Environmental Disaster in Huntington Beach

We must not give in to catastrophe fatigue.

Well kids, another day another oil spill.

A pipeline spill first reported Saturday off the coast of Huntington Beach, California, has dumped roughly 130,000 gallons of crude oil to spill into coastal waters along several California beach communities. The slick spans 8,320 acres, which is larger than the size of Santa Monica. It threatens thousands of birds and other mammals as well as the economies of all the coastal towns affected. It could have other environmental impacts we can’t even yet predict.

Congressman Alan Lowenthal, whose district includes Long Beach and part of Orange County, said the spill is “as tragic as it was preventable.”

“This environmental catastrophe highlights the simple fact that where you drill, you spill. As we are sadly witnessing, when you drill along the coast, when you pipe that oil ashore, our coastlines will bear the brunt of the impacts of such spills,” he said in a statement distributed by his office.

While President Biden’s stated attitude about environmental protection has given hope to those most sensitive to the needs of the planet - especially after the callous disregard for environmental protection during the Trump presidency - over the last few months the official posture of Biden’s administration has been pretty much business as usual. Biden has allowed the expansion of offshore drilling off the Gulf of Mexico, arguing there was “no sufficient cause” to stop it even though alarming research presented in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues otherwise.

Our disaster fatigue is one of the biggest challenges we face now; a day hardly goes by that we’re not faced with something which even ten years ago would have been much bigger news, but which in the times we live in is just the latest catastrophe we have to deal with. Every environmental nightmare like this is a nightmare repeated, over and over until we start to become numb to it.

Yet that’s what we must not allow to happen.

“This oil spill is a tragic reminder that offshore drilling is a devastating threat to our coast and its wildlife,” said Miyoko Sakashita, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Oceans program. “I’ve seen the aging oil platforms off Huntington Beach up close, and I know it’s time to decommission these time bombs. Even after fines and criminal charges, the oil industry is still spilling and leaking into California’s coastal waters because these companies just aren’t capable of operating safely.”

Elegant terns over Huntington Beach, Ca. - photo by Mark Boster

The birds that are most vulnerable from the spill are gulls, willets, elegant terns and reddish egrets. Oil from the spill has infiltrated Talbert Marsh, a 25-acre ecological reserve in Huntington Beach that’s home to dozens of species of birds. According to the Audubon Society, North America has lost more than 1 in 4 Birds in the last 50 years. Our recklessness toward the earth, toward other species, not to even mention toward ourselves and toward each other, is cascading out of control in ways that threaten our emotional capacity to absorb, much less adequately respond to.

But you better believe we better respond. The spill in Huntington Beach came from the Elly oil rig, operated by Beta Offshore, a California subsidiary of Houston-based Amplify Energy Corporation. Amplify is an independent oil and natural gas company that, like all oil companies, will continue to do what they do until We the People stop them.

America should be moving as quickly as possible from a dirty economy to a clean economy, from the days of routine environmental catastrophes to an era of green energy. We could have a national plan for a just transition, making sure the millions of people who make their living on fossil fuel production are given every chance for lateral economic opportunity. And we can do this. It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, but every day we delay is a day when we are losing our future, our planet, and possibly our lives.

If you’d like to write Amplify Energy Corporation and express your feelings, have at it: Jason McGlynn is their Chief Financial Officer, his number according to their website is (832) 219-9055, and he can be contacted at jason.mcglynn@amplifyenergy.com.

If you’d like to express to President Biden that there sure as hell is “sufficient cause” to stop oil drilling, contact the president at the White House comments line: 202-456-1111.

Do not, do not, do not, be silent. And remember: there are elections in 2022. (candidatesummit.com)