The Politics of Dispersants

Republicans were ready to accept the use of dispersants in oil spills but Democrats were eager to get their doubts on record on Wednesday at a Senate hearing on the Deepwater Horizon spill in the gulf.

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The effects of the dispersant and the oil itself may not be evident for some time to come, scientists said. Dr. Ronald J. Kendall, chairman of the Department of Environmental Toxicology at Texas Tech University, said that hatchlings of the endangered Kemp’s ridley turtle crawled off the Texas beaches this time of year and fed in the gulf. If the material they feed on has been rendered toxic by the spill and the hatchlings die, that may not be obvious until years from now, when as adults they would be returning to lay eggs, he said.

Similarly, he said, “we could take out age classes of portions of the blue fin tuna, and again we may not see this for years to come.’’

Republicans were ready to accept the use of dispersants in oil spills but Democrats were eager to get their doubts on record on Wednesday at a Senate hearing on the Deepwater Horizon spill in the gulf.

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