Ask the Fuel Expert

The word irony – like our oceans – is often abused. A great example of the correct application of the word, however, is “World Oceans Day”. Now already three years old, the first time World Oceans Day received any attention was right after the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. How’s that for irony?

Eight years before the giant oil spill started blackening the once stunning blue waters in the Gulf, the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro heard a proposal for World Oceans Day set forth by the government of Canada. Since its adoption in 2002, all manner of annual celebrations have been held at aquariums, zoos and museums, within conservation groups, universities, schools and businesses. Every year more people, organizations and countries mark June 8th as World Oceans Day, but it has by no means been global.

In the US the day came and went quietly except for a few media mentions citing the coincidence of its timing with the torrents of crude oil gushing from BP’s ruptured well-head, damaged on April 20, 2010 when a massive floating drilling rig caught fire and sank.

Moby Dick-esque lessons of the sea are back in vogue twinning the forces of the ocean and the oil spill as powers too great for man to control. As successive attempts to contain the well fail, the oil continues to poison animals, foul the waters and stain the beaches of the Alabama, Mississippi and Florida coasts. Meanwhile the federal government seems to be powerless to control the oil spill and some of the blame lies with lack of proper oversight by the Mineral Management Service by the Department of Energy.

There have been some other head-shakers. Two shocking bits of legislation became apparent after the oil started spilling. The first was the cap and trade measure now before the US Senate to scale back environmental laws because the cost might be too burdensome to companies and consumers. Incredibly, the bill was introduced by well-known Massachusetts Democrat, Senator John Kerry and co-sponsored by Joseph Lieberman (I-CT).

The next concerned a 34-year old piece of legislation in Canada requiring secondary wells be drilled on all offshore deep sea oil drilling. Oil companies are required to drill relief wells from the outset of operations. BP fought to have this provision dropped just a month prior to the Gulf oil well blow out.

So when BP announced their novel idea of drilling two secondary wells adjacent to the out of control well in the Gulf, Canadians were smugly satisfied Canadian coast would be clear. We now learn that Canada exempted some of the oil companies from this requirement in 2007 bowing to pressure from Newfoundland and offshore drilling companies. Even when we know what is the right thing to do, and carve it in stone; we still did not require that them to obey regulations by granting exemptions.

A new found concern for environment, once so popular and now almost out of fashion, will be required with the Gulf Oil Spill and others waiting to happen proving that environment does not stop at national borders and is shared globally.

To escape the environmental requirements, of pesky new federal governmental rules, oil exploration and drilling for oil wells will be situated just outside of territorial waters – in international waters. How international waters will be governed to ensure the same catastrophes are not repeated due to lack of oversight will be the something for which a United Nation treaty may be needed in order to hold users accountable for use of our global green spaces.

For the US the oil blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is a catastrophe of unfathomable proportions and maybe the single biggest environmental disaster in our country’s history. It has already had a drastic effect on the lives and potential livelihoods of the thousands of people living along the Gulf Coast.

It also affects endangered sea turtles and blue fin tuna that go from the open Atlantic Ocean into the Gulf to breed. Millions of birds winter in the Gulf or come flying across the Gulf from South America on their way to northern breeding grounds all the way up the East coast and across Canada, even as far as Greenland. This disaster is not just a regional problem for the Gulf or people living by the Gulf.

Any major event happening this summer like a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico or a war in any region of the world will have the inevitable affect of increasing prices we pay for gasoline at the pump.

The well spilling oil will eventually be capped and exploration and production of crude oil will continue. It may not be in the domestic waters from the US shores but for the next generation we are still going to be reliant on fossil fuels for most of our energy use.

Meanwhile the world and public at large is finally catching on to the idea of an international environment and it’s time to address how we manage to protect and control what is done to it.

Bob van der Valk
"Fuel Talk with van der Valk"
Terry, Montana, USA