Oil continues to plague the Gulf of Mexico, but press reports
indicate that today President Obama will adopt a new policy that
provides hope for the future of our seas. Like the
groundbreaking Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, this
national policy will transform the way we manage our oceans and
Great Lakes – helping us protect and restore our marine
resources. On July 12, 2010, eighty-three days after BP’s
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig blew up and killed 11 workers,
Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued his
second moratorium on new drilling for oil on the U.S. Outer
Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. You can find Secretary
Salazar’s Decision Memorandum here, and a Q and A prepared by
the Department of the Interior here. This new moratorium will
last, at most, to November 30, 2010. There is a fascinating -
and terrifying - race going on in China. The government has
displayed an extraordinary commitment to cutting carbon
emissions and eliminating industrial waste. In the past three