In February I gave a guest lecture on energy and climate change to a group of graduate students in environmental studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia. I was speaking on behalf of the Washington Wildlife Federation, the state affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation, whose top legislative agenda item is clean energy and climate change legislation.
Near the end of my lecture, a student asked me what I thought it was going to take to get Americans off of fossil fuels. I told them it would take some kind of disaster. I told them it would have to be a catastrophe that would awaken this country with the same impact Japan had on us at the start of World War II. The BP drilling disaster in the Gulf of Mexico might not qualify, but it is quickly growing into one our worst ecological nightmares.
Despite President Obama’s statement after the explosion that BP would be held accountable for all the clean-up costs and damage, the unfortunate reality is that we will be paying those costs and we will be more than happy to do so, regardless of the price, whenever we fill up at the pump. More importantly, we will live with an economically and ecologically damaged Gulf Coast. Its wetlands, with all their wildlife and fisheries, are likely to be affected for generations. That cost will be borne by all of us, our children and grandchildren.
I’m angry with BP for such an irresponsible, inadequate and arrogant disaster plan that said such a spill was unlikely and which left them totally unprepared for the worst-case scenario. After the Wall Street and banking debacle, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that there is no backup plan. How many times have we heard comments like: “We underestimated the severity of the crisis; we didn’t plan for this type of failure; we didn’t see this coming; we don’t know what went wrong,” etc.? Meanwhile, the scope of the disaster grows by more than 200,000 gallons a day — perhaps much more. I’m upset that again, we find out an industry our government was supposed to be regulating to protect our health and welfare has influenced those regulations to protect their profits instead.
Most of all, I’m upset with us for continuing to support the oil companies with our insatiable appetite for oil and our inability to develop comprehensive energy legislation. Every one of us is partly responsible for this spill and every one of us will have to do something about it if we are going to survive very long in the 21st century.
Until Americans are shocked into realizing there is an energy crisis, most of us will continue to do nothing. You can witness that complacency every day along America’s freeways, airports and cities, where our behavior gives no hint of a looming energy crisis. That indifference is slowing the progress of those trying to move this country away from oil and other fossil fuels and onto renewable and sustainable clean energy. For those who think there is no end in sight for oil, think about what officials will say when the last drop has been pumped from the ground: “We underestimated the severity of the crisis; we didn’t plan for this type of failure; we didn’t see this coming; we don’t know what went wrong,” etc.
On Wednesday, Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman introduced the American Power Act, legislation that can finally get this country on a path to clean energy. This legislation will be met with stiff opposition from corporations, big oil and others who prefer the status quo. They will spend millions on lobbying and advertising to try and convince you that this is bad legislation or to change in a way to let them off the hook.
The spill in the Gulf may not be the shock that we need, but the plume of ugly brown crude spewing into the Gulf of Mexico should at least serve as a reminder of what we are trading off to keep using oil. Tell your representatives and senators that you expect them to address our oil dependence and energy crisis once and for all. Tell them to pass comprehensive energy legislation this year. Don’t take partisan politics as an excuse and don’t take no for an answer. We all need a clean energy solution.
Mark Quinn is president of the Washington Wildlife Federation (www.washingtonwildlife.org).
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
