Deepwater Horizon Two Years Later

Two years ago this month the Deepwater Horizon oilrig exploded and killed eleven men working on the rig. The ensuing oil spill dumped about 200 million gallons of oil into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, as estimated by a team of government scientists.

            It is no surprise that some of the latest news gives us some idea of the damage to the environment that lingers in the gulf and will probably continue for some time. Lots of dolphins are showing health problems from the oil, and corals that are usually unaffected by similar spills are showing signs of degradation.

            What is also unsurprising, at least when one’s cynicism is fully functioning, is that so little reform has been performed in the wake of this disaster. Now, don’t get me wrong. Government and industry have made some efforts. But a governmental commission formed to look into the Deepwater disaster issued 15 policy and regulation recommendations over a year ago that are crafted to avoid a similar and subsequent disaster, and no meaningful action has been accomplished on these recommendations. The commission recently reunited because of their concerns over this lack of progress. William Reilly, one of the co-chairs of the commission said, “The commissioners have become increasingly concerned that efforts to implement the recommendations are ebbing in spite of all that still needs to be done.”

            The Senate, with bipartisan support passed a key provision of the commission’s recommendations, that monies from BP’s fines for the disaster be directed toward ecosystem restoration. Known as the RESTORE act, the Senate passed the bill as part of a spending bill, but the House, just last week, stripped the RESTORE act from their stopgap spending bill.

            After the Exxon Valdez despoiled hundreds of miles of Alaska coastline in 1989, Congress passed legislation requiring double hulls on tankers. Later efforts by Newt Gingrich and his contract with America failed to repeal this legislation. The law stands, and currently almost all tankers in American waters are double hulled.

            I hope I’m wrong, but I’m afraid that in the last 20 years our abilities to confront our problems have been seriously blunted. The Deepwater commission can reunite, make a firm stand for reform, and no doubt there may be some speeches and a few bills introduced into Congress, but somewhere, somehow the legislation will be shelved or the needed monies will be held back, and we can wait for the next disaster.