Source: USA Today
Past environmental disasters have prompted major U.S. laws, but the worst oil spill in U.S. history has yet to break the Senate logjam over the pending energy-climate bill. Why the difference? “People’s outrage is focused on BP,” Anthony Leiserowitz, a researcher at Yale University, tells The Washington Post . The spill “hasn’t been automatically connected to some sense that there’s something more fundamental wrong with our relationship with the natural world.” Environmentalists want the public to see the oil spill as reason to lessen U.S. dependence on fossil fuel and support a Senate bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They’ve held “Hands Across the Sand” events to protest offshore drilling, and in Washington, they spelled out “Freedom From Oil” on the National Mall with American flags.
Loading ...