An EnergyWire analysis released May 12 concluded that the U.S. gas and oil industry was liable for at least 7,662 spills of various nature and devastation in 2013 alone, averaging roughly 20 spills per day.
It gets better. Those
numbers do not even include data from one of the nation’s highest
natural-gas producing states —
Louisiana.
Numbers from 2013 are up 18 percent from 2012, when 6,546 spills were counted, tallying all together around 26 million gallons of anything from gas, oil, fracking fluids, to who knows? 26 million gallons is equivalent to just under 620,000 barrels of contamination across the nation, for those wondering how that converts. 620,000 barrels in a single year, year to year, for who knows how long before folks wise up.
What is perhaps most
alarming about this information is that, according to the American Petroleum Institute,
wells have actually diminished by one percent since the prior year while accidents have gone up.
According to API, the U.S. drilled less gas but more oil in 2013 — the industry’s
focus shifted from one to the other, which is one reason for the shift in
percentages from the prior year. Montana is a good example of that. The gold
and silver state’s spills rose 48 percent following suit, it would seem, with
the 42 percent rise in rigs. In North Dakota on the other hand, where the Bakken Shale boom
is currently being heavily exploited, spills have spiked 42 percent but rig
counts only rose by 8 percent. Such numbers are largely attributed to
“irresponsible development.”
Don Morrison of the Dakota Resource Council told EnergyWire: When you’re
rushing, things go wrong.
Don’t go thinking
Louisiana is trying to hide anything, though. Put your tinfoil hats away! It’s
just that they don’t have a list of spills — the Coast Guard’s National Response
Centerdoes in their database. Unfortunately, that center and its
database are shutdown.
What can Louisiana do? Its hands are tied. Do you expect
it to monitor and keep track of its own affairs, after all? No, everyone knows
outsourcing to menially-paid labor that doesn’t pay attention or give a damn is
the way to go. It’s their fault Louisiana has yet to
fulfill EnergyWire’s March 21 Freedom of Information Act request for the
missing data, right?
Getting their hands on
the missing data from Louisiana will help EnergyWire illustrate a much clearer picture for
the industry, government, and the public about the hazards and detriments of
the oil and gas industry — something that very much needs to be confronted and
discussed openly, honestly, and frankly if this planet is to survive.
Only
Texas topped Louisiana in 2013 in operating refinery capacity. It also contains
a vast industrial network that includes several refineries and petrochemical
plants, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In
2011, Louisiana was top of it game,
producing nearly 10 percent of America’s total natural gas.
EnergyWire states that
each state compiles its data differently. Compiling the data from each state
into a comprehensive unit for examination is difficult work. Often even the
data from states openly complying and participating in EnergyWire’s data
gathering is incomplete.
Don’t forget that the Associate Presswrote
last October, for example, that somewhere between 300 and 750 oil spills went unreported in North Dakota in 2012 alone. That’s
a single year, in a single state, and only what’s known to have been unreported
at this time. North Dakota’s regulators, however, like many states, are not
required to tell the public about the spills. State law does not stipulate any
such thing. How do you like that?
Or perhaps Oklahoma
will opt for another alternative altogether.
H/T Think Progress.
Author: Dylan Hock is
a writer, professor, videographer and social activist. He earned an MFA
in Creative Writing from Naropa
University in 2003 and
has been an Occupier since
Oct. of 2011. He is published in a number of little magazines and has an essay
on the muzzling of Ezra Pound due out July, 2014 in the anthology "Star Power: The Impact of Branded Celebrity." He is also a contributing writer for Take
10, Liberal
America and Green Action News. Follow him at Google+!