Florida Today

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/04/17/power-shift-bp-flashmob/

This afternoon, hundreds of youth climate activists shut down a BP gas station with people power. The flash mob contrasted a joyous and cheerful celebration of the beauty of the Gulf Coast – beach balls, beachchairs, and palm trees – with the devastation caused by the BP oil disaster. In an exclusive interview with ThinkProgress during the protest, Tulane University student Stephanie Stefanski explains why she drove 20 hours from Louisiana to the 2011 Power Shift conference to help to shut down BP and make them pay to restore the Gulf:

There’s still oil on our coast. I saw it two weeks ago, Itouched it, I smelled it. It’s still causing massive die offs with dolphins, sea turtles, crustaceans and fish. It’s causing public health issues. I’m here to tell everyone this problem is still here one year later. The beaches are still oiled. They’re trying to”make it right” by paying off the community, but it’s still destroyed. The fisheries are damaged. There’s no money in, people still don’t trust the seafood. They’re not paying up for their damages.

Stefanski is with the Gulf Restoration Network, which has a national petition to hold President Obama accountable and implement the Oil Spill Commission recommendations to ensure Louisiana and its sister states come back stronger.

One year after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, sending 11 men to a fiery grave, BP’s crude and dispersants are still impacting the Gulf and its communities. BP has scored a $10 billion taxrefund for itspart in cleaning up its toxic crime. On Tax Day, Monday, April 18th, the Gulf Coast Power Shift contingent will take action in front of BP’s lobbying headquarters, and meet with their members of Congress to demand that Congress and the President act now to stop the crisis on America’s Gulf Coast, and make BP truly pay for their disaster.

“Don’t forget the BP oil disaster!” Stefanski concluded.

UPDATE

Think Progress hasl earned that Power Shift 2011 participants are mobilizing to stage protests across the nation on Wednesday, April 20, to boycott and shut down BP gas stations in their communities to tell President Obama to make BP pay to restore the Gulf.

Special thanks to Richard Charter

Letter opposing Hastings OCS legislation – final 1

Very cool video of protest signs and people along East Coast of New Zealand. DV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHqc3Aw1qhM&feature=player_embedded

special thanks to Richard Charter

http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2011/04/14-6

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2011
12:15 PM

CONTACT: Center for Biological Diversity

Miyoko Sakashita, (415) 632-5308

New Report Outlines 10 Much-needed Reforms to Protect People, Environment From Offshore Drilling

SAN FRANCISCO – April 14 – A new report by the Center for Biological Diversity finds that one year after the oil-spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, dangers of offshore drilling remain unaddressed yet new projects get the stamp of approval from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The report, “Lingering Threats,” outlines 10 key policy, regulatory and oversight areas identified in the wake of the spill that have yet to be addressed by regulators and elected officials.

“The Deepwater Horizon disaster was a wake-up call about the dangers of offshore drilling, but politicians and regulators haven’t heard it,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center. “Many of the same lax regulations that were in place before the Gulf disaster are still on the books.”

The report calls on the Obama administration to take several crucial steps, including:
•Close the loophole that has allowed hundreds of offshore drilling projects to evade in-depth reviews of their effects on the environment
•Stop using woefully out-of-date information to determine and address the dangers of offshore drilling, especially in light of the massive BP oil spill
•Comply with longstanding laws like the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act designed to protect vulnerable species from industrial-scale drilling operations
•Lift the liability cap for companies responsible for oil spills and require companies to be fully accountable for damage
•Impose a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Arctic, where an oil spill would devastate fragile ecosystems and be nearly impossible to clean up

“The Gulf oil spill was the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history, but we’re poised to repeat it if we don’t address fundamental problems with offshore drilling,” Sakashita said. “Unfortunately, rather than fixing problems, Congress easily forgets hard-learned lessons from the Gulf spill and instead seems intent on getting offshore drilling back to business as usual.”
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At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature – to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters, and climate that species need to survive.