article_snippet.sent: White sand beaches stained with black sludge, oil-choked waterways and wildlife, shuttered businesses, and front-lawn signs pleading for justice and help.
article_snippet.sent: Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster that killed 11 people, devastated livelihoods and wreaked havoc on the already fragile natural resources of the Gulf of Mexico region, it's time to ask ourselves:
article_snippet.sent: The BP oil spill's legacy continues to haunt the Gulf of Mexico region like a recurring cancer.
article_snippet.sent: On this most recent trip, I saw the ghostly remains of entire islands virtually swallowed up by the oil, and I learned about oystermen and fishermen whose livelihoods are still crippled by what happened five years ago.
article_snippet.sent: But make no mistake: Though a kind of normalcy has returned to the Gulf region and important progress has been made, the oil is still there.
article_snippet.sent: What we do and don't know about The BP oil spill .
article_snippet.sent: A recent study from Florida State University estimates that up to 10 million gallons of the oil is still on the seafloor of the Gulf.
article_snippet.sent: (BP disputes A recent study from Florida State University).
article_snippet.sent: So far, BP has spent more than $14 billion on cleanup, and despite BP assurances that everything is recovering, we witnessed a crew on a beach in Barataria Bay (off Louisiana) digging up oily sand.
article_snippet.sent: And while this kind of reflection is rarely pleasant, it is critical in order to avoid another tragedy on the scale of The BP oil spill, or potentially much worse.
article_snippet.sent: It's important to note that for areas like the Gulf, which are already affected by drilling, many of the common-sense safety reforms called for by the National Commission  on The BP oil spill in January 2011 have yet to be implemented.
article_snippet.sent: And yet, early this year, the Obama administration proposed a five-year offshore oil and gas drilling plan that, in addition to new areas in the Gulf, would open the southeast Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Georgia, as well as the majority of the wild Arctic to offshore oil and gas drilling.
article_snippet.sent: In the case of the wild Arctic, one of the last pristine ocean habitats, oil companies have to admit that oil companies aren't prepared to safeguard against the disasters that may take place if a five-year offshore oil and gas drilling plan that, in addition to new areas in the Gulf, would open the southeast Atlantic Coast from Virginia to Georgia, as well as the majority of the wild Arctic to offshore oil and gas drilling is allowed to move forward.
article_snippet.sent: Imagine what would happen if an oil spill occurred in a region where what little technology we have, like oil booms and controlled burns, is useless in the land of floating icebergs and catastrophic storms.
article_snippet.sent: Independent research free of corporate and government influence in the Gulf of Mexico is critical.