Oil reserve site raises ire, Bush policy tested

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Bush administration says it favors “environmentally friendly” energy development, but that policy is under attack in a Mississippi town where residents worry a planned emergency oil reserve may drain a river, destroy wetlands and harm Gulf of Mexico fishing areas.

There is fear the Energy Department’s plan to carve out underground salt caverns in Richton, Mississippi, to hold some 160 million barrels of crude oil could be the worst environmental disaster to hit the state since Hurricane Katrina.


The government’s decision to pick Richton as the fifth storage site in expanding the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve was touted as a $4 billion economic boost for a state still suffering from being sideswiped by Katrina.

The Energy Department said the oil site will be constructed in an “environmentally friendly” manner, but many residents and environmental groups feel that is just government-speak.

“That’s an absolute joke, there is nothing environmentally friendly about this project,” said Steve Shepard, Gulf Coast director for the Sierra Club’s Mississippi chapter. “They want to ram it down our throats.”

Reuters