Taking the BP oil spill into our own hands… with a citizen's arrest
Another day, another failed method to stop the oil from gushing. We’re getting pretty sick of this pattern. This time, the plan to saw off a leaking pipe and then cap it came to a halt, literally. The saw is stuck, as is the process to stop the oil. Back to square one.
Yet, as attention focuses on stopping the spill, a very important piece is lacking attention — protecting the workers trying to clean up this mess. Lawyers prepare to file claims as they try to attract customers that were hurt, physically or economically, by the catastrophic spill. Government officials delve into criminal and civil investigations of the spill.
Despite the international attention on the spill and its cleanup, oil continues to gush day after day. No sign of crying itself to sleep, as one of my colleagues half-joked. But in case you’re close to tears yourself, Jon Stewart yet again covered the BP spill in two full segments last night. (And you thought we were the only ones talking about the spill this much…)
But we at Public Citizen have also been hard at work, this time organizing a massive protest in front of BP’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, complete with a mock citizen’s arrest. If you’re in the D.C. area, please come join us. If not, tell your friends and stay tuned for pictures. (We’ll be rockin’ those awesome shirts above.)
And don’t forget to join our online efforts — on Facebook, through our petition, and telling President Obama to ban the expansion of offshore drilling to prevent future oil spill disasters.