Black Tide

Antonia Juhasz

Description

A searing look at the human face of BP's disaster in the gulf

It is the largest oil disaster in American history, and it could happen again. It is more than a story of ruined beaches, dead wildlife, corporate spin, political machinations, and financial fallout. It is a riveting human drama filled with people whose lives will forever be defined as "before" and "after the gulf oil disaster." Black Tide is the only book to tell this story through the perspective of people on all sides of the catastrophe, from those who lost their lives, loved ones, and livelihoods to those who made the policies that set the devastating event in motion, those who cut the corners that put corporate profits over people and the environment, and those who have committed their lives to ensuring that such an event is never repeated.

Dramatic and compelling, Black Tide exposes the human failings and human cost of the largest oil disaster in American history and how it could easily happen again.

"We cannot allow the BP disaster to be pushed from public view the way BP used chemical dispersants to hide the oil. These remarkable stories-of loss, heroism and culpability-are a vivid reminder that this catastrophe will be with us for decades, and that we have not yet made the changes necessary to prevent destruction in the future."
-Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

"It's hard to imagine a better person to turn loose on this epochal disaster than Antonia Juhasz, with her compassionate heart, vivid prose, and rich expertise in both oil and economic policy. From oil-smeared beaches, to the drilling rig's control room, to the big picture of Big Oil and the governments they push around. It's not just about disaster: it's a series of encounters with real people, from oceanographers to oyster-shuckers, striving to make things right. Black Tide is riveting, infuriating, and incredibly important.
-Rebecca Solnit, author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster

Praise for The Tyranny of Oil

"Reminds us that those who don't learn the lessons of history are fated to repeat its mistakes." -USA Today

"[A] timely, blistering critique . . . white-hot" -Kirkus starred review

"[A] thorough, readable takedown of Big Oil." -Publishers Weekly

"Abrave, groundbreaking case study. . . . A good first step toward true energy independence is to read this insightful book." -The Christian Science Monitor

Introduction.

1 The Explosion of the Deepwater Horizon.

2 What You Can’t See Can Kill You: The BP Macondo Oil Monster Escapes.

3 Body Count: Oil, Gas, and Dispersant Attack the People, Wildlife, and Wild Places of the Gulf.

4 When the Oil Kills the Fish, Can the Fishers Survive?

5 Making BP Pay: Cleanup Workers, Vessels of Opportunity, Claims, and Protests.

6 Big Oil Plays Defense: BP and the Oil Industry Respond to Disaster.

7 Obama Steps Up: But Is the Disaster Over and Could It Happen Again?

Acknowledgments.

Notes.

Photo Credits.

Index.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Gulf oil spill
• Deepwater Horizon oil spill
• Antonia Juhasz
• History of the United States
• 21st Century
• Black Tide
• United States
• History
• BP

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781118067741
• Langue: English

Extrait

Table of Contents
 
Also by Antonia Juhasz
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction
 
Chapter 1 - The Explosion of the Deepwater Horizon
 
The Doghouse
The Macondo Well
The Well from Hell
Final Days
Kill This Well
Blowout
The Gas Attacks
Chaos
Mayday
Disconnect
Escape
Rescue
The Missing
 
Chapter 2 - What You Can’t See Can Kill You
 
Going Home
The Sinking of the Deepwater Horizon
The Fire
The Blowout Preventer and the Oil Leak
A Killer Is Released
The Cover-Up
The Reveal
A Spill of National Significance
The Pelican Cruise
Reality Bites
 
Chapter 3 - Body Count
 
Oil Can Kill You
Oil and Water
Boom and Skimmers
Carpet Bombing the Gulf
The Microbial Snot Highway
Armageddon
“God Help Us All”
Is the Air Safe to Breathe?
The Restricted
The Dead
The Count
The Long-Term Effects
 
Chapter 4 - When the Oil Kills the Fish, Can the Fishers Survive?
 
Pickin’ Crab
Shuckin’ Oysters
Headin’ Shrimp
Boat People SOS
Emotional Stress on the Rise
The Heart of Seafood
Are the Fish Safe?
The Future of Fisheries and Fishers
 
Chapter 5 - Making BP Pay
 
Cleaning Up after BP
The Claims Process
“The Summer That Wasn’t”: The Toll on Tourism
BP’s $20 Billion
 
Chapter 6 - Big Oil Plays Defense
 
BP: “Beyond Propaganda”
Hayward Takes the Helm
The Regulators
The George W. Bush Administration
Enter the Obama Administration
No Plan
Containment
Top Kills, Junk Shots, and Top Hats
Lightly Skewered
Closure
Bye-bye, Tony
Not Dead, Just Sleeping
 
Chapter 7 - Obama Steps Up
 
The Tyranny of Oil
The Administration Responds
Restructuring the MMS and the “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” Offshore Drilling Moratorium
Isolating BP
Attack by Proxy
The Disappearing Macondo Oil
The Seventy-fifth Annual Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival
Dead End
BP’s Future
A Better Future for All
 
Acknowledgments
Notes
Photo Credits
Index
Also by Antonia Juhasz
The Tyranny of Oil: The World’s Most Powerful Industry—and What We Must Do to Stop It
The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time
Copyright © 2011 by Antonia Juhasz. All rights reserved
 
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
 
Design and composition by Forty-five Degree Design LLC
 
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .
 
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
 
For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].
 
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com .
 
ISBN 978-0-470-94337-3; ISBN 978-1-118-06761-1 ebk.), ISBN 978-1-118-06773-4 (ebk.), ISBN 978-1-118-06774-1 (ebk.)
 

 
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To the men of the Deepwater Horizon who gave their lives so that their crewmates might live: Gordon Jones, Dewey Revette, Jason Anderson, Shane Roshto, Stephen Curtis, Blair Manuel, Karl Kleppinger, Adam Weise, Don Clark, Roy Kemp, and Aaron Dale Burkeen.
 
To those who opened their lives to me so that I would tell this story with depth, honesty, and to the most lasting effect.
 
To my family: Joseph, Suzanne, Alex, Jenny, Christina, Linda, Emma, Simone, Gabriel, Eliza, Zoe, Paul, Branny, Skip, and Lucky.
We have gone to a different planet in going to the deepwater. An alien environment. And what do you know from every science fiction movie? The aliens can kill us.
—Byron King, oil industry analyst, May 2010 1
Introduction
On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded fifty miles from the coast of Louisiana, killing eleven men and setting off the largest oil disaster in U.S. history. It would have been the world’s largest oil spill had Saddam Hussein not ordered his troops to impede the advance of U.S. soldiers in 1991 by opening the valves of Kuwait’s oil wells and pipelines.
I went to Louisiana after the explosion to measure the disaster for myself and to learn from those for whom time is now forever marked as “before” and “after” the BP oil spill.
Having written two books investigating the oil industry and the government agencies that are both at the heart of this catastrophe, and having also worked for advocacy organizations and for the federal government on the issues most relevant to the cause of the spill, I hoped to find answers to four central questions: Why did this disaster take place? Why was each failure compounded to create a tragedy of such massive proportion? What are the disaster’s impacts? Can we prevent another catastrophe of this magnitude from ever happening again?
My first trip to the Gulf ended with little in the way of answers. Instead, I came away with the realization that understanding and documenting this event would require much more than one visit or one article. It was clear that the tragedy involved far more than one company, BP, and was not limited to just one government agency or even one administration. Its impacts, moreover, would reverberate well beyond the Deepwater Horizon and the families of the eleven men who died, and even beyond the people and places of the Gulf of Mexico. I also learned that finding answers was going to be made all the more difficult by the lack of transparency—on the part of both corporations and the government—that kept many of the unfolding events out of the public eye and outside the reach of journalists.
To get to the truth would require time, deep investigation, and, most important, the voices, experiences, and knowledge of those at the heart of the Gulf oil disaster.
During the next eight months, I traveled countless miles across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia and then to Washington, D.C. I was awed by the incredible generosity of people whose lives had been forever changed by these events and who, at the time of greatest personal tragedy and turmoil, opened their hearts and homes to a stranger. They trusted me with their pain, sorrow, rage, exhaustion, anger, secrets, research, insights, revelations, frustrations, and heartbreak. They introduced me to their children, wives, husbands, and colleagues—and to their enemies. They invited me to their churches and workplaces, onto their boats and into their homes, to their protests and festivals, and to their most cherished beaches, wetlands, and waterways.
I interviewed hundreds of people, including family members of those who died aboard the Deepwater Horizon, as well as oil workers, fishers, crabbers, beach cleaners, oceanographers, government officials, lawyers, environmentalists, doctors, veterans, and countless others. They shared their lives with me so that I might share this story with you.
These people were my guides as I uncovered who set the oil loose and multiplied its deadly effects and as I tracked the oil on its rampage through the Gulf.
I was also led by the heroism of those working to stem this black tide and ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again. For this was not an isolated incident, and BP was not a lone actor. Rather, this tragedy was the predictable outcome of an industry that has pushed well beyond its own technological capacity and beyond the government’s ability to regulate it. Nor is the oil gone or the cleanup complete. BP’s oil monster continues to move through the ocean, sometimes washing up on beaches and sometimes content to lurk on the ocean floor, waiting for the next best moment to strike. It hides in the eggs of shrimp, the habitats of pelicans, and even the blood cells of people all along the coast.
The first time I held BP’s oil in my hands, I was standing on a beach on Dauphin Island, Alabama. The oil had mixed with sand on its long journey from deep below the seafloor to form thick, brown gooey patties that covered the beach for as far as the eye could see. A warning immediately came to mind, uttered long ago by Carlos Andres Perez, the oil minister and then president of Venezuela and a father of the modern oil industry: “Oil is the devil’s excrement.”
Unless both the oil and those who crave it can be tamed, hell will surely once again come not only to the Gulf but also to the many other places