John McSame's rep perpetuates the same claptrap that both State Senator Frank Wagner and Rep. Thelma "Tra La La" Drake keep peddling in hopes of opening Virginia's pristine coast to drilling. "Ooh, a big hurricane hit the Gulf Coast where there are numerous offshore drilling operations and yet no spills."
When Senator McCain opposed lifting the ban in the past, it was because there were concerns about environmental capability. Like, could we do this and still maintain a pristine environmental um uh climate and and area around the drilling? And basically, what we've seen is the technology has progressed to the point where we could do that. We withstood Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and didn't spill a drop.
Well, tell that to the puppy pictured above:
From National Geographic: "Near New Orleans a small oil-slickened dog was seen wandering in Chalmette, Louisiana, as cleanup crews recovered oil from a ruptured refinery tank on September 6, 2005. Tens of thousands of barrels of oil had spilled and mixed with receding floodwater from Hurricane Katrina."
According to the U.S. Coast Guard in May 2006, "As a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita there were six major, five medium, and over 5000 minor oil and hazmat responses. Additional minor spills continue to be identified and addressed. It is estimated that over 9 million gallons of oil was released,and this total does not include oil released from the 5000 minor spills." Compare that amount with the 11 million gallons of oil spilled by the infamous Exxon Valdez. The U.S. Mineral Management Services reported that 113 platforms were destroyed and 457 pipelines were damaged.
"As photographs from Katrina Destruction, SkyTruth, and the National Geographic confirm, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused an ecological disaster on the scale of the Exxon Valdez. One of the hundreds of spills, the onshore Murphy Oil spill, devastated an entire neighborhood", writes ThinkProgress.
Yet according to McSame, Wagner and Drake, not a drop of oil was spilled.
The other realism that McSame, Wagner and Thelma want so desperately to smooth over in order to push their pro-drilling agenda is the fact that the same infrastructure (refineries, storage facilities, roads, carved-out waterways, pipelines, helipads, dorms) that supports offshore drilling and must be located nearby, also destroyed more wetlands than exist between New Jersey and Maine. And it is wetlands that protect us to some extent from storm surges in the first place.
Oil spill half-truths, by Diane Prince, Virginia Beach, Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 17, 2008 - "And next time you hear or read this Republican mantra about the safety of the oil wells during Katrina and Rita, realize they are purposely giving you half the story, half the truth."
Disputes drilling safety, by Bill Fitzgerald, Virginia Beach, Virginian-Pilot, Aug. 17, 2008 - "The oil spills were large enough to be seen from space."