Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Nov 8, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Rick Steiner, professor at the University of Anchorage Alaska and local environmentalist, shared with the audience present at the Alaska Pacific University on Sunday some of the key findings about his research on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Rick Steiner explained that his research identified some of the keys factors that made the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill and the Gulf oil spill similar in terms of damage caused to the environment as well as the cause.

Rick Steiner said in the eye-opening presentation that it was not one or two but a string of at least 20 failures that led to the oil spill. He explained that not only human error and equipment malfunction was responsible for the disaster but also the government’s malfeasance and ineffective oversight. Rick Steiner also said that Deepwater Horizon’s cement barrier was ineffective due to its flawed design and to add to that its blowout preventer had a dead battery. The UAA professor also stressed on the fact that Alaska was not yet ready for offshore drilling in spite of the government imposing an Arctic drilling moratorium. He also pointed to the fact that the Alaskan government had filed a lawsuit against the move.

Though Rick Steiner’s presentation offered some key insights into what exactly caused the oil spill, it also kept the audience searching for answers when it came to measures taken for prevention of future disasters of the kind. Several in the audience were quite shocked by the findings and some described it as ’scary’. Rick Steiner said that he has given the presentation at several other universities and also made a keynote speech at the gathering of Gulf region NGOs last month.