Editor's note: CNN's Soledad O'Brien takes a look back at the past year since the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
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Filed under: 360° Radar • 360º Follow • Gulf Oil Spill • Keeping Them Honest • Soledad O'Brien |
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I would put the burden of the BP oil explosion on those government parties or politicians whose policies force companies to operate off-shore when there are massive oil reserves inland. Send any other industry or service to operate several miles offshore under harsh and treacherous conditions and hope they don't have some sort of catastrophic occurrence. It's akin to a mother forcing her child to play in traffic and blaming automobile drivers when the child is run over. Of course, in that case, the ‘mother’ is immediately arrested.
Alternatively, the government is somehow never held accountable for its reckless policies. Yes, we want BP's oil, as long as they are out of sight. Which has the more serious consequences – drilling for oil the traditional way or forcing companies to drill offshore?
Had BP been allowed to drill under less hazardous circumstances, none of this would have happened. Government policies forced them offshore. When you send companies miles offshore to operate in a treacherous environment, the risk goes up exponentially. What other industry or agency is told they can only operate out in the middle of nowhere on top a body of water for a product we desperately need. The logic escapes me.