Australian expert warns U.S. to halt new oil drilling after BP spill
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Green energy expert in Australia on Monday warned that new oil drilling in the U.S. could come to a halt after the devastating British Petroleum Company (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
U.S. policy analyst Todd Glass, who was one of the opening speakers at an international green energy forum in Adelaide of Australia, said there were a number of energy bills in Congress, but the spill has led to a temporary death knell for them.
Just last month, U.S. President Barack Obama had said he would go ahead with new offshore drilling off the east coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico, Glass said.
"This (spill) has probably put the nails in the coffin of energy legislation this year," Glass told Australian Associated Press.
"Offshore drilling is probably going to be such a political hot potato that nobody's going to want to touch it. In my mind we're probably done with this issue for this year."
An estimated 210,000 gallons (795,000 liters) of crude have been streaming each day from the wellhead below the Deepwater Horizon rig that sank on April 22, two days after a massive explosion that killed 11 workers.
Obama has laid the entire blame on energy giant BP and said the company will be paying the clean-up bill.
