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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Bill Snape, bsnape@biologicaldiversity.org,
(202) 536-9351

Center for Biological Diversity Statement on President Obama's Oval Office Speech

The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following
statement today from Executive Director Kieran Suckling in response to President
Obama's Oval Office speech on the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico:

"President
Obama is right in trying to hold BP financially accountable for the disastrous
effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill. He should do everything in his power to make that happen. But the federal
government needs to go farther to make sure a similar catastrophe never happens
again in this country.

WASHINGTON

The Center for Biological Diversity issued the following
statement today from Executive Director Kieran Suckling in response to President
Obama's Oval Office speech on the oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico:

"President
Obama is right in trying to hold BP financially accountable for the disastrous
effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil
spill. He should do everything in his power to make that happen. But the federal
government needs to go farther to make sure a similar catastrophe never happens
again in this country.

"Just
as BP must be held accountable, government officials who had a hand in allowing
this to happen must also be held accountable. That includes the Department of
the Interior, which rubber-stamped the Deepwater Horizon project without
much-needed environmental reviews.

"It's
also time to end the use of environmental waivers for drilling projects and to
call off proposed offshore drilling projects along America's fragile
coasts.

"We're
glad to hear the president wants to move toward cleaner energy policies, but
they can't simultaneously include incentives for more offshore drilling or the
gutting of our nation's flagship environmental laws -- like the current
Kerry-Lieberman bill -- and they must reduce carbon to levels that scientists say
will help avoid the worst effects of climate change."a

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.

(520) 623-5252