Why We Need to End the Age of Oil

The unfolding catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico is yet another reminder of why we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

As almost everyone in the world has now heard, a state-of-the-art BP drill rig exploded off the Louisiana Coast, burned for several days and then sank to the bottom of the ocean.

A remote sub later confirmed fears that the hole drilled in the bottom of the ocean was spewing about a 5,000 barrels of crude a day - five times more than originally estimated. If the well fails completely, an undersea gusher of 100,000 barrels a day could pour into the headwaters of the Gulfstream current carrying this toxic mess around Florida and up the Eastern Seaboard.

This oily discharge may also go on for a long time. Initial attempts to shut off well-head valves almost a mile below the surface have failed and it could be months before a relief well is drilled. BP remains closed lipped about how much oil is down there but one insider confirmed it was tens of millions of barrels.

Officials were not overly optimistic about containing this mess. This is potentially a very serious issue," Coast Guard Admiral Thad W. Allen told reporters in Miami. "We are under no illusion of the risk that's involved here." Late last week the growing slick covered an area the size of Jamaica and was moving towards sensitive wetlands on the Louisiana coast.

This of course is not the only oil-related disaster that has happened in US waters. It has now been twenty one years since the Exxon Valdez infamously ran aground in Prince William Sound.

While a massive clean-up effort was mounted, it was impossible to remove the 10.8 million gallons of crude that spilled from the tanker. Exxon was later sued by nearly 33,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans and local landowners for damage that the US government now believes may persist for another 30 years.

Exxon fought the court case for almost twenty years, filing four appeals all the way the US Supreme Court where their punitive damages were slashed from $2.5 billion to $500 million - representing a mere 1% of Exxon’s profits for the year.

And afters year of legal wrangling, millions in lawyers fees and often counter-productive clean up efforts, much of the oil still remains. A recent study by the US government found that more than 26,000 gallons of oil remains in Prince William Sound and researchers believe it is degrading at only 4% per year.

Often overlooked in the media coverage of the recent BP spill was tragic loss of twelve workers in the rig explosion. Extracting fossil fuel is dangerous work and fatalities are all too common. Last month 29 coal miners died in a methane explosion in West Virginia, and the subsequent investigation revealed a litany of safety violations by the operator.

According to frustrated government inspectors, the owner of the mine “gamed the system” by routinely appealing safety violations in an apparent attempt to avoid tougher enforcement.

So bad was this operation that regulators ordered workers to evacuate dangerous areas 48 times last year. The head of the federal Mine Safety and Heath Administration said the company showed "a serious disregard for the safety and health of the miners who work at these operations."

The workers risking their lives every day concurred with this sentiment. "This company is run like it's 1921," said Cecil Roberts, the union's president, referring to what he said was intimidation of miners who speak up about safety problems.

The coal mining business is so dangerous that more than 100,000 miners have lost their lives in the US alone since 1900. In the last 20 years, 715 coal miners have been killed, not counting the latest tragedy in West Virginia.

The US and China account for 56% of global coal production. The coal-related carnage is China is even greater. Between 2001 and 2004, one worker was being killed on average every 7.4 days. In 2000, almost six workers died for every 100 tons of coal taken out of the ground.

In addition to the obvious benefits of reducing our dependence on foreign oil from often hostile parts of the world, renewable energy is considerably safer.

It is not often that you hear about an entire shift of workers killed by a windmill explosion, or a coastline devastated by a solar energy spill. There is also the small matter of the fate of the planet. Unless we drastically reduce carbon emissions, scientists and economists warn of dire consequences.

The clean tech sector is taking us towards that safer and cleaner economy. EnergyBoom will continue to report on emerging technologies, visionary entrepreneurs and successful businesses that one day will relegate the fossil fuel economy to the history books.

These green pioneers are taking us away from our dependence on the dangerous and ubiquitous substance that is now washing up on the bayous of Louisiana.