Don Young: Gulf Oil Spill 'Not An Environmental Disaster'

Don't worry about the oil spilling into the Gulf, Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) says, because the worst spill in U.S. history is "not an environmental disaster," just nature taking its course.

"This is not an environmental disaster, and I will say that again and again because it is a natural phenomenon," Young said after Congressional hearings last week. "Oil has seeped into this ocean for centuries, will continue to do it. During World War II there was over 10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships, and no natural catastrophe. ... We will lose some birds, we will lose some fixed sealife, but overall it will recover."

Young, of course, has notoriously close and longstanding ties with oil companies, and went on to criticize the Obama administration's stated moratorium on new offshore drilling permits in the wake of the Gulf spill.

The Alaska Republican has already taken heat for those comments from his challengers on both sides of the aisle. "The man is an ostrich," Democrat Harry Crawford said. "He has his head in the sand if he can't see that this is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, man-made disaster in history."

Republican challenger John Cox acknowledged, "We know there's a problem. We know that this is a major disaster."

Comments

[js31]

04:44 PM on 06/16/2010

Of course it's a natural disaster Don, God planted a seed & an oil rig grew from it, now the oil rig has died & this is just its normal death throws.

Idiot.

[LiberalTexasDem]

01:02 PM on 06/12/2010

Mother Nature suffering a hot flash?!

[kmerker]

06:25 PM on 06/11/2010

Only a Republican A-Hole could actually say something like this. He must not worry about being reelected. He must be working for a lobbying job.

[Siebenstein]

04:24 AM on 06/08/2010

We should push his fvckface into the spill and then ask how bad it really is.

[Siebenstein]

04:23 AM on 06/08/2010

God, I feel like we are living in an 'open psychiatric institution'.
So many patients out there, such as Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska). I wonder if he is related to patient Palin.

[Michael Armijo]

07:02 PM on 06/07/2010

Young and Palin.... lol... Two more republican tidy bowl floaters squeezed off and delivered to America by Alaska voters.

Really, it's a pretty sad situation when there are multitudes of people in America who actually listen to what these idiots have to say. Even worse, thinking about why all those people admire and vote for them. How could people be so misled or ignorant? It's really sort of alarming.

People like Palin and Young are an embarrassment to our country.

It's almost as if America is being used for our resources by both foreign and domestic corporations (which get very rich) and then when things go wrong, we get laughed at as if we've shot ourselves in the foot. We did all this to ourselves. We let it happen with the help of our bumbling politicians and the people who voted for them. Now a lot of people in our gulf states are going to suffer for it.
I’ll pray for them, and all of us.

[blinkthink]

11:23 AM on 06/07/2010

Yes, Mr. Young, and once the gold mining in Alaska has poisoned the fish there, it be more of 'just natural.' Is it a requirement, in Alaska, to elect only the most ig.norant, profit seeking politicians who love to aid big business in the destruction of our planet?

[Susan Froebel]

12:06 AM on 06/07/2010

1. This was not nature taking its course. It was a man-made disaster.
2. The well is releasing 12,000 to 100,000 barrels per day into a fixed area, not "10 million barrels of oil spilt from ships" over the course of WWII (and I'd love to see a reference quoted for that number) spread out over the oceans of the world. Even at a rate of 50,000 barrels a day, as of 6-6-2010, that means the well has released in excess of 2.3 million barrels already with the flow continuing.

I think every BP and governmental official who denies this is a major disaster should be served three meals a day of fish, shrimp, oysters, crawdads, etc., from the affected area until such time as the FDA says it is safe for the rest of us to eat from there. After all, a diet of fish is supposed to be very good for you and this would keep the maritime industry there afloat in the interim. When we "lose some birds," let's cook those up for Rep. Young as well.

[Ganzo]

09:15 PM on 06/06/2010

The Gulf of Mexico is devastated by the thousands and thousands of crude oil spilled there and it is not an environmental disaster? What is this guy smoking, or is he being paid by the Builderburg Group to say this.

[LeftCoastLarry]

02:37 PM on 06/06/2010

It looks like the Alaska Republicans are trying to out stupid the South Carolina Republicans.
Is this a contest?

[Left on Red]

12:02 PM on 06/06/2010

R-Alaska says it all.

The difference between oil seeping in the past and this situation is that BP, Halliburton, TransOcean miserably failed to do what they were supposed to do.

It is not a simple case of human error, it is a case of cutting corners in the name of GREED.

[hypnotoad72]

10:21 AM on 06/06/2010

Oil may have seeped in the past...

THIS MUCH?

ALL AT ONCE?!!!!!

Good effing grief...

[Cori527]

09:26 PM on 06/05/2010

Don Young's comments make me think that some of the Republican leadership is, in fact, intellectually challenged. Only a mental disability would allow him to make the kind of statements he does.

As further evidence of this phenomena it appears that the Witch of Wasilla shares this same mental disability.

Perhaps they would qualify for Medicare.

[angelfan]

09:17 PM on 06/05/2010

This guy's an idiot. And, where are all the celebrities??? Funny how when it's another country asking for help, we're inundated with requests, yet a disaster in our own backyard nets nothing?? I haven't seen anything by all these "activist celebs". Jerks

[femailman1965]

09:48 PM on 06/05/2010

Yeah...where are the celebrities?
The liberal celebrities??...the ones that only help non-American countries because they are
anti-American.

[js31]

04:48 PM on 06/16/2010

That's a very good question, they were all so ready to help with Haiti yet not their own country?

[Chucktheman]

07:59 PM on 06/05/2010

Please mommy, Uncle Don says its safe to go swimming in Amity Beach,but we're afraid. He says the sharks and oil wont hurt us. Don't make us swim, mommy please.........dum dum....dum dum dum dum dum dum...............