On Thursday, a manageable explosion on a Gulf Coast oil rig reignited fears founded by the BP spill and revived calls for a reassessment of the country's drilling policies.
Just before 9 a.m. Thursday morning, the Vermilion Oil Rig 380 exploded. Unlike the Deepwater Horizon rig, this one was located in shallow waters. By late afternoon, a sheen of oil had been spotted, spreading a mile long from the burning rig; but by Friday morning the Coast Guard was saying the that was a mistake-there was no sheen.
Mariner Energy, the company that owns the well, said the fire burned off the oil used to power the well and was out by 3 p.m. The rig had seven actively producing oil wells, but they were quickly shut off after the fire began.
Media coverage and the spill
After more than four months of worry over the BP oil spill, the entire political apparatus-politicians and journalists, activists and lobbyists-shot into action at the news of the fire.
In April, when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, the media was slow to realize how serious a disaster the explosion represented. (The Mulch was as guilty as anyone else: the rig exploded April 20, but on April 23, this column featured the Cochabamba climate conference.) BP's initial estimates of the spill's volume, later increased by thousands of barrels per day, encouraged this impression.
On Thursday, however, the Vermilion story topped the agenda. Groups like the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity blasted out reactions, and as Andrew Restuccia reported at The Washington Independent, drilling opponents like Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) seized on the incident to push their legislative agenda.
"As the U.S. Coast Guard responds to this latest incident, we must redouble our efforts to accelerate the push for clean, renewable energy and end our nation's dependence on oil," Lautenberg said, in a statement.
Ticking time bombs in the Gulf
It looks like this explosion, unlike the one at BP's Macondo well, will not extract a lasting price from the Gulf. That doesn't mean it's not a problem. Like the BP explosion, the Mariner incident shows the systemic risk that drilling requires. The system would benefit from better regulation and oversight.
Consider this image, from Mother Jones, that shows 33,000 miles of pipeline, 50,000 wells, and thousands of abandoned rigs.
At Earth Island Journal, Jason Marks puts Thursday's explosion into perspective. "Sure, this incident is frightening, and in that sense it's newsworthy," he writes. "But the fact is that fires, explosions, spills, and blowouts aren't all that uncommon in the Gulf's industrial archipelago...accidents happen all the time in the ocean oil fields."
Oil on the mainland
The ocean isn't the only place where the industry presents a danger, either. Grist's Jonathan Hiskes flags a recent spill in North Dakota totaling more than 1,000 barrels of oil. And the Michigan Messenger has been reporting for more than a month on the fall-out from a significant pipeline spill in that state.
It's notable, however, that incidents like these aren't getting as much attention as Thursday's non-spill. They represent real environmental disasters for the communities affected, but because they're more than 100 miles from BP's well, their problems don't raise the same fears.
Follow through
Politicians like Lautenberg who want to clamp down on drilling would do well to keep playing off of those fears, however. By the time Congress was ready to respond to the BP incident, stories about the spill had become so routine as to be easily tuned out. Even if the Mariner explosion has a minimal environmental impact, the specter of Deepwater Horizon could breath new life into legislative efforts to limit drilling.
"The best outcome would be that the only lasting impact is political," writes Change.org's Jess Leber. "Let this incident- "accident" already seems too light be more than just a reminder that the existing deep water moratorium needs to be in place longer....It should tell our elected officials they need to stop listening to inflated claims by the oil industry, and start looking at the evidence right before their eyes. All offshore drilling, in all its forms, needs to be reexamined at minimum."
Should Obama lift the drilling moratorium?
The Obama administration has been making noise about lifting the drilling moratorium early, but perhaps this new incident will push the White House to reconsider. Over the past few months, president has had terrible timing vis-à-vis drilling: as soon as he made it a keystone of a compromise on the Senate's energy bill, the BP spill happened. Now, just as his team has started making noise about lifting the ban, this explosion triggers memories about how bad the BP spill really was.
What if this explosion had triggered another oil spill? A temporary moratorium on new deep water drilling is not enough to make the entire endeavors of oil extraction a safe one. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard puts a fine point on it:
The moratorium was put in place so regulators could evaluate whether offshore drilling can be done safely. And despite the outcry from the industry, the moratorium is only temporary (six months), and it's only on new exploratory operations. It doesn't even touch the existing deep water platforms, or drilling in shallow waters. If anything, today's news should be an indicator that we need to take the time to evaluate all offshore operations.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
Baton Rouge (FNS)-Facing both a massive oil slick from a sunken offshore drilling platform and a second year of declining tourism revenues along the Louisiana Gulf Coast caused by high gas prices, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today introduced a new tourism promotion that he reports is going to "...make lemons into lemonade".
Jindal, flanked by British Petroleum's Director of Marketing Dick Timoneous and the Executive Director of the Louisiana State Tourism Board, Jenna Talia, announced that the "All The Oil You Can Carry Festival" would officially commence today just east of New Orleans, and last at least through the month of May.
Weekly Mulch: Off-shore drilling, auto emissions, mountaintop mining from Obama administration
By Sarah Laskow, Media Consortium Blogger
President Barack Obama announced this week that his administration would open areas from Delaware to Florida and in Alaska to offshore drilling for gas and oil. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation also released new guidelines for auto emissions to cut carbon emissions, and the EPA said new benchmarks for issuing mountaintop mining permits would prevent damage to waterways in Appalachia. The environmental community welcomed these last two announcements but both were overshadowed by the off-shore drilling decision, which green groups largely condemned.
Off-putting off-shore drilling decision
Although as a candidate President Obama began by opposing off-shore drilling, by the end of the campaign he said he would support an expansion of drilling areas. Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard explains the series of decisions that made this week's announcement possible:
"In October 2008, amidst calls of "drill, baby, drill" from conservatives, Congress failed to renew the long-standing moratorium on offshore drilling. Months earlier, George W. Bush had lifted an 18-year-old executive ban on offshore drilling, which had originally been imposed by his father in 1990. Obama, of course, could have issued his own order, but didn't."
The administration had been considering the decision to go ahead with drilling for about a year but kept deliberations quiet. Key senators, however, knew the decision was coming, and it's pushing Democrats like Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) to warm towards energy legislation, TPMDC reports.
Cars' carbon emission
The EPA's announcement on auto emissions, on the other hand, comes as no surprise. It marks the first big step the Obama administration has taken to limit carbon emissions through regulation. Auto regulations are a relatively easy sell. A chunk of Congress wants to keep the EPA from taking these sorts of actions, but in this case, the auto industry supports the federal regulations. At the Washington Independent, Aaron Wiener notes that "the guidelines drew immediate praise from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, which has long advocated national emissions and efficiency regulations rather than patchwork state-by-state rules."
Mountaintop removal mining
The coal industry will be less happy about the EPA's announcement on mountaintop removal mining. The agency admitted that the practice causes significant damage to streams and said its new guidelines would lead to significantly less harm.
The new policies, Jeff Biggers writes at AlterNet, will "effectively bring an end to the process of valley fills (and the dumping of toxic coal mining waste into the valleys and waterways)." It could be, he says, "the beginning of the end of mountaintop removal."
One sign that mountaintop removal's doomsday is nigh? Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), one of coal's staunchest and most powerful advocates on the Hill, praised the EPA's decision, reports Mike Lillis at the Washington Independent.
Green groups groan
Green groups are lauding the EPA's two announcements. (The Sierra Club called the mining announcement "the most significant administrative action ever taken to address mountaintop removal coal mining," for instance.) But the push for off-shore drilling has environmental advocates squirming.
"As the president extends olive branches to his critics, he's alienating allies in the environmental community, who say his policies are reminding them more and more of those of his predecessor, George W. Bush," says Mother Jones' Sheppard. "Some enviros are even likening Obama to Alaska's oil-loving ex-governor, Sarah Palin."
On Democracy Now!, Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity, called the decision "horribly disappointing" and said, "Obama is essentially embracing wholeheartedly the policy of: we can drill our way to energy independence."
The Obama administration's energy and environmental policy is creeping ever further towards the center. Ken Salazar, Secretary for the Interior, said this week that "Cap-and-trade is not in the lexicon anymore," TPMDC reports. It's no wonder that progressive members of Congress are starting to feel uncomfortable with the direction their climate bill is taking, as Sheppard reports. The president may be using up his reserves of political support from his allies as he stretches to meet conservatives and centrist Democrats on some shaky middle ground.
This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.
This is a substantive debate on the issues, with the moderator (Brunswick News reporter Jess Davis) sitting between the two candidates and pitching real questions.
Jack seems peeved to have to be on the same forum as some upstart; sound like certain other debates? Bill was the keynote speaker at the Valdosta Obama office opening.
Bill Gillespie wants to get us out of Iraq by handing over to the Iraqis, preferably within 18 months. Jack Kingston wants any timetable to be decided by the general in Baghdad.
Jack Kingston promotes himself as a champion of renewable energy (although local students don't agree) but then gets off on offshore drilling.
Everyone knows that current gas prices are punishing working families in Central and Southside Virginia (just like the rest of the country. Here in Virginia's 5th District, our Congressman Virgil H. Goode Jr. has adopted the Drill Here Drill Now rhetoric and shown a remarkable ability to pivot any question to the benefits of drilling.
The other day, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann told us that we don't need Nancy Pelosi to save the planet. Jesus has it
covered. Here's what she said:
"[Pelosi] is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she's just
trying to save the planet. ... We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet - we didn't need Nancy Pelosi to do that."
Conservatives are excited that Democrats like Eric Massa are bucking the party on the energy crisis. Massa is calling for Congress to stay in session to address the energy crisis, echoing Al Gore's request. And American Solutions for Winning the Future is apparently encouraging town hall appearances.
Drill Here, Drill Now -- But What Are The Oil Companies Planning?
Nationally, Drill Here, Drill Now seems to be the only issue where Republicans are gaining any traction with voters during 2008. For those who don't know, Drill Here, Drill Now started on the website www.americansolutions.com. A couple of mouse clicks on the American Solutions website will take you to a screen with friendly welcome from none other than former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Though I don't think Obama should have caved on drilling for political reasons, there are two significant differences between his shift on this issue and his shift on FISA. The first difference is that on drilling, when he puts forward the concept of a compromise, it's actually a real compromise. While it opens up some new areas for drilling, it also does the following.
Normally on opening the day I try to figure out what other people are saying and make that the headline. Today I'm a bit surprised that the compromise that both McCain and Obama are inching towards on opening up more lands for oil leases isn't getting more traction, as this will help both Obama and McCain solidify the narrative that both are reasonable people trying to do the right thing for the country across party lines.
Obama is siding with the 'Gang of 10' in the Senate who want to break the impasse on oil drilling. Ian Welsh at Firedoglake has the explanation.
Interestingly, now John McCain is signaling that he too wants to compromise on drilling.
The wealthy are getting hurt in the downturn as well.
Brookings Senior Fellow and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs SUSAN RICE, UT Austin LBJ School of Public Policy Dean and former Deputy National Security Advisor JAMES STEINBERG. Willams & Connolly trial lawyer and former special counsel to President Clinton GREGORY CRAIG, and lastly, Washington Institute for Near East Policy counselor and former Clinton Middle East envoy and negotiator DENNIS ROSS.
Obama is liberal and corrupt, says another anti-Obama book. Movement conservatives are arguing about the right line of attack, but the thesis in this latest book seems to be losing.
"I don't think you beat Obama by saying that he's Paris Hilton," said Freddoso, a reporter for the conservative magazine National Review, referring to McCain's latest advertising campaign. "The more important thing is really to look at is he who he says he is? Is he really this great reformer?"
Nancy Pelosi is still pushing Chet Edwards for VP. I don't get it. Nice conservative guy in R+17 district does not make a good VP pick.
Drew Westen offers some advice for Obama on how he can handle race.
Obama has a new ad out hitting McCain on gas prices and his ties to oil executives. It's a standard DC Democratic ad, with sad music interloped over a narrative against McCain and his contributions from oil executives as gas is pumped into a car (and the price register increases), followed by an upsurge in music and Barack Obama's plan. It's the same ad we've seen a million times before.
Obama said he might support more drilling if it were paired with comprehensive energy conservation measures and alternative energy development. So what's the headline?
I'm sure the Republicans are going to praise Obama for his flexible stance now that he's decided to push a compromise with their oh so practical agenda. There's no way they will use this to push the idea that he's unprincipled. They wouldn't dare set up a web site called http://www.bothwaysbarack.com/
Awesome. And awesome position that he's put Pelosi in, who has refused to allow a vote on driling in the House.
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