Are Environmentalists Also Responsible For The Oil Spill?

by Kathleen McKinley | June 1, 2010 11:57 am

Let’s talk about the one aspect of this oil spill that no one but Charles Krauthammer has talked about. [1]Why do we drill in the ultra deep of the ocean where no precedent exist for the blow out that happened in the Gulf of Mexico?

Why? One word. Environmentalists. This is what is referred to as the law of unintended consequences. Environmentalists has succeeded over the years in pushing drilling off land (the safest place to drill, and leaves little environmental impact). When you have been driving from Texas to Oklahoma you may have noticed small pumping units off the side of the road. Or you may not have because they are hardly noticeable. If BP had been drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (which has had a 30 year ban on drilling) and this had happened, it would have happened on barren land, and affected almost no one. But now, we have the biggest environmental disaster in our history. Wouldn’t oil companies much rather drill on land or shallow water? It’s much easier and cheaper. Another thing that I haven’t seen mentioned is the fact that the technology to be able to drill in this deep of water has only been an option for about 5-10 years. Would that technology occurred as fast as it did if there were more opportunties in safer places to drill? Did oil companies like BP feel it necessary to fund this type of technology because they could drill in deep water with little problems from the environmentalists? Is the fact that nearly all the Atlantic and Pacific coasts are off limits to oil production a reason that a company like BP goes to ultra deep water? The people who would like to blame a lack of regulation, never stop to consider that part of the blame lies with pushing rigs so far out.

From what I have read, BP was completely negligent. They made many mistakes leading up to the blow out that most oil companies would never dream of making. So to be clear, they are the ones responsible for the accident. I’m just wondering why no one has thought to discuss why they were so far out and so deep.

As Krathammer points out, Pres. Obama’s attempt to try and blame Bush by saying these problems have been going on “for a decade or more” (as he regularly does) is disputed by the fact that that Obama’s own Interior Department had given BP a “categorical environmental exemption” in April of 2009.

But Krathammer is fair to Obama. He says Obama is no more responsible for the damage caused by the oil spill than Bush was for the damage caused by Katrina. But the nature of politics is that we expect the man (or woman) in charge to be….in charge. When they don’t seem to be, they lose.

Krathammer also points out that when one sets themselves up as the healer of all things, as Obama did when he declared that history would look back at his election as as the moment when “our planet began to heal” and “the rise of the oceans begin to slow,” the fall from the pedastel can be a ugly thing to watch.

Endnotes:
  1. Charles Krauthammer has talked about. : http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7028523.html

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