Drill, Spill, Repeat? Breaking Offshore Oil Drilling's Destructive Cycle

The Gulf of Mexico is home to a
wide variety of marine life.

The Atlantic bluefin tuna
spawns in these waters.

Sperm whales inhabit
the area year round

and whale sharks frequent

the northern Gulf often.

Five of the world's sea turtle species

are found in the Gulf of Mexico

All of these marine creatures

depend on this ocean for survival

Yet there is another species

that depends on something else

something very deep beneath the sea.

Drill Spill Repeat

Four years ago,

The Gulf of Mexico was
immeasurably changed.

Fans of oil sheen still

drift along the sea and coastline

We've been continually altering
the seascape

in the gulf for many years

Today, the Gulf of Mexico

is a virtual city of oil
and gas platforms.

They stretch farther than the eye

can see eclipsing the horizon

Whether the Gulf will ever recover

still remains a mystery

How we got here is not

The flash of power

The gleam of oil

well you know what makes makes your auto run

For millions of years

this source of powers slept

peacefully in the dark recesses
of the earth.

Until modern magic

Loosed the liquid energy

from its subterranean prison

gray areas became

Second only to taxes

oil is the greatest revenue

in the US Treasury.

In 1896

the first offshore drilling rigs were

established on the continental shelf

near the coast of Santa Barbara,
California

In 1969, Santa Barbara experienced

the worst environmental

disaster of the time

over 2.5 million

gallons of crude oil gushed

into the ocean after a blowout

at an offshore drilling rig.

Over 100 miles of pristine California

beach were littered with oily dead birds
and marine animals

After Santa Barbara

the nation was divided into

pro offshore drilling and
anti offshare drilling

the debate became so contentious it
even became a campaign topic

in the 1988 presidential election.

Little did we know what was

waiting for us just around the corner
in March of 1989

The worst oil spill
in this nation's history

It took place on Friday,

when a super tanker
owned by the Exxon Corporation

hit a reef 25 miles
off the port of Valdez

By today 10 million gallons
of oil

covered a hundred square
miles of ocean.

We all know

that human activities are changing...

In the wake of the Exxon President

HW Bush reacted

to the public outcry and

banned offshore drilling.

That ban was continued by his successor

and lasted for over 15 years.

It wasn't until 2007

in President George W Bush's
second term

that he lifted his father's 17-year ban
on offshore drilling

We need to take action now to expand
domestic oil production.

So today I have issued a memorandum

to lift the excutive prohibition

on oil exploration in OCS

with this action,
the excutive branch's restrictions

on this exploration
have been cleared away.

Oil means horsepower
in a horsepower using world

More power to you.

I'm Bonnie Shoemaker,
I'm a PhD physicist

from the California
Institute of Technology

I brought my little plane
out here in April 2010

to see what I could do to help.

The scientists that I would take out,

they were actually changed

once I took them out there
in the plane

and they saw with their own eyes

They were flying over miles

and miles and miles
of non-stop oil.

That's when they realized
that this is really bad.

We probably have singlehandedly done

the most to force accountability
on these guys.

Because I come back from every flight

and I report
I've put in 20 NRC reports

The coast guard has to answer.

the gas company has to answer.

So it's like, oh god she flew again
Here we go

It was not pretty, what I was showing

even around the BP site.

The Deepwater Horizon

there was extensive sheen contingent leakage
into 2012

and I'm not sure that anyone else

was monitoring that.

That cost them a lot of money,

to go out there and fix that.

if nobody bothered to notice it
the wouldn't have had to do anything.

So I was not popular

And what's wrong with letting
people know the truth.

The people of BP
made a commitment to the gulf

and every day since we've
worked hard to keep it.

BP has paid over $23 billion

to help people and businesses who are affected

we're paying for all spill related
clean up costs.

Today the beaches in the gulf

are open for everyone to enjoy

We're making sure people know that the

Gulf is open for business

The beaches are beautiful
the seafood is delicious

last year many areas even reported
record tourism seasons

I was born here, I'm still here
and so is BP.

We were committed to the Gulf

for everyone who loves it
and everyone who calls it home.

I thought leave things commercial fishermen

in Southeast Louisiana is not

as good as those BP commercials

would have you believe.

My shrimp production is down

still down between 40% to 60%

in my area and I've been making a living
in Lake bohren myself for 29 years.

working on a boat,
I can't do it anymore

My oyster production is down at least 93%

In the last 4 years I might have sold
about 1500 sacks

in 4 years.

I used to sell that a week

And 240 million of BP commercials

as a lot of people believe that we're OK.
We're not.

People are losing it

because they can't do what they
want to do for a living.

So you you get a choice, let's go
do something else.

Give you an option,
we'l retrain you

I say watcha goin retrain me to be
a brain surgeon?

or a cable installer, either one
of them sucks

I don't have the education
to be a brain surgeon

And I'm not going to install cable

If you you take me and put me
in the carpenter field

or in welding, I'm putting
somebody else out of a job.

So here comes the domino effect
we were telling you about.

Oyster production is like
the canary in a mine

Again the canary dies,
you in trouble, get outta there

Until we get our oyster population back
which filters the water

We're not gonna have a good environment.

Commercial fishermen

You have highs and lows of economics

highs and lows of weather hurricanes

you know, but this man-made

disaster is just lingering,
we are still in trouble

The spill has brought

light to a lot

of the issues in the gulf

all of the ancillary businesses

family fisheries, docks,
the marinas

The ice houses,
the transportation companies

People who provide
snacks and groceries to stores.

All of that

is a direct reflection

of what can happen

when things cease

But after oil spill.

You know they shut recreational fishing

they shut commercial fishing

and that just killed everybody

in this part of the world.

It's affected everything

it's affecting every business around

That's how we count out the seasons

It's oyster season
and it's crab season

It's crawfish season. You know

and even that we're having

some issues with we've taken it

for granted for so

long that it's it's

a little disconcerting

And it feels different.

How you approach things.

It's affecting my my life
and my culture.

This is not a normal
situation.

To see what it was like

and to see what it is like today.

My name's Al Sonceri co-owner and president

of T and J Oyster Company

Been in business here
for 138 years

and with my brother

We've owned the business

since the mid 1980s

The shucking house
has been in operation

since 1921

you'll see today that

there is no one in here,

we'd have 4 people here

6 on that side

and 7 over here

we shuck $120 to 140
sacks of oysters a day

Now it you know

if we do a 3rd of that that's plenty.

We're having to get what we can

that is of higher quality
and its limited

We're not going to just
sell anything

We're not gonna do it
under our brand

we've been doing this 138 years

to do something that's inferior

wouldn't be the right thing to do

for our families business.

Well I used to get very
emotional talking about this

but have began to be able
to compartmentalize the whole thing

and not think about it as the people

that worked out here

and processed our oysters,
we all grew up with.

This cooler used to always be filled
up with product

I got a few shells

that we shucked over the last 10 days

Louisiana used to produce

40% of

all the market our

oysters from their public

oyster grounds public grounds

used to produce almost

100% of all seen

and since the oil disaster

those areas had been non productive

more and more processors

like ourselves have gone

out of business and

as time goes on

there's gonna be less of us doing

this because we can't hold out

We haven't received anything

from BP, we've

been able and go through

all those years operation

our families have gone 5 generations

through all those different ups and downs

the wars as the natural disasters

and this man-madedisaster about the

biggest hurdle we've ever
had to overcome.

11 men died that day

Don't forget it

Every one of those men they

had families they had wives
and parents and children.

And all those families have

been deprived of their loved ones.

Everybody thinks about the long-term

pollution in the Gulf

and it's out there.

But don't forget, we're talking
about human lives here.

The industry over and

over and has proven itself

to be exceedingly

irresponsible irresponsibility

includes covering

up how much they pollute

BP did not want

any outside help,
and expert

outside help from around

the world was offered

And rejected

And the reason they turned them down

it's because they didn't want

anybody to know

exactly how much

oil was being released

from that explosion.

The reason they didn't want

anybody to know how much

they were polluting is because

the fine and is based

on the amount of pollution

I apologize.

I do not want to live in the country

where any time a citizen

or a corporation does

something that is legitimately wrong.

It is subject to some

sort of political pressure

That is again in my words

Amounts to a shakedown.

Local communities and those

who joined a response team

to help with the cleanup
have not recovered.

Their communities have not recovered

Life as they know it has changed
indefinitely.

They may never get their lives back

They were letting people swim in the water

Right in front of me dispersants,
they were spraying.

and all the animals are trying
to get out of the water.

These animals were alive

These suckers were crawling out of the water.

Crabs, mullet, flounder, shrimp

2010 in May

I went to work with BP

and the tragic started in my lift

In the the 3rd week of program I fell out

BAm I had to go get rushed
to the emergency room.

I'm puking, throwing up
shittin on myself, bleeding out my ass

So he said son, you've been chemically poisoned.

Why don't you have respirators

and suits and tape around your boots
and gloves.

and get our contacts

in stuff I said they never never

give us any,

he said. Yeah, I shouldn't be on this war

So I would back Tomas supervised

the pool blood out of me.

Me and my wife a why secondhand

splurge Sarwan back supervisor

What does doctor told me he

told me if I said anything else

I'd be terminated.

In 2000. 11 are supposed

to well by the fall of 2000

the not so sick and it was

a justice. It was all us

coming across those duties nets

and it's in that dispersants

fixed everything touches.

It sticks to the so on

its sticks hands I see

stick to my shoes walking house

and sticking to floor it me inside

And expose my family.

80 90% business was repairs

because mission in Congo trolls

are down turn around over a hole one

they will smile Texas incident drought

down because I no longer handle

he used commercial gear coming

out got from Mexico that's new

a of news used yet found

will touch you know as I don't touch

me, I know it's talks

There's 2 kinds of people,

the ones that get sick and no

one's gonna get so many

different things wrong with

me now. And never

had problems with I've

lost faith in an analysis

system, I think

our government is.

Prostitute in itself.

The people who sell should then

for.

People like myself.

Older people.

We should have been given some

kind of morning they made

victims of victims

I was recovering from a train

and arm that can recover.

There's a human health crisis

raging in the Gulf.

They don't think a lot of people know

they but its traders Gazans

in people who are in very, very sick

is something called Gulf Coast into Rome

that people have in their

so many symptoms

are included in their millions neurological

symptoms rumors memory

loss policy our part an

kidney damage here's skin

damage and skin rashes

years.

Cancer starting to emerge

causes oil to enter the body

more readily correction is

the the solvent opens

up the cell walls

it goes through it. That's

why it breaks up the rail once

it in the body Oriel targets

every organ system the liver

the kidney the heart to the brain

everything the mixture of correction

in oil is highly

toxic, we know this

There have been studies, then

from previous oil spills

particularly the Exxon Valdez

oil spill corrects it 95-27

contains a very toxic

solvent new talks ethanol

it causes internal bleeding

the cleanup workers were suffering

from internal bleeding

hemorrhaging one wing BT choose

to use this toxic

dispersant well first of all, they're

allowed to use it.

Under our current regulations

2 million gallons

of corrective were released.

We're not just talking down oil

spill. We're talking about the

chemical experiment.

It was highly experimental

2 years that by you a

dispersant in this major

oil spill.

This is an industry that

has a track record for running

roughshod over local

and state governments and regulators

And the public.

Most people just aren't aware

how massive of

an enterprise is going

on on the Louisiana coast

and a lot of these pipelines were

meant to be in water and

salt water is very corrosive

So there is, there is

a constant problem with

with leaking pipelines.

So without those wetlands.

You know that that's really what's

necessary for protecting you

know our coastal communities from storm

surge hurricanes.

You know it's now had this stretch

of imagination that we could have a mortal

blow out situation in

the Gulf,

combined with the category 5

hurricane you know washing all

that oil into the short, that's

what keeps me up at night.

BP disaster was

was predictable poorly regulated

industry, you know

maximizing profits cutting

corners taking risks

in some senses, it just happened

to be VP. They're not some

outlier in the industry

The lessons that should have been learned

from the BP disaster have nothing

Dear risky practices

it happen any time you're drilling

in deep water.

In terms of response preparedness

were willfully it unprepared

In fact, we would be

in a similar situation

that we were in 2000

and 10 when it comes to mobilize

in response process is not

a matter of if,

it's a matter of when.

We would like to see them held

fully accountable for causing

the largest man made environmental

disaster in US history

The exploration side,

the industry is moving far

too fast for the response

side and it should be the other

way around. There's also this

absurd honored system

by the industry to report

their own violations the leaks

and suppose that we're finding on a regular

basis. I

played out in vastly

underreported in terms of size

and allowed Tanzania reported are.

The oil and gas industry

is pressuring the federal government

to allow the first step

in offshore drilling in the Atlantic

as soon as possible

This first step known as

seismic air again blasting

not only leads the way for risky

drilling but threatens the survival

of marine species, caught

in the crossfire of these blasts

Seismic air guns towed

by ships and faster

raise in mid blasts

of compressed air into the

ocean mapping the sea floor

for deeply buried pockets

of oil and gas.

The blasts from these air

guns are almost incomprehensible

lout 100,000

times louder than a jet

plane Amgen and powerful

enough to penetrate several

miles deep into the sea

floor the dynamite

like blasts are repeated

every 10 seconds

24 hours a day

3 days to weeks

to even months on end

seismic blasts threaten

not only the hearing of marine

life they threaten their very

survival.

More than half a million people

in coastal communities on the

east coast of the United States

depend on a healthy vibrant

Ocean for their livelihoods seismic

air again blasting will put the

stability of the regional

fisheries and those that

depend on them in jeopardy

Our government is currently

taking steps to open the Atlantic

to offshore drilling in every

single ocean where we have derailed

time and time again

we have spell.

It's scary for me here

that they want put offshore

oil platforms, off the coast

of the Atlantic it is pretty irresponsible

think they're well you know we've learned our

lessons it'll be fine.

If anybody would like to

find out about the

real cost for drilling

offshore they should come see us here

in Louisiana.

When you don't have a life form

a wreath at the reef is dead

The habitats dead I use the

kits ÂŁ10,000 a week

We're down ÂŁ3,000 a week

It's not gonna be pretty light

is they know it will, will

be changed.

Mississippi has seen a 50%

drop in the number

of wetlands along our

coast in a 100

year period.

Any time you move in the oil

and gas will move in America

You then have problems.

You don't have spilled.

At what point are we willing

to say enough.

Democracy is not

a spectator sport.

It sounds sort of rhetorical

and cliched but I've lived

it. I've seen it happen. I've

seen communities come together build

coalitions eyeing that we can work

together and we can break this cycle

On January 20-7

20 4-team trade

Beach North Carolina did

just that this small

community came together

to oppose their mayor's support

for seismic blasting off their

coast citizen after

citizens spoke up and

shared their vision for the.

All we now revealed in here

and say, you know, I have to say

I hope that you will think

again at SATs testing times hard

hats. I want to

have to sell things just first

down steeply Patel might the

them there of players that mean testing

In in the cost of this the incident

to to trade seismic testing

The group also huge residents really

can't see how and I respect

that you offered on its side and the,

but as an elected rappers I believe

through their representatives and I think

people need. It was pretty clear.

Was there they witnessed the

public outcry.

The next week they spoke

for their citizens and unanimously

voted to oppose seismic

blasting.

Resolution Council Eurovision worker

is it poses who does is our mission

and the role the oh.

Really good.

We're gonna start after and

the White House makes sense. There

are many other economically

productive ways that we can

work with our coastline so many

places are heavily dependent on

tourism, which employs

more people. So this is about

dollars and cents.

You know, people need to be thinking about protecting

assets that have.

Our communities,

our oceans our economies

Our future is our choice

Let's not let the wants of the

few outweigh the needs of the

many to your elected officials

stop Atlantic drilling before

it starts joined ICI

a and those have already taken

action and visit W

W W.spilled

repeat.

Politicians that

represent are keen to make

sure that whatever is

going to happen is done

in a manner so that people

are protected.

Because that's what
their responsibility is.