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The similarities to Exxon-Valdez should not be so plentiful, but unfortunately they are as numerous and clear as the Gulf is murky. Twenty years after the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, that region has yet to fully recover from that disaster. And yet, the preventative and clean-up technology necessary to avoid similar outcomes remains elusive. Elusive, or avoided…?

The only results of five weeks’ of attempts to cap the oil flow in the Gulf of Mexico are a better-informed public, and a destroyed ecosystem and coastal economy. The remedy to the latter depends on the former. If constituents were more vigilant, the electorate may have been more effective in regulating the oil industry through their voting choices. The failures of government are our own, which makes everyone responsible for cleaning up the mess in the Gulf and in the government.

The Politico recently characterized Congress as “the do-nothing (but politics) House,” a “chamber [that] has become… little more than an election-year staging ground.” Case in point, there were more than a dozen bills introduced shortly after the BP oil spill became headlines, and they were written without even bothering to gather the facts first. This article agrees that "This has become a case of Corporate Responsibility colliding with Congressional Responsibility," and the effect of the lack of both.

One can only hope the electorate will learn enough from this incident, and about its perpetrators and those who purport to oppose them, to make better informed decisions on election day this year, and next year, and the next….

One Comment

  1. Mike Bryant

    Wow, this is getting worse all of the time. This will need to be pursued to the vary end to make sure the justice isn't delayed and denied the way it was in the Alaska battle.

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