BP Oil Spill Essay

The purpose of environmental justice is fair treatment for everyone. Everyone should have respect to environmental practice and regulations, regardless of the their nationality, income, religion, and ethnicity. “The environmental justice movement has the idea that poor people are more exposed to a greater pollution, hazards, and environmental degradation than richer people.” (Withgott & Laposata, 2012). For example, during 1989 Exxon Valdez, a disaster struck causing an oil tanker with 38-million gallons of oil to wreck at Prince William Sound’s Bligh Reef offshore of Alaska. The disaster caused much damage such as wiping out ocean life as result Exxon paid billions in fines for the crisis.

Texas is the largest state in the United States, and the only one to once be its own independent state, giving it the nickname “The Lone Star State.” It is bordered with Mexico, and lies next to the Gulf of Mexico. Since Texas is next to the gulf, it is home to many ports for international trade. However, with so much trade comes the risk of pollution to the gulf, which eventually reaches the shores of many beaches in Texas.

Two main political issues today are the economy and the environment, a recent topic that involves these issues is the decision or lack thereof to go through with the Keystone pipeline XL. The pipeline stretches from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, via Texas and can provide immediate jobs and oil economic stimulation as well as economic stimulation for future generations. The problem is that while this project can mean a brighter future economically, it can also mean a darker future environmentally. Despite the possible environmental risks, the keystone pipeline XL project needs to be approved as it can provide energy security and a major economical stimulation for this generation and the next.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also referred to as the BP oil spill, occurred on April 20th, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico, near the Mississippi River Delta. The oil spill was marked as one of the worst corporate inflicted ecological disaster in our nation’s history. Not only has the spill been polluting the Gulf with barrels of oil, it has been polluting politics with millions of political cartoons in regards to the spill. Illustrating the different reactions of the BP oil spill, Drew Sheneman created a political cartoon between a female figure and a Republican looking down at the after effects of the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast. Sheneman’s political cartoon uses imagery, symbolism, and irony, to differentiate the woman and Republican’s different responses to the tragic oil spill.

Disregarding some environmental factors related to the Keystone XL pipeline, I believe that it will do great justice to both Canada and the United States of America. This pipeline will create jobs, increase the economy, and strengthen American and Canadian energy security. Currently Canadian unemployment rate has increased vastly from March 2014 to 7.1% and the American rate has increased to 5.5%. By initiating this pipeline project, more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created and it will also add an additional 1.8 million employment in the US over the next 22 years. As the number of jobs increase, the economy will benefit from this highly because of taxes. From the taxes, both countries will have a vast amount money to support

Previously, the most controversial issue about the Mississippi Delta was whether it was shaped like a leaf or like a foot of a bird. However, these simple days are no longer; the famous delta faces a great amount of crucial controversy. In the summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina and Rita, caused the Mississippi Delta to suffer severely. When the monstrous storm hit, it demolished “nearly 2,000 square miles of deltaic wetlands,” meaning that even the defense against the flood was destructed. When the delta was devoid of protection, this lead to the river no longer being able to replenish the necessary sediments to continue the life of the delta. This unfortunately was not the only tragedy that struck this region within a short span of five years.

Trading the resource called oil became a popular demand in most countries especially The United States of America. Canada started to become richer with money from this a resource. The U.S. wanted a more efficient way to get their oil from Canada, so the U.S. and Canada created a Keystone pipeline to deliver this oil from one country to the next. Over the years a new proposition came along to build another pipeline called the Keystone pipeline XL for an even more efficient way to deliver oil. With this new idea, a giant controversy was born. The dynamic controversy between the two sides of the Keystone pipeline being created in Canada has sparked arguments across Canada about the pros and cons of this project.

Fracking is the process of breaking the rock with chemicals and water 3 to 7 miles underground, tearing up the land around the well, putting chemicals underground that can cause defects of crop growth, harming the environment. When done gathering the oils some companies dump unwanted fracking fluids back beneath the surface. This causes plants and the living things that are eating from them contaminated by the underground hydraulic chemicals. (Source 6) In 2010 there was a fracking explosion destroying a huge body of water. This caused a pressurized flow of oil through the Gulf of Mexico floor causing clean water with many plants an animals in it to become threatened by the chemicals. (Source 5)The chemicals and sand being left under the surface

The Outer Continental Shelf contains an estimated 14.3 billion barrels of oil and 55 trillion cubic feet of natural gas (“Offshore Oil Drilling”). When Americans consume more than one fourth of the world’s oil, but only produces 10%, it is safe to say that if the U.S. took advantage of drilling offshore, way more than a miniscule 10% of oil would be produced (“Offshore Oil Drilling”). Lifting the bans of restricted parts of the ocean will allow the U.S. to produce more oil and natural gas. Offshore drilling currently supports about 242,000 jobs across the country, with expanding this industry; the United States could create over 190,000 new jobs for Americans (“Energy Tomorrow”). In the current economic situation, the U.S. must take every opportunity that is available to create more jobs.

Before to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion, BP encountered numerous disasters and scandals and have a track record of ignoring saftey.

TransCanada is one of the largest company in the field of energy in North America (TransCanada, 2016). They own and operate many energy pipelines in Canada and U.S. They are the main promoters of Keystone XL pipeline (“Osborne, 2015). They have 65 years of experience in this field and have a solid financial track record. In the Keystone XL pipeline project, they failed miserably to manage the stakeholders. “At micro level, they were failed to convince the local land owners about the potential benefits from the project and local communities about the job creation from the project. At the macro level, they failed to engage with the labour unions and national environmental groups” (Casey,2011, para 3,4).

The event is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 which is also called the Gulf Oil spill of 2010. The Deepwater Horizon spill happened on April 20th, 2010 but didn’t start affecting things until April 22nd, 2010 because the oil rig had caught fire and sunk into the atlantic ocean and polluted surrounding areas. Supporters of the oil spill that were affected by the oil spill were all lined up in boats on June 2nd, 2010 were protesting. Also since people were protesting somebody wrote on the side of their boat in bright orange letters “44 days still pumping BP lied” and later got arrested for refusing to move their boat after authorities had asked. Also something else happened in June of 2010 the president at the time former president Barrack

Also, it needs to ensure that the corruption does not delay the actual implementation of the pipeline project in any way. If that happens, there are fluctuation risks involved as well.

Throughout our planet’s history, human rights have been violated countless times, and very little efforts have been made to address these violations and protect the people’s rights. When greed grips on to people, they seem to forget all that is ethical. They are willing to sacrifice the lives of others for their own personal gain. Human rights violations in Nigeria are a perfect example of this. Oil companies have failed to respond to numerous cases of human rights abuses in the region. Whenever there is an attempt of protest from the oppressed for oil company activities and environmental damage, Nigerian security forces have repeatedly beaten, detained and even killed people. The acts by oil companies continue to trouble the Niger Delta region to

According to Porter the competitiveness in any sector is significantly increased by the number of players operating in the field and their major competencies. In the Oil & Gas Industry the competition is significantly intensive, with the market being ruled by big giants such as Exxon Mobil, Total, ConocoPhillips, British Petroleum, Chevron and the Royal Dutch Shell etc. Appendix A shows the market values of these super majors.