The St. Petersburg based activist group St. Pete for Peace have announced that they will be demonstrating Wednesday afternoon in front of a BP gas station, on 4th Street and 62nd Avenue N from 5:00-6:00pm.
It's all part of a larger national day of activism against the oil giant (with similar rallies being held in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale), who is considered the main culprit in the evolving environmental disaster spreading across the Gulf of Mexico. Seize BP Campaign spokesperson Emmanuel Lopez says,
"The government must act now against BP. Bush and now Obama recklessly opened up these waters for offshore oil drilling without requiring the oil companies to provide adequate plans in the event of accidents, including catastrophic accidents such as occurred with the April 20 explosion on the deep water rig that left 11 workers dead."
For more information on the protests, you can go to http://seizebp.org
Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said today that the Obama administration wants to break up the Minerals Management Service into two different parts. That's the federal agency that's supposed to be regulating oil companies like BP. One part would inspect oil rigs and enforce safety, and the other would oversee leases for drilling and collect royalties.
This article appears in May 5-11, 2010.