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 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 advertized 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:
Follow OnEarth's continuing coverage of the Gulf Coast oil disaster.
I live in far western suburbs of Chicago only 20 miles from the "wind farm" located along highway 39. If the oil leaking into the Gulf is horrible you should be the destruction of the landscape where these wind farms are located. Even Ted Kennedy when he was alive did not want any of these machines in Massachusetts. If wind farms are the answer we a merely replacing oil derricks with wind turbines. Not a solution but a bigger problem. To replace oil with wind power every family would need a wind turbine in there backyard. I don't want one in my backyard.
Anyway that we "make" energy is going to effect our environment. Wind farms may cause "the destruction of the landscape," but is that "destruction" as life threatening as the on going oil spill?
I life in western MA and the eastern part of NY state, some energy companies have started fracturing the ground in order to release natural gas. The companies have not been straight forward on what they are using for this process and it appears that drinking water wells have become contaminated.
There is a nuclear plant in western MA that has been leaking some sort of radioactive substance into the soil and water. That company had told the regulators that the pipes that were leaking didn't even exist.
In western MA we are beginning to see wind turbines and cell towers. Cell towers were fought against for a long time because of the damage to the esthetics of our hills. As more people started using cell phones, the towers became welcome. Especially after being hit by ice storms that took out power and phone lines for over a week.
If the wind farm goes up off of Cape Cod, the turbines will be 1/2 inch high when seen from the shore. If one falls or is knocked into, it will not befoul the coast.
Maybe there is such a thing as clean coal, clean nuclear, and clean oil. But until it can be demonstrated by corporations that are transparent about what they are doing, how they are going to repair an area they have ruined, and how they can actually stem major flows of oil safely, it is time to get moving on green technology.
The history of our government doing anything to keep Corporate level greed from destroying the environment is about as tragic a tale as can be told.
Hard to lose with Wind and Solar. I lean towards Bio-fuels mostly I guess, because that's what I can afford to do. I don't have any control over what Con-Agra or whoever big Ethanol is and what they do with field corn. Even after reading all the criticism of Corn based Ethanol it still makes sense to me, partly because no one's talking about recycling lithium etc. or the impact of Electronic raw materials. I also know that the average American automobile doesn't have to have a V-6 engine. Even if it does, it's getting better than 12 miles per gallon on E-85, as the critics are saying. Their model farm equipment must be running some seriously ancient diesels too. I can control, to some degree, what goes into my fuel tank and what come out the tail pipe. I guess I'd like to have more faith in my country's ability to regulate land use and other problematic ares of self sufficiency, rather than the inevitable leveling of the mountains of Afghanistan,( or Alaska) leaving the kids to play in piles of toxic mine dust.
I have recently converted my 95' Toyota to have flex fuel capability. It's doing fine on E-85. When I get a chance to Dyno test it, I'll be sure to post the %'s and parts per million of emissions. Should I suddenly have the means to finance a Hybrid I'd rather put it towards my own auto repair business, where the goal is running as clean as possible. Copper, Lithium, Switch-grass whatever it takes. Anyone interested ?
There are for some reason, new vehicles at dealerships here in LA, labeled not to run E-85, that would be a flex-fuel in another state. If someone's not going to buy a hybrid vehicle anyway,shouldn't another alternative be mandated.
Robert Redford is an actor, director, environmental activist, and long-time trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council. He is also the founder of Sundance in Utah.