Dear Editor,
Having read the article regarding drilling for oil in the Bahamas in the January issue, I subsequently found an article written in 2010 following the Deepwater Horizon tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico by Michael Bromwich, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, basically the guy who has been given the task of trying to ensure that something like that never happens again.
In this article entitled “How to regulate the Gulf”, there is a paragraph which BPC and all those concerned with regulating oil exploration in the Bahamas should heed. It states: “The bureau needs more aggressive investigators, more robust reviews of applications of drilling permits – including more thorough environmental analyses – and more research into spill control.”
Surely if this was his opinion after the Gulf of Mexico disaster, then it would certainly be prudent for those in a similar position in this country to seriously consider this advice now, rather than waiting to ‘shut the stable door until after the horse has bolted’. A similar environmental tragedy in the Bahamas would be devastating both ecologically and economically, and to think it couldn’t happen here is simply naive.
As the wife and mother of fishermen and a marine biologist, I am particularly sensitive to this issue, but given the dependence of the Bahamas on its pristine waters not only for fishing but also for tourism, it should be a concern for us all, and I applaud your newspaper for giving it front page coverage.
Yours sincerely,
Janet Higgs
Spanish Wells
