Facts show offshore drilling is unsafe, despite what Sen. Graham says
In a recent letter to a colleague of mine, Sen. Lindsey Graham, in explaining his position favoring offshore drilling in the Atlantic, stated: “Safe and environmentally conscious offshore drilling creates jobs and decreases our dependence on foreign oil and gas.”
I will be contacting Graham shortly to offer him this challenge. The numbers I am presenting here come from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and cover the years 1964 through 2012. These numbers show that drilling for oil and gas on the outer continental shelf is neither safe, nor environmentally conscious.
If Graham wishes to remain credible on this topic, he can answer with facts to support his statement that offshore drilling is “safe and environmentally conscious,” and I will gladly write another letter showing his findings. In the meantime, here are the numbers I have discovered:
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement compiles all spills reported from drilling and oil production on the Outer Continental Shelf. A total of 347 spills were reported between 1964 and 2012, resulting in 230,529,133 gallons of oil and other petroleum products being dumped into the ocean. Of those 347 spills, only 115 were caused by something that could have been prevented by new safety regulations. The rest would have happened no matter what.
Here is the breakdown of non-preventable spills:
Collisions: 8 (240,786 gallons spilled)
External forces: 31 (12,697,524 gallons spilled)
Human error: 66 (207,146,814 gallons spilled)
Weather: 127 (3,247,776 gallons spilled)
Total: 232 (223,332,900 gallons spilled)
As you can see, our oceans take a great beating from the oil and gas industry. These numbers do not include spills and pollution caused by onshore pipeline ruptures, methane gas leaks, or shipping accidents, such as the Exxon Valdez spill.
I look forward to hearing from Sen. Graham.
The writer lives in Pawleys Island.
This story was originally published April 23, 2017 at 9:33 AM with the headline "Facts show offshore drilling is unsafe, despite what Sen. Graham says."