Damage from Hurricane Ike has an impact on the environment.

ENVIRONMENT -- HURRICANE IKE CAUSES HALF A MILLION GALLONS OF OIL SPILLS: A new AP analysis shows that Hurricane Ike "destroyed oil platforms, tossed storage tanks and punctured pipelines," resulting in "[a]t least a half millions gallons of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico and the marshes, bayous and bays of Louisiana and Texas." The Coast Guard has responded to more than 3,000 pollution reports. "At times, a new spill or release was reported to the Coast Guard every five minutes to 10 minutes." Ike's enormously destructive wreckage adds further proof that conservatives' claims regarding the safety of offshore oil drilling are totally false. As they pushed for expanded drilling this summer, conservatives repeatedly insisted that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita "didn't spill a drop" of oil. Even Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman claimed that during Katrina and Rita, "there was not one case where we had a situation with oil or gas being spilled in the environment." This is a lie: Those hurricanes caused 124 offshore oil spills releasing over 700,000 gallons of oil. The clear evidence of Ike's environmental damage comes just days after House progressives allowed the ban on offshore oil drilling to expire, potentially clearing the way for hundreds of new rigs to be built -- and for destructive new oil spills to be created.