THE FOSSIL FUEL FRENZY OF THE 21st CENTURY

Year in Review March 31, 2014

THE FOSSIL FUEL FRENZY OF THE 21st CENTURY

PART 1

Today’s fossil fuel frenzy in America is out of control. It matters not that a recent climate study report indicates a much more rapid and dangerous rate of change of our global climate than was predicted just several years ago. This report portends catastrophic consequences for our world’s habitability. Our governments continue to permit our atmosphere and our land and water to be poisoned by the by-products of fossil fuel extraction and use. It is business as usual with almost no concern for the implications of our reliance on fossil fuels. Many of our federal and state governmental elected and appointed officials have pretty much become captives of the big energy producers

The American Association for the Advancement of Science released the newest alarming report. The AAAS, a group of over 121,000 scientists who are independent from the energy industry, concluded that if something is not done immediately, our world will likely be unfit to live in within this century. Sea level is predicted to rise over 20 feet, threatening to devastate coastal areas around the world. Temperature levels will increase by several degrees, causing droughts, severe weather patterns, and extinction of many forms of plant and animal life.

The conclusion of the AAAS report states that these changes are clearly the result of human behavior-namely the emitting of millions of tons of various gases and pollutants into the atmosphere. The energy industry has countered most claims by financing and promoting their ‘scientists’ to dispute that the predicted severe climate changes are caused solely by human activity and the use of fossil fuel.

The risks are so great to our planet that we have to decide whether we allow policies to be driven by the energy producers or by those who favor an approach to address this challenge in a serious way. To bring about change will require a full-scale effort to take on probably what is the biggest and most powerful industrial group outside of the financial behemoths.

Changing the present fossil fuel policy will be difficult. The estimated value of the world’s oil, natural gas, and coal reserves exceeds over 20 trillion dollars. To address the severe climate changes we are facing, fossil fuels will have to be phased out. As one commentator put it, “You can have a relatively healthy fossil fuel balance sheet or a healthy planet. But, you can’t have both.”  Moving away from the use of fossil fuels is a no brainer.

We have reached the point that demands that we can no longer tolerate the governmental impotency and its acquiescence to the fossil fuel industry. We have to stop the corporate welfare to the fossil fuel producers like the Chevrons and Exxons. We have to halt this insane and irresponsible tolerance of unregulated behavior of the oil industry producers and brokers. We have to impose carbon taxes, limits on carbon emissions, and other negative incentives to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. And, we have to provide real economic support to those who wish to develop sustainable energy solutions.

When put into a perspective, the dangers of our present use of fossil fuels are enormous. People cannot see how destructive the release of millions of tons of poisonous gases is to our atmosphere. But people do see and communities are experiencing how local environments are being destroyed.  Those who produce, transport, and store the fossil fuels and the toxic by products are destroying our environment, placing in jeopardy our water supplies, and harming human life.

The 21st Century has seen the emergence of America as one of the world’s largest natural gas producers. It is interesting to recall that John McCain’s “Drill, Drill, Drill” push during his 2008 presidential bid is rarely echoed today. The classic argument then was that America needed to produce its own energy to protect our national security and to lower the cost of gasoline and related energy products. Today, America is a net energy exporter. We do not have a policy of preserving these supposedly important energy resources. Nor has our cost of gasoline and other fuels decreased. The simple explanation is that energy is priced on the world market. America’s energy production is exported and traded in the world energy markets. The energy producers would fight tooth and nail if the US tried to retain its resources, rather than exporting them, even though exporting is not necessarily in America’s best national security interests.

Severe and catastrophic climate change, national security, and energy prices are not the only concerns that should trouble Americans. Across the country communities are being torn apart by fracking, storage tank leaks, pipeline breaks, derailments of trains carrying toxic fuels, cargo ship accidents, mountain top coal mining, and dangerous drilling efforts. The use of toxic chemicals to extract fossil fuels threatens our water supplies and the health of our citizens.

The energy industry uses its wealth and power to control federal and state policies, thus avoiding responsibility for what too often is unacceptable corporate behavior. The policies promoted by the energy industry invariably result in deregulation, in emasculating whatever regulations may be passed, in reducing budgets of enforcing agencies of the regulations that still exist, and in failing to criminally prosecute wrongdoers. And, these companies resist efforts to pay for the damage to the environment and to the communities that are harmed by the corporate behavior.

Twenty five years ago the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Prince William Sound’s pristine waters, causing the biggest oil spill in American history. The 11 million gallons of crude spread over 11,000 miles. Alaska and the Federal government had not enforced its regulatory provisions. Exxon had not repaired radar systems on its boats, had laid off first responders, and its containment boom barges were out of commission. The Valdez incident was a fiasco.

This was a wake up call about the dangers inherent in the transportation of oil, especially in environmentally sensitive areas. Exxon fought the imposition of civil penalties and civil damage suits. The town of Cordova and 1300 miles of coastline were devastated by the spill. It would take 20 years for lawsuits to be settled. Cordova residents suffered irreparable harm. Livelihoods were devastated. The environment has only partially recovered.

Three years ago the BP deep well Horizon blew up in the Gulf off of Louisiana. The well blew because BP didn’t want to spend $500,000.00 for parts to secure the integrity of its deep water well. The damages were beyond the hundreds of millions. Like in Alaska, families, wildlife, and the environment were devastated. BP, like Exxon, was ill prepared to respond, although it represented to the agencies approving drilling permits that it was capable of responding to oil spills. These representations were lies. Their crisis response documents were actually plagiarized from submissions made by other companies for other permits. And, most appalling was that 11 workers were killed. No criminal charges were filed over the loss of life. Ironically, BP, after having its right to bid on new deep water drilling leases, recently applied for and in March was granted permission by the EPA to bid on new drilling leases and contracts.

Halliburton, the company that subcontracted with BP to do drilling related tasks, pled guilty to the criminal charge of destroying evidence related to the drilling protocol. No one did any jail time. A paltry fine of $200,000.00 was imposed. Halliburton takes in that amount of money in 5 minutes.

Spills of one kind or another frequently occur. Within the two weeks, an oil transport barge crashed with another vessel in the Houston Shipping Channel. Close to 200,000 gallons of crude spilled into the Galveston Bay and has since spread 12 miles off shore into the Gulf. Not only was this major shipping channel closed for several days, but the spill again threatens environmentally sensitive areas and could have a major impact on migrating birds that traverse this area. And, of course, the spill will harm those who earn livelihoods in the fishing industry.

Accidents don’t just occur while drilling in deep waters or when crude is being transported by ship. In 2013 there were more derailments of trains carrying oil and/or toxic chemicals than there were in the previous 30 years.

On January 31, 2014 a train carrying ethanol based products derailed in New Augusta, Mississippi. Fifty residents were evacuated. Five hundred people were ordered to evacuate from their homes in Willard, Ohio, when a CSV Railroad train, carrying highly flammable chemicals, derailed on November 27, 2013.

On January 3, 2014 a train, transporting North Dakota’s Bakken crude, derailed outside of Casselton, North Dakota. Several tanker cars ruptured causing a massive fireball explosion.  Residents were evacuated, but they considered themselves lucky because there would have been significant deaths if the train derailed in the town. This crash was reminiscent of the deadly train derailment in the summer of 2013 in the Quebec town  of Lac-Megantic. The Quebec train also was loaded with Bakken crude, known to be a highly inflammable crude. Fifty people were killed and half the town was leveled.

The increase in train derailments is not surprising. The number of carloads of oil estimated to be carried this year will top 400,000 compared, for example to 2009, in which there were only 11,000 carloads. Common to all of these incidents is the fact that the railroad cars are not being required to meet specific safety standards and regulatory agencies are woefully understaffed and incapable of conducting safety inspections.

Pipelines and storage facilities are another part of the energy transportation infrastructure. The battle over the approval of the Keystone Pipeline is not simply one of whether use of the Alberta tar sands thick crude is one of the worst polluting types of energy. The history of pipeline ruptures is causing concern in most of the communities through which the pipe will pass.

Cleanup continues at the location of the Tesora pipeline rupture in Tioga, North Dakota. Over 865,000 gallons leaked there. In March over 20,000 of crude oil leaked from a broken pipeline, causing significant environmental damage to Glen Oak Nature Preserve, located outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. This Mid-Valley Pipeline runs 1000 miles from Texas to Michigan. The Mid-Valley Pipeline has a long history of leaks over the last decade.

The proponents of the Keystone Pipeline often claim that moving oil through pipelines is safer than by rail. Unfortunately, recent history of a completed portion of the Keystone Pipeline located in North Dakota suggests otherwise. In the first year of the Keystone 1 operation in 2011 there were at least 30 spills.

In 2011 an ExxonMobile Silverton pipeline leak resulted in 42,000 gallons pouring into the Yellowstone River (in Montana) and spreading over 240 miles. Had the Silverton spill occurred in the high capacity Keystone pipeline in North Dakota, over 1, 000,000 gallons of oil would have leaked.

Transporting and storing fossil fuels requires a commitment by the government and the industry. Commitments cost money and require consequences for mishaps. Neither government nor the energy industry demonstrate the political will or sense of responsibility to act in the best interests of the country. Producing and transporting fossil fuels are especially unsafe when regulations are weak and regulatory oversight is thwarted by underfunding and political favoritism. Given the deregulatory environment promoted by the Republicans and acquiesced to by Democrats, the general public and the environment will continue to be victimized.

We all need to speak up and make our voices heard if we wish to change the political environments in Washington and in State capitals across the country.

Part two will feature the fracking and coal industries, with a small peak at the nuclear power industry.