| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2010 12:28 pm |
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Commentary 
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GUEST COMMNETARY / DISASTER IN THE GULF BP will get bailed out — by all of us In February I gave a guest lecture on energy and climate change to a group of graduate students in environmental studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. I was speaking on behalf of the Washington Wildlife Federation, the state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, whose top legislative agenda item is clean energy and climate change legislation.Near the end of my lecture, a student asked me what I thought it was going to take to get Americans off of fossil fuels. I told them it would take some kind of disaster. I told them it would have to be a catastrophe that would awaken this country with the same impact Japan had on us at the start of World War II. The BP drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico might not qualify, but it is quickly growing into one our worst ecological nightmares. Despite President Obama’s statement after the explosion that BP would be held accountable for all the clean-up costs and damage, the unfortunate reality is that we will be paying those costs and we will be more than happy to do so, regardless of the price, whenever we fill up at the pump. More importantly, we will live with an economically and ecologically damaged Gulf Coast. Its wetlands, with all their wildlife and fisheries, are likely to be affected for generations. That cost will be borne by all of us, our children and grandchildren. I’m angry with BP for such an irresponsible, inadequate and arrogant disaster plan that said such a spill was unlikely and which left them totally unprepared for the worst-case scenario. After the Wall Street and banking debacle, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there is no backup plan. How many times have we heard comments like: “We underestimated the severity of the crisis; we didn’t plan for this type of failure; we didn’t see this coming; we don’t know what went wrong,” etc.? Meanwhile, the scope of the disaster grows by more than 200,000 gallons a day — perhaps much more. I’m upset that again, we find out an industry our government was supposed to be regulating to protect our health and welfare has influenced those regulations to protect their profits instead. Most of all, I’m upset with us for continuing to support the oil companies with our insatiable appetite for oil and our inability to develop comprehensive energy legislation. Every one of us is partly responsible for this spill and every one of us will have to do something about it if we are going to survive very long in the 21st century. Until Americans are shocked into realizing there is an energy crisis, most of us will continue to do nothing. You can witness that complacency every day along America’s freeways, airports and cities, where our behavior gives no hint of a looming energy crisis. That indifference is slowing the progress of those trying to move this country away from oil and other fossil fuels and onto renewable and sustainable clean energy. For those who think there is no end in sight for oil, think about what officials will say when the last drop has been pumped from the ground: “We underestimated the severity of the crisis; we didn’t plan for this type of failure; we didn’t see this coming; we don’t know what went wrong,” etc. On Wednesday, Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced the American Power Act, legislation that can finally get this country on a path to clean energy. This legislation will be met with stiff opposition from corporations, big oil and others who prefer the status quo. They will spend millions on lobbying and advertising to try and convince you that this is bad legislation or to change in a way to let them off the hook. The spill in the Gulf may not be the shock that we need, but the plume of ugly brown crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico should at least serve as a reminder of what we are trading off to keep using oil. Tell your representatives and senators that you expect them to address our oil dependence and energy crisis once and for all. Tell them to pass comprehensive energy legislation this year. Don’t take partisan politics as an excuse and don’t take no for an answer. We all need a clean energy solution. Mark Quinn is president of the Washington Wildlife Federation (www.washingtonwildlife.org). |
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COMMENTS
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Tell our representatives?
Yes, tell them this. You are fired!
Government's cut is 62 cent per gallon. Not only do they get paid for the oil and its byproducts, they make ALL the rules. Government is the primary culprit here.
How much funding, exactly, Mark, is in it for you to have made that omission?
Gordon Dewey | May 22, 2010 10:53 am | 0 replies | Request removal
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Rand Paul sez Obama is unpatriotic to blame BP and require their cooperation financially in fixing whatever its possible to fix.
First, BP is a foreign company drilling in our waters. Secondly, nothing is more un- American than bigotry.
This statement from Paul, clearly demonstrates his desire to be in the pocket of Corporate America, outsource jobs, not require environmental concern and care by corporations, or provide for worker safety, anything, that reduces the bonuses schedules of fat cats, especially oily ones.
It was not the President who failed in basic safety and precautions, it was BP and their sub contractors, and they owe the Amercian People every effort to fix it as much as possible and every amount of money spent to prevent future catastropheres. It should come from corporate conscious not government oversight, but it won't, and all those screaming about big government, look at what corporate greed leads to and why government regulationsn is required, because they don't voluntarly from decency self regulate, hell no, they don't spend a dime on safety unless regulated. History shows that including this event.
Sad and tragic all by itslef without the twisting and turning of politicians trying to make it an opportunity to vilify the President. Thats unpatriotic right there. In a time of crisis, we need unity. Not some Tea gagging division
Darla Lehman | May 21, 2010 7:43 am | 0 replies | Request removal
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Cantwell is the Committee CHAIR on the Subcommittee on Energy, and she's been there a while. Isn't she partly to blame for government workers in MMS and DOI not doing their job? Why isn't anyone talking about that?
How many government workers have been fired or are under investigation for bribery, ineptness, coercion? Just like the SEC, they were in bed with the industry they were supposed to monitor. Check the PDC listing and see how many local officials get campaign contributions from BP.
All industry passes ALL costs to the customers, just as ALL government spending passes the cost to the taxpayers.
If you think 'green energy' is the solution, then you are not too aware of economics or science. Most 'green energy' is inefficient, expensive, and requires resources we DON'T HAVE. Read up about rare earth elements (REE) and see how China has a death grip over the technologies that require REEs. It includes most green technologies such as windmills, electric cars, displays.
Gulf oil brings $128,000,000 per day into the US economy.
NATURAL oil seeps in the ocean, according to the USGS, release 600,000 metric tons of oil per year, and much of it around Santa Barbara where it is visible from satellite photos. It is natural (though not in the huge quantity the Gulf just experienced). Nonetheless, ocean microbes will consume most of it over the next year or so. The Gulf has a few hundred oil seeps itself so the microbes are already present, and according to scientific reports, already are consuming some of the oil.
Offshore OR and WA is about 400,000,000 barrels of recoverable oil equivalents according to old geological reports. Not mentioned by our progressive senators is that much of it now can be horizontally drilled from shore.
Randy Dutton | May 17, 2010 3:16 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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If anyone thinks the "American Power
Act", is about energy, they are wrong. It's about the Government's power to control our lives.
Trebor Snoyl | May 16, 2010 1:43 pm | 0 replies | Request removal
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