Oil Rig Disaster in Gulf of Mexico Should Cast Doubt on Offshore Drilling this Earth Day!

The oil rig explosion Tuesday night, and fire that continues burning 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana is a tragedy.  Several workers are in critical condition and 11 are still unaccounted for.  The environmental effects of the disaster are not yet known and may not be known for some time.   The rig, named the Deepwater Horizon, is owned by Transocean Inc. and was  being leased to BP.  According to the Transocean website, the Deepwater Horizon is 396 feet long and 256 feet wide and was sitting in 5,000 feet of water at the time of the explosion.  It made the record books last September when it drilled down more than 35,000 feet at another BP site in the Gulf of Mexico.  This event should cast doubt on President Obama’s plan to allow more offshore drilling along the US coastline.  The depths to which rigs must now burrough to in order to tap dwindling oil reserves means we are entering new territory regarding the risks associated with offshore drilling. 

 In the meantime, Transocean and other oil industry officials assure us that such explosions are rare citing an explosion in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1988.  But while big explosions may be rare, fires, leaks, injuries and deaths are not.  Remember the giant fire and resulting 10-week oil leek off the coast of Australia in November of 2009 where 400 barrels of oil a day oozed into the ocean the during this  time period?  Or what about the 18 workers that were killed and the resulting oil and gas leak when a drilling rig of the state-owned oil company Petreolas Mexicanos hit an oil platform in stormy weather in the Gulf of Mexico in July of  2009?  And the list goes on.

 The Deepwater Horizon would cost $600-700 million to replace today and that is just for the rig itself.  The cost of finding dwindling oil reserves are signigcantly higher. Just think were we would be right now if these kind of financial resources were spent on renewable energy,  wave, tidal and ocean thermal energy to be exact.   The truth is, geologists don’t really know what the impact of deep ocean drilling will be.  We know that concern has been expressed regarding drilling large geothermal projects on land.
This Earth Day, reflect on what the country’s priorities should be regarding energy security, environmental protection and sustainable development. Get involved.  Lets end our addiction to oil. Go Ocean Power!

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Posted by admin on Apr 22 2010. Filed under Ocean Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.