Another offshore oil rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico

Thursday, September 02, 2010 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: oil rig, explosion, health news

(NaturalNews) It's a war zone out there! ... if you're an oil platform worker, anyway. Another oil rig, the Vermilion Oil Rig 380, has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, just a few miles from the infamous Deepwater Horizon that started the massive volcano of oil that poisoned the Gulf this summer.

U.S. Coast Guard helicopters were immediately dispatched to the scene, where 13 workers were found floating (alive) in the water around the rig. The rig is reportedly on fire, but it is being reported by ABC News that the rig wasn't drilling for oil at the time of the explosion. No information explaining the cause of the explosion has yet surfaced.

One workers was apparently injured in the explosion. While it may be too early to know for sure, there are so far no reports of oil being spilled into the Gulf from the rig.

This second explosion naturally brings to mind the safety and reliability of offshore drilling platforms. In many ways the Deepwater Horizon incident was described as a fluke, a rare event that would likely not be repeated any time soon. To see another oil rig exploding just weeks later does not inspire confidence in the minds of Gulf Coast residents who have already been hit hard by the previous oil spill as well as the Corexit chemicals widely used as oil dispersants.

It raises the question that's now on everybody's mind: Could Deepwater Horizon happen again? If so, how can we improve the safety of offshore oil drilling? Or better yet, how can we replace that dangerous, dirty industry with clean, renewable energy sources that don't burst into flame when something goes wrong?

When wind turbines fail, they don't explode into great balls of fire that kill workers and destroy the environment.