The leaked oil spread over thousands of square miles across the Gulf of Mexico. Like the Exxon Valdez spill, dispersants were also pumped and spread over the leak to help break up the oil in the area. In May, oil began to contaminate beaches in Louisiana. Here it was manually removed, which proved to be very difficult in the marshes and estuaries. In June, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida beaches became affected by the oil. Total, around 1,100 miles of the coast was polluted, and three years later, around 340 miles still needed to be cleaned up. In June 2013, cleanup finally ended in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, and in Louisiana in April 2014 (Pallardy). BP has spent over $28 billion on their cleanup operations (Robertson & Krauss).
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There are many new laws that have taken effect since the recent oil spills, including that all tankers have to have double hulls in the U.S. by 2015 after the Exxon Valdez spill. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are now helping to prevent ships carrying oil from colliding with other ships and from hitting objects in the water. An increased number of inspections are ensuring that oil wells are safe and following governmental regulations and laws (Zook). These different safety measures can all decrease the likelihood of future oil spills, they cannot guarantee there will never be one again. The only way to do that would be to stop oil drilling completely, which does not look like it will happen anytime in the near …show more content…
Seismic testing can harm whales, dolphins and fish and a “2010 Congressional Research Service report said research studying the impact of seismic surveys on fish and marine mammals produced mixed findings” (Dalesio). The decision to drill or not off the Atlantic Coast is a “trade-off between financial gain and the environmental costs” (Dalesio).
Current estimates by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of drilling in the Atlantic are between 1.3 and 5.6 billion barrels of oil, or an average of about 3.3 billion barrels. North Carolina is expected to have about 20,000 jobs created in fifteen years if oil is exploration begins in 2017. Thousands more jobs will be created along the East Coast as a result of all those jobs. Oil prices will likely not decrease however because oil is a worldwide demand, and we will likely be just decreasing our foreign oil imports as a result of the increased domestic oil
There are many new laws that have taken effect since the recent oil spills, including that all tankers have to have double hulls in the U.S. by 2015 after the Exxon Valdez spill. Global Positioning Systems (GPS) are now helping to prevent ships carrying oil from colliding with other ships and from hitting objects in the water. An increased number of inspections are ensuring that oil wells are safe and following governmental regulations and laws (Zook). These different safety measures can all decrease the likelihood of future oil spills, they cannot guarantee there will never be one again. The only way to do that would be to stop oil drilling completely, which does not look like it will happen anytime in the near …show more content…
Seismic testing can harm whales, dolphins and fish and a “2010 Congressional Research Service report said research studying the impact of seismic surveys on fish and marine mammals produced mixed findings” (Dalesio). The decision to drill or not off the Atlantic Coast is a “trade-off between financial gain and the environmental costs” (Dalesio).
Current estimates by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management of drilling in the Atlantic are between 1.3 and 5.6 billion barrels of oil, or an average of about 3.3 billion barrels. North Carolina is expected to have about 20,000 jobs created in fifteen years if oil is exploration begins in 2017. Thousands more jobs will be created along the East Coast as a result of all those jobs. Oil prices will likely not decrease however because oil is a worldwide demand, and we will likely be just decreasing our foreign oil imports as a result of the increased domestic oil