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In Brussels, the European Commission proposed a moratorium, which was fiercely opposed by the North Sea oil industry. The moratorium was defeated by MEPs, however, unanimously backed by the Labour, SNP, Conservative and Liberal Democrat members from Scotland.
This resulted in fierce criticism from the Scottish Green Party, who dubbed them "the shameful six". The spill also put the spotlight on BP's safety record in the North Sea, with the Sunday Herald revealing in June that the company had broken vital health and safety rules 54 times over the past five years.
"The Gulf oil spill focused attention on plenty of areas that the oil industry would rather no-one was thinking about," said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland.
FRIENDS of the Earth Scotland pointed out that it was the poor communities that bore the brunt in the US. "It was only when oil started to reach Florida, rather than Louisiana, that the US took it seriously," said the group's head of campaigns, Juliet Swann.
BP, meanwhile, is busy trying to repair its damaged reputation. It has said sorry, taken responsibility for the clean-up and ploughed untold public relations resources into "making it right". The question is, could it happen again?
The BP oil disaster - Herald Scotland | Comment | Guest Commentary
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They were also frozen by the complexity of the drilling rig's defenses, and by the policies governing exactly when they were to be deployed, the paper said.
Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean, the world's largest operator of offshore oil rigs, which drills wells for BP. The company was focused on safety, crew members told the Times, and had provided the crew with a detailed handbook on how to respond to signs of a blowout, the report noted.
But its emergency protocols, while urging rapid action, also warned against possible overreaction in the event of a crisis.
Transocean defended the rig's crew. "They acted appropriately based on the information they had at the time," the firm said in a statement.
"This world-class crew -- some of whom lost their lives -- battled to the end to gain control of the well."
- 2 votes
#1 - Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:38 AM ESTThe Times probe zeroed in on Deepwater Horizon's final hours. It interviewed 21 crew members, and pored over testimony or statements from nearly all of the other 94 survivors of the rig disaster.
BP's Macondo well -- described as the "well from hell" by some workers -- had been behind schedule, and Deepwater Horizon was sent in to finish the job. The speed with which the crew was boring into the high-pressure reservoir may have led to some of the problems, the Times reported.
- 2 votes
#2 - Mon Dec 27, 2010 6:40 AM ESTWhat does Greenpeace recommend that the Scots use to keep warm during the long winter months? I see a great deal of protesting, not a lot of solutions.
Perhaps GP expects that all humans on the globe will move to a warmer climate? Or simply just die in place to make GP happy? Or welcome GP to come in and takeover all nations and purchase new solar panels or electric heat for all? k.
#3 - Mon Dec 27, 2010 7:00 AM ESTYou're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
