This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Blowout" by Rachel Maddow. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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What causes oil spills to happen? What are the effects of oil spills? What’s the government doing to prevent them?
Oil spills destroy the ocean—killing marine life and causing pollution—and put human health at risk. Sadly, they happen a lot more than people assume and are often swept under the carpet.
Here’s a look at the causes and effects of oil spills.
How the Energy Industry Hurts the Environment
In her book Burnout, Rachel Maddow contends that oil and gas mining have both had devastating impacts on the environment over the last century, destroying ecosystems, poisoning the people who live near drilling sites, and contributing to climate change. Attempts to regulate the industry have stalled as energy magnates lobby for less government oversight and insist that scientific evidence showing the connection between their industry and environmental damage is either a hoax or ambiguous.
(Shortform note: Maddow doesn’t discuss the connection between cars and climate change, probably assuming that most readers are already familiar with this topic. As a brief overview, burning oil in the form of gasoline releases large quantities of carbon dioxide and other pollutants, which reduces air quality and contributes to global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has advised that the world must significantly curtail its dependency on gasoline and other fossil fuels within the next 10-15 years or risk serious environmental effects.)
The Effects of Oil Spills
Oil spills caused by leaks or explosions can dump millions of barrels of toxic chemicals into the oceans. The effects of oil spills kill marine life and pollute coastlines. The most famous example is the 2010 Deepwater Horizon accident, in which a series of malfunctions caused a BP-Transocean oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to explode, sinking the rig and killing 11 people. Over five million barrels of oil were released into the water as a result.
Such spills are common, though generally less deadly, and they’re often underreported despite the amount of damage they do. Maddow points out that despite its fame, Deepwater Horizon is not the worst spill in American history, and a similar spill occurred in Equatorial Guinea that same year.
(Shortform note: The actual worst oil spill in US history is the Taylor Energy spill, which began in 2004 but was kept secret from the public until 2010, when scientists monitoring Deepwater Horizon cleanup efforts noticed additional oil slicks in the area. Taylor Energy continued to downplay the severity of the spill even after its discovery, prompting the Coast Guard to take over the cleanup process. As of the early 2020s, it still has not been entirely contained, releasing hundreds of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico each day.)
While the US government has repeatedly condemned companies’ negligence and lack of oversight that lead to such spills, this hasn’t translated into change, as there are still 20 such accidents for every 1,000 drill sites operating each year. Even worse, according to Maddow, neither the government nor the oil companies responsible have realistic plans to mitigate the damage. Cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon spill is ongoing as of the 2020s, and exposure to chemicals may have made many of the people who worked on the cleanup sick. In the event of similar disasters, there’s no way to quickly remove the oil before it significantly impacts the environment around it.
(Shortform note: Wildlife in the Gulf of Mexico continues to suffer ill effects from the Deepwater Horizon spill. Offshore drilling has not stopped in the US but has expanded, and oil companies and environmental activists disagree over whether the industry has enough regulations and precautions in place to prevent leaks in the future. In fact, hundreds of similar accidents have occurred since 2010. As for BP, though the company was sued for damages by the US government, it survived and remains one of the 10 largest oil companies in the world.)
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Rachel Maddow's "Blowout" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full Blowout summary:
- A deep dive into the corruption and exploitation in the oil and gas industry
- Examples of how the discovery of oil can weaken a country
- Possible ways to protect the world from the energy industry
