by: Patrick Hanks
Hello fellow readers, It’s me Henry… oh wait... let me introduce myself, I am Henry Seal, the baby seal that met his fate when oil from an oil spill destroyed my habitat. It’s a long story why I am here, but my words are few and filled with wisdom from the beyond! So let’s get started; in Prince William Sound Alaska, my once admired homestead, I used to live free and healthy, frolicking amongst the other baby seals, and learning to court the love of my life, Jessy Seal. On one infamous morning, March 24, 1989; an Oil tanker spilled over 10.8 million gallons of oil, covering 11 million square miles of our home. I had nowhere to go, trapped, isolated, and destined to face an awful death; all the while watching thousands of my salmon, sea otter, and bird friends suffering a most gruesome end. I can’t even speak of my Jessy Seal, my heart has been broken in two; but my love for her will last forever.
I bring this most saddening story to light in hopes to inform and prevent such a terrible disaster from happening again. This is just one example of many thousands of oil spills that have occurred over many years, taking the lives of baby seals just like me. Oil companies are standing by their methods to transport oil, and cleaning up their disasters is about the last thing they really want to deal with. Oil Spills affect the lives of millions of animals and humans each decade, and yet the same methods of transporting oil are still followed. I speak for a lot of deceased baby seals and animals when we say, OIL SPILLS KILL!! I have thought of some incentives to place on oil companies in order to help reduce such terrible disasters.
1. Government can place heavy fines (or subsidies) on companies in order to prevent and provide consequences for oil spills
2. Government can create new legislation in which stricter transportation procedures can be created and enforced.
3. Instill Leviathan institutions that can self regulate and face their collective action problem without intervention from the government. It could be an effective way to stabilize the oil distribution industry.
4. As a society, we can influence the oil companies simply by reducing their market influence. We can influence the market by reducing our oil and natural gas consumption, as well as only purchasing oil from organizations that follow a more stable procedure in transporting oil.
Please tell me what you think; what incentives would you create in order to change the incentives of oil companies? How would you adjust the suggestions above? Your opinion is greatly valued, because if just one baby seal is saved, it will all have been worth it.
Sincerely,
Henry Seal
8 comments:
Comments on your 4 main points.
1. How would subsidizing oil prevent spills? Why do tax payers want to give their money to the highest profiting companies in the world?
2. Sounds good, but what exactly is meant by stricter transportation procedures?
3. What is the collective action problem? Leviathan and "without intervention from the government" are opposite ideas, this does not make sense. How is the oil distribution industry unstable?
4.How does our overall consumption of oil affect the likelyhood of spills? And how might a consumer know how the oil they are using was transported?
Heavy taxes on ocean transportation of oil companies might create an incentive to change the way oil and gas is transported. I also believe that, as consumers, not purchasing gas and oil from companies that transport this way will eventually decrease the amount of oil being transported this way, and thus reduce the amount of spills. Although, like the guy before me said, there is not way for the consumer to know which companies not to buy from. Maybe the government can force companies to display where they get their oil, and how it's transported? How do oil spills happen anyway?
I know that Dawn the dish washing soap contributes a little bit to oil spill relief funds every time one of their products is bought. So instead of not purchasing oil and gas we could just purchase more dawn so at least some baby seals have a better chance for survival if another oil spill occurs.
Hi Henry Seal, I'm John - Big SUV Suuuubuuuurrrbbb-o. I commute 50 miles a day and I don't give a damn about you.
Sam, Dawn dish-soap (as with all phosphate containing soaps) has its own bevy of problems, and it's petroleum based anyway...
Patrick, via Henry, I don't really follow your 1-3 solutions/questions, perhaps your could respond to James response and we could get some clarity.
James, if the accident rate is fixed, when the amount of the activity increases the amount of accident increases. Think of it this way, the incidence of accidents is a % of total oil transportation time.
I think that if oil companies used greater corporate social responsibility there would be less of a problem. Unfortunately, it is generally profits that drive oil companies in terms of spills and not values. If there was greater negative publicity to oil companies and more of a public outcry against this problem then companies would act in their own self-interest to prevent spills to retain consumer support (and retain profits.) Unfortunately, people like to drive and have warm houses so I am not sure that companies will ever feel the pressure to prevent spills so alternative energy may be the only tangible solution.
I agree that spills should be stopped, but I also think James brought up a few good points. Many of your solutions are after-the-fact fines or penalties. My feeling is that oil companies can afford to pay the fines because oil spills are 'relatively' rare compared to the number of trips and profit the tankers make. Out of your options I liked #2 the best because it could prevent oil spills. Though - does stricter transportation methods include new tanker technology? It should I think.
I think oil companies should be more heavily taxed for spills in international waters. Trying to transport in another way besides shipping is however, very unlikely to happen. Its the only cost efficient method.
This is a good topic and is ad to hear about. It is important to figure out a solution.
Post a Comment