Enough is Enough

In the time since the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded there have been at least seven other major oil spills, three of which occurred in the US. Massive oil spills in Nigeria routinely go unnoticed including a nearly 42,000,000 gallon spill by ExxonMobil (remember them?) in early May. Most recently, 800,000 gallons of oil spilled in the Kalamazoo River, a tributary of Lake Michigan.

Even as news spreads that oil is vanishing from the surface of the Gulf, it is critical that we not forget the extreme anger that we all felt when the oil was gushing and that we channel that rage to ensure that clean energy reform happens now. The media, with the attention span of a schizophrenic five-year-old, will quickly forget that the Macondo spill even happened. Meanwhile, the economic and environmental impacts of the spill will persist for years. Make no mistake, a tremendous amount of damage has been done and will not disappear just because no more oil is (currently) flowing - at least not from Macondo. The plain truth is that extreme economic and environmental damage will continue as long as we, as a global society, use oil.

BP alone has been responsible for roughly 8,000 spills, emissions and leaks of oil, chemicals and gases since 1990. Simply put, there is no such thing as "safe" oil, just like there is no such thing as "clean" coal. Extraction, processing and burning of fossil fuels is dirty no matter how many safety and containment systems you put in place.

Further, fossil fuels are not cheap. Federal oil subsidies that continue to this day, billions of dollars of economic and environmental damage caused by oil spills and the true price of carbon all are not reflected in the market price of oil. It is essential that we institute further taxes on oil and establish a market price for carbon so that the price of oil reflects its true social costs. No, this will not destroy the economy. In fact, if we reinvest those tax proceeds in clean energy, it will speed the clean energy transition and help ensure that the economy prospers by creating high-quality jobs and lowering long-term energy costs.

It is time to rejects the tyranny of fossil fuels and move toward a prosperous clean energy future now! However, our government has all but abandoned the fight for our futures. Please call your senators today to tell them that abandoning the fight is unacceptable and demand comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation now!

Update: Apparently lying is innate to the entire oil industry and not just BP as Enbridge Energy Partners has understated the size of their spill in Michigan by at least 200,000 gallons, or 25%.

Obama and Reid FAIL

Dear President Obama and Senator Reid,

What is this I am reading in the New York Times? You have abandoned the fight for clean energy?! This is not the time to be timid and let Republicans perpetuate America's fossil fuel dependency. Now is the time to act and decisively move toward clean energy! Not only does our environment and wellbeing depend on it, so does our economy. Fossil fuels do not create jobs, they destroy them. Fossil fuels are dirty to get out of the ground and dirty to use, often causing billions in direct economic damages as shown by the recent spill and coal mine explosion. Fossil fuels are a primary source of greenhouse gases, and climate change has the potential to cost the global economy trillions of dollars per year. The question is not how can we afford to invest in clean energy, it is how can we afford not to?

Investing now in clean energy will create far more and higher quality jobs than continuing to invest in fossil fuels. Long-term energy costs will be lower with clean energy as fixed costs decrease with more investment and we enjoy the benefits of free wind, sun and waves. Finally, clean energy is the only way that we as a global society can avoid some of the worst effects of climate change. By failing to act now, we are not only harming the American economy, but inviting disaster through continued spills, explosions and climate change.

[New York Times]

Massive Oil Spill in China Again Shows Perils of Oil

The massive pipeline explosion in China off the shores of Dalian shows the extreme ongoing destruction wrought by the global oil industry. This massive oil spill is now covering 165 square miles of the Yellow Sea, killing birds, marine animals and threatening water quality. When will we, as a global society, learn that we need to wean ourselves off of oil? It is time to move on to clean energy sources which are cheaper, cleaner, and produce more and better jobs than the destructive fossil fuels industry before we completely destroy the environment that we all live in.

[Yahoo! News]

BP is Intimidating Key Witnesses

BP and the mafia might have more in common than you thought.

BP appears to be intimidating witnesses who were intimately involved with the rig to prevent federal officials from determining what actually happened on that fateful day. Citing excuses from location of the hearing to having not received the necessary documents, nine key witnesses have cancelled their scheduled testimony. While some of these excuses may be legitimate, the fact that all of the top-ranking officials on the rig have canceled scheduled testimony strongly suggests that BP is pressuring witnesses not to testify.

Further, BP knowingly continued to drill the Macondo well despite knowing that the blowout preventer was leaking and both internal (September 2009 and external (April 2010) audits had found that the device was well past its inspection date. This complete lack of regard for safety is criminal - and is exactly the kind of testimony that BP doesn't want in front of federal regulators. Fortunately, some witness have been able to testify:

A BP official, Ronald Sepulvado, a well-site leader, testified that BP continued drilling for oil in the days before the disaster despite internal reports of a leak on a safety device on the rig.

If there is any justice in this country, BP will be found criminally liable for the spill and the deaths of 11 people, and will be banned forever from operating in the United States.

[New York Times]

BP Falsifying Images of Spill

Continuing a trend of outright lying, BP has been caught digitally altering images of the oil spill in its command center. Asked why they continued to refrain from publishing the truth, BP CEO said:

"We're a bunch of assholes. What else do you expect? The Truth? You can't handle the Truth."

Can we just revoke their corporate charter already?

[Yahoo! News]

BP's Latest Cap Effort is Failing

If any of you were wondering why I wasn't jumping for joy when BP announced the success of its latest capping effort, this is why. Oil has been detected leaking from the ocean floor. This is truly bad, as it means that the structural integrity of the well has been compromised, and is in stark contrast to the statement BP put out earlier on Sunday hours before the seepage was discovered:

We're 2 1/2 days into the integrity testing and results continue to look encouraging. - Doug Suttles

- 8:39 AM Sunday, July 18th via Twitter (@BP_America)

Although its not clear if BP truly knew that the well was not sound, my suspicion is that they did and they still put on this horse and pony show to make people think that it was over.

[Reuters]

BP’s Sordid Behavior Deserves a U.S. Lockout

I truly hope that this latest effort to cap the well succeeds. It would represent one important victory on the path to recovery. However, without independent verification, I still have trouble believing BP when they say all is fine with the well given their history of lying and obfuscation. I hope that independent researchers are given the access needed to make this verification immediately.

Even if the well is capped, it would only represent the end of the first mile of this marathon. It will take years, if not decades, to clean up this mess. We must remain focused on the cleanup, punishing those responsible and fixing the system so that this type of disaster can never, ever happen again.

Edward Hess has written an excellent position piece about why BP should be barred from business in the US. At the core of his argument is the fact that BP remains a serial lawbreaker and violator of societal standards along the lines of Arther Andersen. While some would argue that companies' only responsibility is to their shareholders, they would be forgetting that the foundation of capitalism as espoused by Adam Smith is based on moral principles.

I agree with Mr. Hess that it is time to ban BP from the US. I would go one step further and say that is is time to ban all offshore drilling and begin moving rapidly toward cheaper and cleaner renewable energy sources. Investing in clean energy would more than offset any job losses cause by the offshore drilling ban, and would actually lead to more and higher quality job creation than continuing to rely on traditional fossil fuels.

It is time to take American forward into the 21st century!

[Business Week]