BP Deepwater Horizon Bigger Than the Exxon Valdez

British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil spill (gusher, really) in the Gulf of Mexico is now pretty much confirmed as being larger in volume of oil released than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Prince William Sound. Whatever incompetence or malfeasance gave us such optimistically low estimates of the oil flow, has now been dispersed. In a way, though, this is still a false threshold. From a potential damage standpoint, BP's Deepwater Horizon event has been the larger spill even with the lower release numbers.

When the Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound, it was a disaster of epic proportions. Wildlife died, fishermen were wiped out, salmon runs that had been ongoing for millennia were depleted, and tourism income dried up. Today, the marine animal reproduction rates are still suppressed, the entire food chain (land and sea) is immune- compromised, and human families still suffer the economic and sociological consequences. But the bright spot - and it is a bright spot only in comparison to the present situation in the Gulf - was that the land itself, though inundated with oil, and to this day leaking oil out from under rocks, was not destroyed. The rocky beaches and sandy spits remain to this day. This may not be so when BP's oil hits the Gulf wetlands.

The lowlands surrounding the Gulf are essentially thatch - mud held together by grass. Should the grass die, and the matrix of roots lose its integrity, the mud would simply dissolve away in the tide. Academics estimate that in a little over a year, any exposed mud would be gone, drifting out into the Gulf, settling on its bottom.

These grasses can tolerate a sheen of oil, and have. But this spill is quantitatively different from any spill they have experienced before. Oil in these quantities washing up against the shore can smother the grasses that hold these islands, and the Mississippi Delta itself together. Worse, a tropical storm, even a small one, can push this oil hundreds of feet inland, compounding the destruction. We are just one tropical storm away from erasing thousands of shoreland acres from the map, not to mention lay the City of New Orleans and many other Gulf towns naked to the next storm. And with the distinct possibility that the BP Deepwater gusher may continue unabated until relief wells are complete in August, this threat is very real.

And when those storms hit, who is going to pay to pick up the pieces? Well, there's really no need for guessing here. It won't be British Petroleum because the courts will accept the argument that while Deepwater Horizon may have contributed to this situation, its contribution cannot be separated from other contributors. So it will be the Government. Or, perhaps more accurately, you and me.

So there. If anyone fails to value robust fisheries, if anyone fails to value clean waters for recreation, or even for themselves; if anyone fails to value wildlife either for its intrinsic value or its role in the ecosystem - OUR ecosystem; then perhaps here is an argument they will understand: It's better to pay for the transition to clean energy than for the operation to clean up after disasters. We've been here. We've done this. And if we let this event slip into anonymity like all the others without a fundamental overhaul of our regulatory system, then there is little hope for us at all.

There is no such thing as over-regulation of the oil industry, and especially of the deepwater oil industry which is experimenting with new technologies at all of our risks. If we cannot tightly regulate this industry, if we cannot create and implement policy to move us away from our oil addiction, then our government is truly broken, and the future is grim. This, too, is bigger than the Exxon Valdez.

Paul Birkeland lives in Seattle, WA, US, and develops Strategic Energy Management Systems for government, commercial, and industrial organizations through Integrated Renewable Energy.