Buildup to the BP-Oil Spill
The eventual buildup to the BP oil spill started during the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration's oil demand and antigovernment sensibility soiled the Minerals Management Service (MMS), the agency charged with regulating offshore drilling. Vice President Dick Cheney had presided over the weakening of drilling regulations, including the exclusion of remote-shut-off switches which might have prevented the disaster. Soon, MMS was nothing but a shell of its former shell filled with corruption and political influence. In a 2008 report it was found that the agency's regulators were taking gifts from, and having sex with the employees of, the companies they were supposed to be monitoring. Furthermore, the regulators allowed companies to fill out their own inspection forms which were later outlined in pen by the MMS employees. Further, reports also indicate that MMS gave permission to BP drill in the Gulf of Mexico without first getting required permits from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) that assess threats to endangered species and to assess the impact the drilling was likely to have on the gulf. Additionally, the Obama Administration’s neglect in changing the negative outcomes of the Bush Administration further increased and allowed the disaster to happen.
The Oil Spill
The BP oil spill happened off the United States coast in the Gulf of Mexico and is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry. After the oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sunk it continued to leak oil for 87 days until it was capped, which resulted in an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil leaking into the ocean. The Deep Water Horizon was a sem...
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April 20, 2010, a tragic disaster struck the Gulf Coast. British Petroleum deepwater Horizon oil rig cracked from three places and raw oil leaking into the sea. .it was considered that over 60,000 barrels of oil a day are mixing with Gulf water and Oil spread over 70 miles to 130 miles into the sea and can be seen from space.
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Oil provides us with many necessities in our lives. Cosmetics, medicines, cleaning products, asphalt, food, plastic, and most importantly, petroleum. But of course, nothing comes without a price. The oil that makes our lives so much more convenient, is also ironically gradually killing the environment, this very Earth that we live in. One of the biggest environmental concerns come from oil spills. Oil spill is defined as “ the release of a liquid petroleum hydrocarbon into the environment, especially marine areas, due to human activity, and is a form of pollution.” Let’s look at some examples of these oil spills.
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British Petroleum (“BP”) is the company that is being blamed for the incident. Employing 80,000 people, BP is an international oil company that puts different technology to use for finding oil and gas under the Earth’s surface. One of the oilrigs, Deepwater Horizon has drilled 35,000 ft. making it to be the deepest drilling of oil and gas (Walsh). Deepwater Horizon was drilling in the Gulf of Mexico about 52 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip. After the explosion, helicopters searched for 11 crewmembers that reported missing. 17 people were injured (BP Internal Investigation Team). A day later, the rig was found upside down (BP Oil Spill Timeline). The cost to clean up the damage is approximately $760 million (Walsh).
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The Exxon Valdez and the BP oil spill were caused by different disasters but had just as great of effects. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill began to reek havoc on the Pacific Ocean. The oil tanker, Exxon Valdez, left from Valdez, Alaska and was headed for Los Angeles, California. The tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in Alaska. After six hours of being grounded, the Exxon Valdez spilled about 10.9 million gallons of oil (53 million gallons aboard). The BP oil spill occurred a little differently. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded and caused the largest marine oil spill in history. The platform sank about 5,000 feet underwater. The BP oil spill poured 4.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. These oil spills are largely compared but were cause by completely different events. They had similar effects/damage, however.
Oil spills, no matter large or small, have long been of concern to pollution control authorities in this country. Due to its destructive nature, once an area has been contaminated by oil, the whole character of the environment is changed. When it has encountered something solid to cling to, whether it be a beach, a rock, the feathers of a duck or gull, or a bather’s hair, it does not readily let go (Stanley, 1969). By its nature o...
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, located in the Gulf of Mexico, exploded, killing 11 workers and injuring 17. The oil rig sank a day and a half later. The spill was referred to as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP oil spill, Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and BP oil disaster. It was first said that little oil had actually leaked into the ocean, but a little over a month later the estimate was 12,000-19,000 barrels of crude oil being leaked per day. Many attempts were made to stop the leak but all failed until they capped the leak on July 15, 2010, and on September 19 the federal government declared the well “effectively dead.”
On the summer of 2010, the petroleum industry was shaken by one of the largest disasters in history known as the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. This resulted in the killing of eleven people, injuring of seventeen and an immeasurable damage to the ocean and the surrounding communities. BP had to immediately respond to the crisis and handle their financial and reputational risks.
On a Monday afternoon, A couple of friends and I drove about forty-five minutes to El Dorado to see a movie. A movie in which we didn’t know anything about. None of us had even seen the trailer. I sent my friend a link to the movies that were showing at the cinema in El Dorado, and she had chosen Deepwater Horizon solely on the fact she liked the actors that had been cast for the movie. A few of these actors included Mark Wahlberg and Kate Hudson. Deepwater Horizon, as I came to find out on the car ride there, is about the most devastating oil spill in United States history. Since this event occurred only roughly six years ago, I recognized it after my friend called it the BP oil spill. Growing up in south Arkansas, I know many people that work on oil rigs so the spill was something that came close to home. The movie portrays the events leading up to the rig explosion and the aftermath concerning the people aboard the rig.