Passing of the Buck

What may become the worst man made disaster in world history is now taking place in the Gulf of Mexico. Whether it reaches this status depends on when or if the well will be capped. Tuesday the Senate took up the question of responsibility and the answers they received were as expected.  British Petroleum, who sells the produce of the facility, blamed Trans Ocean who installed it, who in turn blamed Halliburton, who was contracted to do the maintenance.

I don’t question these assertions. But I postulate this analogy. If someone at a catered affair dies from eating tainted food the caterer can blame the food retailer who can then blame the wholesaler.  Even the “farmer” who sold the lethal provender might be involved although, if it was meat it would be silly and futile to posthumously prosecute the offending animal. Whatever the accusations; in a court of law the caterer would be the party responsible for restitution, regardless of subsequent litigation.  

The eruption in the Gulf is the starkest example yet of the chances we are taking with our continued dependence on fossil fuels, in this case oil. Most of us have heard the arguments pro and con of this course. It’s the pro part, which relies on oil drilling as a means of “energy independence,” with which I take issue. It may seem simplistic, but I find a corporation named British Petroleum suspect as a source of American energy independence. The same can be said for Royal Dutch Shell. Whatever the corporate ownership, oil from any private company goes on the world market where it is sold at the same price as that from Saudi Arabia and Iran. If oil drilled in America were nationalized the argument, as far as it goes, would have merit. The interests of this country are not dependent on the profits of any corporation, home grown or otherwise. In the case of Goldman Sachs there appears to be an inverse relationship.

Even the extremely hard headed have probably removed their “drill baby drill” bumper sticks while still preaching their gospel, albeit a bit less vociferously. Most of the others have gone underground, but only temporarily. Given this opposition a sufficiently green world is at best a long way off and will require sacrifice by those of us who inhabit it, although this would be alleviated in part by the jobs created. The alternative is a world which one day may be difficult, if not impossible, for human habitation.