William Allen Kruse shot himself in the head. He was the captain of a fishing boat in Louisiana. He had lost work because of the black liquid that has been coming out without interruption from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Claudio Scajola, however, is OK even though he’s not seen around as much as once upon a time. He no longer gives his usual "ad minchiam" interviews. He lives his life as unaware as ever. Stefania Prestigiacomo, who is still Minister for the Environment, goes shopping when she has the possibility, for fashion and leather goods in the Capital’s streets.
The duo Scajola/Prestigiacomo has allocated concessions for 95 new drilling permits in Italy. 71 on land and 24 in the Mediterranean. The relevant drilling zones in our seas cover an area equal to that of the Region of Abruzzo, about 11,000 square metres. The oil companies can make holes anywhere, from the Tremiti archipelago to the coasts of Sicily, from the coasts of the Marches and off Apulia to the Egadi islands to the island of Pantelleria, from the Ionian Sea to the waters around the Isle of Elba to those of Oristano in Sardinia. The race for Italian oil and the destruction of the environment and of tourism, is an irresistible call for the oil companies of half the world, obviously including the Italian ones. It’s almost a stampede, the race for the black gold. The president of Assomineraria, Claudio Scalzi explains that there is “a certain disorder at the beginning” compensated however, by the movement that brings investment, royalties and vivacity”. As far as I know in Italy, there is no responsibility on the oil companies if there is an accident. The blue flags of our coasts will become as black as oil and they are in fact, already well on the way to that. Italy has the greatest number of non-bathing sites in Europe.
In thirty years, the people of Italy have changed, from Chernobyl to the disaster of the BP oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico. After the nuclear accident, no politician dreamed of proposing new nuclear reactors in Italy. Nuclear was deleted with a referendum. Today, in the face of the biggest environmental disaster in history that could lead to unimaginable outcomes like a dreadful underwater gas explosion, now compressed by oil, with the disappearance of whole States in America, Sogliola and Presty are drilling the Mediterranean and the Italians, like the stars, look on.