“The fact is, these things happen”, said Louisiana’s Sen. Mary Landrieu, amazingly trying to dismiss the overwhelming risks associated with offshore drilling. Standing in front of a large poster of the flaming Australian oil platform at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week, she even went as far as to accuse drilling opponents of lying and scare-mongering!

“All we did was testify about real things that have really happened, to make the point that despite advances in technology, mistakes are still made and accidents still happen - and with offshore oil production, the consequences still can be severe”, writes Sky Truth’s John Amos who was invited to testify on several significant oil spill incidents they’ve investigated over the past few years.

These investigations include “the recent Montara platform blowout and spill in the Timor Sea off Western Australia; this summer’s spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Eugene Island Pipeline operated by Shell; and the spills from hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, and Ike in 2008, that exposed the Achilles heel of offshore production: the vulnerability and severe spill risk posed by the coastal infrastructure - especially pipelines and storage facilities - that is necessary to support offshore drilling.”

Sky Truth was also commissioned to produce the image depicting the Australian oil spill off Virginia’s coast. Click here to view image.

As an LTE in today’s Virginian-Pilot points out (not online yet - see below the fold), politicians hinge their support of offshore drilling on its capacities to be done in an environmentally safe manner. The Australian spill especially shoots that pro-drilling argument to hell. The truth hurts and thus the knee-jerk reaction of people like Sen. Landrieu saying basically “shit happens”.

Why in the world do we want shit to happen off our Virginia coasts?

Adrift on offshore drilling

Re “Health care divides Senate hopefuls at rare GOP forum,” Hampton Roads, Nov. 22: The debates failed to address Jeff McWaters’ stance on offshore drilling. He came to my door a few weeks ago. When I asked about his view, he said he supports it.

There is no such thing as safe offshore drilling. Just ask the citizens of Australia, who are dealing with a major disaster from the two-year-old, state-ofthe-art Montara drilling rig — one of the so- called “safe” ones. After two months of trying to cap it, the blowout created a slick over an area 10 times the size of London.

Opening our coast for drilling is a veritable Pandora’s box. I can’t imagine an intelligent person thinking this will benefit our area. It is political posturing and a shameless betrayal because, as the laws stand now, profits from oil and gas leases go straight to the feds.

I don’t know Rosemary Wilson’s position on drilling, but seeing how she has supported the Beach during her tenure makes me feel a lot more comfortable with her in the state Senate.

Christine Morgan
Virginia Beach