Oil rig sinking blocked in Europe, accepted in U.S. Gulf coast

摘要

When angry European environmentalists blocked Royal Dutch/ Shell's plan to sink the Brent Spar oil rig in deep waters 150 miles off Scotland last June, they took what appeared to be a different path from U.S. environmentalists. Over the past decade U.S. oil companies have sunk 95 rigs in the Gulf of Mexico with little fanfare through state and federally run "rigs-to-reefs" programs. In the Gulf, U.S. environmentalists have objected more to the rigs' initial placement than to their disposal at sea, and they are joined by state and federal regulators in pointing out sharp differences between Brent Spar and Gulf dumpings.