, I’ll just say I’m glad they’re (finally) thinking about this sort of thing. Click here to read the SF Examiner story.

© 2010 Mike D. Anderson. All rights reserved.