Radio
Ecoshock Show May 7th, 2010 � A Special on the Gulf of Mexico oil
disaster.
Black
oil, millions of years old, gushes out of a gash in the Gulf of Mexico.� One of the world's largest companies, BP,
formerly British Petroleum says it's 1,000 barrels a day, then 5,000.� Satellite
photos suggest 25,000 a day.� In a
closed session of Congress, BP
admits they don't know - it could be 40 to 60,000.� The Governor of Louisiana prepares for
100,000 barrels.� The "spill"
is really a man-made underwater volcano of oil.
I'm Alex
Smith.� This accident taps a primeval
fear in the human mind.� Something dark
and uncontrollable rushes out of the Earth, poisoning the global oceans.� Could that really happen?
Madness
ensures.� Right-wing radio's Rush
Limbaugh suggests the giant rig Deepwater Horizon was bombed by
environmentalists.� Others say a
North Korean submarine did it.
During
two administrations, BP lulled regulators to sleep, with assurances and
campaign contributions.� All that dirt
will leak out too.
Meanwhile,
20,000 feet below the Gulf Waters, the giant Macondo field spurts out a
relentless wave of fossil carbon, suspected to equal a new Exxon Valdez spill,
every three days.
So many
victims, so many tales to tell.�
In this
Radio Ecoshock report you'll hear from the activists who knew this was
coming.�
* Riki Ott, marine biologist, fisherwoman, and
the conscience of Valdez, Alaska, checks in from New Orleans.
* Antonia Juhasz, oil researcher
from Global Exchange, introduces us to BP - and it's lobby in Washington.� Antonia wrote "The Tyranny of Oil: The
World's Most Powerful Industry � and What We Must Do To Stop It."
* Peak
Oil guru Richard Heinberg looks
at the big picture impact.� His famous
books are "The Party's Over," "Peak Everything," and
"Blackout".� Richard is a
founder of the Post Carbon Institute.
* And former
Shell Oil executive Anita Burke
finds the inside track, and the real culprits.�
We'll end
with a new song, "Corporate Catastrophe", written about the spill by
Dana Pearson, and heard first on your Radio Ecoshock.
READ MORE
From New
Orleans, we are joined by Dr. Riki Ott, marine biologist and former commercial
fisherperson in Alaska.� She was among
the first to see the Exxon Valdez tanker slick, became a leading activist, and
wrote two books: "Not One Drop � Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill" and "Sound Truth & Corporate Myth$: The
Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill"
A speech by
Riki Ott three years ago was one of my first recordings for Radio
Ecoshock.� Find our Radio Ecoshock
interview with Riki last Fall, 2009�
"HOW COMMUNITIES SURVIVE DISASTER Storms, floods,
earthquake, attack, or employers closing - what are the tools to cope and
recover? Author/activist Riki Ott on lessons learned from Valdez spill."
(Ecoshock 091002 here.)
Riki is
simply amazing.� She has the science
smarts to interpret the studies.� She's
researched all the chemicals - and listen closely as she describes the risks of
dispersants now being pumped into the Gulf of Mexico at record rates.� Even the New York Times admits this may
be one of the largest chemical experiments on the Earth in history.� BP is not only blowing tons of dispersants
into the flow coming from the "leak" - but also using bombers from
the air to spread these hazardous chemicals over the surface Gulf waters.� We don't know the result, but we know it
can't be good for the fish, marine mammals, and crabs at the bottom.
Riki Ott
had already been on CNN several times, as an expert in oil disasters, when I
reached her in New Orleans.� She was
heading out to the coast.� As a former
fisherwoman herself, she could relate to the worried Gulf fishers.� And one of Riki's main points, in her second
book "Not One Drop" is that communities have to self-organize -
because big government, and certainly big oil companies, never do come through
with the help that is really needed.�
It all gets tied up in bureaucracy and lawsuits for years.� Meanwhile, local communities and people
suffer grievous hits.� Just the
psychological damage is traumatizing.�
Marriages break up, people go broke, people get depressed.� Suicide rates go up.� Only self-organizing and listening groups
can help heal the lasting damage from one of these mega-spills.
Antonia
Juhasz, is the author of The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry
� and What We Must Do To Stop It (HarperCollins, 2008).� She is director of the Chevron Program at Global
Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization.�
In
the Guardian newspaper's Sunday Observer, May 2nd 2010, Antonia Juhasz
writes "BP spends millions lobbying as it drills ever deeper and the
environment pays" subtitle "The oil major BP spends aggressively to
influence US regulatory insight, and many would argue this has bought it
leniency."
"BP
is one of the most powerful corporations operating in the United States. Its
2009 revenues of $327bn are enough to rank BP as the third-largest corporation
in the country. It spends aggressively to influence US policy and regulatory
oversight.
In 2009,
the company spent nearly $16m on lobbying the federal government, ranking it
among the 20 highest spenders that year, and shattering its own previous record
of $10.4m set in 2008. In 2008, it also spent more than $530,000 on federal
elections, placing it among the oil industry's top 10 political spenders."
This is a
company larger than many governments, and it's a big player in the American
government.
What can
I say about Richard
Heinberg?� He's almost the spirit
behind the Peak Oil movement, and a trenchant energy analyst.� Richard publishes regularly at
energybulletin.com, and has a monthly newsletter called "Museletter" with tons of
subscribers, including me.
We last
interviewed Richard for Radio Ecoshock on his new book "Blackout: Coal,
Climate Change, and the Last Energy Crisis." in the September 11th, 2009
program.� Find that in our archive.
Heinberg's
been a leader calling for a planned transition away from fossil fuels.�
In his latest book, "Searching for a Miracle: �Net Energy� Limits
and the Fate of Industrial Society," Richard Heinberg examines 18 energy
sources by their �net energy� and nine other criteria. It is published jointly
by Post Carbon Institute and International Forum on Globalization.� Find out more at richardheinberg.com and postcarbon.org.
In this interview
we look at this Gulf gusher as a historic event in fossil fuel history.� How far could the slick spread?� (The "Loop Current" will likely
take parts of the slick around the coast of Florida, past the Keys, to the East
coast beaches and estuaries, possibly as far North as Virginia, carried by the
Gulf Stream.)� Will this accident dampen
the rush to deepwater drilling?� What
will the big picture impacts be?�
Richard Heinberg has been right so often, for so long, he's the man to
ask.
If only
we could hear from an industry insider, willing to speak out.� We can.�
In the 1990's, Anita Burke was Executive Vice President, head of Climate
Change and Sustainability Strategies, world-wide, for Shell International.� She left to found the Catalyst Institute.� Anita has become a strong spokeswoman on
Peak Oil and climate change.� I last
heard her speak the first De-Growth Conference in North America, on April 30th
in Vancouver.
We
featured a speech by Anita Burke, from the Resilient Cities Conference, in our
Radio Ecoshock Show for October 23, 2010.
Here
is the way this new interview went, with a very abbreviated summary of her responses.
Before I
began, Anita was already moved by this developing disaster:
"I just finally have had a chance to really look at some of the media about the spill events.� And wow! I didn't realize I was going to be so triggered, from my experiences with the Exxon Valdez.� I have to say, I just watched the video of the meeting with the fishermen, with the BP reps, and I had the most bizarre experience, Alex.�
It was
like I was seeing the same exact meeting we have with the Exxon Valdez, laid on
top of this meeting.� They are
identical."
I added
that I had just seen President Obama make the same promises, almost in the same
words, that the federal government would be there, with whatever it takes, for
as long as it takes.� As fate would have
it, I had just seen an episode of "Treme", the new TV show about
Katrina, where Bush was seen on TV making those promises, which were not kept.
Burke
says it is very, very difficult to set up such a huge relief and cleanup
operation, in just a few days.� It's
like setting up a new multinational company, in days.� There are a lot of things like contracts, payments, and so on,
that do take time.
I then
took up these questions:
1. As a
person with deep insider experience in the oil industry, do you think the
costs, and public anger, could endanger BP as company?
Doubtful.� Burke points out that the big oil companies
are also their own insurers.� So they
keep some reserves for liabilities and accidents.� Besides, with their huge profits, and their own oil, the company
can likely handle a big payout.
I note
that there is a U.S. law which limits the liability of any one platform
accident to $75 million.� This may be
used by BP, once the furor dies down.�
Also, the carefully worded company statements point toward Transoceanic,
the operator of the rig, as partially liable.�
Others have suggested equipment supplier Halliburton may be drawn into
law suits and payments as well.
Burke
says BP has a whole floor of high-priced lawyers to take protect the company.
Texas oil
analyst Matt Simmons has also questioned whether BP can survive this blowout,
saying they will have to pay to restore the entire Gulf of Mexico.
My personal opinion is the U.S. taxpayer, ranging from the federal government through state and local governments, will end up paying for a lot of compensation, unemployment, and cleanup costs.� We'll see.
Canadian
news sources find about $14 billion in projected costs, so far, not counting
any legal fees and damages from the inevitable wave of civil lawsuits.
2. Put
yourself in those BP executive offices.�
What might they do to spin this, as damage control?
Anita
responded there is no way to spin this.�
From her previous experience sitting at the table with BP, and given
their recent efforts to appear "green" and responsible (renaming
themselves "Beyond Petroleum") - the company, she thinks, will
probably do the right thing, struggling to cap the leak, and pay at least some
of the clean-up costs.
Of course, we know that was not the experience with Exxon, after the Valdez spill.� Exxon fought off the damages to fishermen and others, going all the way to the Supreme Court to cut down the awards (and not paying for years).� Already BP executives are pointing the finger at Transocean, the company hired to run the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform.� Others are blaming Halliburton, Cheney�s old company, who had just set the cement on the well head, hours before the blowout.
3. If the
public demands an end to deep water drilling, or at least stiff regulations, how
will that impact our future oil supplies?�
Could it hasten the end of the oil age?
Anita
notes that deepwater drilling might only extend our oil supply by a year, or
even just six months.� It's an extreme
measure.� Too bad the same money and
energy doesn't go into developing clean alternative energy.
4. Both
BP and the government have publicly worried, that sand coming up with the
oil could cut through the pipes and the well head.� What are they talking about, and what could
that do?
[For
example, I found this quote in the press somewhere...""BP Plc
executive Doug Suttles said Thursday the company was worried about
"erosion" of the pipe at the wellhead.
Sand is
an integral part of the formations that hold oil under the Gulf. That sand,
carried in the oil as it shoots through the piping, is blamed for the ongoing
erosion described by BP.
"The
pipe could disintegrate. You've got sand getting into the pipe, it's eroding
the pipe all the time, like a sandblaster," said Ron Gouget, a former oil
spill response coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration."]
5. Anita,
suppose BP's efforts to cover the leak with a big dome don't work.� And it takes 3 months or more to get a
relief well in place - which also may not work.� Is it possible the whole reservoir could empty out into the
Gulf?� Do we know how much is down
there?
Burke
is more optimistic than I am.� She things BP may
plug the main leak within two weeks, and will drill a relief well within three
months or less.� She thinks the industry
will find a solution, so the gusher will be capped off.� Burke thinks it may be necessary to place an
explosive charge in the well, to seal it off.
6.
Richard Heinberg suggests this gusher may be a turning point for the oil
industry.� And yet everyone listening to
news from the Gulf, still plans to drive their car.� We're all still wearing and buying oil-based products.� How can we get off this fossil merry-go-round,
before we lose civilization?
Start off
by getting rid of your car, Burke says.�
We need to start replacing everything made with petroleum with other
materials.
7. What
have I missed, - is there a message you would like to leave with our listeners?
As
someone formerly from the industry, Anita pleads with us not to take a hostile
position toward BP and the workers trying to solve this problem.� We need them to perform their best, to save
the Gulf.� We should also have more
feeling for the eleven people who lost their lives - thinking of their
sacrifice as we "drive to the corner store for a bottle of
coke."� We should all take
responsibility for this spill, as we all demand the oil as part of our daily
lives.� An interesting take.
Anita
Burke, I was inspired by your speech at the Vancouver De-Growth Conference last
Friday, and we'll get that out to Radio Ecoshock listeners as well.� Thank you so much for speaking with us
today.
Here are
is just a spoonful from the Net.� Jason
Leopold at truthout.org reports on a whistleblower, a former oil contractor,
claiming BP broke the law and it's own procedures, as did in the deadly 2005
Texas City oil refinery explosion.�
Another corporate accident waiting to happen, perhaps on BP's other
giant deepwater platform, Atlantis.�
Excellent investigative journalism - check
it out.
Last
week's Ecoshock guest Nikolas Kozloff has blistering blog entries on the spill
at his blog at nikolaskozloff.com.� The black history of BP, and it's cozy
relationship with U.S. regulators.
The
Mississippi Sierra Club labels the Deepwater Horizon oil spill "America's
Chernobyl".� Others "the oil
volcano", or even Oilapocalpyse.
Find
active discussion threads in the "Drum Beat" postings at theoildrum.com, and the dailykos.com.� More continuing Gulf spill coverage at GulfLive.com, and maps at skytruth.org.� The Alabama viewpoint from al.com, where for example, Ben Raines
tells us a
leaked Coast Guard memo fears the Deepwater site could release even
millions of gallons a day, into the Gulf.�
There are tens of millions of barrels of oil and gas in this deposit,
under high pressure, miles deep under the crust, now coming up.
In the
UK, the
Times newspaper reveals BP knew of problems with the blowout preventer ten
years ago, when it was installed.� Operator
Transocean admitted the preventer did "not work" properly on another
rig, the Discoverer Enterprise.
Other
experts question faults in the cement work around the well head, performed by
Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton.
Earlier
in April, a team of scientists led by Daniel Esler, from Simon Fraser
University, published a paper showing wildlife
is still exposed to Exxon oil, 20 years after that great tanker
disaster.� As Riki Ott has documented in
her books, oil on the beaches and tidewaters can never be cleaned up.
If you
want academic research into this problem, the Texas A&M study on handling
deepwater blowouts is here.
It�s
title: "Development of a Blowout Intervention Method and Dynamic Kill
Simulator for Blowouts Occurring in Ultra-Deepwater."
The dispersants
loaded into the deep ocean, and air-dropped on to the surface, may make the
Gulf of Mexico history's largest chemical experiment.� No one knows the harm coming.
Everyone,
even the harshest oil critics, hope, or pray, the BP jerry-rigged containment
dome can seal off the very worst.� Then
we can go on as usual, wrecking the climate and the seas.
Except,
the very worst has already happened.�
Perhaps ocean oil drilling around the world is an endangered species.
A
self-described aging hippy/songwriter/futurist from Oakland, California - Dana
Pearson, like many of us, was struck down by the magnitude of the Gulf gusher,
and our foolishness.� While working for
the Government Accounting Office, Pearson found green solutions a generation
ago.� Now he's welded oil anguish into a
song for the spill, with it's world premiere on Radio Ecoshock.� Here is Dana Pearson, with Corporate Catastrophe.
Dana is
an Ecoshock listener, who sent this song along.� He slaved through a couple of nights, recording his passionate
reaction to this ocean tragedy.� I
appreciate his talent, and his sharing with our listeners.� Thanks Dana!
Alex
Smith