As Johnny has already written – BP travails in the Gulf of Mexico are not good environementally or financially for many in the UK. But the longer term affects may be even greater – are we at a watershed?
Well, much of the environmental pressure in the past has come from the environmental groups, often against a slippery government. But here we have Barrack Obama leading the charge – stressing again and again that BP will not escape any responsibility we may choose to pin on it.
Whatever you think the geo-national real politik of the situation may be (ultimately the significance of the ‘British’ in British Petroleum), the shift to a new era is hard to resist.
And what about the affect on big business? Does difficult and dangerous energy recovery just become too financially difficult and dangerous? Maybe windmills and solar panels may be less risk than squeezing the last drops of oil from the outer regions of our planet. Certainly the idea that the full weight of any clear-up (to a greater extent than previously imagined) and the resultant PR disaster make such exploration less financially viable.
A one-off. I think not. Nuclear power anyone?