Laissez Failure

The slow-motion ecological catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is horrifying.

The oil slick is now the size of Ohio, and growing by the hour. Edges of it are now reaching land and all along the Gulf coast residents wait with deep foreboding and growing anger as the dimensions of the disaster become clear.

This is not an oil spill, but an oil spilling, as more ruptures from the sea floor, surfaces, and spreads its devastating reach towards shore. 40% of the coastal wetlands in the United States are under threat, as are the majority of the country's oyster and shrimp fisheries. Local fishermen have moved quickly through the 5 stages of grieving as they face the imminent destruction of their livelihood, economic security, their way of life, and their future.

Emergency response began quickly and broad efforts at mitigation are underway. The Obama Administration formed a National Response Team, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is mobilizing the state's National Guard, and locals are taking to their boats to deploy booms to intercept the sprawling slick. Dealing with the immediate crisis is paramount now, yet soon hard questions must be asked, and honestly answered. The critical questions are:

Why did this happen? How do we prevent it happening again?

Offshore Drilling for Little Oil

The subject of offshore oil drilling has largely faded following the election, and we have heard mercifully little of the "drill, baby, drill" inanity. Nonetheless, the drilling moratoria of both the executive and legislative branches have been lifted, and interest in drilling is growing in Alaska, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, ...

As offshore oil was being given the green light back in July, Joe Romm at Gristmill wrote:

The oil companies already have access to some 34 billion barrels of offshore oil they haven't even developed yet, but ending the federal moratorium on offshore drilling would probably add only another 8 billion barrels (assuming California still blocks drilling off its coast). Who thinks adding under 100,000 barrels a day in supply sometime after 2020 -- some one-thousandth of total supply -- would be more than the proverbial drop in the ocean?

Some Alaskans oppose this drilling too, and some no doubt remember the soothing blandishments proffered by industry apologists that nary a drop would be spilled from the planned oil terminal in Prince William Sound. Apparently, Captain Hazelwood hadn't paid any attention to that any of that before skippering the Exxon Valdez onto a reef and drenching 11,000 square miles of ocean and coastline with 11 million gallons of oil.

(Lagniappe: Exxon, to its enduring discredit, fought the damage award with every barrel of its corporate being, even as it continues to set records for its quarterly earnings, engages in shameless greenwashing and sets the standard for underfunded pension plans. After 19 years, the fisherman may at last get some tiny fraction of the original $5B jury award.)

This week, drilling in the Beaufort Sea was stopped by the 9th Circuit Court, which found that the Minerals Management Service had not done an adequate job assessing impacts to wildlife and to the Inupiat Eskimos that depend on them. Shell Oil, whose plans have been (temporarily) thwarted will doubtless appeal, and may ultimately prevail. President-elect Obama has been less than consistent about his position on offshore drilling, and there are so many battles to fight I doubt that offshore drilling will be much slowed. Certainly there will not be another moratorium, and more environmental damage is nearly inevitable.

All of the wrangling misses the larger problem of climate change, and the folly of pursuing more oil in a manner so environmentally troublesome and which won't solve our energy needs anyway. This chart pretty much sums it up:



Takes years, costs lots, damages the environment, exacerbates climate change and produces very little oil. Hmm, why are we going forward on this turkey?