The Importance Of Oil Company Regulations

Environmentalists are one the biggest critics against the notion of increasing domestic oil drilling. By increasing the amount of drilling we do in the United States, we increase the risk of disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Disasters are hardly the only source of economic damage either, to find oil reserves under the ocean, seismic waves are generated into the ground. These waves bounce off the ground back up to the ship, where computers and scientist can use the results to make educated guesses on whether or not oil is located under the surface. These seismic waves can wreak havoc with marine animals like whales; where in one case over 100 whales beached themselves to get away from the painful experience (Nixon). Using seismic waves does not even guarantee that oil might be located underneath the surface, the only way to tell is to actually drill into the potential finds causing even more destruction for what might be for no gain. Once oil is found and drilling has begun, the amount of damage done to the environment can become unimaginable. The recent example is that of the Deepwater

Oil has been an important resource of energy in America “since the discovery of the Spindletop geyser in 1901. It drove huge growth in the oil industry in America. Within a year, more than 1,500 oil companies had been chartered, and oil became the dominant fuel of the 20th century and an integral part of the American economy” (History.com Staff). This had developed the construction of pipelines to move the oil within the country and offshore in coastal waters. Recently, the federal government approved the construction of a new pipeline that would be transporting crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.

Pipelines and oil-drilling platforms will harm caribou, polar bears, and millions of migrating birds (Come on in.: 38). Whenever some country drills for oil it is more likely than not for that country to have an oil spill. Oil spills are deadly to animals, hard to clean up, and it takes the land thousands of years to recover. The United States has already had one major oil spill off the coast of Alaska in Prince William Sound. If another large oil spill occurred on the water it would have a substantial effect on whales and other marine wildlife (Experts say Alaska Oil Drilling Hurts Wildlife: 43). There are over 130 bird species that find breeding, nesting, or resting places on the coastal plain (Defenders of Wildlife).

Still people make the argument that oil is just too important to stop drilling and that if anything we should drill more. Again author Margaret Haerens talks about how “According to the nation academy of Sciences, current cleanup methods can only remove a small fraction of the oil spilled into the ocean, leaving the remaining oil to continue affecting ocean ecosystems over time” (126). The long term impacts of offshore spills continue to corrupt the oceans and who knows when they will completely be gone. The effects of the oil directly on sea life such as sea birds, fish, shellfish, and other sea life are extremely dangers. “Studies have shown that tiny amounts of oil – as little as one part per billion – can harm pink salmon and cause their eggs to fail” (Haerens Margaret). Imagine swimming in the ocean when a large pool of toxic oils comes floating along right into you when you are trying to enjoy a day at the beach. Not only is offshore drilling have one of the longest lasting ecological impacts on society and living things on and off shore, it effects our economy as well.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico occurred because “oil from the well shot up and out of the drill column under high pressure, extended on the drilling rig and exploded (wikipedia)”. The rig set on fire and later sank. BP, Transocean, along with government agency employer, all worked hard to avoid further spread of the oil.

America must wean itself off of dependence on foreign oil, and one valid solution to this problem is offshore oil drilling and production. America’s economy is heavily based on petroleum, as though it is the nation’s blood; a necessity for survival. About 25% of oil produced in the U.S. comes from offshore rigs. Most of the U.S. coastline has been off limits for oil drilling since the early 1980s. Due to environmental concerns after an oil spill off the coast of California in 1969, an offshore drilling moratorium was imposed. Since then, the U.S. has amplified its energy consumption to where it uses nearly 25% of the world's oil. Meanwhile, the U.S. produces about 10% of the world's oil. That has made the U.S. heavily reliant on imported

Yes, losing human life was bad enough already, but we also lost a lot of oil and most importantly the spill effected the marine life. The fish, turtles and birds that were in the area, were all drenched in the oil, majority of it didn’t survive. The fish that have survived, where infected/affected by the chemicals. As we all know oil does not stay in one area, it spreads like butter on the hot skillet, effecting even larger marine life area than expected. Obviously BP and people responsible for the spill have faced numerous fine and conducted numerous operations to clean up the mess, but it is almost impossible. As time progressed, some oil eventually sunk to the bottom, which effected coral and food that fish eat. According to CNN, “Scientists continue to study environmental impacts, but five years after the spill, the long-term negative effects remain unclear and are, in many cases, highly disputed.”(Griffin et al., 2015, para.

Monopolies have been around America since its beginning. Some of the first monopolies are the reason for America’s advancement that lead us to become one of the greatest countries in the world. But, what is a monopoly? The book, Economics: Private and Public Choice defined it as “a market structure characterized by (1) a single seller of a well-defined product for which there are no good substitutes and (2) high barriers to the entry of any other firms into the market for that product,” (Gwartney, Glossary). Though, the laws of the land are in place to help the government ensure that big business will not control certain industries again. Looking forward to present time, we are now seeing similarities between the big business monopolies of

Humans are a poisonous sludge, slowly poisoning ourselves and all other inhabitants. There are many ways we do this, offshore oil drilling being one of them. Offshore oil drilling is the process of drilling into the earth and pulling up petroleum, a natural fuel source made of decomposed organisms. While there are many positive effects, there are too many negative ones for oil drilling to continue. Offshore oil drilling is too dangerous to be considered safe for use in the ecosystem. Not only is it too dangerous, oil rigs are made in an environment many would deem too hazardous for settling any type of structure. Oil drilling kills many people each year and pollutes the marine environment, killing the oceans natural inhabitants.

The 1970s is a significant period in the U.S. oil and gas history. American oil production was declining steadily and imports from mainly Arab producers were relied on to shore up the shortfall. The Arab states, which constituted the majority of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), imposed an oil embargo in October 1973 against the U.S. and a number of other industrialized nations that backed Israel during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Not only did the sanction ban petroleum exports to the target nations, it also introduced cuts in oil production. As a result, between 1972 and 1982, oil prices increased more than tenfold.

The harm done to the animals affectively will most like cut numbers in half or even eradicate the species all together. Scientist predict it will require more than a hundred years for the animals to gain back numbers they had in 2010. The oil not only touch anything on the top, there was so much of it every animal within the Gulf of Mexico does

“The impacts of previous oil disasters show that wildlife in the gulf will continue to be affected by subsurface oil” The past oil spills are still contributing to the death of mammals in the area of the disaster. The NOAA says, “In total, we found the oil spill has likely harmed or killed approximately 82,000 birds of 102 species, approximately 6,185 sea turtles, and up to 25,900 marine animals including bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins melon-headed whales and sperm whales.” Plenty of animals die every day already from natural causes and overfishing, but oil is causing even more to die at an extreme rate. “The national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it had found 32 dolphins in the bay under weight, anemic and showing signs of liver disease. nearly half had low levels of stress hormones that help with stress response, metabolism and immune functions” The disasters are harming the mammals that live in the area of the spill, not only poisoning them but affecting them in the long-term and eventually adding to the already high number of deaths “... NOAA says 714 dolphins and whales have been found stranded from the Florida panhandle to the Texas state like, with 95 percent of those mammals found dead” Dolphins and whales are being hit hard by oil disaster and they turn up dead even after the oil has been cleaned up. From oil

Offshore drilling also affects the desalinization infrastructure that we rely on greatly for every-day industrial and consumer purposes, excluding for drinking. Clearly, then, “Even a full year later it was said that 'fish and seabirds were marinating in black sludge '” (Negative Effects of Offshore Drilling). As if these damages to the environment were not devastating enough, the giant spill also caused a problem with human life. It affected human life by putting the desalinization buildings out of use, which hugely decreased the amount of water that could have been made for other useful processes to create products for human use.

The e Deepwater Horizon oil spill at the Macondo well began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. An explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20 April 2010 killed 11 people and caused almost 5 million barrels of oil to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The spill covered 68,000 square miles of land and sea and triggered a response effort involving the use of nearly 2 million gallons of dispersant chemicals (Pallardy). Considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (DHOS) resulted in widespread environmental and economic damage, the exact nature of which is only beginning to be understood (Shultz 59). This paper will address the causes of this unmitigated ecological disaster and discuss steps that need to be taken to prevent a similar disaster from occurring again.

Over 8000 animals were reported dead 6 months after the spill, including many that were on the endangered species list (7). Subsequently, seafood prices increased affecting restaurants and supermarkets. People abstained from going to beaches covered in oil, water sports and other aquatic attractions which meant that all organisations involved in tourism such as hotels, tour operators, restaurants and boat rental companies were affected (1). Furthermore, the method of cleaning up the oil by “in-situ burning” (burning oil in a contained area on the surface of the water), had adverse effects on the environment as the burning off of the oil led to mutations and increased mortality due to pollution.