The Rena spill is a warning to us all. A warning of how difficult it is to deal with oil spills at sea, and of the devastating impact oil can have on our wildlife, coastlines and livelihoods.
But just imagine if this accident had involved a deep sea oil rig – like the Deepwater Horizon accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Th Rena spill will be disastrous for the local environment but a spill on the scale of the Deepwater Horizon would dwarf it.
Yet this is exactly the risk that the government is exposing New Zealand’s coastline to.
They have already given oil companies permission to start dangerous deep sea oil exploration off the East Coast of the North Island, and tagged many other areas for exploitation.
As soon as next year oil companies could drilling at depths of up to 3000 metres. An accident at this extreme depth would be almost impossible to fix.
Like the proposal to open our best conservation land for coal mining, deep sea oil exploration is the wrong future for New Zealand.
Join us in the fight to protect our precious environment.
Say no to deep sea oil and coal mining and yes to a clean
Energy [R]evolution report.