A Refusal

I've seen much in the Gulf since returning to work three weeks ago. I've been running a crew boat from Tiger Pass to the Venice Jump, up the Mississippi River, out Baptiste Collette, and offshore--then back. As debate rages and fingers point, I see for myself this scrap of world news.

In my almost 3 years of driving boats in the Gulf, I've seen images both sublime and unappetizing. There is an awesome energy created (and consumed) by more than 6000 horsepower pushing a 165-ft boat through the water at 27 knots. It may be guy-stuff appeal, but when witnessed on deck at sunrise with the boat underway, that energy will blow through your veins like a hard drug, like multiple shots of whiskey. In recent weeks, oddly enough, I find myself more eager than ever to take the boat offshore. Usually content at the dock, sanding and painting in the day, working out and reading by night, I wish to see the Gulf and to monitor the advance of the creeping sheen. It's astounding.

I ran the boat for about 10 days without seeing much if any oil, making it 30 miles from the entrance to Baptiste. Then we began to notice the sheen around the time BP failed with its first containment apparatus. It came in narrow swaths and in tide lines, and then one day in a light chop the whitecaps disappeared; we were surrounded in a thin blanket, shiny like iron.

The advancing sheen is thinned, presumably, by the oil dispersant Corexit, a toxic substance banned in Great Britain, as dramatic irony would have it. On Monday morning, BP surpassed an EPA deadline to stop using it, asserting their ultimate power, claiming they will continue to use the chemical until the well is capped. I've heard scientists question the use of Corexit: is it necessary at that depth, at that distance from shore?

It took awhile, but I finally realized the answer: the dispersant is necessary to keep the oil field running. Boats like mine might be unable to operate in thick, surface sludge. Raw-water-cooled engines might get fouled, captains might refuse to run boats, traffic might be diverted. The American economy depends on the oil field, and you can't shut it down. With our reliance on oil, the US is "all-in" and there's no going back. No matter who we elect to office, no matter what we do. Environmental destruction is as inevitable as death and taxes. It's true wherever you are: in your town, in the far-reaches of wilderness. It sure as hell is in the Gulf of Mexico.