After BP, Shell disaster in Gulf of Mexico?

This Amnesty International video says about itself:

Campaign video on the protest against the oil pollution in Nigeria caused by Shell. With a reaction from Celestine AkpoBari, community officer Social Action.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Activists: Ban Shell’s gulf plan

Friday 10 June 2011

by Our Foreign Desk

Conservation groups asked a federal appeals court on Thursday to throw out a US government decision to approve a Shell oil exploration plan that involves five proposed wells under more than 7,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

The plan was approved in May and includes three previously approved wells 72 miles off the Louisana coast.

Defenders of Wildlife, the Centre for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defence Council say that the decision violates the law and that the environment would be harmed if it is allowed to stand.

New regulations for deep-water drilling were imposed following last year’s deadly rig explosion and gulf oil spill.

The campaigners argue that there is no basis to conclude that drilling in waters substantially deeper than the BP well that blew out would have no significant impact on the environment.

The Deepwater Horizon well was in 5,000 feet of water. Engineering experts and some industry observers have argued that, more than a year after the disaster, oil firms still aren’t ready to prevent a deep-water blowout or be able to deal with one if it were to occur again.

Oil barons keen to get back to business as usual in the gulf insist that they are prepared for any future problems.

A temporary ban on deep-water drilling in the area was lifted in October, though permits have only recently been granted again. The industry has prodded the US government to move faster, while environmental groups have encouraged it to slow down.

Sarah Palin pleaded with Tony Hayward for a BP pipeline across Alaska: here.