Could the BP oil spill be cleaned up faster if BP buys back its own spilled oil from fishermen and other boat owners along the Gulf Coast? American Geographical Society President Jerome Dobson thinks so. Dobson has come up with a unique solution for the Deepwater Horizon Gulf of Mexico oil spill cleanup. Dobson’s plan, which some are calling “cash for crude,” calls for BP to buy back recovered oil, giving fishermen, recreational boaters, and other boat owners a chance to get involved in in the BP oil spill containment.
Dobson’s plan calls for BP to buy back its oil at a price that will encourage out-of-work fishermen, recreational boaters, and other boat owners to go out, skim oil off the surface of the sea, and bring it back to port -- safely contained. Such a plan could provide out-of-work fishermen, seasonal tourist industry workers, and other boat owners with much needed income to replace some of what they have lost to the oil spill. It would also have a spillover (no pun intended) effect on related businesses, such as boat storage facilities and marinas, and would stimulate local economies along the Gulf Coast.
Currently, BP has about 550 boats deployed around the oil spill, skimming oil off the water. But there are more than 30,000 boats on the Gulf Coast -- many of them currently sitting unused in marinas and in boat storage because fishermen cannot fish and tourists are avoiding the Gulf Coast this season.
“Buy back your oil,” Dobson wrote in a plea to BP printed in the Southeast Missourian. “Engage the public. Trust private enterprise. Trust the judgment and ingenuity of American workers....offer to buy back your oil at a price that will entice them to skim and deliver it to you. There’s probably no other coast on Earth that has as much readily available capacity as the Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi stretch, including barges, tankers, fishing boats, recreational boats -- and an incredibly resourceful workforce.”
Dobson has suggested that his plan be dubbed “Operation Dunkirk,” after the World War II evacuation in which small boats, working together, carried 330,000 Allied soldiers from France back to England before they could be captured by Hitler’s quickly approaching troops.
Dobson is a professor of geography at the University of Kansas. He is also the president of the American Geographical Society (AGS), the oldest geographical organization in the United States, which has endorsed his suggestion. At a recent meeting, the AGS board exhorted BP to try “Operation Dunkirk.” It also encouraged state governments to compel Gulf coast oil refineries to buy back recovered oil at a fair market price.
New Orleans Mayor Mitchell Landrieu made a similar plea in his State of the City address this afternoon.
“Just this week, tar balls and oil sheen entered into Lake Pontchartrain,” Landrieu noted gravely. “We’ve put in place four layers of defense, fortified with barges and boom. And when oil made its way past these barriers, skimmers and local boats were immediately deployed to clean it up.” Commenting that BP had, at his request, provided an oil spill response training program for 500 local residents, Landrieu urged President Barack Obama to implement stricter oversight procedures for offshore drillers and remarked, “What people really want is the opportunity to work....Our mission is clear. Cap the hole. Capture the oil. Clean the coast. Compensate the families. Get back to work. This is an American tragedy that requires an American response.”
Gulf Coast fishermen need help from somewhere -- and they are not especially interested in charity. Many are attending meetings in their local communities to find out how to clean up hazardous materials. BP has started training local residents, handing out in return certificates that state that according to “BP Gulf of Mexico Operations,” residents who have completed the training are certified to participate in “GoM Spill Response Efforts,” should they be needed. BP has also set up several “Unified Command Centers,” where it trains 250 offshore workers at a time to help in the oil cleanup. BP’s four command centers are in Houma, Louisiana; Houston, Texas; Mobile, Alabama; and St. Petersburg, Florida.
To find out how much oil was recovered today, you can visit BP’s “Gulf of Mexico Response” website. But, as of July 7, that site was only reporting on oil recovered through the new cap containment system -- not on oil skimmed off the surface of the sea by cleanup workers.
To see an interactive graphic showing the spread of the oil spill from April 22 (day 3) to July 6, visit the New Orleans Time-Picayune’s website.
Sources used:
American Geographical Society.
Barry, Dan. “Learning to love the sea, then torn from it.” The New York Times. May 2, 2010.
Bird, Mary Lynne. “Open forum: cash for crude may save the gulf.” The San Francisco Chronicle. July 7, 2010.
BP. “Gulf of Mexico response.”
Dobson, Jerome. “BP, buy back your oil.” Southeast Missourian. May 12, 2010.
Landrieu, Mitchell. “Full text of Landrieu address.” WWLTV.com. July 8, 2010.
Scallan, Matt. “BP offers spill cleanup class to St. Charles commercial fishers.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune. May 6, 2010.
Seslar, Tom. “Getting the big picture with Mike Utsler.” BP Reporting from the Gulf. May 26, 2010.
Swenson, Dan. “Track the Gulf of Mexico oil spill movement in animated graphic.” The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Originally published May 2, 2010 (graphic is updated at least to July 6).