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    August 30, 2012 | 1:20 PM

    Is an oil rig afraid of climate change?



    © 2009 Dean Terry/Flickr cc by nc nd 2.0

    As Hurricane Isaac exited the Gulf of Mexico and passed over Louisiana, more than 600,000 customers in the state lost power and tens of thousands of people were told to evacuate. This is a big storm, and many people are dealing with severe flooding and wind damage. But there’s another group with eyes glued to Isaac’s path: the fossil fuel industry.

    As of Wednesday, 50 oil and gas drilling rigs had been evacuated because of the storm, which represents more than 65% of the drilling platforms currently operating in the Gulf of Mexico. And what about offshore fossil fuel production? More than 84% of the production platforms in the Gulf had been evacuated. That’s 505 out of 596 platforms no longer producing oil and natural gas. According to estimates from oil and gas operators, more than 94% of current daily Gulf oil production has been stopped because of Hurricane Isaac. When there’s no hurricane, the Gulf usually makes up 23% of total U.S. oil output.

    That’s a lot of product not being produced, and they started evacuation before the storm hit. One of the reasons it took so long for the oil and gas industry to recover from Hurricane Katrina was a slower evacuation of their infrastructure. The fossil fuel industry felt the effects of extreme storms in their bottom lines, and have put in place practices that attempt to limit their exposure.

    So once again we see that the same fossil fuel companies that have helped cause the climate crisis are taking steps to insulate themselves from the financial impacts of climate change. Climate change will likely lead to more intense hurricanes and higher storm surges, posing additional risks for the fossil fuel industry that is causing this problem in the first place.

    And it’s not just hurricanes that affect the production of fossil fuels. The worst drought America has faced in decades has been causing barges carrying petroleum and coal down the Mississippi River to run aground due to low water depth.

    So as we watch the nation suffering under more extreme weather and the fossil fuel industry right there at the forefront, perhaps we’ll have an interesting conversation to start the next time someone tells us that global warming can’t be that bad, or isn’t happening. The fossil fuel companies know it’s happening, and its effects can be devastating.

    I think we could all use a silver lining. Guess what’s swooping in to save the day in hurricane emergency shelters: Solar panels.

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