Bad Deeds for 7-16-2008: Republicans Lie, Lie, Lie About Offshore Drilling

Conservative confusion over oil spills and hurricanes – For a while, Republicans were defending their call for coastal drilling by claiming that the Chinese were drilling in Cuban waters. This proved to be false (though many on the right repeat the claim anyway).

So, conservatives have moved onto a new talking point: coastal drilling is safe for the environment, because recent hurricanes didn’t lead to oil spills. It leads to rhetoric like this from Nancy Pfotenhauer, John McCain’s senior energy adviser, who appeared on MSNBC the other day.

John McCain made the same claim a month ago: “As for offshore drilling, it’s safe enough these days that not even Hurricanes Katrina and Rita could cause significant spillage from the battered rigs off the coasts of New Orleans and Houston.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) said the same thing over the weekend: “I think people are reassured that not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita. Those rigs in the Gulf, there was not a single incident of spillage that anyone reported.”

Bill O’Reilly is sticking to the Republican script, telling his radio audience the other day, “Remember when Katrina hit, none of the oil rigs spilled in Louisiana.”

Even Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), who presumably would know better, told Fox News a couple of weeks ago, “[T]hat’s one of the great unwritten success stories, after Katrina and Rita, these awful storms, no major spills.”

George Will, Dick Morris, Robert Samuelson, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page have all repeated the claim. And today, Former Republican Senator Trent Lott repeated the lie saying, “One point since we’re both from the gulf area. We didn’t have one drop of oil spilt when we had the biggest hurricane in recent history, Hurricane Katrina.” In the weeks following Katrina and Rita’s one-two strike in the summer of 2005, the Bush administration claimed there was “only minor sheening” from offshore oil spills.

Here’s a conservative blog repeating the same lies. Not only that lie, but they make the ridiculous argument that offshore drilling doesn’t always mean oil spills. That’s like saying that driving drunk doesn’t always result in an accident. It’s not a reason to do it.

Well, they’re all wrong.

In fact, clear satellite evidence of major spills was borne out by final reports. Here’s the satellite photo:

In May 2006, the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) published their offshore damage assessment: “113 platforms totally destroyed, and 457 pipelines damaged, 101 of those major lines with 10″ or larger diameter.”

Unsurprisingly, this devastation caused significant spillage, according to the official report prepared for the MMS by a Norwegian firm:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused 124 Offshore Spills For A Total Of 743,700 Gallons. 554,400 gallons were crude oil and condensate from platforms, rigs and pipelines, and 189,000 gallons were refined products from platforms and rigs. [MMS, 1/22/07]

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita Caused Six Offshore Spills Of 42,000 Gallons Or Greater. The largest of these was 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a “major spill.” [MMS, 5/1/06]

Consider this from: Accidents during the offshore oil and gas development

Accidents inevitably accompany offshore development. They are the sources of environmental pollution at all stages of oil and gas production. The causes, scale, and severity of the accidents’ consequences are extremely variable. They depend on a concrete combination of many natural, technical, and technological factors. To a certain extent, each accidental situation develops in accordance with its unique scenario.

That means offshore accidents are hard to predict and hard to prevent. When they happen, there is very little time to react before the oil makes shore contact, which is where the main damage occurs. Remember, offshore drilling means close-to-shore drilling.

Regards,

Jim