Supplemental

As a supplement to my last post, here are my thoughts on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. British Petroleum needs to be held accountable not only for the loss of life on the rig, but also for the cost of cleaning up this mess. There is currently a $75 million cap on how much oil companies can be forced to pay to clean up an oil spill (thanks to Bush), and it certainly doesn't take Newtonian mathematical skills to know this spill will cost far in excess of $75 million to clean up. While I firmly believe the federal government should step in and assist in the clean up, BP should have to front the cost of all the resources and personnel necessary to get the job done. I also believe that other oil companies should be called in to help because they have resources that can speed up the process. In addition, BP needs to be fined for the damages done and the executives in charge of safety and operation of this oil rig need to be prosecuted for their negligence, and the agents of the Mineral Management Service who are known to be in bed with the oil companies need to be, at the very least, fired and charged with negligence and taking bribes (corruption). Transocean, the company from whom BP leased the rig, needs to enforce their safety standards or terminate their contracts and find lessees who will follow the rules.

But it doesn't end there. Many of us have already pledged to boycott BP, however, this is probably not going to be enough to teach this company a lesson. Because of their history of negligence and lax safety regulations which has lead to massive loss of life on multiple occasions, British Petroleum should no longer be permitted to operate within the United States as a petroleum provider.

We must ask ourselves, as I have previously stated: is offshore drilling worth the risk? This catastrophe could very well be irreversable and unstoppable until the well runs dry, and there is no way to tell how long that could take. This disaster is not only destroying the ecosystem in the gulf, but is also having a huge effect on the economy of the Gulf Coast.

Folks, enough is enough. Unless we eliminate our dependence on oil, we are doomed.