BP Oil Spill Counter

Mobile, Alabama television station WKRG (the local CBS affiliate) has posted a "gallons of oil spilled" counter on its website. I have pasted it here - it's incredible (and highly discouraging) to watch just how quickly the spill totals roll by...

WKRG.com News

BP Makes Landfall in Alabama

A story in today's Los Angeles Times confirms the beginning of what I discussed earlier this week: oil has arrived on the shores of Alabama. According to the story, a dozen oil balls had been found on the beaches of Dauphin Island and were being analyzed by the Coast Guard - but that they were confident they were part of the Deepwater Horizon spill.

This is one of the three areas that will ultimately be impacted by this spill: the political area, tourism, and the seafood industry. We have friends with property on Dauphin Island, and while they enjoy hosting friends and neighbors for afternoons on the water and evenings on the dock I don't think they planned on inviting BP.

No, like a rude party guest, BP invited themselves...

BP CEO: Yeah, We'll See...

A story by Mike Soraghan in today's Energy and Environment Daily (subscription required) reports that Tony Hayward, the global CEO of BP, is offering conflicting responses on the lengths to which his company will go to cover the liabilities resulting from the Gulf spill.

Publicly he had stated, "BP is taking very seriously its responsibility. ... All legitimate claims will be paid." In a meeting with Democrat Florida Senator Bill Nelson just minutes after, however, he said in response to Nelson's question about BP's responsibility for economic damages that "That's something we'll have to work out in the future."

As I had mused in yesterday's post on the economic impact on the Gulf Coast region, this looks as if the stage is being set for a series of long and messy court battles - perhaps dragging on for years. And the pending Senate bill retroactively raising the $75 million cap for legal liability to $10 billion - well, is that going to be enough? Following the Valdez accident in 1989, Exxon paid $3.8 billion to cover damages and cleanup costs, and that was just for a portion of coastline in one state - the most expensive spill in history, if not the largest.

With the potential that this spill could impact not just the Gulf Coast but also the East Coast (depending on how the currents direct the oil), what will this figure ultimately be? Will $10 billion even come close?

BP and the Gulf Coast: The End of a Way of Life?

Having lived on the Gulf Coast of Alabama for nearly ten years, I am very familiar with the significant impact tourism and the seafood industry have on state revenue. The importance of the oysters, shrimp, crab and fish caught by the men and women of south Mobile County; the beaches and resorts and restaurants of south Baldwin County. Both play a significant role in the sustainability of the state; in fact, 33 percent of the state's total tourism revenue comes from these two southernmost counties.

During those ten years, I made many friends whose livelihoods depend direclty on either tourism or seafood - and in the days following the explosion and capsizing of the Deepwater Horizon platform and the spread of enough oil to equal four Exxon Valdez accidents per week, I have grown quite concerned for their futures. Hurricanes have come and gone and seafood dumping has waxed and waned, but through it all the small communities on the bayous, the rivers and the beaches have recovered and endured.

This time I fear things may be different, especially for the seafood harvesting community.

Beaches can be cleaned, restored and reopened; I've seen it many times. But wetlands, rivers and wildlife - what is the price that is going to be paid by the families who rely on them for survival?

Although I don't agree with the belligerent language of the Secretary of the Interior - keeping a boot on the throat of BP? - I think that BP does bear financial responsibility for the cleanup of the Gulf and its shoreline, and for compensating the families of the 11 workers never found. But will they held accountable for compensating the workers who are in very real danger of losing their livelihoods? I think back to the Exxon Valdez accident 21 years ago; compensation cases were dragged through the courts for years, awards were reduced, and some 600 residents of Alaska who were party to the suits passed away without ever seeing a resolution to the case.

Now, over two decades later, we have a different environmental catastrophe and I cannot help but wonder how the financial compensation and court cases will play out. A new bill has been introduced in Congress that would increase the limit - currently $75 million - for which a company would be responsible with a cleanup. But this doesn't address what sort of compensation there may be - or will be pursued - by the folks impacted by this disaster. How many millions or billions of dollars will BP have to pay out?

Can you really put a pricetag on what is happening in Alabama, or Mississippi, or Louisiana? And if you could, where will the money come from - higher prices at the BP pump?