The Greatest Disaster

February 1, 2018

By Michelle Lee

Oily Bird Not too long ago—on Thursday, January 4, 2018—the Trump administration proposed to open up almost the entire United States coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling. More than one billion acres in the Arctic, as well as along the Atlantic seaboard and California coast, are going to be opened up for coastal drilling.

As the Scientific American states, this is “the single largest expansion of offshore oil and gas leasing ever proposed by the federal government.”

That says a lot.

The Interior Department is proposing to hold 47 lease sales from 2019 to 2024 for drilling rights in more than 90% of the U.S. outer continental shelf, exempting only the North Aleutian Basin from drilling as President George Bush had previously protected it in an executive order. Thus, of the 26 offshore “planning areas” of the outer continental shelf, 25 are to be opened for drilling.

This is all a part of the updated five-year plan that Trump’s appointee, Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior Department and a passionate trophy hunter, has designed to implement Trump’s demand for more domestic energy production. However, this new proposal opens up even more areas to drilling than Trump had formerly ordered in April.

The same day the Interior Department’s proposal was released, Secretary Ryan Zinke, in a conference call, imprudently fantasized, “Under President Trump, we are going to become the strongest energy superpower this world has ever known.”

No. Under President Trump, we are going to create the greatest disaster this world has ever known.

The Trump administration has not only opened up the United States coastal waters to offshore oil and gas drilling, but has also (on December 20, 2017) opened up ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to drilling.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, encompassing over 19 million acres of land, is one of the most pristine areas of wildlife and is home to 37 species of land mammals, eight marine mammal species, 42 fish species as well as over 200 species of migratory birds. It was established in 1960 as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System and is home to wildlife that we must protect.

We cannot allow this to happen. Offshore Drilling

We need to stop oil and gas drilling, specifically off our U.S. coasts and in ANWR. We cannot let one of the last remaining pristine wildlands on earth be destroyed by selfish greed in the pursuit of money and power.

Offshore drilling is harmful for wildlife due to its byproducts and the inevitable pipeline bursts/spillages. Whole ecosystems have been degraded by oil drilling.

In order to lubricate and cool the drill bits and pipes during offshore drilling operations, and to prevent blowouts, drilling muds are used. However, drilling muds release toxic chemicals, which can negatively affect marine life on a continuing basis.

Furthermore, waste discharges (produced water) from offshore drilling, which contains approximately 30 to 40 parts per million of oil, is dumped into the ocean along with drilling muds, releasing many toxic metals, carcinogens, and oil into the ocean. This type of environment is extremely difficult for marine life to survive in—a toxic brew that will further expedite the extinction of many of our marine species.

In addition to its byproducts, offshore drilling is also detrimental to our environment because of the nature of its operation. While exploring for offshore oil, air guns are fired, sending a strong shock that can desensitize the hearing of marine species and cause stranding of marine mammals.

Moreover, the artificial lighting emanating from rigs and the fish aggregating around offshore oil rigs can draw seabirds’ attention during the night, causing increased deaths of birds because they either physically collide with the oil rigs or burn from the eruptions and oil from leaks.

The above ongoing ecosystem degradation and wildlife decimation are relatively minor compared to the inevitable spills that will occur-- the oil leaks, pipe bursts, spillages, which have occurred frequently wherever oil is drilled on land and in water. Such direct spillage of oil into the ocean will kill a substantial proportion of our marine life in surrounding areas immediately and will have long term toxic effects.

Don’t believe the oil drillers and Trump administration propaganda. Oil spills always happen, even explosions (never forget the Deepwater Horizon explosion), and such events will have an even greater chance of occurring on a regular basis, because the Trump administration will be relaxing safety standards.

The Trump administration is opening up all these areas to oil drilling in order to fulfill the ill-advised goal of making the United States oil independent.

Our goal should be to make the U.S. renewable energy independent, not oil independent. Renewable energy independence will be most beneficial in the long run—for our national security, the health of our precious environment/wildlife, and our own health.

We should not look backward. We should look forward.

We should make America great not by returning to the fossil fuels era, but by ensuring a clean energy future.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Join the Sierra Club in Sacramento on February 8th

to protest Offshore Drilling by confronting a Trump administration official at a public meeting.

Contact: James Eggers, Executive Director at james.eggers@sierraclub.org

or Gladwyn d’Souza, rally organizer, at: godsouza@mac.com (Phone: 650-804-8225)

Photo Credits:

https://fair.org/extra/business-as-usual-is-a-disaster/

http://www.fair.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Jackson.jpg

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/climate/trump-offshore-drilling.html