Canadians Do It Better

On Countdown tonight, Olbermann interviewed conservation consultant Rick Steiner about the BP gusher. You can see the full interview here. But what I found interesting is a statement that Steiner makes about 3:15 into the clip. He says

"...the Canadian government requires the drilling of a relief well along with the exploratory well in extreme environments"

Here is the clip

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Let me repeat. The Canadian government REQUIRES a relief well to be drilled at the same time as the exploratory well in extreme environments.

Why don't we? Well, that's easy to answer. It is expensive. We won't even require a $500,000 acoustic valve. We certainly won't require a second well to be drilled at the cost of several millions of dollars. But the Canadians do. They are able to do it. Why are we? Come to think of it, they have universal health care too. Why don't we.

Maybe it is because we are controlled by big business, not the people. Business keeps getting put first...and the people, you and me, suffer because of it.

Now there are calls for the government to take over the gusher. Why? So we can pay for it. So it will be our fault, not BP's. So you and I will have to foot the bill, and BP can go on it merry way and pay millions of dollars to its management and millions of dollars to its shareholders, while we the people get stuck with BILLIONS of dollars in costs, costs that are the fault of big business.