On April 20, 2010, a BP offshore oil rig exploded, killing workers on the rig and spilling tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil well, located 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface, is now leaking between 5,000 60,000 barrels (210, 000 2,520,000 gallons) of crude oil into Gulf Coast waters each day, with devastating consequences for Gulf Coast communities and the fragile wetlands, bayous, and coastal waters on which they depend.
We’ve put together a timeline dating back to July 2007 when the Department of Interior released a report finding that there is a history of accidents, fires and even deaths at offshore oil drilling projects.
It’s time for history to stop repeating itself. Let’s put an end to this sort of diaster so that our future will be safer. Take action and tell Congress that the time for action is now. Congress must put a ban on new offshore drilling that prevents this threat from spreading to other areas of the country.
–Michelle
