Was one yoke traded for another?

Independence Day and there’s another oil spill to contend with. This one is in the Yellowstone River, fortunately downstream from the park, but unfortunate for those folks whose ranches are flooded from the high water which is now spreading the oil all over their pastures. The spill originally was estimated at 100 barrels, which later was adjusted to 1,000. Remember? Oil spills never get smaller. It is easier to estimate this spill because it came from a pipeline where the flow is monitored and shutdown time can provide something more accurate than a blowout a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, this spill is from our old friends at Exxon, the “We don’t care, we don’t have to” folks so we can trust their word for how much oil was released.

But all is well. The president of Exxon flew over the spill area and assured us all the damage wasn’t bad, no wildlife was affected and it would all be cleaned up. And the bulk of the oil damage was contained along a short section of the river. Does any of that sound familiar. Do these guys all go to the same school? Is it part of oil industry executive school to say in a reassuring voice the oil spill is all right and in time the country affected will actually be better?

Meanwhile oil was spotted 100 miles downstream heading toward the Missouri River. It all makes us much more comfortable with Shell drilling in the Arctic Ocean. That process took a giant leap forward in the past week. For one, federal regulators tentatively approved the company’s clean air permits which were holding up their exploration.

In Alaska, political absurdity also gave Shell a helping hand. That coastal zone management issue received quite an airing. Legislators finally decided to have a special session to try to get the program extended before the June 30 deadline. Everyone flew to Juneau and on the first day the Senate passed a bill extending the plan. Then the governor said he would veto that bill. This is from the silent governor who worked for the oil industry before he was anointed by the Governor Interrupted who quite mid-term leaving him in charge. The House met the next day and voted the bill down. No coastal management program. Both sides said jobs would be lost if the program passed, or failed for that matter. Then one of the excuses was there were only five people left working on it. Of course that’s because the 28 other people in the office left knowing their jobs would be over at the end of the month. There's that magical political word "jobs" again.

So the result is now with all federal projects offshore and onshore in coastal areas, the state of Alaska has no say, and worse the people who live there have no say. All they can do is write letters to some obscure bureaucrat in Washington who could care less what Alaskans think. Something like 26 other states have coastal zone management programs in place. That’s all of the eligible states except Alaska.

Now Alaska, which has a coastline longer than the whole rest of the United States combined, and that complains constantly about federal interference, has allowed the federal government to do what it wants along that coast.

This all of course is applauded in the oil industry; one less obstacle in the permitting process to overcome.

So Shell wins twice in a week. The safety plan that Shell assures us will handle any spill in the Arctic involves two ships and six smaller boats. Does anyone remember how many boats worked on Exxon Valdez and the Deepwater Horizon spills? Shell also reassures us that shallower water and lower pressures in the Arctic would preclude a spill. But, then there was no Arctic ice pack to contend with in those spills. No problem.

It all reminds me of an old joke: “A rather electronic voice gives the welcome-aboard speech on an airliner: “Welcome to the first fully automated passenger flight in the world. Every contingency has been anticipated and we want to assure you that nothing can go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong ...

Might we again need to declare our independence?