Remember Deepwater Horizon

In the first weeks after the oil platform “Deepwater Horizon” sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, the standard “Drill, baby, drill” Republican mantra was notably absent. As the biggest environmental disaster in American history unfolded, perhaps even the staunchest ultra-right-wingers realized, as a matter of their own self-interest, that it was not the best time to push for more oil drilling-—in the lower 48, in Alaska or offshore. Perhaps they feared an anti-conservative backlash, as Americans saw at first hand the risks of our addiction to petroleum. The ecological, social and economic consequences of millions of barrels of crude washing ashore on the beaches and estuaries of the Gulf states and beyond will be almost incalculable. Most Americans will feel some effects. There is a real chance that this disaster will deal the shrimp, oyster and fishing industries in the Gulf a blow from which they will never recover. There is a real chance of the decimation or extinction of much of the unique fauna and flora that make these areas their home.

Of course, the tragedy of “Deepwater Horizon” has not stopped the wackos from finger-pointing at the Obama Administration, and at the President personally, for causing the spill, and for failing to act fast enough to control it. It’s best to ignore them for the moment-—they clearly live in a fantasy world that, thankfully, most intelligent, rational Americans do not even visit, let alone inhabit. What we cannot afford to ignore is the certainty that these demagogues WILL at some point again push their petroleum-centric agenda. In a few months or years, when memories of the disaster have faded, they will again demand more oil wells, more drilling, more pipelines, more refineries.

Americans have short memories. How many people today remember “Exxon Valdez” as anything other than a name with a strange pronunciation? How little of that huge environmental disaster lives on in the national psyche today?

It is up to us to make sure the public never forgets the terrible lessons of “Deepwater Horizon.” When the cry for more drilling arises again-as it surely will—we need to be ready with images, videos, articles, presentations, facts and figures, to help Americans recall the milieu when that undersea well was spewing oil inexorably with no end in sight. We need to tirelessly champion our own agenda for clean, renewable alternative energy sources. We need to have our own mantra: “Remember Deepwater Horizon.” –Terry Sunday