Oil spill protest (IMAGE: WRN)
A handful of protesters turned out on a rainy day in Madison, to call attention to the plight of Gulf Coast residents and to draw attention to the need for renewable sources of energy. Jennifer Feyerherm, who directs the Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign for the Sierra Club, admits the public expectation is not high, that BP and its oil rig contractors will be held responsible by the federal government for the costs of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. “That’s part of the reason that we’re here today. There’s folks turning out across the nation to say ‘BP you need to clean up your mess.’ We need to hold BP accountable to help the folks that are going to be struggling for decades to come on the Gulf Coast.”
Madison resident Joe Mrazek lived in New Orleans for a time, and says the spill could be devastating to the city and region. “It’s just a wonderful place, and I hate to see, after Katrina, to have south Louisiana get hit with another catastrophe like this, one that was avoidable.”
The Sierra Club‘s Feyerherm says the spill is a wake up call, that the nation and Wisconsin need to move away from oil and towards alternative sources of sustainable energy. “This horrible disaster is a wake up call that the fuels that we are using are simply too dirty,” said Feyerherm. “We don’t hear about toxic wind spills.”
Bob Hague (:55 MP3) AUDIO: Bob Hague reports (:55 MP3)