Here is an article conservatives are using today to point to Obama being at fault for the oil spill:
If U.S. officials had followed up on a 1994 response plan for a major Gulf oil spill, it is possible that the spill could have been kept under control and far from land.
The problem: The federal government did not have a single fire boom on hand.
The “In-Situ Burn” plan produced by federal agencies in 1994 calls for responding to a major oil spill in the Gulf with the immediate use of fire booms.
But in order to conduct a successful test burn eight days after the Deepwater Horizon well began releasing massive amounts of oil into the Gulf, officials had to purchase one from a company in Illinois.
So in 2010, 16 years after the plan was released, our government had to go to Illinois to get the oil boom. Yet this is all Obama’s fault? No – I would say it’s Obama, Bush and Clinton’s fault. Oil boom should have been staged in the gulf area for rapid deployment.
Of course the right is in strong defense of Bush. I mean how should a former oil man know about this?
And while we are on the subject of oil boom, how effective is it? Well honestly – pretty damn effective. Of course that depends on one big variable – the sea. Boom will only work in waves up to 3 feet. In the days following the start of the spill, waves in the Gulf were ranging in the 5-8 foot mark. This makes the boom ineffective. So even if it was down there, chances are that it wouldn’t have achieved the 95% containment that Republicans are claiming.
The fact is that this country has become lazy when it comes to preparing for these disasters. We are great at planning them, but that is it. Once we go from the planning stage to preparing stage, we meet a wall of DUH!
Considering the pushes to increase offshore drilling, simple preparedness, like having oil boom nearby, should be a top priority. Funny though no one ever talks about it. Why? Because talking about it reminds us that oil rigs can catch fire and they can leak tons of oils into the ocean. That might be enough to turn people away from the idea of drilling, so we ignore the simple things that can really help thwart off disaster.
Maybe we can learn our lesson from this disaster, but I’m not too optimistic. So many people are worried about finger pointing right now, when there is more than enough of that to go around. The blame transcends party lines, but the solution requires our leaders to look at this is an environmental and energy issue, not a political one.