Boats spray water on Mariner Energy's Vermilion Oil Platform 380 after it exploded in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, 09/02/10. (photo: AP)Will Latest Gulf Explosion Lead to Congressional Action?
Latest oil platform explosion in Gulf could revive push for action in Congress.
n oil platform about 100 miles south of the Louisiana coast exploded this morning, reportedly throwing 13 workers into the Gulf of Mexico. Coast Guard helicopters are now on the scene "actively pulling them out of the water," Cmdr. Cheri Ben-Iesau tells USA Today. The owner of the platform said no injuries were reported.
The platform differs from the BP rig that exploded earlier this summer, east of the current disaster site, in that it doesn’t actually drill for oil, is fixed rather than floating, and is used primarily for oil production. Mariner Energy, the company that owns the platform, saw its shares drop 5 percent this morning on news of the accident.
Mariner said in a statement that it was working with "regulatory authorities" in the aftermath of the incident, that the cause was not known, and that an investigation will be undertaken. The company said that in the last week of August "production at the facility averaged approximately 9.2 million cubic feet of natural gas per day and 1,400 barrels of oil and condensate."
All the early reports indicate that this accident is unlikely to result in the sort of environmental catastrophe BP caused with the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig. Still, it could give momentum to the environmental lobby, only weeks after its hopes for comprehensive climate legislation were snuffed out by uncompromising Republicans and disorganized Democrats in Congress. As Tim Warman, an executive director at the National Wildlife Federation, will point out in the pages of next week's issue of NEWSWEEK, this accident is hardly an anomaly. According to a report recently published by the organization, there were more than 1,400 offshore-oil-related accidents from 2000 to 2007 alone, killing 41 people.
"These disasters demonstrate a pattern of feeding America's addiction to oil, leaving in their wake sacrifice zones that affect communities, local economies, and our landscapes," the report states.
Of course, this kind of tough talk has been commonplace since the BP spill in late April. But add the drama unfolding today to this summer's onshore pipeline accidents in Michigan and Utah, and voters might actually start to put some pressure on Congress to take on the issue.
Then again, Mariner lucked out in that this explosion took place just before Labor Day weekend, and could very likely be forgotten by Tuesday, when people start watching and reading the news again. It may sound cynical, but how many of the incidents listed in the NWF report have you heard of?
The BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, with its tragic loss of life
and devastating impact on the Gulf Coast economy, has brought the
risk and high cost of oil development to the public’s attention.
Predictably a round of oil industry executives have testified before
Congress offering countless apologies and empty assurances that
such an incident will never happen again. The oil industry is running
ads asserting that this is an exceptional ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ event
for an otherwise safe and responsible industry. But this is the fourth
major oil spill in 33 years in North America after the following: in
1977, Hawaiian Patriot spewed over 30 million gallons of oil 300
miles off the coast of Hawaii; in the Gulf of Mexico, Ixtoc 1 spilled
over 140 million gallons of oil in 1979; and Exxon Valdez was
responsible for dumping over 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince
William Sound of Alaska in 1989.
Major oil spills are really only a small part of the real story. From
2000 to 2010, the oil and gas industry accounted for hundreds of
deaths, explosions, fires, seeps, and spills as well as habitat and
wildlife destruction in the United States. These disasters
demonstrate a pattern of feeding America’s addiction to oil, leaving
in their wake sacrifice zones that affect communities, local
economies, and our landscapes.
The BP Deepwater Horizon event is the largest and potentially most
devastating environmental disaster the oil and gas industry has yet
to foist on Americans. However, the frequency and recurrence of
these events bears closer scrutiny. Incidents occur on a monthly
and, sometimes, daily basis across the country but sadly only a
portion of these make the front page or evening news.
This report provides a sampling of the oil and gas industry’s
performance over the past 10 years —– the first decade of the new
millennium. These ‘lowlights’ and examples from each year shed light
on how the oil and gas industry has continued to show negligence
and experience accidents all over the country. While not exhaustive,
the listing offers a cross-section of spills, leaks, fires, explosions,
toxic emissions, water pollution, and more that occurred in the last
decade —– the post- Exxon Valdez era, the post- Oil Pollution Act of
1990 era, when the industry said “we’ve got it under control.”