Gulf of Mexico BP Oil Rig

Obama administration officials convened today and subsequently defended British Petroleum’s use of dispersants, the most recent solution to the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Assistant administrator at the EPA’s special office on Research and Development Paul Anastas went before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, and offered as consolation the fact that much consideration was given before moving to seemingly drastic measures such as the use of dispersants. According to the Anastas testimony, “…when you look at all of the tools to combat this tragedy… dispersants have been shown to be one important tool in that toolbox.”

Later, the director of the Office of Response and Restoration at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offered the analogy wherein dispersants were like an intensive chemotherapy session, being used to treat a disaster that is fast moving and most likely fatal, just like an aggressive cancer and its necessary treatment. Taking time out for long-term research, but that represents the long term plan, while immediate and proactive, aggressive action still needed to be taken in order to curb the disaster that looms in the Gulf. [Read more →]