by slinkerwink
Sierra Club has this press news release alert below about the new offshore drilling project just approved by MMS: Today, the [MMS] approved a new drilling permit for an offshore well in the Gulf of Mexico. Last week, the president extended his ban on deepwater drilling for an additional 6 months, but lifted the ban on shallow water drilling, allowing this project to move forward. In fact, shallow water drilling is just as risky as deep water drilling. In 1979, we saw a disaster very similar to the BP catastrophe from Ixtoc 1, a shallow well in the Gulf. They used all the same techniques to try to stop that gusher, and it took them nine months to finally do it. By that time, an estimated 138 million gallons had spilled. The President's new moratorium on offshore drilling is supposed to be for six months, requires a thirty-day safety review by Interior Secretary Salazar, and but it doesn't extend to offshore drilling in shallow water.
continued at Daily Kos....
