Lessons from California’s oil spill
The oil spill off the California coast is wreaking havoc on the local environment and economy, yet this is just the latest tragedy brought to us by the oil and gas industry. Oiled animals are washing up on beaches, beaches are closed and fishing is not allowed. The impacts are not just to the environment but to the local businesses that will have to turn away visitors.
Three years ago, Oceana stood about half an hour from the disaster currently unfolding, warning that this would happen. We warned that where we drill, we spill, and if the government continued to allow the oil industry to pursue dirty and dangerous offshore drilling, we would see oil washing up on California’s beaches. And here we are. With consequences like these, the only possible comfort is that maybe this can be the jolt the government needs to finally end the chokehold that the planet-destroying fossil fuel industry has on our country.
In addition to oil spills, the dire outcomes of fossil-fuel-driven climate change are coming to pass. Fires in California are wiping out entire towns, again. Hurricanes are devastating communities bordering the Gulf of Mexico, again. Floods are drowning dozens in the Northeast, droughts are wreaking havoc on crops across half of the country, and heat records are being smashed from Alaska to Arizona.
Will our politicians fail us again?
All these disasters were predicted years ago, but the fossil fuel industry’s tight grip on our politicians continually blocked meaningful policies that could have protected our climate future and prevented these oil disasters. The question is: Will our politicians fail us again, and continue to do the bidding of the oil industry, allowing an even grimmer future for our children and grandchildren?
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that unless our policymakers immediately and drastically shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy like offshore wind, they are consigning us and future generations to an unlivable future.
Oil spills are just the start. Sure, there’s a lot to do, but some of the first steps really aren’t so drastic. They’re common sense, they’re popular and our elected leaders can make them happen this year.
First, the government must immediately stop allowing expansion of fossil fuel development in the ocean if they have any hope of combating climate change. Our analysis found that permanently banning the sale of new leases for offshore drilling would prevent more than 19 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions – the equivalent of taking every car in the nation off the road for 15 years – or nearly three times the annual emissions in the United States. That would translate into the prevention of more than $720 billion in damages to people, property and the environment – comparable to more than the annual GDP of a major city like Washington D.C., San Francisco or Atlanta.
Offshore drilling threatens the tourism, recreation and fishing industries and the people they support. No one wants to vacation among oil refineries or go to the beach after oil spills. This was made clear by the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 and now again in California.
Allowing new drilling in U.S. waters would threaten 3.3 million jobs and $250 billion in GDP from industries that depend on clean, healthy oceans.
Taxpayer handouts to Big Oil
Meanwhile, the government is using our tax dollars to help fund this destruction by giving handouts to the oil industry. A report last year from the International Institute for Sustainable Development revealed a snapshot of this giveaway: The U.S. government spent an average of $7.6 billion per year from 2017 to 2019 supporting the oil and gas industry through tax breaks, direct payments and public finance. This goes on year after year. Paying this industry billions of dollars to create hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of damages makes zero sense. Policymakers must stop these giveaways immediately.
President Joe Biden promised that if he were elected, there would be no new offshore oil drilling. It’s time for him to live up to his word.
The Build Back Better Act is making its way through Congress, Biden must work with Congress to ensure that permanent protections from offshore drilling, as well as the elimination of taxpayer giveaways to the oil industry, are enacted in the final budget bill.
Our elected officials must act today. We need bold leadership to usher in a sustainable, clean energy future. Some of the solutions will be hard. This one is not. This is an easy choice.
The obvious and vital first step toward a green, just and livable future is to permanently protect our coasts from offshore drilling, and to end fossil fuel subsidies once and for all.