In today's Wall Street Journal 09/08/10 it was almost impossible to find anything relating to our industry except Palm Oil and Potash, but there was a glimmer of hope on page.A14 World News about an oil platform that was damaged during a drilling accident. The article itself was a short excerpt explaining the situation when a Chinese oil platform malfunctioned over pressure, 34 workers were trapped and two workers fell into the water. All individuals were saved. It came to my mind that trying to acquire fuel resources has seemed to get only more dangerous with time.
The Energy Industry is being affected greatly by these recent events from Exxon-Valdiz to the most recent BP oil spill. The question I ask is how long are we willing to make the tradeoff of human life and labor for cheap resources? This is a global situation not only American or China's predicament. I am not here to debate worker's rights or government control, but just trying to bring to light that there is truly a human cost to our want of fossil fuels. Thousands die every year across the globe from mining or drilling accidents, sadly it comes with the atmosphere of their line of work.
This issue is so pertinent to our industry because increased dissent in the public to these finite resources causes outrage that ends up costing marketing dollars and damage control dollars. There is a real economic/financial need to improve on these accidents. The incentives are there for alternative resources. The Energy Industry needs to embrace these while the incentives are still so strong. I do not support the 'green movement' due to political reasons concerning government, but even as a freshmen Business 101 student I can see the gracious incentives being awarded. To me it seems like a solid investment in the future of the Energy Industry regardless of your political affiliation.
Source:(WSJ Paper) Wed. September 8, 2010 Page. A14 'World News'-World Watch- China:"Oil Platform is Damaged In Drilling Accident", David Winning and Aaron Back
- Timothy D. Vallario
I agree with you Timothy, these accidents are very troubling. the oil industry already has a very bad reputation and the BP spill has plunged public opinion even lower. If accidents like this continue to happen then the little respect that people have for the industry might disappear.
ReplyDeleteJason Ganz