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Jun. 09, 2010 - Issue #764: Hot Summer Guide 2010
Vuepoint
Day 50
Day 50 of the BP oil spill and World Oceans Day came crashing together with another momentuous occasion: the sentencing in the Bhopal disaster. A mere 26 years after the event left thousands dead, thousands more with permanent illness and a region of India's environment permanently scarred found eight people guilty of criminal negligence and sentenced them to two years in prison. The fine was set, 26 years later, to a mere 100 000 rupees.If there are any positives, it's the unity found in the Indian parliament. All political parties, from the Communist Party of India to the Bharatiya Janata Party, are united in the idea that government legislation needs to be strengthened to hold corporations to account in times of disaster. The Indian parliament is looking at full liability for corporations wanting to operate nuclear plants in India.
It's a lesson the American government is learning today, and the Alberta government would do well to take a close look at. With hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil pummeling the Gulf coast and impacts assessments only being done now to understand how this will impact hundreds of wildlife species and the people of the Gulf coast, the American government is searching for answers as to how they let this happen. And, like the Indian Parliament, the feeling, at least among Democrats, is that government policy had a hand in allowing BP to drill in a fragile ecosystem.
Legislators have said they want BP to pay over 10 billion in reparations. Obama, is starting to look at how the Minerals Management Service is too close to industry and the royalty pay out industry deals bring. Legislators are faulting policies such as the one stating that deep water drilling projects must be approved within 30 days of their application, far too quickly for proper impacts assessments to be made.
The overall sentiment these governments are left with: they could have done more. Today there's a moratorium on deep water drilling. It's a moratorium that should extend to all industrial projects that have not heard the voices of the people living in the region and exist without proper environmental and health impacts assessments. V
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