It now seems that the United States tourism industry has been given yet another hard blow. It seems that another oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. This happens just a mere four months since the BP disaster that sparked the worst offshore oil spill in history. However, officials said that there has been no evidence of an oil leak.

All of the 13 crew members that were on the rig, which was some 100 miles from the Louisiana coastline, were able to escape into the water. They were later rescued. The United States Coast Guard said that a blaze burned for hours after the explosion but was finally extinguished.

John Edwards, who is a spokesman for the Coast Guard, said that thirteen people were seen huddled together in the water. This made it easy for the Coast Guard to find everyone and make sure that they were all accounted for. The rig operator, which is Marine Energy, said that the explosion was not triggered by a blowout, which was the cause of the big BP disaster.

Of course, this incident has sparked criticism that lessons were not learned form the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster back in April. People said that the BP disaster was suppose to be a big wake up call, but everyone just chose to hit the snooze button.

The Executive Director of the United States environmental group called Sierra Club, Michael Brune, said that the oil industry continues to go against regulations. However, it has become all too clear that the current approach to offshore drilling is simply too dangerous. Something has to be done in order to prevent this kind of stuff from happening.