Concern - Will America Keep Taking Risks?

Everyone has seen the news about the Deep Horizon oil platform exploding, burning and sinking in the Gulf of Mexico. The large oil spill is very memorable, and the news stories are telling about the people who will be negatively affected by the large oil spill. Very heart wrenching.

In addition British Petroleum is getting ripped in the press as everything from incompetent to evil money makers. BP is responding announcing they are doing everything they can to clean up the problem, and will pay for all the damages. Properly so, I may add.

The real question is what will happen long term? Is this going to be like Three Mile Island accident, where the nuclear industry fell behind the rest of world in developing nuclear energy? Think about it. One accident caused a whole industry to stop in its tracks over 30 years ago. Almost no new plants have been built for three decades.

What is the result? Most of the technology has moved to other countries. Canada and France develop much more nuclear electricity than we do. The other scary side effect is these plants were designed to be replaced after 25 to 30 years and then replaced by modern plants. We have

Will one oil spill stop more drilling and exploration? Will the US be more dependent on imports to provide the gasoline and diesel for our cars and trucks. Most of us drive cars, and all of us buy groceries and goods delivered by trucks. Are we going to stop producing energy we need to complete in a global economy?

There are over 30,000 drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. There are plenty of opportunities for more accidents and oil spills. Are we going to stop driving and eating? No. We can not stop taking reasonable risks.

Our military is trained in taking risks. They professionally get in harms way and fight enemies who would love to kill them. We don't see them hiding in a military base in the US. We see our men and women all over the world in the worst conditions performing admirably. They do it by preparing for the risks and using training to overcome.

The US has to keep drilling for oil as well as developing alternatives. This will take decades to resolve. In the meantime talented men and women will come up with solutions to these problems and improve processes to make them safe. We must continue to develop energy and take risks to succeed.

Meantime our prayers are with the families of the lost and the injured from the accident.
Steve