Editorial 12.5, May 2010, by Deirdre Helfferich Her Oiliness Senator Lisa Murkowski made national news with her objection to lifting the current $75 million cap on liability for oil spills. Senator Murkowski expressed her concern for “small” oil companies’ ability to drill for oil in offshore fields, such as the deepwater well that is now spewing gazillions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico: "It would be impossible, or perhaps close to impossible, for any energy company that is smaller than the super majors, smaller than the national oil companies, to operate in the [outer continental shelf]. $10 billion in strict liability would preclude their ability to obtain financing, to obtain the bonds or insurance for any exploration." This begs the question of whether an oil company should be allowed to take such a huge risk in the first place if they can’t afford to pay for the cleanup. And we’re not talking about a “small” oil company. We’re talking about BP, whose average daily profits are $97 million ($97 million times 365 = $35.405 billion per year in profits—that means after expenses, remember). The paltry $17.5 million per day that the company spent on cleanup through May 11 (which doesn’t seem to be doing much good) cuts into those profits, but by no means takes them into the red. They are still well in the oily black. But really, Congressional shills like Senator Murkowski aren’t to blame so much for the lure of the near half a million dollars’ worth of temptation dangled in front of them (her career’s tally of donations from the oil industry)—because where do the oil companies get that money from in the first place? Us. We caused this disaster. Every single one of us. Our demand for cheap gas, for out-of-season muskmelons, for polyester suits, for throwaway paper cups, for cheap air fare to, for cute novelty pens, for shoes we don’t repair, for a thousand products and services on demand and at ridiculously low prices—our demand for the artificially low-cost world of consumption that we inhabit and nurture—this has created the insatiable demand for oil that in turn creates a political and economic climate of utter corruption that makes this sort of accident inevitable. But the oil companies don’t have to worry, because, like the Exxon Valdez disaster, the taxpayers will end up paying the real bills and get only a token in return. After two decades. Maybe. No real consequences for them, and diffused consequences for us. So nothing really changes. And our delegation to Congress reflects this: Lisa Murkowski, Mark Begich, and Don Young are united in their support for offshore drilling in the Beaufort and Chuckchi seas. And who elects them? Us again. Will we require a Gulf of Mexico-sized disaster in the Arctic to finally do something about it?
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