Like most Americans, I am horrified by the unending catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. Even with the latest containment cap in place, oil is likely to hemorrhage from BP's ruptured well until August or beyond.
As I try to convey in my new video, "The Fix," I am appalled by what this spill is doing to Gulf fishermen, families, communities and wildlife. But I am also disgusted by what it reveals about the oil industry's role in American political life.
With their deep pockets, oil companies have purchased loose safety regulations, slack oversight and support from key lawmakers. Last year alone, the industry spent a $168 million on lobbying -- $16 million of which came from BP. The blowout on the Deepwater Horizon is a symptom of this undue influence.
It is time for the collusion to stop. As long as it continues, Americans will pay the price in the form of devastated ecosystems and a fossil fuel addiction that benefits oil companies, not ordinary citizens.
I know what it's like to have a job that depends on towing the line.
I worked in the oil fields when I was a teenager, and my dad worked in the accounting department of Standard Oil. I remember the uneasy feeling that resulted when I heard company representatives claim oil exploration was great for American society, yet that contrasted with what I was actually experiencing on the job. The truth was that oil exploration was great for the oil industry.
Long after I left the oil fields, I felt disgusted by the way oil companies advertised themselves as conservationists. BP plugged itself as "Beyond Petroleum," yet oil still accounts for the vast majority of its business. BP claimed its technology was safe, yet 11 men are dead and oil still permeates the whole coast years after the "cleanup." Furthermore, the company has a long history of safety violations that have resulted in other deaths and environmental destruction. BP also said in 2008 it could handle a spill 10 times the size of the current disaster, yet its attempts to end the gushing in the Gulf have failed.
We need to stop buying into these fictions, and the BP spill is our reality check -- a reminder that the oil industry looks out for Number One in the Gulf, in the Arctic and in Washington.
Recently, President Obama announced several measures that will reign in Big Oil's influence. He strengthened regulations governing offshore operations and called on the Justice Department to examine BP's role in this fiasco. He also imposed a moratorium on new offshore drilling while a commission investigates the spill. And although I welcome the president's initial steps, some of these measures need to be stronger.
Ultimately, the only way to break the industry's hold on political decision making is for America to shift to more fuel efficient cars, more public transit and other technologies.
These are the solutions that will break America's addiction to oil and put more money in consumers' pockets. Right now, there is a clean energy and climate bill before Congress that could help unleash these solutions. The time for passage of this bill is NOW, not later.
I urge you to use your political influence -- your right to contact your elected officials -- and click here to tell your senators to vote for it. Citizen outrage and citizen action are some of our best tools for combating Big Oil's dirty influence.
You can also learn more about it in this short video I produced with NRDC:
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BP supplies the US military with the majority of its oil products. That's why Obama has stayed out of its way. He's not likely to change.
We need another plan. What was it Dave Brower said......
Americans are like meth addicts. They will do anything to get the thing which is killing them. They will give up everything to get what will kill them. Until Americans line up like blacks did during the sixties and say no more, the corporatio
Out of my frustratio
For those that don't know, hemp is not the same as marijuana; you can't get high off of hemp. Most folks are aware of hemp bags, cosmetics, oil, and clothing. I discovered that Lotus made a car out of hemp plastics. Yes, hemp can be made into plastics. Hemp can be used as a building material, concrete. Houses can be made out of hemp. One can fill the tank with the ethanol made from hemp. Hemp can be grown in all states, makes a wonderful rotation crop, it is drought tolerant, grows quickly, and doesn't require pesticides
House Bill 1866, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2010.
End prohibitio
why were drilling platforms put on a moratorium for what, 60 days?
it was so inspectors could get out to each platform and do the inspection
Talk to addicts Bob, not to enlightene
BTW did you know that BP is so busy doing Iraq oil that they will get back to us on that gulf of Mexico thingy?
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The President unfortunat
Their laughing their way to 8 billion a year and no country can stop them. In reality we do not live in free market economies because to have a real free market you must have an equal footing for products and services. We would be 30 years ahead of our time if it was not for large corporate policies using the economies of scale to crush innovative new services. THEIR is a difference between Adam Smiths invisible hand and an all out destructiv
They could take there 8 billion and spend a little on those fusion reactors such as the ITER tokamak
http://www
1. Stagnant wages
2. high inflation
3. pay check to pay check
4. no benefits, or pay for more benefits
5. and you middle class paid for the bankers and might be doing it again!!
6. no jobs, oh! you might find a 10 hour job
7. bachealor dont mean nothing, to bad for you student loans huh?
8. the rich is running circles around you all and sucking you all dry
9. our economic demise is longer than Japan's
10. Bush and the re-thugs got everything they wanted (illegal wars, tax cuts for the rich, de-regulat
Are you reading to register as an independen
NASA had a contest on new technology inventions
Big Oil/Milita
Keep Up the Fight!!
Love Your Work,
Regards,
SamSeven
I have been a fan of your acting work since the film "Brubaker" and "Sneakers.
Mr. Redford to add to your ammunition in getting America off the oil habit. The US/Pentago
Part 1
However, there is now over a century of oil cartel/ban
The wealthly elite shielded and protected their wealth using the Foundation Law and their relentless assaults on the income tax act enabling them and their corporatio
Standard Oil held a 95% monopoly on oil refining by 1913 and that monopoly has yielded a century of control over the Federal Government
You will never take away profit from Exxon (Rockefell
They can however be put out of business with the release of the Hydrogen Economy where there is more renewable energy in a barrel of water that their is in all of the oil and gas reserves on earth.
Mr. Redford, study the Hydrogen Economy and direct or resources into calling for its release, please.
Hydrogen can be made from geothermal energy, from extreme height splitting it from water. It might be useful for Iceland or Hawaii. But little hydrogen is made that way; most is extracted from natural gas, and you end up with less energy than you get from the natural gas (but the carbon is gone, so it's cleaner).
Hydrogen is not a viable source of power.
It is the most common element in the universe and is not "made"... it is. (1 on the table of elements)
I ain't no "physicist
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You can make it from water and sunlight in your back yard.
As far as nuclear energy goes, I hope you live in the blast zone of a power plant, because otherwise, you have no right to jeopardize the health and lives of other people so you can use the power generated. Go to your neighborho
For another, it's really not a big deal to store it. And in 50 to 100 years, we'll be at the point where we can simply put it into space. It's not like we have to store it for all eternity.