In 1969, a blowout from a Union Oil rig off the coast of Summerland, just south of Santa Barbara, spewed approximately 100,00 barrels of oil (420,000 gallons) into the Pacific. (Coast Guard estimate, cited by the County of Santa Barbara Planning & Development, Energy Division) The spill was devestating to local wildlife and the community who watched as their once pristine coastline was covered in oily goo. The spill, which is often credited with launching the contemporary American environmental movement, heralded a long history of public opposition to offshore oil drilling in California. Up until recently, federal and state policy more or less reflected this public antipathy to offshore drilling, with Congressional and Presidential moratoriums on additional leasing of offshore plots for drilling. In the waning days of the oil friendly Bush Administration, however, both moratoriums were allowed to expire.
As sea otters move further and further south--where they are less protected due to the presence of the no otter zone--they become susceptible to a whole host of new dangers, including heightened risk of oil pollution as a result of oil drilling activity in southern California waters. Although otters are generally able to avoid minor natural seepage, spills and pollution that result from oil drilling is another story.
Environmental Risks of Offshore Drilling
In addition to being harmful for otters, offshore oil drilling causes a whole host of environmental problems. Offshore drilling isn't just high risk--it's a dirty business too. Exploring for oil often involves extremely intrusive use of seismic surveys, which can disrupt communication and migration patterns of marine mammals and fish. The actual drilling requires dredging into the ocean floor, displacing huge amounts of sediment, and releasing toxic industrial waste into the water--including heavy metals, arsenic and radioactive materials.
Proponents of offshore oil and gas drilling argue that advances in technology will allow for cleaner industrial activity. Experience shows that this is not the case. In 2009 an oil rig off the coast of Australia spewed thousands of gallons of oil into the Timor Sea for months. The Australian government declared the spill a disaster. This rig is relatively new, and utilizes up to date technology, suggesting that technolgocical advances or not, offshore drilling poses high risk to the environment.
In addition to catastrophic spills that can come from ruptured pipes or collisions, oil rigs are prone to wear and tear like all machinery. Small but impactful leaks are frequent, and it can take crews and Coast Guard officials weeks to identify the source of the spill. Incidents like this are frequently ignored by advocates who claim that technology trumps all risk. No amount of technology can change the fact that accidents—be they weather related, natural disasters, a cause of human error or technological failure—happen. And when they happen in the ocean, there’s a lot at stake.
The Economics of Offshore Oil Drilling
Proponents of offshore oil drilling often point to rising gas prices as incentive to expand domestic offshore drilling. This is misguided, and does not reflect the economic reality of the oil and gas market.
Gas prices are determined by a series of complex factors. Oil is traded on a global market. This means that, while supply does matter, so do a myriad of other things (increased demand from rapidly developing nations like China and India had a big impact on the last price increase). It’s a well known fact that the U.S. possesses a small proportion of the world’s oil reserves, yet consumes oil resources disproportionately. This means that even if we were to tap into our offshore reserves, it would barely make a dent in the total world supply, or the price of processed oil, like gasoline. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts that lifting the moratorium would only make an additional 18 million barrels of oil accessible; although up to 86 million barrels are located in US waters, the majority of it is too costly or technologically difficult to access. (Energy Information Administration, 2008) Given that Americans use about 20 million barrels of oil a day this would have little impact on the overall cost of energy in the short-term.
Economic arguments for offshore oil drilling also fail to acknowledge the high value of other uses of the California coast that offshore drilling jeopardizes. California's coastal ocean is valued at close to $50 billion. A study by the National Ocean Economics Program estimated that close to 60% of this revenue generation was due to recreational and tourism driven industries--NOT extraction of non-renewable resources. As evidenced by the devestating affects on the Alaskan fisheries in the wake of the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, oil is often more costly than it's worth. Although more than twenty years have past, researchers are still finding oil pollution in the Prince William Sound, and Exxon is still fighting legal claims of impacted citizens in court.
Furthermore, no discussion of energy sources is complete these days without a careful consideration of the impacts of climate change. Continuing to pursue traditional fossil fuel sources of energy without regard for their consequences is misguided. Research suggests that the ocean—which, in addition to being home to a wide variety of species, is responsible for regulating the atmosphere and integral cycles—is particularly prone to altercations from a shifting climate. Opening up the oceans to more drilling not only will not solve any of the energy problems we face—it will create the perception that obtaining cheap fuel is more important than making efforts to mitigate climate change. Investing money into more dirty oil instead of cleaner, alternative fuels, is the wrong way to go for otters and ourselves.
The Otter Project's position
The Otter Project strongly opposes any offshore oil drilling in the current and historic sea otter range. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has identified oil spills as a primary threat to sea otters. Offshore oil drilling carries undue risk to otters and their habitat, is against the public's will, and should not be authorized.
What We've Done
The Otter Project has a long history of opposing offshore oil and gas development. We've sued the Federal government over faulty process in the leasing process, we've spoken at countless public meetings, and asked officials to prohibit oil and gas exploration at both a state and federal level. Here are just a few of the highlights:
- In 2005 we joined with a coalition of activists, lead by the Environmental Defense Center of Santa Barbara, to sue the federal government over faulty environmental review of the oil leasing process. Our friends at EDC have been following up ever since, the the final agreement concluded this year, with a full environmental victory for us and the otters! Read more about our victory here.
- In 2009 we attended Secretary Salazar's public hearings on energy development in the Outer Continental Shelf to speak out strongly against offshore oil drilling, and request full environmental review and processing for consideration of any energy activity in the ocean. You can read our comments from the April 16, 2009 hearing in San Francisco at the following links:
- We've asked YOU to speak up! Up to 800 of you signed a petition asking Secretary Salazar NOT to open offshore drilling in the sea otter range.
- We continue to monitor the threat. In April of 2010 President Obama released his administration's 5 year energy plan. We are sorry to see offshore oil drilling included at all--new parts of the nation's coastline were opened up on the East Coast, in what we think is mis-guided energy policy. We continue to work with partners to see oil drilling phased out of the West Coast, and will continue to oppose any efforts to expand it.
Conclusion
In order to talk about offshore oil drilling and its impacts on sea otters it is necessary to consider energy supply and demand, climate change, conservation needs, and other social and environmental impacts of conflicting uses of ocean resources. The Otter Project advocates for environmentally sustainable policies that allow sea otters to prosper in changing seas. Stay tuned for more on our efforts to curb offshore energy development. Meanwhile, check out some of the resources we’ve compiled to broaden the discussion!
Resources:
Office of Emergency Services up-to-date detailed listing of every type of spill in CA
Offshore Drilling: Worth the Oil or False Hope? an offshore drilling primer at TreeHugger
For an interesting overview on gas prices in the U.S. check out The Energy Information Administration’s basic primer.
New York Times Editorial published February 5, 2009 Ken Salazar’s New Deal
Department of the Interior’s page on offshore energy development
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