On air: The Louisiana oil spill
| 09:47 UK time, Friday, 30 April 2010
President Obama has in new areas of the US coast pending investigations into the cause of the oil spill off Louisiana. Meanwhile the US military is now involved in stopping this spill reaching the proportions of the Exxon Valdez.
We'll hear your fears for what this spill may do, and discuss if the speed and nature of the reaction has been satisfactory.
Chloe's original post:
It's been called and President Obama has pledged to "use every single available resource" - including the military - to fight the massive oil slick off the coast of Louisiana. A slick which now threatens to become a greater environmental disaster than the .
It measures more than and threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of Louisiana residents and fishermen. And as we get more information about the scale of the spill, now far bigger than initially reported, there is a growing sense among many in Louisiana that the government has failed them again, just as it did during Hurricane Katrina.
Gabester in New Orleans emailed the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ,
"So this is what we mean by "Drill, baby, drill!" Oil will make landfall in a bit. How can we allow more drilling off the coasts when things like this are happening? Katrina and now this... We're going to die in a polluted brackish hellhole of our own making."
It's leading some people to ask whether agencies were too slow off the mark to react to the crisis. Cade Thomas, a fishing guide in Venice, is He said he did not know whether to blame the Coast Guard, the federal government or oil company BP PLC.
"They lied to us. They came out and said it was leaking 1,000 barrels when I think they knew it was more. And they weren't proactive," he said. "As soon as it blew up, they should have started wrapping it with booms."
President Obama has made it clear that the cost of the spill will fall firmly at the feet of oil company BP, which operated the rig that exploded and sank last week. 11 oil workers are still missing, presumed dead.
Politically this comes at a difficult time for The US President. It , just as lawmakers were warming to the practice, and could even upset hopes for winning bipartisan support to U.S. climate legislation.
So is now the time to reduce our reliance on oil? Dennis Markatos Director of the East Coast Greenway Alliance says,
"We have to move away from consuming oil. It's not only expensive as gasoline prices get close to $3 per gallon, but it is contributing to far too many problems to continue business as usual."
So is it time for the oil industry to take responsibility? And if you are living in the Louisiana area, what do you make of the authorities, and BP's, response to the spill?
