Historical issues: Exxon Mobile is always under a lot of criticism. When the company makes a mistake, it affects humans, wildlife, and agriculture. Exxon Mobile has two main types of spills: oil spills and pollution spills. The pollution spills are volatile organic compounds (VOCS), according to Shogren. These VOC's contribute to smog and have severe health side effects. Exxon has had many oil and VOC spills. One of the largest oil spills attributed to Exxon was the Valdez tanker accident off the Alaskan coastline in 1989. The tanker was carrying 53 million gallons of crude, and within hours of the accident, 11 million gallons poured over the shoreline ("25 Years Later, Exxon Valdez Spill Effects Linger"). The article "25 Years Later, Exxon Valdez Spill Effects Linger" states, most of the wildlife has recovered, but some species are still struggling to survive. The next major spill for Exxon was the Brooklyn Oil Spill in 2007. According to the "ExxonMobil Oil Spill" article, many parties were involved in this spill. Exxon Mobile, Chevron/Texaco, and BP were the main parties involved. According to "ExxonMobil Oil Spill," researchers estimate that 17 to 30 million gallons of oil leaked into the soils and aquifers of Greenpoint since the early 1950's. Other spills Exxon is responsible for and which have caused major environmental consequences are: • Baton Rouge refinery pipeline oil spill dumped 80,000 gallons into the rivers of Point Coupee Parish • Yellowstone river spill in July 2011 put 1,000 barrels of oil into the river • Mayflower oil spill in March 2013 lost 12,000 barrels of oil out at the Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas. A major VOC pollution release was the Exxon Baton Rouge Refinery Benzene leak. In June 2013, the company r... ... middle of paper ... ...cost of compliance or reduce or delay available business opportunities (including changes in laws related to offshore drilling operations, water use, or hydraulic fracturing); • adoption of regulations mandating the use of alternative fuels or uncompetitive fuel components; • adoption of government payment transparency regulations that could require us to disclose competitively sensitive commercial information, or that could cause us to violate the non-disclosure laws of other countries; and • government actions to cancel contracts, re-denominate the official currency, renounce or default on obligations, renegotiate terms unilaterally, or expropriate assets." "Environmental Stewardship through Responsible Management." ExxonMobil. N.p., 2013.Web.07Apr.2014..
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.
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.
On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, on the Deep water Horizon oil drilling rig which rented by BP. There were 126 workers on board at the time of the explosion. Fifteen of them were injured, and eleven died. Two days later the oil drilling rig sank, the leaving oil spewing into the Gulf. This was the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry, the oil had been leaking for almost three months.
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).
The BP oil spill was a major disaster that occurred less than a year ago, and has been a main concern for many different types of people. It affected the tourism, the seafood industry, and the real estate industry. Also, the oil spill cost BP millions of dollars. The money went to BP repairing the spill, and compensating companies and individuals that lost income due to the leak. The oil spill started on April 20, 2010 and is still an ongoing problem.
Clean water involves seclusion of lakes and hoping the acid rain does not reach these pure water supplies. Another major source of contaminating clean water are oil spills and how destructively they blanket the shoreline they come in contact with. Although offshore drilling expeditions contribute some to the devastating outcome, oil tankers are the superior enemies toward the water. One estimate is that for every one million tons of petroleum shipped one ton is spilled. The largest super tanker spill was in 1979 when 3.3 million barrels was spilled off the coast of France. The largest in the United States was the Exxon Valdez in the gulf of Alaska. On the night of March 24, 1989 the 987 foot Exxon Valdez ran aground in the gulf of Alaska spilling 260,000 barrels of oil. With the help of the forceful winds, the slick soon covered about 1,100 miles of shoreline, including many islands in the sound.
Exxon also spent $3.8 billion for the cleanup site, compensating the 11,000 residents who were affected, and paying fines. Surprisingly, it might have been $4.5 billion more. In 1994, the Alaskan court made Exxon pay $5 billion in “punitive damages”. After years of lawsuits and appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Exxon only owed $507.5
On March 24, 1989, the ship loaded with oil tanker Exxon Valdez entered Alaska’s Prince William Sound. At 12:04 am, the ship hit a Bligh Reef and it tore open the hull releasing 11 million gallons of oil into the water. Affecting the environment. Soon, there was a storm that spread the oil more than 1000 miles of coastlines. The ship was from the ExxonMobil Corporation, so the corporation ended up paying a billion of fine for this disaster. This was the largest oil spill in U.S History and tested the abilities of other organizations to prepare for, and respond to this kind of disaster.
Every year, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, 1.3 million gallons of oil are spilled into U.S. waters from vessels and pipelines in a typical year. A major oil spill could easily double that amount (Thompson, "The Science and History of Oil Spills"). These oil spills not only destroy thousands of miles of oceans, they also cause billions of dollars worth of destruction to an economy. Oil spills occur when there is an accidental or intentional release of oil during any point in the oil production process. Oil spills are most common when a pipeline breaks, ships collide or are grounded, underground storage tanks leak, or when an oil rig explodes or is damaged (Thompson, "The Science and History of Oil Spills"). Another common, naturally
Because it is the most highly publicized of the different forms of ocean pollution, oil spills, oil leakages, and general oil contamination are something that we all seem to be aware of. Since the Exxon Valdez incident, the American public in particular has been more and more critical of oil companies.Each year, over 700 million gallons of oil end up in the ocean. Contrary to what you may have thought, most oil pollution doesn't come from tanker accidents. In fact, tanker accidents account for less than 90 million of the g...
There were three plants in Louisiana and five in Texas that went through harmful pollution that was released by Exxon. The company violated the Clean Air Act by doing this. Exxon will cut the release of toxic pollutants and try to reduce the release of other chemicals. Fifteen hundred tons of these pollutants
On April 20, 2010, the Gulf of Mexico experienced a disaster unprecedented in scale and environmental impact. Fifty miles off the coast of Louisiana in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, a BP drilling rig suffered an explosion that claimed eleven lives and caused the rig to sink over 5000 ft. to the sea bed floor. This was the beginning of the BP oil spill which spanned over eighty seven days, releasing an approximate 2.3 million barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the flow of oil into the Gulf was contained July 15, 2010, the lasting effects of the oil spill on the environment continue to be devastating and widespread. (Kirkwood 1)
The Exxon Valdez was the largest offshore oil spill in the U.S. until the BP oil spill. The Exxon Valdez spill released over 10 million gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The spill effected over 1,100 ...
Swift, W.H, . C.J. Touhill, W.L. Templeton, and D.P. Roseman. 1969. Oil spillage prevention, control, and restoration—state of the art and research needs. Washington, D.C.: The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
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.” In the three months that it took to finally put a stop the leak, 4.9 million barrels of oil were released into the ocean. The spill caused considerable damage to marine and wildlife habitats and the Gulf’s fishing and tourism industries. The White House energy advisor, Carol Browner, goes as far to say that the Deepwater oil spill is the “worst environmental disaster the US has faced.”