It is coming up to the two month mark since a huge explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that has ended in 11 lives lost and one of the biggest ecological disasters ever seen. The oil has been flowing almost unchecked straight into the Gulf of Mexico with multiple attempts to plug the hole having failed. It seems ever more likely that we will have to wait for relief wells to be completed sometime in mid August before the oil flow can be stopped. Another month of huge quantities of oil (estimates range from 1000 to 25, 000 barrels per day) spilling uncontrolled into a fragile ecosystem is almost unthinkable and not many commentators have dared to mention the possibility of the relief wells not working. Oil has begun to reach the shoreline of the United States with coastal Wildlife Reserves among the casualties.
The public outcry against this situation has been substantial and with the watchful eyes of the world’s Press recording and analysing every individual element nothing has gone unreported. BP’s (who were operating the rig at the time) Chief Executive Tony Hayward has been vilified by the US public and the US President Barack Obama has come under heavy criticism for how he has handled the crisis. The fallout of this tragedy promises to be protracted, you only have to look at how long the Exxon Valdez claims took to clear up (20 years in the courts) with the financial claims taking much longer than the ecosystem recovery to sort out. Some commentators have predicted this could be the downfall of BP and potentially Barack Obama if he doesn’t play his cards very carefully from now on.
Events such as this have the possibility of significantly affecting the public consciousness and behaviour. What the US populace have to realise is that these sorts of incidents are the unfortunate result of the huge demand they themselves place on fossil fuel resources. The US is the biggest oil user in the world and they demand the lowest prices at the pump. This means that oil companies are now drilling in marginal waters where risks are high and, with the constant need to lower costs, safety measures are often overlooked.
It is strange to see this ecological disaster as an opportunity for LEVs but it is one that should not be rejected out of hand. Perhaps one of the biggest challenges to activists, governments and companies trying to get the public to perceive the dangers of Climate Change is that these changes are often not visually apparent, happen over an extended period of time and are many years off. This incident will allow the public to see that Climate Change risks (and those also related to unsustainable uses of the Earth’s resources) are very real and can be closer to home than you may think. It appears like the majority of opinion is aimed towards tighter regulation rather than diversification of energy supply but positive steps have been made by some states such as California which has put a moratorium on new offshore drilling.
Off the back of this event the US populace can make a step change away from oil intensive ICE vehicles towards alternatively fuelled LEVs. With demand for oil set to increase over the next few decades as some of the rapidly developing countries’ vehicle fleets swell, production and exploration will be pushed into more high risk areas. This will lead to an increase in the likelihood that these disasters will occur more regularly (unless there is an offsetting increase in safety provisions). If the US populace is really serious about decreasing the chance that these sorts of events will happen in the future they cannot do much better than considering an alternatively fuelled LEV the next time they step into a dealership. Likewise the US government should be seriously considering not just increasing the level of regulation in this industry but also encouraging the provision of vehicles and infrastructure that allow vehicle drivers to move away from oil.
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