Middleboro Review 2: Ocean Conservancy: 35 years later…

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Ocean Conservancy: 35 years later…

It’s been 35 years since the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound, causing a tragic oil disaster that is still being felt more than three decades later. The damaged ship spilled roughly 11 million gallons of oil into our ocean. The oil spill killed and injured bald eagles, harbor seals, seabirds, sea otters and other marine wildlife; impaired subsistence harvests in nearby Alaska Native communities; disrupted commercial fishing operations; and impacted more than 1,000 miles of Alaska’s remote and rugged coastline.

The Exxon Valdez disaster resulted from a tanker running aground, but oil spills can also result from offshore drilling. Regardless of the source of the spill, when oil hits the water, we unfortunately already know there will be devastating impacts.

And that’s not all: Fossil fuel companies are not only drilling offshore; they’re also leaving their old, unused and dirty oil platforms and pipelines in our ocean, allowing them to sit, pollute and damage the water and the climate.

It’s time to hold Big Oil accountable for cleaning up after themselves.

You wouldn’t allow someone to come into your home, make a complete mess and then leave without picking up the mess, would you? Then why is the United States letting the fossil fuel industry slide by? Join us and add your name to the growing list of folks who are speaking out.

Decommissioning is the process of cleaning up oil and gas operations by permanently plugging unused wells, removing oil platforms and remediating the seafloor. But a new report released by the Government Accountability Office revealed serious insufficiencies with the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement’s (BSEE) efforts to enforce laws that require companies to plug and remove offshore oil wells that are no longer in use and for the fossil fuel industry’s failure to take responsibility for its continued impact on our ocean and coastal communities.

Oil and gas companies have already littered our ocean floor with more than 20,000 miles of disused pipeline. To make matters worse, there is already a large decommissioning backlog: As of last June, more than 75% of idle or end-of-lease structures in the Gulf of Mexico were behind schedule relative to BSEE deadlines. Unplugged wells can leak oil and powerful greenhouse gases, such as methane, into our ocean and air.

Decommissioning offshore oil and gas infrastructure is vital to protecting coastal communities, wildlife and our ocean environment, yet oil and gas companies have repeatedly failed.

We can’t keep letting companies get away with drilling for oil and gas without having adequate funds to clean up their messes.

TAKE ACTION

For our ocean,