During the 2008 presidential election, Americans heard the chant
of
”
drill, baby, drill
”
intoned by politicians pushing our nation to tap into offshore
and Arctic petroleum fields. With the Deepwater Horizon oil rig
catastrophe now destroying the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem,
that mantra has turned into an ironic cadence of
”
spill, baby, spill.
”
During the 2008 presidential election, Americans heard the chant of “drill, baby, drill” intoned by politicians pushing our nation to tap into offshore and Arctic petroleum fields. With the Deepwater Horizon oil rig catastrophe now destroying the Gulf of Mexico’s fragile ecosystem, that mantra has turned into an ironic cadence of “spill, baby, spill.”
Oil drilling by its nature is a dirty, demanding and dangerous enterprise. The hazards are heightened when drilling is done in deep and perilous ocean waters. The principle methods of offshore oil drilling were pioneered in the late 19th century along the California coast about 250 miles from the South Valley.
In 1886, oil speculator Henry L. Williams successfully drilled an onshore well in the Summerland field in Santa Barbara County. Geologists soon noted land closest to the Pacific Ocean produced the most petroleum and natural gas, leading Williams to consider the potential wealth that might be garnered from drilling the offshore deposits. Williams had long piers built into the Santa Barbara Channel waters. From these platforms, oil wells were drilled. These wells soon started pouring forth fountains of black gold for Williams and other prospectors.
Summerland is considered the site of the world’s first offshore oil wells. It was also the proving ground for many of the techniques employed by the gigantic offshore oil drilling rigs now found throughout the world’s oceans. Unfortunately, Summerland was also the site of one of America’s worst offshore oil rig disasters.
At 10:45 a.m. on Jan. 28, 1969, workers on Union Oil’s Alpha platform, located about six miles from the coast, were extracting pipe from a 3,500-foot deep well. The pressure difference was not sufficiently equalized, causing strain on the well’s casing. Extreme pressure caused an explosion of natural gas to split the casing and create cracks along the seafloor.
The “blowout” released an estimated 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude into the Santa Barbara Channel during a span of 10 days. About 35 miles of pristine California coastline were coated with the noxious goo. The oil clogged up the blowholes of dolphins, resulting in the suffocation of the playful marine animals. Californians tried to save seabirds covered with the muck spewing from the offshore rig. News reporters videotaped one wealthy Montecito socialite driving tar-covered pelicans in her Mercedes Benz. Union Oil President Fred Hartley won no environmentalist friends when he exclaimed, “I am amazed at the publicity for the loss of a few birds.”
The Santa Barbara oil spill awakened in Americans a spirit to more fervently defend our nation’s natural environment from corporate exploitation. A grassroots movement led to America’s first Earth Day in November 1969. This event in turn led to the creation in July 1970 of the Environmental Protection Agency. A statewide initiative that passed in 1972 created the California Coastal Commission which controls human activities impacting the Golden State’s ocean-side regions.
One lesson we Americans should have learned from the Santa Barbara Channel spill is the need for the federal government to stand vigilant in guarding our nation’s natural resources. Unfortunately, our government failed us in this duty. The Department of Interior allowed Union Oil (later called Unocal) to obtain a waiver for a shorter, less expensive well casing. This inferior casing resulted in the blowout. The White House Council on Environmental Quality examined the causes of the Santa Barbara spill and released a report in 1996 stating, “The federal government had largely ignored the need to protect commercial, recreational, aesthetic, and ecological values of the area.”
The Deepwater Horizon blowout of 2010 unfortunately has sad parallels with the Santa Barbara catastrophe of 1969. The Gulf spill should cause American politicians to think long and hard about the damage that can be done from offshore oil enterprises. Our nation is severely addicted to oil. Our lives are fueled by a toxic substance storing ancient energy in its chemical bonds. Fossil fuels reign over our 21st century civilization.
I hope that some good might come from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. I hope it might awaken a new environmental movement – one focused on driving America to end its petroleum addiction by building a new, vibrant economy focused on clean energy sources such as sun, wind, geothermal and biofuels. I hope we might also use Deepwater Horizon as an inspiration to be more conservative in our energy consumption by making American homes, businesses and vehicles more fuel efficient.
Spurred by the warnings of climate change and also our dependence on foreign sources for oil, America is now undergoing a transformation in its relationship to fossil fuel energy. The public learned much from the 1969 Santa Barbara spill and took action to prevent future petroleum disasters. Let’s also learn from Deepwater Horizon. Let’s focus our political and social will power on creating a clean energy nation.
