Deep Fried Pelican

I was recently perusing an article regarding Mary Landrieu's staunch support of off shore drilling and someone commented with:

Mary Landrieu would deep-fry the last Brown Pelican if it would bring her a buck.

I thought it quite funny, definitely sad, and most likely true.

In last nights Rachel Maddow Show, a clip was played where Mary Landrieu said:

"The record will show that from 1947 until 2009, 175,813 barrels have been spilled out of the 16 billion produced."

I guess I don't know the full context of what exactly she is talking about because unless she is referring to some very specific subset of drilling, that is entirely inaccurate.

The Christian Science Monitor posted a good article indicating that:

Q: How much oil is spilled into the ocean every year?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons (4.9 million liters) of petroleum are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major oil spill could easily double that amount.

Between 1971 and 2000, the U.S. Coast Guard identified more than 250,000 oil spills in U.S. waters, according to a 2002 report from the U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service.

Approximately 1.7 billion gallons (6.4 billion liters) of oil were lost as a result of tanker incidents from 1970 to 2009, according to International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited, which collects data on oil spills from tankers and other sources.