Groups Urge Public Process for Ongoing Taylor Energy Oil Spill
By: Waterkeeper Alliance
NEW ORLEANS, LA — April 23, 2015 — Apalachicola Riverkeeper, Louisiana Environmental Action Network and Waterkeeper Alliance today petitioned the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Coast Guard to request public participation in the response to an ongoing oil spill from the destroyed Taylor Energy oil platform. The groups are also requesting public disclosure of facts and data underlying the spill and a proposed response plan.
The Taylor oil spill has been ongoing in the Gulf of Mexico for more than 10 years, after an underwater mudslide destroyed the platform and buried wells during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. The Associated Press recently exposed the secrecy surrounding Taylor Energy’s response to the leak and government complicity in keeping this information from the public. Particularly concerning in this report was evidence that the oil spill is far worse than both Taylor Energy and the government have publicly reported.
By filing this petition, the groups hope to prompt greater transparency regarding what is being done to address this ongoing environmental disaster. Based on documents that the Department of Interior and the Coast Guard have withheld from the public, Taylor Energy claims that the agencies agreed that the best course of action going forward is for Taylor Energy to do no further remediation. But this decision, and the basis for it, has been kept secret from the public.
A finding by government agencies that the Taylor oil spill cannot be abated raises serious questions about the nation’s ability to manage the risks from deepwater drilling.
“For over a decade, oil has been flowing continuously from this site, while the public is kept in the dark about its impacts and what, if anything, is being done to stop the leak,” said Marc Yaggi, executive director at Waterkeeper Alliance. “Instances like this and the BP spill raise serious concerns about companies’ abilities to stop leaks from rigs. With this record of performance in the Gulf, why would we even contemplate opening up the Atlantic to oil drilling?”
The groups are petitioning the Department of Interior and the Coast Guard to announce immediately that they will:
● Suspend any final decision-making processes until completing a process of vetting the relevant information and considerations in public view;
● Promptly disclose and make available on a Web site the data and information that would inform any final decision on response to the Taylor Oil Spill; and
● Provide for a public hearing and a public comment period before deciding on a final resolution to the Taylor oil spill.
Contact:
Tina Posterli, Waterkeeper Alliance, [email protected], 516-526-9371