Another Oil Disaster In The Gulf Is A Growing Threat

(Image is from The Washington Post.)

The Trump administration wants to substantially increase off-shore oil drilling on both the east and west coasts of the United States. That may sound good to some Americans, but they would not be aware of the problems being experienced in the Gulf of Mexico.

There is an oil leak in the Gulf that has been happening for about 14 years now, and it's growing worse because the company (Taylor Oil) has been unable to plug the leak. In fact, the leak will soon be a bigger ecological disaster than the BP Oil disaster.

Here's some of the report by Darryl Sears on this in The Washington Post:

An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in U.S. history. 

Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles off the Louisiana coast since 2004, when an oil-production platform owned by Taylor Energy sank in a mudslide triggered by Hurricane Ivan. Many of the wells have not been capped, and federal officials estimate that the spill could continue through this century. With no fix in sight, the Taylor offshore spill is threatening to overtake BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster as the largest ever. . . .

The Taylor Energy spill is largely unknown outside Louisiana because of the company’s effort to keep it secret in the hopes of protecting its reputation and proprietary information about its operations, according to a lawsuit that eventually forced the company to reveal its cleanup plan. The spill was hidden for six years before environmental watchdog groups stumbled on oil slicks while monitoring the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a few miles north of the Taylor site in 2010. . . .

On average, 330,000 gallons of crude are spilled each year in Louisiana from offshore platforms and onshore oil tanks, according to a state agency that monitors them.

The Gulf is one of the richest and most productive oil and gas regions in the world, expected to yield more than 600 million barrels this year alone, nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. oil production. Another 40 billion barrels rest underground, waiting to be recovered, government analysts say.

About 2,000 platforms stand in the waters off the Bayou State. Nearly 2,000 others are off the coasts of its neighbors, Texas and Mississippi. On top of that are nearly 50,000 miles of active and inactive pipelines carrying oil and minerals to the shore.

And the costs are high.

For every 1,000 wells in state and federal waters, there’s an average of 20 uncontrolled releases of oil — or blowouts — every year. A fire erupts offshore every three days, on average, and hundreds of workers are injured annually.

BP has paid or set aside $66 billion for fines, legal settlements and cleanup of the 168 million-gallon spill — a sum that the oil giant could, painfully, afford. But many companies with Gulf leases and drilling operations are small, financially at-risk and hard-pressed to pay for an accident approaching that scale.

One of them was Taylor Energy. . . .

Nearly a decade after the oil platform went down, the government determined that the actual level of oil leaking into the Gulf was between one and 55 barrels per day. Now, the new estimate dwarfs that: up to 700 barrels per day. Each barrel contains 42 gallons.

Despite that finding, NOAA is still in the early stages of a resource assessment of marine life that could explain the impact of the Taylor Energy spill, and is more than three years behind a deadline to issue a biological determination of the BP spill’s impact on marine life. . . .

Fourteen years after the Taylor spill, and 10 years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the federal government still doesn’t know the spills’ full impact on marine life. And there is no economic analysis showing the value of the oil flowing into the sea and potential royalties lost to taxpayers. Activists also want an analysis to determine if oil is ruining marshland and making its way to beaches.

A Catastrophe And A Failed Energy Policy

Yesterday, President Obama went to Louisiana and met with officials there concerning the growing disaster caused by the explosion of an offshore oil drilling rig. Since the explosion, the well site has poured hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil in Gulf of Mexico waters, and according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, it could still be weeks before the flow of oil can be stopped.

President Obama pledged to dedicate all the available resources of the federal government to the emergency, saying, "I'm not going to rest, and none of the gentlemen and women who are here are going to rest or be satisfied, until the leak is stopped at the source, the oil on the Gulf is contained and cleaned up and the people of this region are able to go back to their lives and their livelihoods. We will spare no resource to clean up whatever damage is caused."

And that damage is going to be substantial. It is affecting Gulf fishing grounds and wildlife in coastal areas of several states, not to mention the tourist dollars that will be lost because of oil-drenched beaches. Experts are already saying it is worse than the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, and with the source of the oil unlikely to be capped for weeks, it could be much worse than anyone could have expected.

This makes the "drill, baby, drill" statements of Sarah Palin and her Republican cohorts seem rather stupid. They had assured us that modern offshore drilling had advanced technology and posed no danger to the Gulf or the American (and Mexican) coastlines. They were either very stupid, or lying (or both). As we can now easily see, it only takes one offshore oil rig to create a mega-disaster. Just think of the many more rigs that are out there. How many of them are a disaster-in-waiting?

Of course, the "drill, baby, drill" idea was not only simplistic but ridiculously stupid anyway. The Republican idea seemed to be that there was plenty of oil out there and all we had to do was go get it (endangering not only our coastlines and Gulf fishing, but also our national wildlife preserves). The sad fact is that this simplistic concept could not work even if our government fully embraced it.

We have been pulling oil from the ground for over a hundred years now and ignoring one major fact -- oil is a limited and non-renewable resource. Someday there will be an end to oil production and there's nothing the United States or any other country can do to change that. In fact, many people believe that we have reached, or soon will reach "peak oil" -- the point at which oil production will begin to drop no matter how much drilling is done.

Just look at the chart above. This was not drawn by some left-wing environmental organization, but by the the United States Department of Energy (and agreed with by the Joint Forces Command of the United States Military). It shows another disaster in the making -- one much worse than the current oil disaster, because this one would affect our entire society. If it is not dealt with immediately, it could even destroy American society as we know it.

According to the chart, the world is producing and using nearly 90 million barrels of the world's liquid fuel supply each day. In just about two years, the production and demand of these two fuels will no longer be equal (demand will start to be greater than production). By the year 2030 (only 20 years away), demand will have risen and production fallen enough for there to be a shortage of 43 millions barrels of fuel each day.

This is a serious shortage that will affect every country -- especially the high energy-consuming countries in the industrialized West (that need huge amounts of energy not only to keep their factories running, but also to maintain their high standard of living). The failure of the United States and other countries to find new (and hopefully renewable) sources of energy will result in wars all over the globe to control the dwindling liquid energy resources (the very thing feared by the Joint Forces Command). And there will be no allies in these wars -- it will be every country for itself.

We can thank past administrations in this and other countries for this coming disaster. It will happen because they exhibited no foresight and did not develop a sensible and sustainable energy policy. They have simply resorted to "drill, baby, drill" with no thought of the future consequences.

This makes it very important to quickly develop a sustainable energy policy. This will not be easy and will require a major effort by our government (and other governments). We MUST wean ourselves off of oil and other fossil fuels, and find new sustainable sources of energy. President Obama has a bill to begin that change, and it should be approved. It does not do nearly enough, but at least it is a start.

The focus on energy has recently been aimed at slowing global climate change, and that is an important thing that must be addressed. But the coming depletion of the world's liquid fuels will be equally devastating, if not more so. Fortunately, both problems can be solved with the same solution -- development and use of new renewable and sustaining energy sources.

But we are running out of time to solve both problems. I am left to wonder, do the governments in the world have the ability to set aside their differences and find a solution, or will they continue on their current course and allow the coming mega-disasters to happen. Right now, it looks like the latter.

Bush Playing Politics With Oil

Bush continues to play politics with the high price of gasoline. He has now lifted presidential restrictions on off-shore drilling for new oil. In that way, he's trying to get the American public to believe that high gas prices are the fault of Democrats because they won't allow new off-shore drilling.

Bush says the new drilling he is proposing would cure a "shortage" of oil in the long-term, and the psychology of the new drilling would result in a short-term drop in prices. Of course, this is pure horse-hockey. The big oil companies are not about to give up their record profits because of the "psychology" of some new oil leases, especially since they already have 68 million acres of leases they have not drilled in yet.

Democrats have asked the president to release some of America's strategic oil reserves to correct the perceived shortage. Bush has refused to dip into the oil reserves. Why? Because he knows there are no real shortages. It's just a game being played by his oilmen buddies to keep making their record-breaking profits.

Even those who admit there is currently plenty of oil want to play the "shortage" game. They claim the shortage is in gasoline because the U.S. doesn't have enough refining capacity to meet the demand in this country. This is also a lie.

The truth is that plenty of gasoline is being produced, but record amounts of diesel and gasoline are being EXPORTED from the United States to other countries at record levels. Gasoline exports to just one country (Canada) has jumped from 9,000 barrels in 2007 to 41,000 barrels in the first four months of this year.

Just look at gasoline exports for one month this year. During April, big oil exported an average of 202,000 barrels of gasoline each day from the United States to other countries. In April of 2007, 116,000 barrels a day were exported. If there is a shortage of gasoline (or oil), then why are we exporting so much to other countries?

For the first four months of this year, exports of American refined petroluem products (diesel, gasoline, etc.) were up 33% to about 1.6 million barrels each day. At the same time oil companies are complaining about a shortage of refining capacity, they are shipping huge quantities out of the country.

The truth is that if these exports were outlawed, there would be plenty of gas here and the price would fall so they could sell it all. But Bush is not about to do that. That would lower the oil company profits from obscene to merely outrageous. He wouldn't do that to his oil buddies.

So don't let the Republicans tell you the gas prices are high because Democrats won't allow off-shore drilling. The prices are high because the oil companies have created a false shortage by shipping our gas to the highest bidders in other countries. That's why they're getting record windfall profits even though the price of oil has risen.

These are multi-mational companies who care nothing about the American consumer. Bush and Cheney (and McCain) don't care either.

(Hat tip to M YU of Social Seppuku for the article on petroleum exports).

Drilling Won't Make Us Energy Independent

After the mess the Bush administration has made of our economy, it seems like Bush thinks he can still lie to the American people and get away with it. The price of gas is now spiraling out of control. It's already over $4.00 a gallon, and it looks like it might rise to $6.00 or $7.00 a gallon before much can be done about it. But Bush (and his elderly protege, Sidney McCain) claim they have a simple solution.

Bush and McCain say all we have to do to lower the price of gasoline is let the big oil companies drill for oil in our pristine wilderness areas (ANWR) and offshore of some of our most beautiful and popular beach areas. They would have us believe that as soon as the drilling starts, the price of gasoline will magically begin to fall. What a load of crap!

The new proposed drilling would fatten the wallets of Bush and Cheney's corporate oil buddies, but it would do nothing to bring down the price of gasoline. As McBlogger tells us, it would take nearly 10 years for that new oil to get to market. In addition, there's simply not enough of it there to make much of a dent in the oil market.

There are a few other things to consider before buying into the silly argument that we can drill our way out of this mess. First, one of the most successful of all oilmen, T. Boone Pickens, says it can't be done. He says there's simply not enough oil there to drill our way to energy independence.

Second, the chances are much greater of ruining our wilderness and beaches than of finding enough oil in those areas to affect the price of gasoline.

Third, there are already 68 million acres of land and water where oil companies currently hold leases, but have not drilled. Shouldn't these areas be tapped first?

Fourth, a significant portion of the oil that is produced in this country is being shipped to foreign countries. What guarantee do we have that the oil companies won't do the same with any new oil found in America? The big oil companies are multi-nationals. They're not trying to make us energy-independent. They're only interested in record profits.

The truth is that there's only one thing that will bring down the price of gasoline -- a significant drop in demand for it. As long as our only alternative to power our vehicles is gasoline (and those vehicles use that gas inefficiently), the price will continue to rise.

It is time for the United States to adopt a reasonable energy policy -- something that has been non-existent in the last eight years. Part of that policy should be to significantly lower the vehicular demand for gasoline.

We must raise the fuel efficiency of all gasoline powered vehicles and produce more hybrid vehicles. We should also run more of our vehicles on natural gas and biofuels (that are NOT made from food products such as corn). We should also hasten the development and production of electric and hydrogen vehicles.

If we were to stop playing around with these ideas and get serious about them, we could greatly reduce the demand for gasoline in just a few years. Then the prices would come down. The more that we don't need gasoline, the lower the price will be.

But the idea that we can drill our way to energy independence is just another Republican lie.