Idle oil rigs are a disaster waiting to happen. They are eaten away every day by the saltwater and eventually will become a hazard. Anything left out in the ocean that doesn't need to be there is always a hazard of some sort to shipping. The anchoring structure would, I believe, probably be left on the floor. I can't see how it could be removed. That should provide for quite a bit of habitat.

I am not an advocate of retaining artificial habitat in natural environments. Mother Nature is much more adept at monitoring natural environments than we are. We have created too much artificial habitat for North American geese and it is now to the point where the problem of overpopulatin is critical. If you have too much of a good thing, something is going to give somewhere. It's all about trying to keep a balance. I say we should do our best to put things in the Gulf back the way they were.

This is actually a pretty smarty policy and it has nothing to do with coral, Big oils is being told to "use it or lose it". Keep it in the oil in the ground and only releasing when prices spike is market manipulation. If the well is not producing it should be shut down. If it can be plugged it can be cut off at the coral line leaving you coral happily growing. This is a red herring and I suspect BIG OIL market manipulation is behind it somewhere.