Almost five weeks since Deepwater Horizon plummed, the economic disaster has forced most to consider how the greatest oil company error to date could have been prevented. BP is beyond petroleum. They might be beyond financial help and viability too if the national disaster creates unsolved environmental damage. Current estimates are 1.2 million barrels of oil dumped and lost in the Gulf of Mexico (19k/day X 60 more days).. The public debate prior to DH was to drill baby drill. In fact the diversified energy bill had strong lobbying for deep water oil and gas exploration. What was obvious before and after is had Deepwater Horizon been a bastion of wind farms and solar arrays – now technologically viable, the environmental cleanup party currently underway would have been impacting a few hundred folks at best. Instead we have leaders scrambling for a technology prayer to top kill, back fill and throw mud 5000 leagues below the sea.
If you follow the cheap electricity argument, nuclear is the current answer – excluding possible clean up costs. Sure “sailboats” are not fast when compared to nuclear powered “armadas”. But who needs the Armada when you can out think, out maneuver and otherwise be ahead of the energy curve through clean techniques. Political leaders like Senator Lamar Alexander want to advocate the nuclear argument from a national security and energy independence perspective. Yet the nuclear option seems like another Chernoble waiting to happen. At the end of August when BP is likely to save itself -with US government involvement – the economics will have solidified electric power alternatives that preserve rather than destroy our neighbors’ hoods, our beaches, our food supply and the irreplaceable land and seas. Drilling alternatives will be the rage because the new estimates of 19000 barrels a day will have drowned out most drill baby drill lunatics. Consumers concerned about the world’s greatest oil company disaster can vote with their dollars and buy vehicles now ready to roll off of manufacturers production lines. Consumers rather than politicos control the mess displaying daily on a screen near you.