Environmental laws are not to blame for Deepwater
I try to be fair. Earlier this week when my officemate told me that Sarah Palin blamed environmentalists for the oil spill. "A fact is not automatically incorrect just because Sarah Palin has said it", as they explained on "Left, Right, and Center" today, and I thought her idea kinda made sense. If environmental laws prevent drilling in shallow water near the coasts, the oil companies are forced to drill in deep water where it's harder to operate and disasters are harder to manage. It wouldn't be so hard to get the well closed if they could do it in hundreds rather than thousands of feet of water.
Except ... not really. There are nearly 4,000 active oil and gas platforms in this area of the coast. I've put a red dot on Deepwater Horizon, which is one of the furthest out, but not because environmental laws prevent derricks from being built any closer. There are many, many derricks built closer than Deepwater. There's even one that seems to be built closer to the coastline than the allowed area just east of Pensacola, Texas. How are they being forced to drill hundreds of miles off shore because environmental laws prevent them from drilling in the very last mile or two near shore? Never mind, Sarah Palin is still completely full of it.
Except ... not really. There are nearly 4,000 active oil and gas platforms in this area of the coast. I've put a red dot on Deepwater Horizon, which is one of the furthest out, but not because environmental laws prevent derricks from being built any closer. There are many, many derricks built closer than Deepwater. There's even one that seems to be built closer to the coastline than the allowed area just east of Pensacola, Texas. How are they being forced to drill hundreds of miles off shore because environmental laws prevent them from drilling in the very last mile or two near shore? Never mind, Sarah Palin is still completely full of it.