Now, because it's John McCain and other Republicans making this claim of "not a drop of oil spilled", I have to admit I could not take their word for it. I already knew it wasn't true that not a drop of oil was spilled. But were they just referring to oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico from oil platforms? Maybe that detail was true, even though they were being disingenuous. Seaching the internet, I came up with this website and the government information they link.
What it boils down to is that John McCain is lying to "his friends". Here is what a report by the U.S. Minerals Management Service concluded:
As a result of both storms, 124 spills were reported with a total volume of roughly 17,700 barrels of total petroleum products, of which about 13,200 barrels were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 4,500 barrels were refined products from platforms and rigs. Pipelines were accountable for 72 spills totaling about 7,300 barrels of crude oil and condensate spilled into the [Gulf of Mexico]. Response and recovery efforts kept the impacts to a minimum with no onshore impacts from these spill events.17,700 barrels of oil corresponds to 743,400 gallons which is classified as a major spill by the Code of Federal Regulations used by the EPA and Coast Guard to evaluate oil spills.
How about satellite pictures? Yes, we have them.
How about known pipeline damage? We've got that too.
So I'm sorry to say that at the very least John McCain is being disingenous somehow. At the worst, he is lying to "his friends". I'm sure his friends will not follow the advice of their god Ronald Reagan to "trust, but veryify".
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