Labour has announced it will put a moratorium on deepsea oil drilling until it’s proven safe. Good. Basic precautionary principle. Clearly necessary given the piss-poor handling of a relatively small spill.
Besides, there’s no rush to dig this stuff up. It’s not going anywhere and we can only extract it once. The oil, if it’s there, will only become more valuable as a source of petroleum products (fuel and non-fuel) over time.
Have to ask if we should be digging it up to burn anyway in the age of climate change.
The Nats, however, are determined to push ahead. Just stupid. All they can come up with are snide remarks and silly comments like ‘a ship running aground isn’t like a oil well blowout’. No, it’s not. The second involves a hell of a lot more oil and is a hell of a lot harder to fix.
Btw, I should acknowledge the Greens were way out in front on this issue. Like always.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress