An explosion and fire at a state-of-the-art offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday [April 20, 2010] spilled oil across 400 square miles of ocean and may have killed 11 workers who are still missing and presumed dead. The underground well continues to release 42,000 gallons of crude oil per day into the surrounding waters, a situation that could continue for months and may cause the oil spill to expand faster than the U.S. Coast Guard and other responders can contain and clean it up.
The explosion occurred just a few weeks after President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a plan to dramatically expand offshore drilling along much of America's coastline, leading many people to wonder whether Obama should reconsider his proposal. Cornered by reporters and pressed for an official response to the tragedy, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the explosion is no reason for President Obama to reverse his decision to open millions of acres of U.S. waters to offshore oil and gas exploration and development for the first time.
"In all honesty, I doubt this is the first accident that has happened and I doubt it will be the last," Gibbs told reporters. With just a little research, Gibbs could have confirmed his doubts and might have offered a response that sounded more thoughtful and less cavalier. Yes, Mr. Gibbs, accidents happen, and more often in some industries than in others. If oil could be extracted, refined and used with zero hazards to the environment or worker safety, it's unlikely that many people would raise serious objections to offshore drilling.
Sadly, that's not the case.
Offshore drilling is big business in the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for nearly a third of U.S. oil production, but it's also a dangerous business that poses serious human and environmental risks. Roughly 35,000 people work on 90 big offshore oil rigs and 3,500 production platforms in the gulf. Since 2001, there have been 858 fires and explosions, 1,349 injuries and 69 deaths at those facilities. Under Obama's proposed expansion of offshore drilling, those numbers are bound to increase significantly, especially in the Arctic where extreme weather conditions will make it harder to rescue workers and contain oil spills.
Yet the question remains whether the oil-rig explosion this week should persuade President Obama to reverse his plan to expand offshore drilling in U.S. waters, or motivate him to use the power of his office to increase worker safety on offshore rigs and reduce the risk of environmental damage from those operations?
The latter seems more realistic.
Obama is trying to develop a comprehensive national energy policy that will enable the United States to make the transition from dirty and finite energy sources such as oil and coal to clean, renewable energy. It is essential to our survival--as a nation and a species--that we accomplish that goal, and that we provide the leadership required to help the rest of the world achieve it, too.
Completing that transition won't be quick or easy. It's going to take decades. According to some estimates, the global supply of oil will run out within the next 20 to 30 years. The gradual increase of renewable energy use could extend that timeframe, and better conservation and fuel-efficiency may push the final deadline even farther into the future. No matter what we do, however, it is almost certain that the world will run out of oil within this century. Before we do, it is almost equally certain that we will squeeze out every drop of petroleum our planet has to offer--no matter how costly or hard to reach. We are simply too dependent on petroleum in too many ways, and we waited too long to get serious about developing realistic alternatives, to abandon oil entirely in favor of cleaner fuels.
With that in mind, it makes sense for Obama to include offshore oil and gas exploration as part of a comprehensive energy policy--assuming he can gain congressional support for his clean-energy agenda. But Obama, and the presidents who come after him, must never forget that finding and extracting oil offshore sometimes comes at a high price in human life and environmental damage. Ordering the expansion of offshore drilling should be done with as much gravity as ordering American troops into harm's way--and for many of the same reasons.
Meanwhile, Obama should immediately order federal regulators at the U.S. Minerals and Management Service to prioritize and accelerate the work they have already begun on new safety rules aimed at preventing human error, which research has identified as a critical factor in a high percentage of offshore drilling accidents. The president also needs to make sure the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are setting environmental standards for offshore drilling are tough enough to lessen the chance of major oil spills in U.S. waters.
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Comments
Obama needs not to shut the productions down but allow them to fix their mistakes. this could have happend to any oil company and not just BP.