The cost of dependence

Dr. Overton is professor emeritus in LSU’s Department of Environmental Sciences. His work includes the study of industrial marine pollution and environmental monitoring.

The Deepwater Horizon blowout, fire and oil spill have given us the opportunity and incentive to reflect on the implications of our incredible appetite for energy and the consequences of using oil as the source for some 37% of this energy consumption as well as 97% of our transportation fuels.

The world just has an insatiable appetite for oil. With the production and movement of these vast quantities of oil, there is inevitably an opportunity for accidents to occur and a risk that oil will be spilled into the marine environment. Since more than 61% of our daily consumption is imported from foreign markets and offshore production, marine oil spills are an ever-present risk. At the same time, marine areas under U.S. jurisdiction represent an incredibly important commercial and recreational asset.

The tragic accident aboard the Deepwater Horizon offshore exploration platform killed 11 rig workers, and the resulting well blowout ultimately led to the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history. The spill continued for 87 days before the runaway well could be capped. It has been called the largest environmental calamity in U.S. history, causing untold billions of dollars in environmental and economic damages and disrupting the lives and livelihood of citizens throughout the country. This spill has brought up the inevitable discussions about the efficacy and safety of offshore and deepwater exploration and production and what can be done to eliminate or minimize the damages from such accidents if they occur in the future.

This tragic spill has provided both the opportunity and the incentive to reflect on the full range of implications—ecological, sociological and economic—and their pros and cons. The oil spill is over, but the saga of the oil spill is far from over.

We know that only a relatively small percentage (8%) of the 200 million gallons of spilled oil was removed from the marine environment by either burning or skimming. Another 8% was chemically dispersed. We estimate that most of the oil, more than 50%, was dispersed or dissolved in deep water and never reached the Gulf’s surface.

We know that 1.8 million gallons of dispersant were used to dissolve the oil into the water column both at the wellhead and on the surface. We do not yet know the full environmental impacts of using the dispersants or of the dispersed oil, but we do know that of the 200 million gallons of oil spilled into Gulf waters, only a relatively small portion (2% of shoreline miles, or about 550 acres) of the total northern Gulf’s coastline was heavily affected. We do not yet know the full impacts that this oil spill had on either offshore or near-shore/on-shore environments, but initial evaluations of full coastline ecological impacts are encouraging. Economic impacts from the spill last summer, on the other hand, are staggering for northern Gulf coastal residents. Prospects for 2011 look much better if rising energy prices do not inhibit travel to the Gulf and travel in the Gulf, especially fishing trips.

Clearly, a lot of questions remain about the ultimate consequences of this unfortunate accident, but one thing is clear. On April 20, 2010, the response community was not fully prepared for the mass or scope of this spill. Now is the time for thoughtful reflection about the actions that were taken during the spill, and now is the time for planning ahead to mitigate the impact of future spills, large or small. Now is the time for developing effective and realistic contingency plans, both in the oil and gas industry and in government organizations. Now is the time to be prepared if such an event ever occurs again. And now is the time to fully evaluate the environmental, economic and social impacts from massive oil spills so that realistic risk-reward policies can be made concerning our incredible appetite for fossil fuels as the stimulus for economic growth and prosperity.