Oily Questions Part Deux

2) "Hurricane Katrina and Rita proved that offshore drilling techniques are safe."

The fact that the above statement has become a Republican talking point for the past year or so demonstrates the height of laziness on the part of the mainstream news media. Louisiana's Governor, Bobby Jindal, either doesn't know the facts concerning his own state's disasters or is blatantly lying when he said that "one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills." (Think Progress)  John McCain was right in line with this thinking and used it to rationalize his reversal on expanding offshore drilling leases: "it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston." (Think Progress)

The reality is that Hurricanes Rita & Katrina created 595 spills throughout the Gulf region, dumping 9 million gallons, the second most in U.S. history only eclipsed by the 11 million gallon spill by the Exxon Valdez in 1989. Here's the government's own Assessment Report on the damage of Katrina and Rita if you're skeptical.

One of the more precious aspects of McCain's recent grand-standing about the offshore drilling issue was a recent cancellation of a speech he was planning to give on a oil-rig in the Gulf. The same day, the Coast Guard closed 29 miles (47 kilometers) of the Mississippi River at New Orleans after a 600-foot tanker and a barge loaded with fuel oil collided, breaking the barge in half. More than 419,000 gallons of heavy fuel oil spilled from the barge and a 12 mile oil slick was created. (Raw Story).  That kind of undercut McCain's message that offshore drilling is completely safe, I'd say:

“In selling his absurd coastline drilling plan to the American people, ” said Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez last week, “McCain has time and again pointed to advanced technology that would supposedly eliminate the threat of massive oil spills. … Having to cancel your big oil drilling photo op (in Louisiana last week) because of a massive oil spill is like canceling a crime safety photo op because the house next door just got robbed. Look up ‘irony’ in the dictionary and you will find a description of this turn of events.”

I read on a conservative blog that this tanker spill actually PROVES McCain's point that we need more offshore drilling because if we drilled more, than we wouldn't have tankers from countries like the Netherlands bringing us fuel. This person obviously doesn't read this blog and thinks that Americans get to keep all the oil that multi-national oil companies find on our soil!