"America's Chernobyl"

'The Spill' by Venezuelan cartoonist Eneko

One of the worst environmental disasters in US history is currently unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico, and the reactions to it are an indictment of the capitalist oil industry and their bought-and-paid-for politicians.

After an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon offshore rig, operated by BP, an underwater oil well is currently discharging 790,000 – 4 million litres of oil a day into a precious marine wilderness that is home to a whole range of species that have already been pushed to the brink of extinction by human activity, such as loggerhead turtles. Eleven workers are missing, presumed dead. The spill already covers an area the size of Puerto Rico.

Louie Miller, Mississippi State Director of the Sierra Club, said: “I don’t think I’m overstating the case by saying this is America’s Chernobyl.”

The US government has put the blame for the disaster on the shoulders of BP, who recently announced a 135% increase in profits for the first quarter of 2010. Although BP have accepted responsibility, also involved were the notorious Halliburton of Dick Cheney/privatising Iraq fame, who were responsible for placing a concrete cap on the undersea well. But what all of this ignores is the responsibility of the government itself, after just last month Obama announced permission for further offshore oil drilling in US waters, a decision that was slammed by environmentalists.

The burning, sinking Deepwater Horizon rig

The fact of the matter is that accidents like this are inevitable with offshore oil drilling. Just last year, a similar blowout took place in the Timor sea off Australia, but unlike the current disaster, didn’t receive the same worldwide media coverage. Obama rejected calls from environmentalists to cancel planned lease sales in the mid-Atlantic for more offshore oil drilling in the aftermath of the disaster. His was just the most public face of a massive PR offensive to try and keep the offshore oil drilling programme on schedule.

Obama’s stated motivation is to reduce the dependence of the US on foreign oil, primarily from the Middle East, which is a real strategic consideration for US imperialism. But more simply, politicians in the US need millions of dollars to be able to fight and in election campaigns, and most of that money comes from corporate donors such as the oil industry.

Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, a state whose Gulf coastline will be devastated by the oil, told the Senate on Friday “I don’t believe we should retreat” on offshore drilling. In a complete betrayal of the ordinary people of her state, who are set to face the destruction of their environment and livelihoods, she pushed hard for continued extraction. She has repeatedly tried to downplay the disaster to the media, claiming it will soon be resolved, rather than the truth which is that this will devastate the Gulf of Mexico for years to come.

The reason for her hard work? Between 2000-8, Landrieu received $547,000 from oil companies, making her one of the highest recipients of oil money in the US Congress.

The spill seen from space. See the tiny white dot of a plane in the upper left for a sense of scale.

Mainstream media outlets have also picked up the slack, with articles such as the New York Times’ ‘The spill vs. a need to drill,’ which claimed that a fossil fuel free future is “decades away”. The fact remains however that this propaganda is only required to cover up the obvious: the huge amounts of investment being poured into the offshore drilling programme could be used to transform the US and world energy economy to one dependent on wind, solar and other non-deadly forms of power.

BP itself has also been busy. Although the costs of the clean up have already wiped 6% off their market value, federal law itself limits the non cleanup costs for BP to $75 million. But BP have found an ingenious way to try and get out of their obligations to the communities they have devastated: they are tricking local fishermen out of the right to sue them for the damage to their livelihoods.

It works like this: BP are paying local fishermen to help with the cleanup operation. These fishermen, who very shortly aren’t going to have virtually any fish left to catch in the dead waters, are desperate for cash and sign up. But the contracts contain clauses exempting BP from responsibility, meaning the fishermen are waiving their right to make BP pay for their environmental crimes. BP claim this is just a legal mixup, but the consequences will be the same.

The Gulf of Mexico is a region of incredible ecological diversity and natural beauty. But it is also home to fascinating human cultural diversity, with a people who are the products of waves of settlement over centuries, including the Cajun people descended from French colonists, Native Americans, descendants of African slaves and other European peoples. These human communities have already faced the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, and the failure of capitalism to protect them from natural disaster. Now, they have to face a disaster directly caused by the actions of the capitalist oil industry. For the sake of humans and the ecological homes they inhabit, it’s time for the world to start bringing the oil industry to a conclusion, and taking energy industries out of the hands of profit making corporations in order to transform the energy economy into an ecologically sustainable future.