Comments Alan Durning has made
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Great failings are great opportunities, as my closing said. I'm in a hurry right now, so just a few scattered points.
Accidents, yes, but predictable. Sort of like car crashes -- no one intends one, but I can tell you how many Americans will die in them in 2005 (roughly 40,000) and not miss the mark by more than 10%. Oil spills are the same.
Freight shipping benefits from few of the precautions applied to tankers: real-time monitoring, rapid response plans, fuel-storage regulations, etc.
One problem is a Coast Guard that's somewhat in the pocket of the shipping industry. (I posted on that here: http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/the_us_coastal_.html.)
And most of all: land-use planning, motor vehicle design, and transportation planning are not conducted as if run-off from land is the largest source of oil spills.
Alan Durning (I blog at http://cascadiascorecard.typepad.com/blog)
On Our daily oil spills posted 4 years, 11 months ago 3 Responses