Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US. Elsewhere, Big Oil rarely cleans up its mess

The real cost of cheap oil

The Gulf disaster is only unusual for being so near the US. Elsewhere, Big Oil rarely cleans up its mess

* John Vidal

Big Oil is holding its breath. BP's shares are in steep decline after the debacle in the Gulf of Mexico. Barack Obama, the American people and the global environmental community are outraged, and now the company stands to lose the rights to drill for oil in the Arctic and other ecologically sensitive places.

The gulf disaster may cost it a few billion dollars, but so what? When annual profits for a company often run to tens of billions, the cost of laying 5,000 miles of booms, or spraying millions of gallons of dispersants and settling 100,000 court cases is not much more than missing a few months' production. It's awkward, but it can easily be passed on.

The oil industry's image is seriously damaged, but it can pay handsomely to greenwash itself, just as it managed after Exxon Valdez, Brent Spar and the Ken Saro-Wiwa public relations disasters. In a few years' time, this episode will probably be forgotten – just another blip in the fortunes of the industry that fuels the world. But the oil companies are nervous now because the spotlight has been turned on their cavalier attitude to pollution and on the sheer incompetence of an industry that is used to calling the shots.

Big Oil's real horror was not the spillage, which was common enough, but because it happened so close to the US. Millions of barrels of oil are spilled, jettisoned or wasted every year without much attention being paid.

more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/27/cheap-oil-cost-developing-countries

Can anyone guarantee that offshore drilling anywhere is all that safe?

You will be safer driving to church on Sunday morning, wearing seat belts and observing the traffic laws. BP was drunk driving at 90 mph the wrong direction on a freeway right when the bars closed.

it makes so much sense after reading this that conservatives think we're being too hard on BP. They have always wanted the U.S. to be more like a Third World country, and in more ways than this.

edit: i emailed this story to Rachel rachel@msnbc.com. This info should be on TV and who else would do it?

Exxon Valdez was a small spill.