BP Disaster Usurping Earth Day?

There appears to be more coverage of the one year anniversary of the BP Gulf Oil Spill disaster than there is for Earth Day.  From a public relations perspective, the BP explosion occurred on April 20th (today) in 2010 and dominated the news during Earth Day last year.  The additional 87 days of spillage of oil into the Gulf of Mexico was the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States.  The juxtaposition of Earth Day to this disaster poses an interesting twist of fate.  And a public relations competition.

One year after the BP PLC oil spill caused the Obama administration to impose a  10-month freeze on deep-water drilling.  Offshore oil production, most of which comes from the Gulf, is expected to average 1.55 million barrels a day this year, down 13% from 2010, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The drilling suspension, along with a new, slower permitting process, will result in the loss this year of about 375,000 barrels of oil a day, according to energy analysts. (WSJ, 4/20/2011)