A Sea in Flames - Carl Safina [78]
But the laws that would be brought to bear generally don’t have felony provisions that would lead to jail time for executives, and where they do, prosecutors would have to directly connect a defendant with a crime.
On Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats Henry Waxman and Ed Markey blast the heads of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and Shell Oil for producing “virtually identical” disaster response plans. All discuss how to protect those famous walruses in the Gulf of Mexico. The congressmen excoriate the oil titans’ “cookie-cutter plans,” citing sections that have “the exact same words,” indicating an investment of “zero time and money.”
It will turn out that five giant oil companies all got their response plans from the same tiny Texas contractor. The firms all assured the government that they could handle oil spills much larger than the one now threatening the region’s environment and economy. And each time, the Minerals Management Service approved the plan and gave the go-ahead for drilling.
In its exploration plans for Alaska, Shell has analyzed the prospect of only a 2,000-gallon diesel fuel spill. It asserted that a larger crude oil spill would be unlikely because the water is shallow. The Minerals Management Service skimmed up this assumption without questioning it. Shell is relying on a single company based about three hundred miles from its intended Chukchi Sea drilling sites. Anything goes wrong there, Shell would have available only a tiny fraction of the resources BP called up in the Gulf.
Big ol’ jet airliner. I doze, then rouse. That’s Sandy Hook, New Jersey. I glance at the ocean and reflexively look for streaks of oil. The stain in my brain.
On Long Island, when an egret flies over my house, I absentmindedly check it for signs of oil, as has become my habit. At our local marina, they’re talking the Oil. At the beach, it’s sun lotion and the Oil. It sticks to everyone’s minds. Follows everywhere. You can’t wash your thoughts of it.
At the marina’s outdoor bar, the loud ones blame environmentalists. (That’s what their favorite broadcasters have told them to say.) “There’s no reason not to get the oil that’s in Alaska.” “Because they won’t let them.” “It’s the enviros.” “The enviros pushed them to this; BP was pushed into this by the enviros.” “Big guvvamint.” “Can’t do nuthin’ anymore.”
In his first and much-anticipated address to our nation from the Oval Office, President Obama called for a new “national mission” to wean the United States off fossil fuels. “The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now. Now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to unleash American innovation and seize control of our own destiny.”
Perfect!
But why isn’t Obama throwing all his weight behind the new energy bill unveiled by Senators John Kerry and Joe Lieberman? Because the Kerry-Lieberman bill includes fees on carbon emissions, and the White House is afraid Republicans will ride the slogan “carbon tax” to multiple victories at the midterm elections.
It’s hard to see how America can accomplish anything as long as two parties locked in a death battle can’t see past two-year congressional cycles. But I think Obama should press it, because he will never win his opponents over, but by not acting boldly he is losing the enthusiasm of his supporters.
Thomas Friedman had written that this is not Obama’s Hurricane Katrina; it’s his 9/11—one of those rare seismic opportunities to energize the country to do something really important that is too hard to do in normal times. But as Bush blew 9/11’s possibilities, Obama is blowing this blowout. To Americans wanting