But this year was different. The inadequacies of the Limitation essay on oil spills Liability Act led to the enactment of what is popularly known as the Clean Water Act of In order to secure more reliable access, Chinese firms are being directed to invest in projects in the Caspian region, Russia, the Middle East and South America U. Writing Help Ask for help, essay on oil spills. Popular topics Flood essays Dust Bowl essays Tsunami essays Drought essays Natural Disaster essays Earthquake essays Bp Oil Spill essays. The sheer profitability of the industry keeps it insulated from many of the safety and environmental terms that impact so many other industries.
Historic Oil Spills and Public Policy
This Oil Spills Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, essay on oil spills, please use our writing services. com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in. For these reasons, government, industry, and environmental groups have sought to find ways to prevent and respond to oil spills to avoid environmental damage while minimizing the costs of moving crude oil and refined products. Oil spills do not constitute the majority of oil pollution in the oceans. The damage done by oil spills is a function of at least three things: the nature of the oil spilled; the proximity of the spill to the shore where most marine life lives; and the nature of the weather, current, and tides.
For example, when the Argo Merchant spilled seven million gallons of fuel oil which is thicker than crude oil in the waters near Nantucket inthe damage was minor because currents took the oil out to sea. On the other hand, smaller oil spills from barges, pipelines, and small tankers can do significant environmental damage. Thicker oil near shore does more damage than oil offshore, and refined petroleum products like gasoline or kerosene, while highly toxic, tend to evaporate when spilled into water. The worst sort of spills, and the ones that receive the most attention, essay on oil spills, are of crude or heavy fuel oil in bad weather near a shoreline. Oil spill responses are designed to contain or disperse oil before it does damage, essay on oil spills.
Methods for containing oil include booms, which are floating barriers that keep oil from moving across the water; skimmers, which are boats with equipment designed to skim the oil out of the water; and chemical dispersants and detergents that break up the oil into smaller parts that will then disperse in the water column. This latter technique is very controversial: some argue that the dispersed oil still does damage while it is in the water, while others argue that it is best to disperse the oil before it can do worse damage on the shoreline. Other promising techniques include bioremediation, in which particular strains of bacteria are introduced into the water to eat the oil. In addition, some absorbent materials are showing promise in soaking up spilled oil.
To reduce the impact on wildlife, responders may set off loud noises to scare animals away so they are not exposed to the oil. Regardless of the response technique, large oil spills are complex environmental events that require expert management. Since the essay on oil spills of the U. Oil Pollution Act inthe Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency EPA are in charge of oil spill cleanup in the United States; other federal agencies are asked for help as needed. Response costs can be recovered from the spiller. In the end, it is very rare to recover all or even most of the spilled oil, particularly in poor weather or when heavy oils essay on oil spills involved. Oil spills did not receive much attention until the late s, when the environmental movement gained prominence.
In World War II, many tankers were sunk along the East and Gulf coasts by German submarines, essay on oil spills, spilling their loads of crude oil and refined products on beaches. These spills were not viewed as problems because the nation was at war. Even contemporary wars that spill oil receive relatively little essay on oil spills compared with the war itself: Actions taken by the Iraqi regime during the Gulf War spilled thousands of gallons of oil into the Persian Gulf, and the Israeli bombing of a power station in Lebanon in resulted in a significant spill of fuel oil in the Mediterranean Sea.
The first major oil spill to receive worldwide attention was the Torrey Canyon spill off the United Kingdom. The response to the spill-including the attempt to set fire to the oil, and the use of detergents to break it up-was widely seen as inept, although international liability regulations for oil tankers did change because of the spill. The first major oil spill to gain similar attention in the United States was the Santa Barbara, California, oil spill, in whichgallons of oil spilled from an offshore well, killing wildlife, and leading to a famous picture of President Nixon walking along the oily essay on oil spills. This spill was small by historic standards-less than 20 percent the size of the Exxon Valdez spill-but the spill came just as the modern environmental movement was finding its voice, and it was used by environmental groups as evidence that oil spills could do substantial damage.
The Santa Barbara Spill resulted in a drilling moratorium on state lands in Santa Barbara Channel, and has greatly affected public perceptions of offshore drilling worldwide. The next major oil spill to occur in the United States was the Argo Merchant spill off Nantucket. This spill did not do as much environmental damage as its size However, essay on oil spills, the spill did initiate a year-long debate over how oil transport should be regulated, and how liability should be assigned. This debate was brought to a swift conclusion when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil in one of the richest marine environments in the world. The Exxon Valdez spill was only the 35th largest in world history; the sheer size of the spill was less important than the nature of the oil and the damage it caused.
Before there were no laws to make oil spillers liable for cleanup costs and damages. The only tool available to make claims against shipping was the Limitation of Liability Act of When applied by the courts, this statute often resulted in absurdly low liability limits. However, the law also provided that if the spill occurred intentionally or if the ship owner knew it could happen, the limits could be surpassed. Still, the complexity of this statute made this law unsuitable for forcing shippers to clean up oil, and did not cover offshore drilling at all. The inadequacies of the Limitation of Liability Act led to the enactment of what is popularly known as the Clean Water Act of This limit was still seen as low, and did essay on oil spills serve as an effective incentive for ship and facility owners to operate more safely.
Section also required that a national oil spill contingency plan be established with a fund to cover costs incurred by the federal government in cleaning up oil spills. This fund was not called upon to clean up the Exxo n V al d e z oil spill, essay on oil spills, as Exxon chose to rely on its resources, but it is important to note that the fund was far smaller than the costs of cleaning up the E xx o n V alde z spill. Other liability regimes were created essay on oil spills the Deepwater Port Act of and essay on oil spills the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments. Safety regulations were enacted in the Tanker Safety Act of Public Lawwhich addressed technical aspects of tanker equipment and personnel and was inspired by the Argo Merchant spill.
The Senate generally favored retaining the state laws to create a greater incentive to avoid oil spills. The House sought a uniform national standard in large part to reduce the potential costs of transporting oils. The Exxon Valdez spill was the event that tipped the balance in favor of more stringent oil spill legislation. With the preemption issue out of the way, oil spill legislation passed relatively easily, and President George H. Bush signed the Oil Pollution Act OPA essay on oil spills law on August 18, The OPA provides for vastly tougher penalties and liability for spillers of oil, allocates more resources for dealing with spills, and places more responsibility on the executive branch to respond to oil spill incidents promptly. The creation of the spill cleanup fund in the OPA was also a major accomplishment.
The fund consolidated three smaller funds to create a bigger fund than ever before. A final feature of the OPA was its requirement that oil companies phase in the use of double-hull tankers in U. Such double hulls are said to be able to withstand collisions or groundings the cause of both the Torrey Canyon and Exxon Valdez spillsalthough some experts have questioned their effectiveness. Since the OPA, the incidence of major oil spills in the United States and worldwide has dropped significantly. There has not been a major oil spill from a tanker or an offshore oil platform in U. coastal waters since Essay Examples, essay on oil spills. Environment Essay Examples. ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER Always on-time. FREE INQUIRY. ORDER NOW. Special offer!
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We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. Essay examples. Oil Spills - Major Form of Pollution word 1 Page. One major form of pollution that affects marine life is oil spills. Oil is extremely toxic to marine life and the harmful effects occur as soon as the oil hits the water. Oil spills are very dangerous for marine birds, mammals, fish, and shellfish. Oil Spill Pollution. Deepwater Horizon As explosion burst and oil leaked into the ocean. Billions of dollars rushed to the surface and water seemed to be on fire, but only oil burned. We put the boats and ships in the water, we build oil rigs and drill into the bottom of the ocean, and we dump the wrong chemicals into the ocean.
Boats and ships have oil leaks just like our cars do. The Ocean is one of the major reasons why humans survive in this world. The Ocean provides us with water to drink and the fresh air we breathe. On April 20, an detonation occurred at the British Petroleum drill rig located in the Gulf of Mexico. The detonation at the drill rig Deepwater Horizon led to the Macondo good to leak out oil. This was to go the 2nd most detrimental environmental …. PART: ONE 1. Instead, it is a generic concept, which embraces the totality of external environment forces, which may influence any …. We are talking about the British petroleum Oil spill …. It is recommended that every person should consume eight glasses of water a day.
For this project, we are given the ability to create anything we wanted with the simple request that we highlight the affects it would have. If I could create anything in …. Television if full of advertisement and propaganda. As well as the internet with advertisement popups and clips on the sides of every webpage. Propaganda is information put out by an organization or government to promote and idea or cause. Many of these are misleading and …. However, drilling in this land also brings the possibility of destroying the habitat of birds that migrate to this area yearly, caribou that use this haven as a calving ground, fish that fill the rivers and lakes, as well as grizzly bears, wolves, elk and ….
Reflection Paper on Gulf Oil Spill This presentation had a deep impact on me because I had been living in Gulf Breeze, Florida at the time of the spill. Gulf Breeze is located 15 miles West of Pensacola and the reefs and beaches were severely …. Have you ever seen an animal covered in sludge, helpless and weak? Offshore oil drilling is the discovery of finding oil or gasoline resources underwater. Usually the oil is found off the coasts of each …. BP OIL SPILL Under the Deepwater Horizon, an offshore drilling ring of British Petroleum BP caused an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The incident occurred on April 20th , where equipment failed and caused the explosion sinking the ring, and causing the death …. This summary will briefly discuss three topics: a the oil spill, b the environmental damage and clean up, and c the insurance coverage settlements. This paper will then focus on the insurance coverage settlements. Afterwards, it will provide an analysis on the effectiveness of the …. On 15th may , Congress conveyed a meeting with executives from BP, Transocean and Halliburton companies, and the executives were grilled on why better measures were not put in place to stop oil spewing along the Gulf of Mexico.
The first major oil spill to gain similar attention in the United States was the Santa Barbara, California, oil spill, in which , gallons of oil spilled from an offshore well, killing wildlife, and leading to a famous picture of President Nixon walking along the oily beach. This spill was small by historic standards-less than 20 percent the size of the Exxon Valdez spill-but the spill came just as the modern environmental movement was finding its voice, and it was used by environmental groups as evidence that oil spills could do substantial damage. The Santa Barbara Spill resulted in a drilling moratorium on state lands in Santa Barbara Channel, and has greatly affected public perceptions of offshore drilling worldwide.
The next major oil spill to occur in the United States was the Argo Merchant spill off Nantucket. This spill did not do as much environmental damage as its size However, the spill did initiate a year-long debate over how oil transport should be regulated, and how liability should be assigned. This debate was brought to a swift conclusion when the Exxon Valdez ran aground on a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil in one of the richest marine environments in the world. The Exxon Valdez spill was only the 35th largest in world history; the sheer size of the spill was less important than the nature of the oil and the damage it caused.
Before there were no laws to make oil spillers liable for cleanup costs and damages. The only tool available to make claims against shipping was the Limitation of Liability Act of When applied by the courts, this statute often resulted in absurdly low liability limits. However, the law also provided that if the spill occurred intentionally or if the ship owner knew it could happen, the limits could be surpassed. Still, the complexity of this statute made this law unsuitable for forcing shippers to clean up oil, and did not cover offshore drilling at all.
The inadequacies of the Limitation of Liability Act led to the enactment of what is popularly known as the Clean Water Act of This limit was still seen as low, and did not serve as an effective incentive for ship and facility owners to operate more safely. Section also required that a national oil spill contingency plan be established with a fund to cover costs incurred by the federal government in cleaning up oil spills. This fund was not called upon to clean up the Exxo n V al d e z oil spill, as Exxon chose to rely on its resources, but it is important to note that the fund was far smaller than the costs of cleaning up the E xx o n V alde z spill.
Other liability regimes were created by the Deepwater Port Act of and by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments. Safety regulations were enacted in the Tanker Safety Act of Public Law , which addressed technical aspects of tanker equipment and personnel and was inspired by the Argo Merchant spill. The Senate generally favored retaining the state laws to create a greater incentive to avoid oil spills. The House sought a uniform national standard in large part to reduce the potential costs of transporting oils. The Exxon Valdez spill was the event that tipped the balance in favor of more stringent oil spill legislation.
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