When Greenpeace released oil spill modelling showing that a blowout in the well that Texan oil cowboys Anadarko were drilling off the Raglan coast would spew 10,000 barrels a day into the oceans and have a 50% chance of smothering our beaches in oil, John Key called it “scaremongering”. Today, his government used the cover of the Len Brown report to dump Anadarko’s 1700 page discharge management plan. And its spill modellign is even more catastrophic than Greenpeace’s:
According to information just released, Anadarko’s modelling assumed a spill rate of 12,000 barrels of oil every day for one well location and 18,000 barrels at another. Greenpeace’s own spill modelling report, released in October, which was called “scare-mongering” by prime minister John Key, assumed a more conservative 10,000 barrels per day.
Anadarko’s oil spill data estimates a spill would reach New Zealand shores in 66.05% of cases in autumn and 51.82% in summer.
And remember, Anadarko expects to deal with this with 4 pairs of nitrile gloves and a shovel.
This is insanity. Crossing your fingers and hoping that nothing goes wrong is not a policy. Oil companies should not be allowed to drill unless they have a means of capping a blowout immediately on hand, and have lodged a bond to cover all cleanup expenses and collateral economic damage. And if that means they don’t drill here, tough. Our environment is not for sale.
As for Key, accusing people of “scaremongering” when you know very well they not is dishonest bullying. Sadly, that’s pretty much all we can expect from our Prime Minister nowdays.
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