Ringed seal. Credit: Sven Roeder

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged that “Shell screwed up” and announced they would not be allowed back into the Arctic without major changes. It was the right call, because a major oil spill in the Arctic ocean poses unacceptable risks to fragile Arctic marine ecosystems and the coastline, and would harm people who live in the Arctic and depend on the ocean for subsistence. Any major spill would also occur hundreds of miles from the nearest Coast Guard station, and recovery would be hampered by the constant threat of sea ice, low temperatures, high winds, fog and long stretches of darkness.  There is simply no proven technology to clean up a spill in Arctic conditions.

America’s Arctic Ocean is home to many of our nation’s most beloved wildlife species: polar bears, walrus, ice seals, beluga whales and more. While Shell will not be drilling in America’s Arctic in 2013, the Arctic Ocean could still be at risk next year when we are remembering the 25th anniversary of Exxon Valdez.  

It’s up to the American people to let President Obama know that drilling in America’s Arctic Ocean is risky and dangerous. Call President Obama at 202-456-1414, or
tweet the White House (@whitehouse) and tell the President to say no to drilling in the Arctic Ocean.  Here is an example:

Polar bears love their Arctic home– @whitehouse #SaveTheArctic and say no to risky and dangerous drilling

— Bentley Johnson (@rutherfordbhaze) March 26, 2013

Retweet to help save Arctic wildlife from drilling and tell @whitehouse to #SaveTheArctic!

To learn more about National Wildlife Federation’s work to protect the Arctic and Arctic wildlife, visit www.nwf.org/Arctic.

Tar mat coats marsh in Bay Jimmy off Louisiana’s Barataria Bay, March 2012 (NWF staff photo)

Ryan Lambert has been a Cajun fishing and hunting guide for 31 years and is alarmed by the decline he’s seen in the last two.

“This [Bay Jimmy] island should be covered with shorebirds and there are none,” he says. “They ought to be nesting in here. Any island before this oil spill, you come up to an island like this and you can’t hear yourself think. And look, it’s void of life.” Lambert says his speckled trout catch is also down 98 percent.

“You know, we’re used to going out … where this water is coming through and [picking] up 40 fish right there, no problem in a half hour,” he says. “You go try to catch a fish there right now, that’s not happening.” Lambert says he’s tired of hearing “Everything’s fine, come on down,” a message in some of BP’s ads. “Our whole life is upside-down, on hold, waiting to see what happens.”

He says two years later, it’s not fine — and it’s far from over.

It’s not just BP that wants to pretend everything’s fine—plenty of members of Congress have been more eager to rush back to reckless drilling than they have been to commit the federal government to comprehensive Gulf restoration.

I joined The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann last week to talk about continued Congressional inaction in the face of ongoing evidence of the oil’s destruction, particularly the troubling dolphin deaths:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to ask your members of Congress dedicate BP’s oil spill fines and penalties to Gulf restoration.

1. Highlight of the Week: Clean Air Act Faces More Attacks
2. Quote: Former EPA heads Bill Ruckelshaus and Christine Todd Whitman
3. Economic Story of the Week: Treasury grants spur clean energy
4. Editorial of the Week: No compromises on clean air and water
5. NWF tracking new Gulf oil spill incidents
6. Exxon Valdez Disaster, 22 Years Later
7. NWF Report Preview: Extreme Weather Impacting Energy Infrastructure
8. Happening this Week

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Highlight of the Week

Clean Air Act Faces More Attacks

The fate of the Clean Air Act still hangs in the balance this week as the Senate is slated to vote on Sen. Inhofe’s (R-OK) companion effort to block the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases. But several other senators have also offered additional roadblocks to prevent the EPA from reducing carbon pollution.

via NWF

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wants to add the Upton-Inhofe Dirty Air Act language to an unrelated small business bill. Sen. Rockefeller (D-WV) has proposed a two-year ban on EPA taking any action to limit carbon and methane pollution from stationary sources. Because a two-year delay could easily become permanent Senator Rockefeller’s proposed ban is not being taken lightly.

And Sen. Baucus (D-MT) is proposing an amendment to permanently exempt some of the largest carbon pollution sources from emissions standard. This amendment would also block the EPA from regulating carbon pollution resulting from land use changes. The Senate is expected to vote on all three of these measures this week as they reconvene.

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Quote:

William D. Ruckelshaus & Christine Todd Whitman

“Amid the virulent attacks on the EPA driven by concern about over-regulation, it is easy to forget how far we have come in the past 40 years. We should take heart from all this progress and not, as some in Congress have suggested, seek to tear down the agency that the president and Congress created to protect America’s health and environment…The American public will not long stand for an end to regulations that have protected their health and quality of life.”

-William D. Ruckelshaus and Christine Todd Whitman, former heads of EPA during the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, Washington Post.

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Economic Story of the Week

Treasury grants spur clean energy

According to a recently released study from the Bipartisan Policy Center, solar and wind subsidies distributed through treasury grants support renewable energy projects at about half the cost of tax credits. These grants are a product of recovery funding and are known as 1603, in reference to their section number.

These 1603 grants are promoted as one of the most effective incentives for industry expansion because they allow developers to claim cash grants amounting to 30 percent of their project. When using tax credits, project developers have to pay investment banks a significant premium or financing fee, which consumes a large portion of the subsidy and makes the incentive less efficient.

The 1603 grants were set to expire at the end of 2010 but were extended in the December tax break package. The study suggests that renewable energy development would benefit from a 5-10 year extension of the program, as it is has indicated tremendous returns in the creation of new jobs, new businesses, and new product development in both the solar and wind industries.

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Editorial of the Week

No compromises on clean air and water

(Providence Journal)

Paul Beaudette, Region I director for the National Wildlife Federation’s board of directors

Narragansett Bay, RI, via NOAA on Flickr

I am outraged to learn that the budget deficit is being used as cover to mount a reckless and irresponsible direct attack on the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. This assault by House leaders using a budget “continuing resolution” procedure will endanger the air we breathe, the water we drink and the wildlife and cherished places we enjoy around Rhode Island…. This legislation exploits the current budget crisis — a real concern to everyone — to pursue a hidden agenda long sought by polluter industries, at the expense of the American people. The attack on proven science and effective, worthy pollution controls is for wanton profits. It is not cheaper for society to allow pollution in any form when the victims of that pollution suffer from health problems we all pay for…. We all have a fundamental right to clean air and clean water. We should not return to the days of burning lakes and toxic dump sites. (More…)

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NWF Tracking Reports of Three Separate Incidents in Gulf

The National Wildlife Federation is tracking reports about what are likely three different incidents of oil and sediment in the Gulf. Oil coming ashore west of the mouth of the Mississippi River near Grand Isle is reportedly due to the discharge of a dormant well operated by a Houston-based oil company. New swaths of what could be oil have also appeared on the east side of the Mississippi River in the open water of the Chandeleur Sound. And Coast Guards have indicated that the sediment near the mouth of the Mississippi contains only a small amount of oil stirred up by dredging.

David Muth, coastal Louisiana state director for the National Wildlife Federation, expressed his frustration over the lack of solid information about the incidents. “Do we know for sure how many separate incidents we’re dealing with? Do we have a handle on how much oil is involved?” he asked. “If several simultaneous events are taking place, are they freak occurrences or are they routine? And is this indicative of the fact that we are a long way from having an effective response capability for offshore drilling?”

Congress still hasn’t acted on the National Commission’s recommendations. Until we strengthen and fully fund drilling safety and oversight programs, lift the liability cap on oil companies, and dedicate civil and criminal Clean Water Act penalties to Gulf Coast ecological restoration, the Gulf will suffer the consequences.

More on this story: The Times-Picayune, NWF Media Center

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Exxon Valdez Disaster, 22 Years Later

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (via Flickr's Arlis Reference)

Twenty two years ago, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in the Alaska’s Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into a beautiful and incredibly diverse ecosystem. The estimated direct wildlife death toll included 250,000 seabirds, 2,800 sea otters, billions of salmon and herring eggs, and much more.

The people and wildlife of Alaska continue to feel the effects of the spill today. Local fishing communities were devastated by the spill. Permits sold from generation to generation were rendered worthless. But despite a $2.5 billion cleanup effort, the federal government estimates only 15 percent of the oil was recovered through oil skimming and beach cleanup.

The year after the disaster, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act placing new regulations on oil shipping and requiring oil companies to have cleanup plans. However, last year’s Gulf oil disaster showed that much more needs to be done. BP consistently underplayed the size of the spill, and now there’s no guarantee fines or penalties will go to restoring the damaged ecosystem. Congress needs to act to close the regulatory loopholes.

More on this story…

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NWF Report Preview: Extreme Weather Impacting Energy Infrastructure

A new report to be released next week from National Wildlife Federation finds that extreme weather events brought on by climate change will increase the vulnerability of energy infrastructure across the United States. The combination of reliance upon hazardous sources of energy like deepwater drilling with extreme weather brought about by climate is filled with risk. In the wake of the recent tragic events in Japan, it is crucial to investigate potential risks and more climate-resilient energy options. Weather-related disruptions, such as power outages and flooding, cost the U.S. billions, the report will say.

Contact: Tony Iallonardo, iallonardot@nwf.org, 202-797-6612

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Happening this Week

Thursday, March 31st

Hearings to examine S.629, to improve hydropower, S.630, to promote marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy research and development, and Title I, subtitle D of the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009, Energy and Natural Resources, 9:30 AM, Energy Committee Hearing Room – SD-366.

“Climate Change: Examining the Processes Used to Create Science and Policy,” Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, 10:00AM – 12:00PM, 2318 Rayburn.

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For more global warming news on Wildlife Promise click here.

Exxon Valdez cleanup (via Flickr's JimBrickett)

It was 22 years ago today that, with a captain who’d been drinking and an exhausted mate at the wheel, the Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. But it wouldn’t quite be accurate to say this is merely the disaster’s anniversary – the people and wildlife of Alaska continue to feel the effects of the Exxon Valdez spill today.

A total of 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled in one of the world’s most beautiful places, home to an incredibly diverse ecosystem. The estimated direct wildlife death toll:

• 250,000 seabirds
• 2,800 sea otters
• 300 harbor seals
• 250 bald eagles
• Up to 22 orcas
• Billions of salmon and herring eggs

While scientists say bald eagles, harbor seals and pink salmon have recovered, sea otters and orcas are still struggling. And a full 22 years into the disaster, herring and a bird called the pigeon guillemot still haven’t made any gains towards recovery.

Local fishing communities were devastated by the spill. Beyond the direct decline in catch, fishing licenses that had been sold from one generation to the next, providing a critical source of retirement income, were now worthless. Rates of divorce, depression and even suicide all spiked.

Despite a $2.5 billion cleanup effort, the federal government estimates only 15% of the oil was recovered through oil skimming and beach cleanup. According to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, the remaining oil isn’t hard to find:

In 2001, researchers at the Auke Bay Laboratories, NOAA Fisheries, conducted a survey of the mid-to-upper intertidal in areas of the sound that were heavily or moderately oiled in 1989. Researchers dug over 9,000 pits, at 91 sites, over a 95-day field season. Over half the sites were contaminated with Exxon Valdez oil. Oil was found at different levels of intensity from light sheening; to oil droplets; to heavy oil where the pit would literally fill with oil. They estimated that approximately 16,000 gallons (60,000 liters), of oil remained. The survey also showed a trend of an increasing number of oiled pits as they surveyed lower into the intertidal zone, indicating that there was more oil to be found lower down the beach. In 2003, additional surveys determined that while the majority of subsurface oil was in the mid-intertidal, a significant amount was also in the lower intertidal. The revised estimate of oil was now more than 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters). Additional surveys outside Prince William Sound have documented lingering oil also on the Kenai Peninsula and the Katmai coast, over 450 miles away.

The amount of Exxon Valdez oil remaining substantially exceeds the sum total of all previous oil pollution on beaches in Prince William Sound, including oil spilled during the 1964 earthquake. This Exxon Valdez oil is decreasing at a rate of 0-4% per year, with only a 5% chance that the rate is as high as 4%. At this rate, the remaining oil will take decades and possibly centuries to disappear entirely.

That research refuted years of denial and delay by Exxon. Until this study, one Exxon-funded scientist had even claimed, “Trying to find a signal of the spill today is like trying to tune in PBS from Mars.” So much for that wishful thinking.

The year after the disaster, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act placing new regulations on oil shipping and requiring oil companies to have cleanup plans. However, last year’s Gulf oil disaster showed that much more needs to be done. Regulators approved drilling without even reading spill response plans, BP consistently underplayed the size of the spill, and now there’s no guarantee fines and penalties will go to restoring the damaged ecosystem. Will Congress act to close these loopholes?

The group from Louisiana – professors, politicians and community leaders – spent a week in Alaska, looking to learn from those who have been where they are headed, those whose lives were linked to the nation’s largest oil spill before the Gulf of Mexico incident took that distinction this year. They discovered that spills have a way of lingering long after the water is declared open and the beaches are deemed safe.

If Alaska is any indication, the first year after a spill is not the hardest. It’s the years afterward when the environmental, cultural and societal consequences really surface.

Set aside 10 minutes to read the whole thing. When people ask you “But isn’t the oil gone?”, tell them the story of Cordova & how it’s still trying to get back to normal, 21 years after Valdez.

The year of the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska in 1989, the stocks of herring, a critical fish to Alaska’s ecosystem & economy, stayed fairly steady.

The next year? Still relatively stable. So a lot of people thought the threat had passed.

But four years later, herring stocks collapsed. Fishing licenses, which had been sold from one generation of fishermen to the next and served as a dependable retirement fund, were suddenly worthless. The effects rippled up the food chain as predators like orcas were deprived of a critical food source.

Today, two decades later, herring stocks still haven’t recovered. 

So if anyone tries to tell you that today, just three months into the Gulf oil disaster, we can declare it “over,” tell them about Alaska’s herring — and the people & wildlife who once depended on them.

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit NWF.org/OilSpill.

Animation via Wikimedia Commons

Many of my friends’ lives were dramatically impacted by the Exxon Valdez oil spill more than 20 years ago. They went from fishermen to conservationists who happened to fish.

Why?

They saw the devastation the Exxon Valdez oil spill caused to the environment, and ultimately to their community. And they realized that in a world where enormous companies have a profit motive and the means to spend a great deal of money lobbying our government, someone needs to pay attention, to be the squeaky wheel that ensures our coastlines are not oiled.
Mostly what I hear from these folks is sorrow and anger. They remember the oiled coastline of Prince William Sound, and the wildlife that died. And they remember the cost to the fishing town when the herring didn’t come back. Twenty years later, the herring still haven’t come back.

And you know, they also remember being told that nothing could go wrong with the oil tankers, and that the Sound was safe. And they feel sorry and angry for the folks on the Gulf Coast who heard the same thing about the oil rigs.

From Anger to Action

After the Exxon Valdez oil spill, my friends and people around the country used their anger to change things to make oil shipping safer. They changed the rules to require double hulled tankers. Even more importantly, they changed the rules so that in Prince William Sound, a citizen oversight committee was created to watch over oil tankers, to do their own studies of tanker safety, to do their own inspections of oil facilities to make sure the rules were being followed.

We need to take that concept and make it happen all across this country for all oil and gas development. But first, we need to pass an energy bill that moves us into a prosperous future and out of a past where we convince ourselves over and over again that we have to accept the enormous price oil and gas development can exact on wildlife, people and our communities.

Tell your Senators we need to stop pursuing unsafe energy options and pass clean energy legislation now.

“The Day the Water Died”

In fall of the year after the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, the National Wildlife Federation sponsored a series of hearings where more than 120 Alaskans impacted by the oil spill testified before a commission about their views and concerns, illustrating the grave impacts of the spill on Alaska’s wildlife and citizens.

Their stories, thoughts and emotions were then brought together by the National Wildlife Federation in a publication titled, The Day the Water Died.

For more personal stories behind the tragedy of Exxon Valdez, read these excerpts from the testimonies.

By Jim Adams, NWF Regional Executive Director, Alaska Regional Center and Western Regional Center

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife & to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/OilSpill.

I had the opportunity to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week on why the BP oil disaster is a crime scene.  By some scientific estimates the spill is already more than eight times the size of the Exxon Valdez.  Yet BP is treating our public estate with a cavalier attitude by refusing to do proper testing to determine the size and underwater spread of the spill.  Our government must not let them get away with it.  The Gulf of Mexico is a crime scene and the perpetrator cannot be left in charge of assessing the damage or controlling the data.

This crisis in the Gulf is not just about making offshore oil platforms safer.  It’s about creating a safer energy platform for America.

• According to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, about 3 million gallons of oil and refined oil are spill in U.S. waters every year. The BP Oil Spill alone has surpassed this amount.
   
• In large spills, such as the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the amount of recovered oil is no more than 10 to 15% of the total spilled oil and often much less. (The remainder evaporates, breaks down in sunlight and water, is absorbed by living organisms, burned, persists as tar balls, settles out, etc.)
   
• More than 20 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, oil can still be found on the beaches of Prince William Sound. Many species have still not completely recovered. Herring, an important link in the food chain and previously supporting a commercial fishing industry in the area, have shown little recovery. Wildlife still not recovered to pre-oil spill populations include goldeneyes, black oystercatchers, harlequin ducks, killer whales, sea otters, clams, and mussels.
   
• Dispersed oil doesn’t disappear. It is simply no longer visible on the surface because it is mixed into the water.
   
• According to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, using dispersants on an oil spill doesn’t reduce the total amount of oil in the environment. Dispersants tend to break up oil slicks which can cause harm when washed ashore, but the dispersed oil is instead mixed into the water where it increases the potential exposure of aquatic life in the water and on the sea floor, to the oil.
   
• Dispersants reduce high concentrations of spilled oil in oil slicks by spreading it in lower concentrations throughout the environment (with the hope it may not do as much harm). While it breaks down more rapidly when dispersed, unfortunately many aquatic organisms are susceptible to small amounts of contaminants.
   
• The chemicals in dispersants can be harmful to fish and wildlife. Producers are not required to disclose the complete composition of chemical dispersants.
   

Help ensure NWF has the funding needed to be on the front lines helping wildlife >>
 

For all the latest news on how the oil spill is impacting the Gulf Coast’s wildlife and to learn how you can help, visit www.nwf.org/oilspill.

As I head back from the Gulf coast today, where I saw firsthand some of the terrible impacts of the BP oil disaster, I read Al Gore’s excellent op-ed that ran in The New Republic today.

In “The Crisis Comes Ashore,” Al Gore highlights that oil leaking from the Macondo well isn’t the only uncontrolled pollution we’re putting into the environment. Every three seconds, we put the same amount of manmade carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as the highest current estimates of oil spilling from the leaking well. Both the oil spill and the carbon dioxide spilling into the atmosphere are causing harm to our planet.

The justifiable outrage over the BP oil disaster may be creating a new opportunity to pass energy and climate legislation, similar to how the public outrage from the Exxon Valdez spill led to the reinvigoration of environmental laws.

Will the oil spill become America’s moment to embrace a clean energy future?

My hope is that as Al Gore says, this “…is one of those clarifying moments that brings a rare opportunity to take the longer view” and that we will take this moment to make the world safe from our oil addiction and the climate crisis.