ROYAL OAK­­­­­­—Senate candidate Aaron Bailey called on state politicians today to hold polluters accountable for all damages and cleanup costs after Michigan was hit with a major oil spill yesterday. Over 840,000 gallons of oil have poured into a waterway that leads to the Kalamazoo River. Bailey supports measures to permanently ban drilling in the Great Lakes for oil and puts the burden of cleanup on the corporate polluters responsible instead of taxpayers.

“The devastation has snowballed out of control in the Gulf Coast, and now the same crisis is unfolding right here in Michigan. We need to spring into action to protect some of our most valuable resources, and that’s our rivers, lakes and waters,” Bailey said. “Cleaning up a major oil spill or other damages to our air, land and water should fall on the backs of corporate polluters responsible, not the taxpayers.”

Aaron Bailey supports a plan by State Senator Glenn Anderson that would place the following three proposals on the November 2010 ballot, so Michigan citizens can ensure the protections are permanently in the state Constitution.

• Guarantee that polluters responsible for an oil spill or other environmental damages pay for all cleanup and damage costs, rather than wasting taxpayers’ dollars for cleanups
• Permanently ban all oil and gas drilling in the Great Lakes, both off-shore drilling and onshore “slant” drilling
• Allow Michigan citizens to hold corporate polluters accountable for the damage they cause.

A pipeline that carries oil from Indiana to Ontario leaked, spilling about 840,000 gallons of oil, the equivalent of over 100 tank trucks, into a creek that leads to the Kalamazoo River. With the BP spill down south and now this spill right here in Michigan, legislators need to act now on the proposal to permanently ban oil drilling in the Great Lakes and implement other protections to keep our air, land and water safe from oil spills and other environmental disasters.