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Oils spills caused by offshore drilling in California (Santa Barbara)

Introduction:

This paper is about the effects of offshore drilling particularly it discusses “oil spills caused by offshore drilling in California” (Molotch). These oil spills that are caused by offshore drilling affect the environment in the long run. Some of these impacts on the environment by oil spills may even last for decades (West). For example, an oil slick arrives at the beach from a huge oil spill then it sticks to each grain of the sand and every rock. If this oil is absorbed by the forests or fibrous plants etc. then it can make the whole area unsuitable for wildlife. Moreover, if this oil spills stops and sinks in the surface of the water then these oil spills damage the fragile ecosystems under water and can prove extremely dangerous to marine life (Horton).

The infrastructure that is needed to drill offshore and transport this offshore oil is devastating for marshland. The series of canals that are built for the purpose of transporting oil can lead to erosion. The companies should not be allowed to do offshore drilling because of its negative impacts. There are many issues regarding offshore drilling. For example if there is an accident then it can paralyze the economy because it prohibits the people from fishing (Jennifer Horton). Moreover as these oil spills are extremely dangerous for the wildlife so as a result of these oil spills people are prevented from fishing. But fishing is mainly huge source of income for many local areas. So in this way these oil spills affect the economy as a whole as well (West).

I have chosen this topic because of the impacts of offshore drilling on economy. Off shore drilling is beneficial for the governments because they earn revenues in the form of taxes from the companies that deal in offshore drilling (West). Moreover this topic that I have selected particularly assesses the impacts of oil spills that was caused by offshore drilling in Santa Barbara California.

The issue that I have selected here is oils spills that were caused by offshore drilling in California in 1969. This oil spill was the largest oil spill of that time in United States. It was also the largest oil spill in California. This oil spill was actually caused by a blowout that was 6 miles from the seaboard of Union oils (Molotch).

In the period of ten days, almost 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil was spread to the beaches of Santa Barbara in southern California. This oil spill proved extremely dangerous for marine life. It killed thousands of seabirds and other sea animals including whales, dolphins and sea lion etc. (Molotch). As a result of this oil spill, the rage of public got enormous attention by the media. Consequently many legislations were developed.

This region of Santa Barbara, California is attractive for petroleum companies because of large quantity of oil under the rock layers beneath Santa Barbara channel. This is also a location of first off shore drilling of the world. This oil development in the channel was topic of discussion since long (Viscusi & Zeckhauser). But with the improved technology, the drilling was done farther and farther from the shore and in other areas of South California. On January 28, 1969, the workers who were drilling the fifth well reached their desired depth and this depth was attained only in 14 days. When they reached their final depth, they tried to pull the drill outward but there was a huge spout of oil, gas and mud blown into the air. Although many of the workers tried to prevent this blowout by trying to screw a blowout preventer on the pipe but it proved to be impossible for them to stop this blowout because the pressure was extremely high (Viscusi& Zeckhauser). The workers tried for the last time to stop this blowout by dropping the remaining pipe in the hole and cutting the top of the pipe with blind rams. The time that was taken to stop this blowout was a total of thirteen minutes. At that time the workers also noticed the increase in ocean bubbling. This was caused by the breaks that were created by this blowout in the ocean floor and resulted in release of oil and gas from the depths of the earth below the ocean. Additionally, it indicated that enormous amount of gas was released into the atmosphere.

The first source “Oil in Santa Barbara and Power in America” which I have selected states that this explosion of oil in Santa Barbara has led towards many disclosures about the power of America. I totally agree with this statement. As the response of the citizens towards this explosion in Santa Barbara has proved that the growth of radical perspective has been achieved by the social system of America on objective terms (Molotch). It means that they associated this blowout with the fundamental nature of offshore drilling to achieve the objectives of the State. This article discusses the happening of the accidents and the existence of power. As Santa Barbara is attractive for oil companies because of its oil treasure. It is also damaging the beaches and the beauty of Santa Barbara. As the explosion that occurred in 1969, left its long term side effects.

Another article “Deterring and compensating oil catastrophes: the need for strict and two tier liability” which I have selected describes the weakness in the recent regulatory regime and the liability for the oil spills on a broader way. This article offers a new liability structure for offshore drilling and for these accidental risks and damages on general level. It offers the system of liability that includes two tiers (Viscusi & Zeckhauser). The first tier deals with putting a strict liability to the financial resources of the company and the insurance coverage. The second tier deals with the yearly tax that equals to the expected costs in the next year besides this amount of the damage.

The other article focuses on that these companies should not be allowed to work offshore because of certain issues. First is that this offshore drilling causes oil spills that damages marine life as well the economy as a whole. As the income of many people depend on fishing but oil spills prevent people from fishing (Larry West). Moreover the amount of oil that is present in offshore deposits can be used by other ways. But there are some restrictions while implementing these solutions. The main limitation is that the governments of the countries earn revenues in the form of taxes from these oil companies. Therefore they do not apply such legislation. Because in this way their revenues will not be generated through these oil deposits. Moreover this offshore drilling offers comparative salary packages to the people. Now people are moving towards the jobs in offshore drilling as they offer competitive salary packages.

There is an argument which states that these companies should not be stopped working because there are not enough resources in this world that can fulfill the needs of energy. There is a need of energy in huge amount to fulfill the needs of all human being and the related tasks (Viscusi & Zeckhauser). And therefore offshore drilling is a quite viable and reasonable way to obtain this required amount of energy. The opposite argument states that these oil spills can be maintained through a proposition (Jennifer Horton). This argument says that the world is far away from creating renewable energy resources exactly according the needs of this world. So these offshore drilling should not be stopped.

But I have an opposite argument to the above statement. The oil resources are also limited .The way we are using these resources in offshore drilling, these will come to an end one day. Therefore we must invest in some other resources that are renewable. Also these oil companies should be stopped from offshore drilling because the oil spills cause severe damage to the marine and animal life and to the economy as a whole. Additionally these oil spill cause damages that last for decades.

References:

A. Larry West “How do oil spills damage the environment”

http://environment.about.com/od/petroleum/a/oil_spills_and_environment.htm

B. Jennifer Horton “Why is offshore drilling so controversial?” http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/energy/offshore-drilling-controversy2.htm

C. Harvey Molotch, “Oil in Santa Barbara and power in America” Sociology Inquiry, page 131 to 144.

www.skidmore.edu/.../Env%20Theory%20PDFs/Molotch--Oil-Power.pd

D. W. Kip Viscusi, Richard J. Zeckhauser 2011. “Deterring and compensating oil catastrophes: the need for strict and two tier liability”

https://research.hks.harvard.edu/publications/getFile.aspx?Id=702

E. “Oil companies should not be allowed to drill offshore” The web.

http://debatewise.org/debates/2213-oil-companies-should-not-be-allowed-to-drill-offshore/

F. April, 2010. “Offshore disaster” The web.

www.usclimatenetwork.org/.../offshore-disaster-timeline-of-offshore-oil-