As millions of tones of oil continues to pour into the ocean after the off-shore drilling disaster near the Louisiana coast, one has to wonder why questions were not raised earlier about these companies contingency plans.
If there is one constant in everyone’s life, it is Murphy’s Law - that is that if something can go wrong, it will.
It really was only a matter of time before something of this nature happened. The real surprise is us. You, me, the average Joe on the street and our naiveté regarding these companies. Most of us just assumed that if a leak erupted, there would be a way to take care of it. After all, we all understand that emergencies happen and the greater the task anyone undertakes, the greater the responsibility to ensure all those bases are covered.
The truth is the world needs oil and most oil companies work very hard to keep a good public profile. They give back to the communities that support them. Often they are the first to get letters requesting aid from not-for-profit organizations when there is a need - and nearly always they respond. However, in this case this particular company dropped the ball.
It’s kind of ironic when you see these radical environmentalist groups bandying around the Albertan tarsands, calling certain practices into question while ignoring what is happening right in what amounts to in many cases their own back yard. Perhaps they find it easier to protest practices on this side of the border.
Certainly we all want to ensure the environment is preserved. We live here, after all. We love the natural beauty around us. Yet the earth is here to be utilized in the best way possible, and there really is a happy medium that can be met between industry and conservation. What we, the public, are tired of are the radicals on both sides of that line.
Off shore drilling operations need to do their due diligence to ensure that anything that can spring a lead, break or otherwise mess up can also be easily repaired. Until such safeguards are in place, perhaps that facet of the industry needs to slow down. After all, they are turning over some pretty big profits, and if some of that flow of money went immediately into discovering ways to make the process utterly safe, then we would all be better off.
Meanwhile, the radicals have found the disaster they’ve been foretelling - just not where they said it would be.