Recent disasters with the collection of fossil fuels have been devastating. The Upper Big Branch Mine disaster in West Virginia that occurred on April 5th, 2010 and even more recently the BP Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill that started April 20th and is still very much happening. The mining explosion killed twenty-nine miners 1,000 feet underground. The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, off the coast of Louisiana caused a huge fire and then sank into the ocean. Eleven peoples were killed and seventeen are injured. The BP oil spill is still occurring. They do not know for sure how much oil is leaking into the ocean but it is estimated to be between 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) to 25,000 barrels (1,100,000 gallons) of crude oil daily. The impacts of this leak can be catastrophic, environmentally, economically, and socially. Today the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) closed commercial and recreational fishing from Louisiana to parts of the Florida Panhandle…the closure begins immediately and will last for at least 10 days.” This affects all Gulf Coast Communities. Fishing is a huge source of the economy, this also affects the tourism revenue as we move into the summer.
The news is flooded with reports about the spill regarding the environmental and economic impacts. My argument is that there needs to much stricter regulations, and even more importantly, stricter enforcement with real consequences for fossil fuel extractment. This includes coal mining and off-shore oil drilling. The explosion at Upper Big Branch Mine, Massey Energy’s coal mine is an example of the power of corporations and how regulation needs to be much more rigorous. “In 2009, the company, Massey Energy, was fined a total of $382,000 for ‘serious’ unrepentant violations for lacking ventilation and proper equipment plans as well as failing to utilize its safety plan properly. Three workers have been killed there in the past 12 years. Federal inspectors have fined the company more than $380,000 over the past year for repeated violations over the ventilation of the mine to prevent the buildup of the methane gas believed to be responsible for the latest accident. The authorities cited the mine for 57 safety infractions last month alone.” Their record "is a sign that they are not fixing their safety problems," said Celeste Monforton, a former senior official at the Mine Safety and Health Administration. It is n
ot unusual for a mine to receive a substantial number of citations, she said, but the recent violations involving the mine's ventilation system "are a red flag. It's a signal that something is not right there, something is going wrong at that mine." There were all these red flags and still the mine was left in operation. The fact that it is not unusual for a mine to receive a substantial number of citations is part of the issue in itself. These are highly caustic environments were everything needs to be done to the letter of the law.
An Associated Press report details the many errors, failures, safety incident and such that Deepwater Horizon oil rig has had. “During its nine years at sea, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig operated by BP suffered a series of spills, fires — even a collision — because of equipment failure, human error and bad weather. It also drilled the world's deepest offshore well.” The list of incidents is too large to reiterate here, it seems to go on and on.
The outcome from the ongoing oil spill disaster will reverberate with the Gulf Coast communities and the entire country for a long while. Perhaps this will influence environmental policy and change the way we approach mining. President Barack Obama made a statement regarding the oil spill. One development is that he stated that “no new offshore drilling leases will be issued until a “thorough review” of the BP-Plc oil-well spill in the Gulf of Mexico determines whether more safety systems are needed.”
These recent catastrophes are not single cases, though they may be extreme and widely publicized. Accidents and dangerous incidents happen on oil rigs and coal mines everywhere. I affirm that we need stronger regulation and much more severe punishment when these mining institutes are not up to code or following proper protocol. This also serves as yet another reason why we need to more to clean, renewable energy such as solar and wind power. Sources that are not volatile and destructive to the environment and human life.
Of course the recent oil spill in the Gulf and the WV mining incident are tragic. It is clear that these companies are acting carelessly and are not behaving with a real concern for their reputation, their employees, or the environment. Something definitely needs to be done to address the reckless practices in the oil industry, but what can really be done?
ReplyDeleteThe type of policies that need to be implemented to prevent these sorts of catastrophes are so complicated and large that it hardly seems attainable. Clearly money isn't really an object to these multinational oil companies. Being fined $380,000, though a lot of money, is probably not enough to really encourage any change in their business practice.
Not to mention that having the government suspend their rights to drill or punish them further will hardly go over well, especially with those people who push for no government intervention in the economy. My point is that although something definitely needs to be done, what exactly will that be? And whatever policy is imposed will be incredibly difficult to enforce with the budget deficit we are facing coupled with the expanse of drilling fields across the world. The odds of any policy being effective are slim, in my opinion, and this will definitely not be the last oil spill we will see, especially while it is our primary source of power.
I agree with the previous comment that fining these huge corporations will aggravate them, yes, but hardly force them to change. The change in the case of mining companies would hopefully come from within. I spoke recently with a Geologist/Mining Engineer from Alpha Natural Resources about the recent Massey incident since he got to see a report of what happened. He said that what happened is that they were digging beneath an old mine which was full of methane, but "sealed" off and that there was a gas leak from the old mine to the new one. Massey, supposedly knew that they were having problems and in order to continue production they decided not to shut down the mine, instead just monitor it more in case the levels got so high people couldn't breathe. On the day of the explosion, it was reported that the guy testing the methane levels actually passed out before he could get readings.
ReplyDeleteIts easy to say that Massey was horribly in the wrong on this one, because they were, forcing their men and women to work in such conditions. But its not just Massey, and until people stop relying so heavily on the mining and oil companies to provide them jobs and resources, they will be able to get away with anything. Every single one of those miners go into work every day knowing that any number of things can kill them down there, but they need the money so they do it. Its a sad but scary truth that few people in the industry actually care what happens. And until they do, I don't see much changing.
I agree with the previous statements in the sense that Massey was in the wrong, and tragic incidents such as these seem to convey the message that noone in the entire industry cares. When companies such as Massey are careless and neglect to place safety first it tends to give the entire industry a bad reputation. This is not meant to be in defense of Massey in any way. They were completely in the wrong and should be puished to the fullest extent of the law for this accident. However, I do not think it is a fair assessment to assume that the answer to the problem is to depend on people to stop relying on the coal industry so heavily. Being from an area in the coalfields, I have some experience working in a few deep mines. From my experience I can attest that not all companies force their employees to work in such conditions. Many companies (such as Alpha Natural Resources - mentioned above) place safety above all else. This company has a reputation for enforcing safety and doing everything "by the book." This prevents many potential accidents, but mining is obviously always dangerous. It is also true that many people work in the mines simply because they need money and have no other option. However, I think it should be taken into consideration that the coal industry provides the livelihood for areas similar to where I grew up. If it weren't for the coal industry, the majority of the people in these areas would not have jobs, and the economic impact would be devistating.
ReplyDeleteFor these reasons, I believe that mining should be very strictly regulated and incidences such as this explosion should be prevented at all costs. Coal companies should be forced to make every effort to provide a safe work environment. However, I feel that it is unfair to the people in these areas to suggest eliminating the use of coal which in turn will eliminate the majority of available jobs. From my experience, I think most people working underground would prefer to have a mining job working in improved conditions rather than become dependent on a new energy source and lose a job.