A scientist for the National Wildlife Federation, <name>Doug Inkley</name>, has criticised what he described as America's "addiction to oil". <name>Inkley</name> stated it is ultimately responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster earlier this year.

<name>Inkley</name> commented on the incident, six months after the explosion which killed eleven rig workers and resulted in over 170 million gallons of crude oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico causing damage to marine wildlife habitats as well as the Gulf's fishing and tourism industries.

<name>Inkley</name> is a senior scientist working for the National Wildlife Federation. He stated, "Looking back at what we knew six months after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska illustrates the danger of too quickly drawing conclusions about the full impacts of the Gulf oil disaster."

"Six months after the Exxon Valdez disaster," he continued, "the herring stocks in Prince William Sound seemed like they’d pull through. It wasn’t until the fourth year after the disaster that herring stocks collapsed due to a delayed population effect of the oil, devastating the people and wildlife that depended on them. Today, more than two decades later, this once-vital fish still hasn’t recovered."

His remarks echo those issued by another environmental organisation in July. Greenpeace demanded that BP, who the United States Congress has blamed for the disaster, take a "new direction" and end an "obsession with high risk, environmentally reckless sources of oil."