In light of Gulf oil spill, stronger Great Lakes drilling bans proposed

Lake Scientist

Posted Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:17 pm by Dave Hochanadel

"Ever since the Deepwater Horizon explosion sent oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico two months ago, some Great Lakes-area citizens and lawmakers have worried about similar disaster striking closer to home.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., called for a total ban of offshore drilling in the Great Lakes this month, but critics have called her move an overreaction or an act of political grandstanding.

Stabenow

There’s already a U.S. federal ban on all oil and natural gas offshore drilling in the Great Lakes, which has been in place since 2005. Canada similarly bans offshore oil drilling, but the nation does have roughly 500 offshore gas wells in Lake Erie, according to the Associated Press. Canadians also possess 23 horizontal wells, or “slant wells,” that drill for oil on shore but extend under Lake Erie.

“The Canadian oil and gas operations have not had an accident since 1959. However, I believe that the events in the Gulf Coast demonstrate that we must remain vigilant because a catastrophic accident could happen at any time,” Stabenow wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama last week.

Stabenow, a member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, asked Obama to review existing drilling operations with the Canadian government as well as put a complete ban on offshore drilling by either nation." More>>>>